PASSION WEEK – Thursday
If you have ever participated in a Jewish or Christian Passover meal you probably remember the Haggadah; the little book with the various blessings and readings and instructions for each part of the Seder. And it’s super interesting and instructive.
But Jesus and His disciples didn’t follow the Haggadah. It wasn’t written until around 200AD. And yes, it was based on some earlier traditions, but many of those traditions were barely developing in 34AD and weren’t widespread until the late first century. It was the destruction of the temple in 70AD that changed Passover from what it was (a temple-centered sacrificial meal) to the Seder observed today (which requires no temple).
The Jewish historian Josephus recorded some information about the observance of Passover in about 66AD. The Roman Governor asked the high priests to give him a tally of lambs slaughtered in Jerusalem. The number was a staggering 256,500! And the vast majority were killed during a 2-hour window on Passover from 3-5pm. Based on the number of lambs, Josephus estimated that there were about 2.7 MILLION people in and around Jerusalem.
During the early first century, Jewish observance of Passover centered around a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the temple experience with the Levites singing the Hallel Psalms (113-118), roasting and eating the pascal lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and wine.
Jesus has the meal “early” – on the evening that began the 24 hours of Passover. And He also redefined the whole feast. The Last Supper was a Passover meal but Jesus transformed it into something entirely new. Let’s get into it.
“And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.””
Luke 22:15-16 ESV
Passover is about to be fulfilled – within the next 24 hours. Jesus will be the Lamb slain whose blood will not permit the Destroyer to enter. He will also lead all who will follow Him out of the slavery of sin.
Luke records TWO cups of wine at the meal. The first cup (v17-18) is NOT the cup of the New Covenant. It is simply the first cup of the meal; now known as the Cup of Sanctification. In the modern Seder the first cup is tied to remembrance of Yahweh bringing Israel out of the bondage of Egypt.
“And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.””
Luke 22:17-18 ESV
Jesus doesn’t do anything covenantal with this cup. The Apostles never gave the Church a 2-cup Lord’s Supper. That alone tells you that Christian Communion (also called The Eucharist or Lord’s Supper) is NOT a copy-paste Passover. We are never told to eat bitter herbs or roast a lamb. Luke is catching Jesus in the very act of transforming the Passover into something new.
I know that it is VERY appealing to many and a growing trend to think that Gentile believers in the early church and today are supposed to basically be Jewish – eat Kosher, observe the feasts, etc. But when Paul instructs the Church on how to observe the New Covenant fellowship meal, it’s not a Jewish Passover. It’s something new. And lest anyone think that I’m just “seeing what I want to see through the lens of church tradition,” the LORD Himself said this about the New Covenant:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””
Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV
Y’all…. I had to just stop and have a praise. Thank God for His mercy. He has brought us near by the blood of Christ.
You CANNOT make the argument that the New Covenant is just a reboot of the Old. God says it is “NOT LIKE” the covenant He made with Israel at Sinai. It’s not a reboot. It isn’t even LIKE the Sinai Covenant. It’s something completely different and new.
Jesus remakes the meal that the disciples had known since childhood. He doesn’t keep the familiar form and just assign new meaning. No. He invents a whole new version – one bread and one cup. It’s no longer about slavery in Egypt. It’s MUCH bigger. It’s about Christ delivering His people from the slavery of sin.
Jesus takes the unleavened bread and calls it His body; broken or given for you.
The most memorable Communion moment of my life (so far) was at a Wesleyan Methodist Church in Tennessee. I was traveling on a music team and we had done a choir clinic and led worship that Sunday morning – which happened to be Pentecost Sunday. (As a Pentecostal, I found it interesting that the Methodists put us to shame when it came to celebrating Pentecostal Sunday. Banners. Special Music. Special scripture readings. It was fantastic.) At the end of the service we shared Communion. Their practice was to have the congregation come forward and receive the elements from the church leaders. They observed Communion by “intinction” (where the unleavened wafer is dipped into the wine then handed to the recipient). I happened to be in the line of people being served by the choir director. It was a church of a few hundred people and the leaders knew most of the congregation by name. As I got closer I could hear them say, Janice or Bob or Phil, “this is the body of Christ given for you” as they gave them the wine-dipped wafer. And since I had been working with the choir all weekend the choir director knew my name too. He held out this white circle, dipped in blood-red and said, “Lacy, this is the body of Christ given for you.” Pretty sure I cried. No one had ever personalized the Lord’s Supper for me before. The next time you partake of Communion, take a moment to hear the voice of Jesus from the pages of Scripture saying, “This is my body, which is given for you.”
