End of Passover once for All! !

Matthew 26:20-30

Ordinance to the Church by Jesus!

Mark 14:22–26; Luke 22:14–23; ¹ Cor. 11:23–26

Matthew 26:20-30, When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. 21 Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” 22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?” 23 He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. 24 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 not been born.” 25 Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.” Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper 26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for

the remission of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” 30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

In this passage our Lord institutes His table. Matthew is here giving us preparation for the cross of Christ. Chapter 26 is devoted to preparing for the cross. 1. The preparation that God had made, 2. The preparation of the religious leaders,

3. The preparation by anointed Jesus with costly perfume

and 4. The preparation of Judas. Beginning in verse 17, we come to the preparation of the Lord Himself as He begins to prepare for His own death. 1. The last Passover, 2. The ordinance of His table. 3. Exhorting the feeble disciples.

4. Intercessory prayer before the Father in the garden of

Gethsemane. All of these elements Matthew gives us as parts of the preparation for the death of Jesus Christ, which is a climax of His life and ministry.

V 17-25 we find our Lord experiencing the final Passover, the final Passover, an essential act our Lord has with His disciples as He moves toward the cross. First, setting the time. V 17-19, we looked at the time and the setting for this final Passover.

Why Jesus needed to meet with His disciples. Why they would do at a Passover. We found out it is late on Tuesday after the sun has gone down. The next day He will be crucified. At that time in the history of Israel, Passover was celebrated both on Tuesday and on Wednesday because the customs in Galilee differed from the customs in Judea.

The Lord on Tuesday evening celebrates a Galilean Passover Day. Yet there is another Passover Day on Wednesday by Judean. Which means Jesus can keep the Passover one day and die during the Passover as the Passover lamb the next day.

God had arranged history, tradition, custom, and circumstance to make that a reality. Jesus had an intense desire to keep the Passover with His disciples in order that He might have time to instruct them, to teach them, to give them the promise of the Holy Spirit.

To institute His new memorial feast which we know as the Lord’s Table, or Communion, time to unmask the betrayer. It was a very important time. We will study another significant reason why He wanted to keep that final Passover?

1. Sharing the table. V 20, When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Matthew has to say about the supper itself, the Passover meal, the Paschal meal as it was called. It is after 6:00 pm on Tuesday evening. Christ will be captured later in the night, brought to a mock trial early in the morning, crucified and He will die at about 3:00 on Wednesday afternoon.

Only matter of hours before His death and they are eating the Passover meal. It has to be eaten before midnight. It can’t be that anything is left for the morrow. Jesus is at table with His disciples, preparing to eat the meal.

V 20, “He reclined.” An interesting note because historically if you go all the way back to the Passover in Exodus that when God set the

Passover up, He said you have to eat the Passover standing up. One has to eat it with your loins girded in haste. One has to eat it with staff in their hand and shoes on, ready to move out. But through the years, the feast had developed the custom of being a rather elongated feast. Since they were no longer going to be hurrying out of the country of Egypt, as in the first Passover, the custom was adopted that they would recline as they did at very many feasts when the eating was leisurely.

We find Jesus adapting Himself to that custom and having no problem with that. He is reclining then with the 12. V 21, Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” There was a very defined and inviable sequence in the Passover meal.

The tradition is very clear

The first thing that happened was the initial cup of red wine mixed with water. It was their custom always to mix wine with water so that they would not become drunken. At the Passover, they mixed wine with a double amount of water, lest they should desecrate such a sacred occasion by becoming affected by the intake of wine. So, they would mix it

doubly with water and take that first cup which is called “the cup of blessing.” The first cup came along with a blessing. We should probably not call it “the” cup of blessing which reserved for the third cup. But it was “a” cup in which there was a special blessing. It symbolized the blessing of God.

Luke 22:14-17, When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. ¹⁵ Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶ for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; ¹⁸ for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

The first cup symbolizing God’s blessing. Following that first cup in the Passover meal would be the washing of their hands. This was a ceremonial cleansing. Before they could actually get into the meal itself, they needed to recognize the need for personal holiness and personal cleansing.

They were celebrating God’s salvation. God’s deliverance to them. When celebrating the salvation of God, they wanted to be sure that there was nothing in them was unclean. How could they celebrate the God who had saved them while entertaining the sin from which He had saved them?

