Remembering His Sacrifice

Matt 26:26-30 - REMEMBERING HIS SACRIFICE

Jesus made THREE very remarkable statements while eating with His disciples.

• HE POINTED TO HIS DEATH, saying He would be sacrificed in flesh and blood.

• HE MADE A NEW COVENANT, saying it would be established in His blood.

• Finally, HE FORESAW HIS RESURRECTION, saying He would next eat with them again in the feast in heaven.

This meal was Jesus’ last meal with His disciples and also His very last night with them, before He was arrested, tortured and crucified.

• As we have read, in this last meal, Jesus drew attention to His impending death, the cut of a new covenant, and a future with Him in the Father’s Kingdom.

• All three statements were unique and could only come from Jesus, not any ordinary man. Jesus is the Son of God and He is fulfilling the will of God.

And all these statements have to do with us - not just to the few disciples then but all disciples of Jesus Christ.

• Let’s think through them one by one. First, the words of the Holy Communion.

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JESUS POINTS TO HIS DEATH

He instituted the Lord’s Supper (Holy Communion) when He was having, not just any ordinary dinner with His disciples, but the Passover meal.

• This was timely and significant because of the meaning of the Jewish Passover meal.

• The Passover meal was a meal that the Jews observe every year, to commemorate the deliverance of their forefathers, the Israelites, from their slavery in Egypt.

• It was to remember God’s miraculous deliverance of Israel from bondage, and how they were given the freedom to worship God and a new life in the Promised Land.

Jesus, very appropriately and in God’s ordained time, used this to institute a new remembering – not just to remember the past deliverance from Egypt but the upcoming one – their deliverance from the bondage of sin.

• Jesus knew He would soon be arrested, tortured, crucified and died for the sins of the world.

• Hence Jesus used the elements in the meal – the bread and the wine - and directed His disciples’ attention, and all believers of Christ subsequently, to His death.

To appreciate what Jesus did, we need to recap the PASSOVER - what happened at the first Passover and why has it become a memorial for Israel.

• When we understand that, we will appreciate why Jesus said these words at this point in the meal.

The first “PASSOVER” event was recorded in the book of Exodus chapter 12 when God instructed His people (through Moses) to prepare themselves to flee from Egypt.

• The Jews had been suffering as slaves in Egypt when God commanded Pharaoh to let His people go. Pharaoh was defiant and God sent plagues against them.

• The last and final plague (10th) would mean the death of all firstborns and Pharoah was forced to let the people go.

Moses was instructed to tell the Israelites to slaughter an unblemished lamb and mark their houses that night with its blood.

• Exo 12:7 7“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.”

• Exo 12:12-13 12“For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

The judgment of God “passed over” the Jewish families where the blood of the lamb was seen on the doorposts and the lintel of those houses.

• They survived the curse and fled from Egypt. They were saved because a lamb has been sacrificed and its blood spilt.

• The Lord said in Exo 12:14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”

Hence for the past 1300 years, the Jews have been observing this Passover every year.

• But at this Passover meal, Jesus elevated the meaning from remembering a past event to remembering an upcoming one – His death on the cross.

• From the sacrifice of a lamb and its blood to the sacrifice of Himself and His blood.

He instituted the Holy Communion and directed His disciples’ focus from the slaughtered lamb of the OT to the “Lamb of God” who was about to die for them.