Luke 22:7-23 You can read the passage here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2022%3A7-23&version=NLT
You can watch this post on You Tube here: https://youtu.be/uCnRM5rxkUc
Most of our Bibles will have a subtitle at the beginning of this section that reads something like The Last Supper. If you’ve read this before, you know, it’s only the last supper of Jesus’ natural life. If this is your first time reading the story, just stay with me, there are a couple more meals to come. The gospel of John even recalls Jesus making his friends breakfast a while later. I personally need this reminder because the next few pages get pretty hard to read, especially if, like me, you have found yourself falling in love with this Jesus that Luke has told us about.
It all starts unsuspectingly enough. Jesus once again sends his disciples off on a mission that he has clearly prepared ahead of them. It’s possible Jesus had met the owner of the home whose room they used that night and made arrangements. It’s just as likely that God gave him insight that enabled him to know about the available room, the hospitable home owner and the man carrying water. (Remember, that was weird in that day. Carrying water was a woman’s job, so telling his friends to find the man carrying water was giving them fairly specific directions.) Regardless, Peter and John have learned enough about trusting to just go look for the guy with a jug on his head.
I love that they were supposed to simply follow this guy home and then ask his boss where his guestroom was. Seems a little presumptuous, but they did what they were told. Let’s give the boys some credit. They were confused about a lot of things but they seemed to have learned that, if Jesus told you to do something, he had already made the way for you. I have to give them credit, because it’s a truth I frequently forget. God is not sitting on his throne, feet up on a coffee table thinking, “I wish this would happen. I’m gonna send somebody to go try.” It’s simply not who he is or how he works. If reading the Bible has taught me anything, it’s this: By the time God says, “Go” the whole trip is mapped out, and provisions have been dropped at the check points. Now, the person to whom he says go often neither has the map, nor can see where the road is, or has a clue what they need to bring. But if God says go, the smartest and safest thing anyone can do is start walking.
I’ve already given you a dramatically/tragically abridged version of the festival of Passover which is the meal for which they then prepared. Remember, the bread without yeast and the roasted lamb butchered and cooked without breaking its bones? Jesus and the rest of his closest disciples arrive in time for dinner. Different gospel writers highlight different things that happened that evening. Luke’s account is one of the simplest, almost like he is just listing events so that he makes sure to include what he feels is most important. He wants his reader to know, Jesus had been looking forward to this meal.
Jesus had been thinking about this night for a while. He had some things he wanted to say. This meal was important to him. He explains this is the last Passover he will eat until the meaning of the meal is finally fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
Remember its meaning? A perfect lamb was killed in place of a person. Its blood protected those under it from death. God rescued his people from slavery that night. This symbolic meal that the people of Israel shared every year was about to be fulfilled. The representation was about to become reality.
This was the last time Passover was only an illustration.
Jesus spelled it out for them. He was past making allowances for misunderstandings. After the roasted lamb, he took wine. He gave it to them and said, “I’m not going to drink this again until the kingdom of God comes.” Since wine was served at most meals there should have been no doubt, he was telling them he was dying, and very soon. He takes bread. He prays a prayer of thanks. There was a traditional prayer for this occasion so it was probably that one. This remembrance was precious to Jesus.
He was there when the angel of death passed by the people he loved.
He breaks the loaf and hands it to them. “This is my body that I am giving in your place. When you share bread together, remember me.” If they had to remember him it was because he wasn’t going to be there. His body, his life, was about to be given for them.
He takes another glass of wine. “There’s a new covenant and this wine is its symbol. The last covenant involved people, and only proved people could not be trusted to keep a covenant. This covenant is dependant on me. It’s ratified by my blood. I will pay for it. I will guarantee it. This is a covenant no one can destroy because I will write it and I will sign it in my own blood which is about to be poured out.”
If his disciples were finally getting the picture, he was going to confuse them again. He reveals that one of them, one of his closest friends, sitting at the table with them was going to betray him. Whatever you think of Jesus by now, you have to respect his confidence. In the middle of this monologue in which he clearly tells them he is about to die and he wants them to remember him, he pauses to make sure they know he will not play the victim. “Understand, this is all exactly what was always planned. None of this has caught me by surprise. The scriptures decreed what is coming. Still, choosing to betray me was a terrible idea.”
I would love to think that if I was at that table that day, I would have solemnly considered what he had just said to me. I’m sure that I would have been alarmed to hear that one of my closest friends was about to betray my beloved Teacher. I hope I would have taken a moment to look at my own heart and ensure there was no room for treachery in it. I would love to believe that I would have behaved differently than the disciples, but I’d probably be wrong.