There was a cleansing time, a time of ceremonial washing of hands. Very likely it was at this time as they were washing their hands and there was a little bit of an interlude in the actual feast. The conversation of the disciples.

Luke 22:24, Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.

There was an argument among them which of them should be accounted the greatest. They started arguing right in the midst of this event about which of them would be the greatest. Quite an amazing thing. They were ceremonially washing their hands as a sign of the cleansing of their inward soul, and all the while they were doing the outward symbol, their souls were filled with pride, self-serving, self-glory and ambition.

There was absolutely no connection between what they were doing on the outside, which was intended to be emblematic of what was going on in the inside. Not unlike many people who come to the Lord’s Table and go through the motions while entertaining sin in their own lives.

They ignored the reality of the intent of this cleansing and went on cultivating their own pride in the very act of symbolizing their inward cleansing. While they were washing of the hands, that it is very likely they also came to recognize the need to wash the feet.

John 13:4, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

They had already gotten into the meal to some extent, maybe just past that first cup, and the supper had officially begun, the Passover meal. Maybe as they were washing their hands, it became very aware to everybody that the feet were also dirty. If the washing of the hands was symbolic, the washing of the feet was just plain practical.

Especially if you were reclining at a meal, and your head was a matter of inches from somebody else’s feet. Feet in those

days were covered by sandals, and sandals didn’t keep out anything, and so they were either muddy or dusty. It was a common custom that feet were washed whenever you came into a home. No servant had done it, and no disciple would stoop to do it because they were arguing about who was the greatest. None wanted to take the role of a servant and disqualify himself from real greatness.

In their pride they failed to do that. Jesus arose from the table and took of His outer garment, girded a towel about his waist and proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples and gave them a profound lesson on humility.

A profound lesson on condescending love. A profound lesson on meeting the needs of someone else and taking the role of a slave. John 13 describes the whole thing.

John 13:14-17, If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Jesus taught them the lesson of humility.

The lesson of humility was a strong rebuke to their pride. But Jesus also gave them a verbal rebuke as well.

Luke 22:25-27, And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ ²⁶ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. ²⁷ For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves. He literally verbally rebuked them for their pride.

We have seen just two events in the Passover meal. The first cup and The washing. Already these men have been intimidated, confronted, rebuked, and their self-centeredness and their personal ambition. Keep in mind that they are pretty well whipped by the time they just get into this.

When Jesus rebukes somebody, He really rebuked them. They have been well-rebuked, and unmasked as egotistical.

This sets them up for what reaction we see a little bit later. John 13 slips right in at the point of the washing. The third part of the Passover feast which was the bitter herbs. The bitter herbs symbolic of the bitterness of bondage in Egypt were brought together with unleavened bread and the charoset, which was the sauce that they made at Passover.

Into this sauce unleavened bread, and the herbs were dipped. The fourth part of the Passover which was the second cup. Again, red wine mixed with water. When the father, or the head of the table, in this case the Lord Himself, took that cup, instructed the company there as to the meaning of the Passover meal.

• A cup,
• Washing,
• Bitter herbs,
• Unleavened bread dipped,
• Second cup.

Following that there was some singing. They sung the Hallel, from which we get the word “Hallelujah” which means “praise.” The Hallel is Psalm 113 -118. At this point they would sing Psalm 113 & 114.

Psalms would be sung. Now, after the singing of the first couple of psalms in the Hallel, the lamb would be brought out. Now, the major portion of the meal began. The bitter herbs and the unleavened bread dipped prior to this had been like an appetizer.

Now, comes the main meal. The father again would wash his hands, take pieces of bread, bless them, break them, and eat them with the lamb. As he did that, he initiated the eating of everybody else and they would all then begin to eat the lamb.

This is where we are in the scene here in verse 21, as they did eat. They were in at least to the bitter herbs by this point, at least, perhaps, to the second cup. They are into the meal to some extent.

2. Shocking of the Disciples. V 21, Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” It is not really the word “betray.” The translators have done that because Judas was a betrayer. But the word simply means, “one of you will deliver Me up.”

Mark 14:18, Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me.”

This is a shocking thing. One of you who is eating with Me will deliver Me over. Of course, in that part of the world at that time in history, when you ate a meal with a person, you were identifying yourself as a friend.

