The Lord's Supper

Date: November 5th 2006

Title: We need to remember!

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PREPARATION

The Bible tells us that it was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?".

The Jewish calendar was filled with religious celebrations, many of them involving feasts. The feast of Pentecost was to commemorate God’s provision at harvest time (Our Thanksgiving). The feast of booths was to celebrate the Israelites wandering for forty years in the wilderness and how God provided temporary housing and how they were dependent upon God for every thing. The day of atonement was the highest holy day to have the once-a-year sacrifice offered in the Holy of Holies to take away their sins. There were many feasts but perhaps the most central feast to the Jewish Year was Feast of Passover or the Feast of unleavened bread. It was an eight day celebration with day one being the feast of Passover and the rest of the days as the feast of unleavened bread.

These feasts both reminded the people of God’s great hand in delivering them from their slavery and oppression in Egypt.

The feast of unleavened bread was named after the type of bread the Israelites were to take with them as they left Egypt in haste. Ordinary bread in that day, like today, used leaven to cause it to ferment and rise.

Throughout Scripture leaven is used to represent influence, usually evil influence. Therefore, the Israelites were to leave Egypt and all the evil associated with that place and not take any leaven with them to use in their bread to make it rise. As a reminder of that event, every year they would remove all leaven from their homes and eat only unleavened bread for the seven days of the feast.

The custom was that each household would select a lamb to be sacrificed and eaten on the tenth day of the first month before the actual Passover meal. This would have been Monday of Passover week during the Last Supper of Jesus and so the disciples probably choose a lamb on that Monday when Jesus had his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Perhaps they kept it till Passover at Mary and Martha’s house in Bethany where they were staying.

So the disciples came to Jesus probably early on Thursday morning to ask Jesus this question, “Where do you want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?

What was needed for preparing? As I mentioned, they would already have the lamb selected, but there were other preparations needed as well. Their to do list would have included; Have the lamb slaughtered by a priest at the temple, which could only be done between the hours 3 and 5 in the afternoon. They would have had to buy unleavened bread, wine, bitter herbs, and a special dip for the Passover meal.

Then they would also have to find a location to have their meal.

Now Jesus answers the two disciples who were Peter and John and His response must have been really a puzzle to them both. He said Luke 22:10-12 (NIV) "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, [11] and say to the owner of the house, ’The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ [12] He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there."

You can almost imagine their response, “Okay, so, you want us to go into the city and find a stranger carrying a pitcher of water. This would have been very bizarre as it would have been unheard of to have a man carry such a domestic article. The man carrying the pitcher was likely a servant and they found him, just as Jesus said, and they followed him back to the house. Then they spoke to the owner and told him of their mission to procure a location for the upcoming Passover meal.

Application: What about you and me? How do we prepare to spend this time with the Lord? We read in the Bible that there was a problem very early on in the church with people not preparing for and taking appropriate care as they were involved in the Lord’s Supper. One church located in Corinth was known for being flippant and lacking proper etiquette with regard to participating in this meal. Paul, writing and rebuking them points out that they were not eating the Lord’s supper because when they came together they were rude, selfish, and thinking only of themselves. It was a big party, a time to eat, drink, and be merry!