The last 24 hours of Jesus life begins with the Last Supper and while Jesus knew this would be his last meal on earth, for the disciples it was just going to be another Passover or Seder meal. The Seder meal was then, as it is today, a meal rich in history and symbolism and it celebrates God saving his people by leading them out of Egypt and establishing them as a nation in the Promised Land. The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years when God called Moses to deliver them out of slavery and lead them into the land God promised to give them. So Moses went to Pharaoh and demanded that he let God’s people go, but Pharaoh said no. God then brought a series of plagues on the land and the people of Egypt to encourage Pharaoh to set God’s people free. After each plague, Moses would return to Pharaoh and ask him to let God’s people go, and each time Pharaoh refused. Pharaoh’s heart became harder and harder after each plague until finally God said he was going to send one final plague. If Pharaoh did not let God’s people go, the first born in all of Egypt, including all livestock, would be killed. Pharaoh still refused so God told his own people to sacrifice a lamb and place the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the house so that when the angel of death travelled throughout Egypt killing the first born, it would not strike down anyone belonging to God.
What we often forget is that while the blood of the lamb was placed on the doorposts of the house, the meat of the lamb was to be eaten inside those homes by the families. If you think about it, this was one final meal before the people would leave Egypt, a sort of last supper before God would deliver them. The people of Israel did just as God told them. They chose their spotless lambs and then four days later they sacrificed those lambs, placed the blood on the door posts of their homes and ate the meat for dinner. Later that night the first born in all of Egypt were killed and it was after this plague that Pharaoh finally let God’s people go.
When Pharaoh agreed to free God’s people, they had to leave quickly. In fact, they left so fast that they took with them the bread which had not yet had the yeast added. This Exodus became the foundation of Jewish faith and over and over again God brought His people back to this event to remind them that He would rescue them, redeem them and always care for them.
From that very first night when the people ate the lamb and the angel of death passed over, the people of Israel were called to remember this event and God’s deliverance in a meal that was to be celebrated each year and this meal became known as the Passover or Seder meal. Each year families would come together and in the course of a large festive dinner certain foods would be eaten as a reminder of God’s saving power. Not only would there be a leg bone from a lamb to remind the people that it was the blood of the lamb that had rescued them, but there would also be unleavened bread to remind them that they had to flee Egypt quickly. There would be a special dish called charoset, a kind of chunky applesauce that reminded the people of the mortar they had to use when they laid bricks as slaves. There were also bitter herbs, both maror which was either horseradish or romaine lettuce and karpas, which was usually parsley, and these reminded the people how bitter and hard life had been as slaves. They would also dip the Karpas, or parsley, in salt water to remind them of the many tears they had shed while they lived as slaves. There was also a roasted egg which was a symbol of new life and four glasses of wine which symbolized the covenant that God made with his people. Each cup was to represent one affirmation of God’s promise as it is recorded in Exodus 6:6-7. So in this meal everyone could see the journey from slavery (bitter herbs and choraset) to deliverance (lamb and bread) to new life (egg) and be reminded of God’s covenant and promise with his people (wine).
Each year, families would sit down and not only share together in these foods, but they would tell the story of how God had delivered them, a story contained in a book known as the Haggadah, and they would hear once again how it was the blood of the lamb and the power of God that delivered them and gave them life. The Passover meal became the most important time of worship and celebration for God’s people and today it still defines the people of Israel.
In Jesus day, as the time of the Passover would approach, people would come to Jerusalem to have their lambs sacrificed in the Temple, and many would stay in the city to celebrate the Passover meal with extended family and it was at this time that Jesus came to Jerusalem looking forward to sharing this meal with his disciples. While the meal was to be a time of real celebration and joy, the mood was very different in the upper room when Jesus and his disciples sat down to eat.
If you remember from last week, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem 4 days before the Passover, which, by the way, was lamb selection day. At the very first Passover when the people of Israel were still slaves in Egypt, God told his people to choose a lamb 4 days before they killed them and so four days before the Passover became known as lamb selection day and it was the day people would bring their lambs into Jerusalem. So Jesus entered into Jerusalem on lamb selection day. This was not a coincidence; Jesus was making the statement that he was coming to be the Lamb of God whose blood would take away the sin of the world.
So Jesus and his disciples arrived 4 days before the Passover and during those 4 days he spent his time teaching and preaching in the Temple and the tone of his message was harsh. Jesus was critical of the religious leaders and so they began to look for ways to silence him, even kill him. There was a lot of tension between Jesus and the religious establishment and so the tone of the Passover meal was somewhat subdued and then things got worse when during the meal Jesus said to his disciples, one of you is going to betray me. During the next 24 hours of Jesus’ life what we will see is that this theme of betrayal plays out again and again. While it was Judas who betrayed Jesus, Peter denied that he was his follower and that he even knew him, and eventually all of the disciples deserted Jesus, so in essence they all betrayed him and yet, these were the people Jesus wanted at the table with him for his last supper.
For me, this is one of the most profound things about the Last Supper. Here it is, less than 24 hours before his death and Jesus sits down to what he knows will be his last meal on earth and he could have chosen anyone to share this meal with, but chose these 12 men who were his closest friends and people whom he deeply loved. Jesus had spent three years pouring his life into these men and he loved them, but he also knew that they would fail him in just a few hours, but their failure didn’t keep Jesus from loving them. In fact, the love of Jesus was so strong that he forgave their weakness and failure ahead of time and shared the meal with them.