The idea of eating a meal with someone and then turning them over to their executioners was just unthinkable, because a meal was a symbol of friendship.

Psalm 55:12-14, For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;

Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. 13 But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng.

David says that the unbelievable part of this betrayal is that you were my friend, not my enemy. It was unthinkable for a friend to do that. Yet, Jesus said one of you who is eating with Me will do it. Jesus always spoke the truth, so they knew one of them had done it. They were jolted.

V 22, And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?” A strong way to indicate their sadness, their grief. There may have been tears. There may have been a great amount of agonizing inside as they heard Him say that one of you who is eating at this table with Me will deliver Me up.

They were exceeding sorrowful.

John 13:22, Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom He spoke.

They didn’t know who He was talking about. They didn’t know and say, ah, Judas. Judas was a very capable hypocrite. He was excellent at playing out the masquerade.

Luke 22:23, Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.

They would ask to the other, who is it? Probably U-shaped table at which they were reclining in the meal and they were saying to each other, who is it? Judas was very expert at his hypocrisy. The fact that they had chosen him to be the treasurer shows they didn’t have any doubt about his integrity. They trusted him with their resources which were meagre at best.

Jesus hadn’t done anything to outwardly expose him at all. Jesus had done everything He could to pull Judas close to Him. Here he was sitting on His left side at the table which was the place of great honour. It was to him Jesus dipped the sop and gave it.

Again, a symbol of him as the honoured guest. Jesus did everything He could to show anything but the fact that He disdained, despised, hated Judas and did nothing to reveal him as a traitor. They didn’t identify Judas as the one.

V 22, And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?” Every one of them. Now, why would they be so quick to imagine that they themselves might be the traitor?

Very easy to understand that they had just been rebuked for the ugliness of their pride, ambition, self-will, and self-design. They were whipped. They were shamed by their rebuke of Jesus. They were doubly shamed by the washing of their feet.

Peter said, “You will never wash my feet. It is not to be that You will wash my feet.” Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “If I don’t wash your feet, you have no part with Me.” They were rebuked and they were shamed. Now, in that condition where their sin has been exposed, and they can’t hide it. They are very much aware of their weakness, they don’t even trust themselves in this regard.

They begin to say, every one of them, “It’s not I, is it?” They have been made very much aware of the capability of their evil. They are asking the question thinking of themselves. Some level honesty and integrity in that.

They knew that deep down in them was a sinful principle that could be so ugly that it might even lead them to betray the one they loved. They had a wholesome self-distrust. They said, surely not I

V 23, He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. Dipping again the unleavened bread or the bitter herbs into the charoset, “the same shall betray Me.” They had no knives or forks. They ate with the hand, dipping the bread, dipping the herbs, dipping perhaps the lamb.

“He who dipped his hand with Me Who did that? All of them did it. All of them were eating. All of them were dipping. Jesus is saying is it’s one of you who is eating and dipping the sop. It’s one of you.

John 13:18, “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.’ Jesus quotes from Psalm 41:9. Of course, here in the Psalms it speaks of Ahithophel. 2 Samuel ¹⁶ talks about Ahithophel who was the familiar friend of David who betrayed him.

Ahithophel is a picture of Judas, the ultimate, the arch-traitor, if you will, who betrayed Jesus Christ. The wretched one who sat at the table, dipped the sop, ate with Christ, turned around and betrayed Him.

Luke 22:21, But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table. First, Jesus says one of you. Then, He says one of you whose hand is on the table.

Then one of you who dips the sop. The shock is beyond description that one of them could do that. But verse 24 puts it in balance. Jesus is no victim of a fool’s treachery. Jesus is no victim of a betrayer. They need to know that and so do we.

V 24, 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 not been born.” Jesus says that don’t think I am a victim.

Don’t think this is a plan gone wrong. Don’t think this isn’t the way it was supposed to be.

It is exactly what God had prewritten in prophetic history. No one is doing anything to me that is not a direct and immediate fulfilment of the eternal plan of God.

Revelation 13:8, All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Acts 2:23, Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

This is divine plan. Judas was a betrayer. Judas was a betrayer by his own choice. Judas was a betrayer who rejected grace, and rejected the offer of salvation presented to him on a personal level. Judas rejected all of that, made his own choices.

