#57 The Last Supper
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
November 14, 2021
TEXT: Mark 14:12-26 – “And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? 13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. 14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? 15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. 16 And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. 17 And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. 18 And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me. 19 And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I? 20 And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dippeth with me in the dish. 21 The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born.
22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. 23 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. 24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. 25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
26 And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.”
INTRODUCTION
Every Christian denomination and faith group has its own particular set of doctrinal differences with one another. In addition, there are many practices peculiar to churches and denominational groups. But there’s one practice that is universal: They all celebrate the Lord’s Supper, otherwise called communion, the Lord’s Table and the Eucharist. There are different interpretations of what communion means, but two thousand years after its institution shortly before Jesus’ death, when we take communion, we’re part of millions of Christians who still connect with the Lord with the bread and the cup.
In today’s text, Mark 14:12-26, it is the night before the cross. Jesus gathers with His disciples for a night of lasts and firsts. It was the last official Passover meal, for Jesus was the Passover Lamb slain once and for all to pay for all our sins. But it was also the first communion meal.
Jesus took the Passover meal celebrated by all observant Jews and gave it a radically different meaning. And it was during this time that Jesus made an alarming prediction, causing each apostle to examine himself and ask if he could be guilty of treachery. Look with me at Mark 14:12-26 this morning:
I. NOTICE FIRST, JESUS’ ELABORATE PREPARATION FOR THE PASSOVER MEAL IN VERSES 12-16.
Let’s start with verse 12 – “And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the assover, his disciples said to him, ‘Where will you have us go and prepare, that you may eat the Passover?’”
The Passover meal was and still is an important celebration in the life of the Jews. It required elaborate preparations, so the disciples asked Jesus where He wanted them to go to make the preparations for the meal. A lamb had to be sacrificed in the Temple which was the meat for the meal. Then every inch of the kitchen and house where the Passover meal would take place had to be scrubbed for any trace of leaven and all products with leaven in the house had to be gotten rid of.
Notice Jesus’ enigmatic reply to the disciples in verses 13-15– “And he sent out two of his disciples, and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and there you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him. 14 Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.’”
It’s obvious Jesus had made pre-preparations for the use of a room in a house. Jesus tells two of the disciples (Luke tells us they were Peter and John) to meet a man, presumably a servant, bearing a jar of water. It would have been easy to spot this man because the custom of that day was that ordinarily women carried water jars and men carried wineskins. They were to follow him to the location of the house and ask something specific to the owner of the house. That would be code to the owner who would then show them the place to make their preparations.
Why all the cloak and dagger stuff?—Because it concealed the location from Judas so he could not reveal it to the Sanhedrin. Jesus knew that Judas planned treachery, but He would be in control of the time and place his betrayal would occur.
When they found the room, Jesus said Peter and John would find it furnished, which would have been with a low table and cushions for eating. They didn’t eat on chairs in Bible times like you see in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, The Last Supper. It was customary to recline on dining couches on their left elbows and eat with only their right hand, considered the clean hand. Eating like this sounds difficult to us, but no more difficult to them than eating with chopsticks is in Asian lands. It was just different and reflected the culture of the day and people would have been adept at doing it since that was how they had grown up eating.
Jesus also said the room would be “prepared,” possibly meaning everything would be set up already, but probably it meant that the cleansing of the house of all vestiges of leaven had already been taken care of.
Verse 16 says “And his disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as he had said to them: and they made ready the Passover.” –Everything happened exactly as Jesus said it would and Peter and John were able to do their part of the preparation of sacrificing the lamb and preparing the meal.
II. NOTICE IN VERSES 17-21 A STARTLING AND DISCONCERTING REVELATION.
Look first at verses 17-20: “And in the evening he came with the twelve. 18 And as they sat and ate, Jesus said, ‘Truly I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me.’ 19 And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to him one by one, ‘Is it I?’ and another said, ‘Is it I?’ 20 And he answered and said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish.”
That evening Jesus led the twelve apostles to the location of the Passover Feast known only to Him, Peter and John. The meal began after sunset and had to be finished by midnight, so the entire meal usually lasted about 3-4 hours, including the meal itself and the ritual activities done during the meal.