Now the reason this is so profound for me is because it reminds me that God wants me at his table and in his presence every time we share in communion. Like all of the disciples, God knows we are not perfect and God knows we will all fail, miserably fail, at times, but that doesn’t keep God from loving us. The truth is that there is nothing that can keep God from loving us. Romans 8:38-39. The failure of the disciples didn’t keep Jesus from loving them deeply and giving himself completely for them and our failure and sin does not keep God from loving us and we need to remember this every time we share in communion.
I have met many people who really don’t like taking communion because they don’t feel worthy enough to receive it. I always try to remind them, and myself, that none of the disciples were worthy either. Think about it – in just a few hours they were all going to turn away from Jesus. We will never be worthy of God’s love, but that’s the whole point of grace. While we aren’t worthy and we are sinners – God still loves us and God wants us at His table, not just the communion table, but that table in heaven where God’s children feast forever.
So Jesus wanted to share this meal with the disciples because he loved them, but then Jesus did something at the Seder that I’m sure confused them. In every Seder there were certain traditions that were followed and words that were said, but during this meal, Jesus changed things up. When Jesus took the bread, after he blessed it and broke it he gave it to his disciples saying take, this is my body. The disciples had no idea what Jesus was talking about here. They didn’t know his death was coming in just a few hours and so I can almost imagine the strange looks they must have given each other as they passed the bread from one to the other. I can almost hear them whispering among themselves, what is he talking about? While Jesus had talked about being the bread of life, none of the disciples understand that he was going to offer his body for them, and for the world, as a sacrifice upon the cross.
While they are still trying to make sense of that, Jesus took one of the four cups, the third cup, and said, this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. What is really interesting here is that if we go back to Exodus and look at the four lines of promise that God makes that are symbolized in the 4 cups, the third line which is what the third cup represents says I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. So after Jesus says, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm he says this is my blood of the covenant.
While we know it was the outstretched arm of Jesus on the cross that shed blood for us, there was no way the disciples could have understood what Jesus was talking about here. For them the cups reminded them of God delivering his people from slavery and the only blood they talked about was the blood of the lamb, but now Jesus was redefining the meal and saying that it would be his blood, his death, that would establish a new covenant with God and it would be his outstretched arm tied and nailed to the cross that would deliver people from slavery and death to freedom and life. What Jesus is saying in this meal is that it is his death and resurrection that sets us from free sin and death. This is the new covenant that is established with God through the blood of Christ so that we can be in a relationship with God and this is the gift we celebrate every time we gather at the table for communion.
Gathered at the table that night, the disciples had no way of knowing what Jesus was talking about, this was all a mystery to them, but they shared in the meal anyway. I find comfort in this because there are times when I come to the communion table and it is all a mystery to me. I struggle to understand how it is that Jesus’ death and resurrection brings me forgiveness and sets me into a new relationship with God. Just like the disciples, there are times when I don’t get it all, but just like the disciples I share in the meal anyway with the hope and desire of learning more because it is by taking part in the meal that we learn what it is all about. We believe that communion is a means of grace, in other words, we believe that God gives us his grace to experience and understand him a little bit more every time we share in communion together. So it is important for us to share in communion because every time we do we learn more and experience more of God.
During my last year of college I remember being in a worship service at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, and it was a communion Sunday. As we shared in communion that day I was overwhelmed with the reality of my own sin, God’s love for me, and how this gift of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection really did open the door to a new relationship with God. As I shared in communion that day I was overwhelmed by the power and love of God and I began to realize that God really did want me at His table. Even though I felt completely unworthy, and still do, I began to understand and experience that God really did want me at his table and in his kingdom and as his child and that he was willing to give his own body and blood to make it happen. I’m not sure how all it all works, it is a holy mystery, but I know it does.
When I realized that this first Sunday of Lent when we were going to be looking at the Last Supper was not a Sunday we normally celebrate communion I thought about changing our schedule and serving communion today, but then I thought that maybe there is value in allowing us take this week to think about what communion is all about and what it means to us. If you are part of a small group that will meet this week, I want to encourage you to share your thoughts and questions about communion. I also want to encourage all of us to take time to reflect on what Communion really means. Take some time this week to work through the next steps so that next Sunday as we gather at the communion table, we will not only understand how God delivers us from sin and death through the blood of Jesus, but that we will come to understand and accept that God wants us at this table and that God wants us in his kingdom and that God wants us as his children and that God loves us so much that he is willing to give his own body and blood to make it happen.
It’s humbling to think that the final 24 hours of Jesus life begins with a meal which Jesus redefines to proclaim that deliverance from sin and death and the gift of eternal life is ours through His body and blood. And it’s humbling to think that Jesus gave his body and blood to deliver us because, sinners though we are, he loves us. May this love of Jesus not only deliver us today but may it change us and change our world.
Next Steps:
Prepare yourself to share in Holy Communion next Sunday by:
1. Reading the story of the Last Supper in each of the four gospels:
• Matthew 26:17-30
• Mark 14:12-26
• Luke 22:7-38
• John 13:1-30
What similarities and differences do you see in each of these accounts? What new insights into Jesus’ celebration of his Last Supper and our remembrance of this meal in Holy Communion do you see?
2. Reflect on a service of Holy Communion that was particularly meaning for you. Who was gathered at the table with you? What made it so special? What was God saying to you? How did you experience God’s deliverance, forgiveness and new life?
3. The whole purpose of the Passover meal was to proclaim what God had done to deliver his people, if you had to tell someone what Holy Communion is all about and why it is important for you, what would you say? Write it out and offer it as a prayer of thanksgiving to God.
4. Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-32, take time to “examine yourself” in preparation for Holy Communion. In prayer, confess your sin to God and then seek and take hold of God’s forgiveness and grace. Listen for God’s invitation to not only join Him at the table but to join Him in worship, ministry and life.
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