Yet somehow in God’s marvellous mysterious sovereignty, he was planned right in to the very midst of the betrayal of Jesus Christ to accomplish holy purposes. An unholy man in the hand of a sovereign God accomplishes a holy end.

V 24, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! That man is a cursed man. Jesus said he was a devil. The Bible says he was a thief. He loved money. He sold Jesus for money. He had no desire to bring the Kingdom.

He had no desire for the salvation of the world. He wanted money. The Old Testament did say that Jesus would die on a cross. Psalm 22, the whole crucifixion is described with every detail. Isaiah 53 describes it again. It was written that He would die on the cross.

It was written that He would die for the sins of the world. But even though it was in the plan of God, the man who did it, who turned Him over is a cursed and damned man. V 24, It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

Better to have never been born than to have to endure what that man will endure. Better if the man never existed than to exist forever in eternal hell.

The degrees of punishment in eternal hell are related to the rejection. The more you reject the more truth you understand and refuse, the greater the punishment in hell. Therefore, the severest damnation in hell comes to Judas.

Hebrews 10:29, Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? Judas rejected Jesus Christ that he walked with for three years.

When the Lord says curse that man, He means it in the most profound and eternal way. When Jesus says it would have been better never to have existed than to spend forever in the very depths of hell. Judas made his own choices, was the source of his own damnation, yet fit perfectly into the sovereign plan of God.

God controls not only the good and the righteous in the world, but their evil and the wicked among them to accomplish His own ends.

All the 12 disciples sit in shock, having heard this unbelievable word that one of them is going to deliver Jesus to the rulers to be killed. V 25, Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.”

If he said nothing, he would have been unmasked. He had to play the game. Everybody was saying it so he had to say it. So, he considers himself a part of the group and the group is saying, surely not I, and so he just chimes in, surely not I, masquerading his hypocrisy as if he could hide anything.

All he wanted was money and glory. But he got a direct answer. This conversation between Jesus and Judas must have took place very privately.

John 13:23-26, Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. ²⁴ Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke. ²⁵ Then, leaning back on Jesus’ breast, he said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

Apparently, Judas was masquerading for the sake of Jesus while all the rumble was going on. Obviously, Peter and John didn’t hear it. Jesus dipped it and He handed it to Judas. John knew. The rest didn’t know.

John 13:27, Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him.

Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” Satan entered into Judas. A frightening thing. The very devil himself came in full personhood to reside in Judas. He was hellish to the core, at this point. Judas was a supreme agent for the fallen angel Lucifer to work his devilish deed against Jesus Christ. He was a victim.

Any man who rejects Christ he was the arch criminal of all time, indwelt by the devil himself. Hellish as is possible in the realm of the natural and the supernatural. The disciples didn’t know why He sent him away. Some thought he was going to go buy some more food, and some thought he was going to give money to the poor, so they still didn’t know.

Judas knew.

Jesus knew. John knew. The rest didn’t know. But Jesus got rid of him before they actually ate the meal because he should have no part, should he, in the Lord’s Table. So, he was dismissed. What a scene of preparation as Jesus has the final Passover?

V 26, And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” They went back to the meal, back to the Passover.

Why this final Passover? Passover was the oldest Jewish institution. Older than any other Jewish institution except the Sabbath itself. For 1,500 years they had celebrated Passover, even before the Aaronic priesthood was instituted. Even before all of the Levitical ritual and the giving of the Mosaic Law.

The Passover was very old and ancient. Ordained by God to be held every year and every devout Jew did it every year. This Passover was the last divinely sanctioned and authorized Passover ever held.

Any Passover ever celebrated after this one is not authorized by God.

• It is of an extinct dispensation.
• It is of a covenant no longer in vogue.
• It serves no significant purpose.

Jesus here celebrated the Passover as a way to bring it to its end. The bell rang in the upper room for the one last time! Christ ended the long years of Passover and began a new memorial feast which He begins to institute in verse 26.

This new feast is the feast not of the old covenant but the new covenant, not the Old Testament but the New Testament. Not looking to a lamb in Egypt but a Lamb of God on a hill of Calvary. Jesus ends the old before He begins the new.

After having drawn the curtain on the Passover of the old economy, He institutes the feast of the new.

• a) Directive,
• b) Doctrine,
• c) Duration.

This new feast, because we have studied it so many times and gone through it in Corinthians, we don’t need to go into great detail, just to capture the scene.