Once the meal had begun, Jesus dropped a bombshell: He said, “One of you who is eating with me will betray me!” The disciples were deeply grieved. In the Greek, there is the negative word “not” in their replies. That is, they didn’t say, “Is it I” but rather, “It is not I, is it?” One by one they asked this question, to which they sought a negative answer from Jesus.
But Jesus did not reveal who the traitor would be. All Jesus had to do was point to Judas and shout “TRAITOR!” Peter would have had Judas in a headlock in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. But Jesus knew that the plan had go forward in fulfilment of Scripture, so He did not reveal the identity of the betrayer. And if you think about it, it also afforded Judas one last chance to repent and turn away from his traitorous plans.
All Jesus said was that it was one who ate with them in verse 18 and “It is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish,” in verse 20, speaking of the sauce they would dip their bread into. In the ancient world in general and in the Old Testament in particular, eating a meal together was to fellowship with someone as a friend. To eat with someone and then betray him was the height of treachery.
Now look at verse 21 – “The Son of man indeed goes just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.’”
On one hand, Jesus said “the Son of man indeed goes just as it was written of him.” He MUST die to fulfill Scripture. His death was according to God’s plan, not simply because of a betrayer’s act. Yet there was grave punishment in store for the betrayer, indicating individual responsibility. It would have been better if he had not even been born. In this we observe the unfathomable interplay between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.
III. IN VERSES 22-26 WE SEE THE INSTITUTION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.
Look now verse 22 – “And as they ate, Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take, eat: this is my body.’”
When Jesus said, “this is my body,” he was not saying the bread had transformed into His body. Jesus was physically present as He spoke these words, so the disciples did not literally eat His body or drink His blood. This was abhorrent to Jews and forbidden in Scripture. Such an interpretation also goes against a huge body of literature in the poetic portion of the Old Testament where metaphor and symbolism were often used of physical objects to represent spiritual truths. Growing up in this rich literary imagery, the disciples would have immediately understood that Jesus was saying “This represents or symbolizes my body.”
This shows that the Roman Catholic idea of transubstantiation—the idea that the bread and wine are literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ during communion—is not biblical. When we partake of the bread and the juice, they’re SYMBOLS of the body and blood of Jesus as a reminder of His great sacrifice.
Look now at verses 23-25 – “And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank from it. 24 And he said to them, ‘This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. 25 Truly I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’”
Again, Jesus’s statement, “This is my blood” would have been understood to mean, “This is a SYMBOL of my blood.”
Jesus described it as “the blood of the new testament,” or literally, the New Covenant, made possible by His blood being shed for many. Just as sacrificial blood ratified the Old Covenant…that is, the Mosaic Covenant of the Law given at Mount Saini, so Jesus’ shed blood on Calvary instituted the New Covenant of Grace. Under the New Covenant, forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are promised to those who come to God by faith in Jesus.
Today’s text in Mark ends with verse 26 – “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” This hymn would have been one of the Psalms. That psalm concluded the Passover Supper and was the last meal Jesus ate before His death. At this point, it would have been near midnight and John tells us they crossed the Kidron Valley (John 18:1) to the western slopes of the Mount of Olives where Gethsemane was located.
CONCLUSION
This story helps us understand the ordinance of communion. Some churches have communion every Sunday, some once-a-month and others periodically, but they all have communion. We normally have communion on the last Saturday of every month). I’d like to now explain what this passage teaches us about the Lord’s Supper.
First, it helps us understand it’s meaning and purpose.
There is nothing in the New Testament that indicates that there is any saving merit to taking the Lord’s Supper. It represents the Lord’s death on Calvary, and THAT’S what saves us.
Luke tells us that Jesus added something Mark did not record—that Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19) The Lord’s Supper is a memorial, a commemoration, of the crucifixion to remind us of what Jesus did for us.
The bread reminds us that God the Son was born as a human and took on a human body. His human body suffered the same things our bodies do—pain, hunger, thirst, illness, weariness, and the need for sleep, food, and water. But Jesus was sinless. That sinless body was sacrificed on Calvary for us.
When we eat that wafer of bread, we’re reminded of that sacrificed body. We’re reminded that… His body sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. His body was beaten and scourged and brutalized and His body felt… every lash of the whip… every fist punch and kick… all the nails in His hands and feet… the spear in His side… the terrible thirst. He experienced all these horrors in His body…willingly. And then once God’s judgment was meted fully upon Him, He gave up His body in death to be placed in a cold tomb.