Jesus takes the second cup- the one after the supper (v20) and calls it the New Covenant in His blood. A covenant requires bloodshed. And the blood of Christ is about to be shed on the following day. The blood of the grape stands as the representation of His blood.
In the parallel passage in Matthew, Jesus says that He is going to drink this cup with His disciples.
I am indebted to Matthew Henry for his commentary on Luke 22 which helped me understand this section of scripture SO much better. (I had one of those oh-my-gosh-how-did-I-not-see-this-before moments).
“I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.””
Matthew 26:29 ESV
I’ve generally taken this to mean that someday the Church will celebrate the wedding supper of the Lamb in the future earthly kingdom.
But Jesus has been preaching for over 3 years that the Kingdom was “at hand” and “within you.” Jesus doesn’t have to wait for some future day to drink the cup of communion with His disciples, (though I suspect that this text has that as a dual application). The bottom line of Matthew Henry’s comments is that every time born-again believers in Jesus share the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is there, eating and drinking with us because He is IN us. He dwells within His Church. Jesus is in the middle of His people as we are united to Him and each other in the sacred fellowship meal.
If any man is in Christ, he is a NEW creation. And Christ is IN him as he drinks the ever-new fruit of the vine as a new man in a new covenant.
We’ll unpack more of Communion when we get to 1 Corinthians 11. For now, back to the Last Supper…
WHO IS THE GREATEST?
I watched an interesting video on YouTube recently about hormones. Apparently, women’s hormones go through 4 different phases per month. And that’s why women are so…umm… interesting to live with. We’re kinda like the weather. Don’t like it? Just wait a few days. It’ll change.
The doctor on the video had done lots of research and he said that testosterone is the hormone of confidence and competition. And it’s why, if you tell a young man that he’s awesome or good at something, he might just say, “I know,” and really mean it.
A woman can be dressed to the nines, with hair and makeup just so, look in a mirror and still find a dozen imperfections. A guy can stand before a full-length mirror and have a pot belly, scruffy face, bed head, stained tshirt, and holey sweats staring back at him and honestly think, “Look at that stud!”
The female mind cannot fathom this.
It must be the testosterone.
There was a lot of testosterone around the table at the Last Supper.
“A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”
Luke 22:24 ESV
Only young men would argue about something like this. If Jesus hadn’t been there, it might have moved to arm wrestling and ended in “you wanna take this outside?”
This isn’t the first time Jesus has taught them about how different His kingdom is from the world. The world has over-under relationships. The people in charge are OVER the subordinates.
This is a really tough tendency to abandon. Because it works. It’s the way of the military and the corporate world. But Jesus makes it crystal clear that He does not want leaders who see themselves as over others.
If Jesus Himself came not to be served but to serve, what on earth are these guys doing?
(Mike Winger had a few choice words about this in a short video with clips of this event.)
According to the Houston Chronicle, the tax exemption on Copeland’s home cuts $150,000 off its property tax bill.
Look, if someone builds a company or provides a good or service that people want and they make millions and they can afford nice things, God bless ‘em. I hope they give generously and anonymously to bless the work of Christ.
But when people who are supposed to be following the example of Jesus have lifestyles FAR above those they lead and have dozens of people waiting on them hand and foot while they never personally stoop to actually serve, there’s a problem.
The cross always comes before the crown.
“But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.”
Luke 22:26-27 NLT
In the next post we will see Jesus model this as He washes the disciples’ feet.
To The Reader 