• a) Directive.

What are the directives that Jesus gives? V 26, “And as they were eating” V 21, “And as they did eat.” We don’t know exactly the point this takes place. They had had the first cup. They had broken the bread and the bitter herbs and dipped them.

They had had the second cup and sung the Hallel. They had already been interrupted once with the foot washing. They had been interrupted a second time with the dismissal of Judas. Now, as they just begin to eat the full meal of the lamb, it was the custom of the head of the feast, the father, or in this case Christ, to pick up the bread, break it, eat it along with the lamb, and that began the feast.

It may have been at that very moment that this happens, we don’t know.

It may have been during the feast when they were already eating the lamb. We have no way to know that. But at some point in the eating of the Passover. “Jesus took bread and gave thanks,” He thanked God for the provision of bread. All things that are received with thanksgiving.

1 Timothy 4:4-5, For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; ⁵ for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Jesus thanks God for the provision that God has given. Not only for the provision God gave in the food but the provision

God gave in His delivering power symbolized in this wonderful feast. Jesus broke the bread. He broke it for the simple reason that it came in large, flat pieces and had to be broken to be distributed. Then, He gave it to the disciples and said, “Take and eat.”

V 27, Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. Jesus gave thanks again, euchariste, we get the Eucharist from it because it means “to give thanks, or to bless.”

Jesus gave thanks for the bread. Jesus gave thanks for the cup. All of you drink it. The breaking and passing of the bread could have happened at the very initiation of the meal of the lamb itself so it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary, it wouldn’t have been any different at all than a normal Passover.

The cup of verse 27 was probably the third cup which was called “the cup of blessing.”

1 Corinthians 10:16, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? So, the cup of blessing which was a term for the third cup in the Passover meal is also referred to as the Communion cup by Paul. Very likely that third cup, called the cup of blessing, was the one the Lord held up.

1 Corinthians 10:21, You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.

Paul changes its name and calls it “the cup of the Lord.” So, the cup of blessing called in the Passover becomes cup of the Lord in the new feast. Jesus is breaking bread anyway. He breaks it and passes it around. There is no real symbolism in the breaking. Some people think it symbolizes the broken body.

But Christ’s body was not broken.

John 19:36, “Not a bone of Him was broken that the prophecies might be fulfilled.”

It was broken because that was the only way to pass it. The symbolism isn’t in the breaking. Then, the cup was taken and also blessed. That is a prayer of thanks was given. Then, He said, “Take and eat,” and He said, “all of you drink it.”

Mark tells us that all 11 did drink the cup. They all shared. The idea that we want to stress, that all of us who come to the Lord’s Table are participants. For many years the Catholic Church had the priest alone drink the cup, never let the people do that. That is not what the Scripture is.

All of us participate in the blood of Christ and the body of Christ in the death and resurrection of Christ and are all partakers of His table. All of you take it and eat it, All of you drink it, All of them did that.

• b) Doctrine.

V 26, “This is My body.” This was something brand new. The unleavened bread had always been a symbol of leaving Egypt. Baking a new bread without leaven in it to symbolize that they were not taking anything with them from their former life in Egypt.

When a loaf was baked before the baking of the loaf, a piece was taken off and it was allowed to ferment and it became the starter for the next loaf. It symbolized influences. The unleavened bread was a way of saying “we are starting new. There is no influence of the old life.”

It was symbolic of new life. It was symbolic of cutting apart from Egypt,

It was symbolic of separating from worldliness. But now it’s something different. Now, unleavened bread doesn’t talk anymore of that which is not influenced by the evil of the world. Unleavened bread now means “My body.”

Jesus is transforming the Passover. To make a huge change someone need lot of authority. Here something getting changed which that God ordained. But Jesus is God in human flesh, and He can rewrite the script. Having ended the old, He now initiates the new.

“I want you to take and eat this bread as representative of My body.” The Catholic Church teaches the doctrine of transubstantiation. That the bread actually, literally, physically becomes the body of Jesus Christ. That is not what this is saying.

These are image words. This is emblematic of My body.

Luke 22:19, “Which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.”

1 Corinthians 11:24, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Jesus takes the bread and it becomes emblematic of His body, a symbol and a picture. Christ is saying I give My body to die in death for you. This is what Jesus is saying. My body as this bread is broken and consumed. My body will be given. I want you to do this in remembrance of Me. V 28, “This is My blood of the new covenant.”