The wine or juice we drink is a reminder that Jesus’ blood was shed on Calvary for our sins. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the Old Testament taught that… “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22) Every day in the Temple animals were sacrificed and their blood shed to atone for people’s individual sins and once a year, on Passover, a spotless lamb was shed for all the sins of the whole nation of Israel. Jesus was the one and only perfect, spotless Lamb who all those other sacrifices pointed to. He died for all the sins of the those who come to God by faith in Jesus. His sacrifice was once and for all, never to be repeated—never NEEDING repeating—for He was the perfect God-man whose perfection made Him an acceptable sacrifice for sins.
We do not take communion to have sins forgiven, but to remind us who are saved that are all our sins are already forgiven by Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary.
The second thing this passage teaches us about communion is that we should prepare our hearts for it. Preparations for the Passover meal involved… scrubbing the house clean of all leaven, roasting the lamb, setting out the unleavened bread and wine, preparing bitter herbs, and making a sauce out of dried fruit, vinegar and spices. It was a big deal.
The communion of the New Covenant is a simpler meal that emphasizes preparation of the heart more so than logistical and physical preparation. We need to prepare for fellowship and communion with our Lord spiritually. When you know that it’s communion Sunday, you need to get your heart ready. Put out your own thoughts so you can truly enjoy the meal with Him. Set aside the cares of the world. Make sure you are right with God. Focus of Jesus and REMEMBER what He has done for you.
The last thing to remember about the Lord’s Supper is that it is a time to be grateful.
In our text we read in verse 23 that before Jesus drank the cup, He gave thanks. This was part of the Passover meal. It was meant to be a celebration, a time for gratefulness and a time of joy to recall the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. Jesus gave thanks even though He knew what was in Judas’s dark heart to do.
In the same way, communion—the meal for the New Covenant—is meant to be a time of gratefulness and rejoicing.
Illus. – When I was growing up, we were taught to think real hard of all our sins and to make sure we confessed them and to think of how those awful sins sent Jesus to the cross—or at least that’s how I understood things.
It’s true that our sin sent Jesus to the cross, but the focus of communion is not on the awfulness of our sins but on the gloriousness of the sacrifice made on Calvary in our behalf! Jesus doesn’t say, “Do this to remember your sins” but “Do this to remember ME…and what I have done for you…and the sacrifice I have made on your behalf.” Such great love and sacrifice should fill your heart with thankfulness. Your prayers during communion should be filled with gratefulness and joy.
Illus. – When Jewish people celebrate the Passover meal, there are several symbolic acts during the meal but I love the one at the very end of the meal. It involves the Matza, or unleavened bread. At the beginning of the meal the father takes three pieces of Matza. He takes the center piece of the three pieces and breaks it in half. He wraps it in a napkin and then while the children close their eyes, he hides it—but not so it cannot be found. This wrapped bread is called afikómen, which literally means “dessert.” They save the best for last.
At the end of the meal, which is usually about three hours later, the youngest child is sent to find the hidden bread in the napkin. There is great rejoicing when the child produces the hidden bread. Then they unwrap it from the napkin and give a piece of it to everyone at the dinner. It’s the last thing that is eaten. It’s to symbolize that they are satisfied and want nothing more to eat.
This practice goes back to many centuries before the cross and the empty tomb. But how can you miss the symbolism? To us, it says something about God and the death and resurrection of Jesus….
• We serve a Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—just as there are 3 pieces of Matza.
• The Son came and His body was broken for us—just as the middle piece of Matza is broken.
• They took Him from the cross and buried Him, wrapped in a burial cloth—just as the broken piece of Matza is wrapped in a napkin and hidden.
• He was hidden for three days, but then they found He was ALIVE—just as a child finds the Matza.
• It was cause for great rejoicing—just as they all rejoice at the discovery of the Matza.
• And when you receive the Bread of Life, you’re satisfied; nothing else quenches your hunger besides Jesus—just as the Matza ceremony signals that all are fed and spiritually satisfied.
Had there not been a resurrection, we would never be celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Whenever you take communion, I hope you realize how God used the Passover for many centuries as an object lesson. He was preparing the world for the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Celebrate that glorious truth with a heart of gratitude every time you take communion.
