the last meal

This is the fourth in our series of Holy Week devotionals.

Today we are looking at the Passover or Lord’s Supper passage. Some of you might be thinking isn’t that supposed to be on Thursday and that is correct, but from the time the Passover began on Thursday evening until Jesus’s body was laid in the tomb in the early evening of Friday a lot happened. In order to have more time, we’re starting with the Passover today.

This is another account that can be found in each of the four gospels with John spending the most time describing so many of the things Jesus taught the disciples during that meal including the lesson He demonstrated by washing their feet. Here is how Luke describes it though in chapter 22 verses 14-20.

When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.’ And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured our for you is the new covenant in My blood.’

This is a beautiful passage showing us Jesus’s last meal before His death. Even now we make a big deal over final meals. Death-row inmates are given the opportunity for a special meal before their executions. We even talk at times about what our choices would be for our last meal if we could choose. Jesus did choose. He chose to be gathered with His closest friends and disciples in a small borrowed room celebrating one of the most important holiday festival meals on the Jewish calendar. This wasn’t just any last meal. It would be like us having a last meal with those closest to us on Thanksgiving or Christmas. It was that big of a deal.

The Passover was a very important holiday for them. Understanding the Passover better helps us understand the significance of this meal and all that was to come in the next few days. The Passover celebration was instituted by God as a remembrance of His deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. We can see so much symbolism in the origin of Passover in Exodus 12:1-14

Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.

For his final meal, Jesus chose to celebrate this Passover meal with his disciples. In a meal celebrating God’s deliverance from Egypt with the blood of an unblemished lamb, Jesus tells His closest friends that the broken bread and the cup representing the blood of the lamb, were His body and blood. As they sat there celebrating God’s beautiful redemption that freed them from slavery years before, little did they realize that before the sun set again, Jesus’s own body would be broken and His blood shed to free them from the slavery of sin and reconcile them to God.

Jesus chose to spend His final meal with His disciples sharing this powerful transition from the temporary sacrifices of lambs to cover the punishment for sin to the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb to pay the punishment for my sin and yours. Thank you Jesus!