It is the new covenant written in His blood.

Exodus 24:8, And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”

What Jesus is saying is that God when He made a covenant with man required blood.

• When God made a covenant with Abraham, there was blood shed by animals.
• When God made a covenant with Moses, there was blood shed.

• When God made a covenant with Noah, there was a sacrifice laid on an altar.
• God required bloodshed in making covenants with men.
• When God brought reconciliation with Himself, the price was blood, that men might know that a relationship to God was going to cost the blood of a sacrifice.

All of that pointed to Christ who would be that sacrifice. When the priest stood knee-deep in the blood of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of lambs, it was a way of reminding them all of the cost of God’s reconciliation to man, that it cost bloodshed, sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:22, And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. A covenant with God always demanded not just death, not just hitting an animal on the head so that it died, but blood- shedding because the life of the flesh in the blood, it says in Leviticus.

The pouring out of the blood was a very graphic, a very painful, a very vivid demonstration of the loss of life. Jesus died to save us from our sin. But it wouldn’t be just enough for Him to die.

He had to die, and in His death pour out blood through the wounds in His hands, the wounds in His feet, the wound in His side, the thorn marks in His head. Blood running everywhere to demonstrate that the life was flowing out of Him graphically and visibly, that He was offering Himself as a blood-shedding sacrifice for sin.

Jesus says when you take this cup, it is not any more to remind you of the blood of the lamb in Egypt, blood put on the doorposts and the lintel. It is not anymore to remind you of that. It is to remind you from now on of My blood which is shed.

The word “shed” is the key to the whole understanding of the verse. It is shed blood. This is My blood of the covenant, the blood being shed, the Greek says. It had to be shed blood, the graphic demonstrable way of seeing the life poured out.

Obviously, we were saved through His death. There was nothing in the chemistry of His blood to save us. We were saved in His dying, but He had to pour out that blood because God had required a blood-shedding sacrifice. It could be seen that the life was poured out.

Jesus says this cup will remind you of My blood shed for many.

Who are the many?

All who believe, Jew and Gentile. Not just the blood shed like in the old covenant for the nation of Israel, but the blood of Jew and Gentile. “For the forgiveness of sins.” His blood was shed to bring forgiveness of sins, the sacrificial bloodletting substitutionary death to bring about forgiveness.

This is the reason why Jesus came. Jesus instituted the memorial to that the night before His death. So, our Lord headed for the cross to pour out His blood as a sacrifice for sin. Jesus instituted the bread and the cup as a memorial for all time that we might remember the self-sacrificing, blood- spilling death of Christ for us. The old covenant had all those animals, none of which could take away sin. The blood of Christ alone could do it.

The feast that we celebrate is here at this table with the bread and the cup.

• c) Duration.

How long do we do this? Passover ended that night.

There is never been an authorized Passover since. A lot of Jewish people still doing it. It might be a nice custom, but it’s a dead feast. It has no purpose. It ignores the true feast of redemption.

How long do we do this? V 29, But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” What He is saying is keep doing it until I do it with you in the Kingdom. When Jesus comes in His Second Coming and sets up the Kingdom, that great event that He was talking about in Matthew 24 and 25 was going to come.

He was telling them here He was going to die. He was telling them about pouring out His blood. This is a pretty tragic thing to hear, and so He injects this thought that I am going to come back. I am going to do this with you in My Kingdom.

Don’t worry, I will be back. Reaffirmation in V 29 of His Kingdom promise.

When Jesus comes, we enter into His Kingdom and we are going to do this with Him. We are going to celebrate this with Him. We are going to remember His sacrifice together forever and ever throughout all eternity in some marvellous way that He has designed. It is an unforgettable and glorious redemption.

Never to be ignored. Always to be celebrated. Jesus says until I do it with you in My Father’s Kingdom. But the emphasis is that I am going to come back and drink it with you again. All three gospels state that the Lord said that.

Jesus assures us all that He is coming to set up His glorious Kingdom. V 30, And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. They had already sung Psalm 115-116. Then, there was a fourth cup and then they might have sung Psalms 117, and 118 and went to the Mount of Olives.

The final Passover our Lord institutes the Lord’s Supper.

Put yourself there that night as we partake together.