Luke 22:14-22 - The Last Passover - April 14, 2022

The major events of our Savior’s life are like diamonds: precious, yes – but also in that the more you hold them up and examine them, the deeper your appreciation grows for their many and varied facets. Tonight, Maundy Thursday, is no exception. Maundy Thursday meant many different things to many different people. For your average Jew it was simply the annual opportunity to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:16), which would kick-off for the seven-day long party called the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For Judas and the Jewish leaders, it meant the opportunity to bring their scheme of doing away with Jesus to fruition (Luke 22:1-6; John 13:2). For the other apostles, it marked yet another occasion for them to argue over which of them was the greatest (Luke 22:24). For Peter, in particular, it meant another opportunity for him to crow (pun intended) about his unwavering dedication to Jesus (Luke 22:31-38). And yet, while Maundy Thursday was certainly multi-faceted, meaning many different things for many different people – tonight we will focus on what this Last Passover tells us about Jesus.

While, for most of those involved, the night of the Last Passover consisted of little more than thoughtless outbursts (Peter and the other apostles) or the hoped-for, but uncertain, culmination of wicked plans (Judas and the Jewish leaders) – for Jesus, there was nothing thoughtless or uncertain about this night. Jesus knew exactly what this night held for him – and he told his disciples as much: 1) this would be his last Passover before his suffering and the last one he would eat until the glory of heaven; 2) his betrayer was one of those gathered for this last Passover meal; and 3) this was all according to plan; it had been determined long before tonight. Omniscience aside, Jesus knew what lay before him this night because he knew his OT prophecies. Prophecies like David’s in Psalm 41: even a man who was at peace with me, a man whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has raised up his heel to step on me (Psalm 41:9). And Isaiah 53: He was despised and rejected by men, a man who knew grief, who was well acquainted with suffering. Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at, he was despised, and we thought nothing of him. Surely he was taking up our weaknesses, and he was carrying our sufferings. (Isaiah 53:3-5). In what must be the most tragic irony in history, the Jewish leaders had rejected Jesus and were determined to kill him because he claimed to be that Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53; because he testified that he had come to die to save a world of sinners.

Sadly, many still reject Jesus as their Savior today – and for similar reasons. The Jewish leaders probably could have tolerated Jesus the wise rabbi, the insightful teacher, the miracle worker, the political revolutionary, the social liberator – in fact, they probably would have loved him for it – but they could not tolerate his claims to be the Son of God and Savior from sin. Still today, many accept a Jesus who teaches about morality and promises to heal all earthly ills and to liberate those who are oppressed – but reject a Jesus who would dare to be the Son of God and their Savior from sin. It’s tragic. But what’s even more tragic is that even among those who confess Jesus as the Son of God continue to reject him. “How?” By the countless decisions, words, thoughts and actions we make every day in which we reject Jesus, the Son of God, as the Lord of our lives. When we fear things like sickness and death more than him, when we elevate our own thoughts and feelings over his Word and will, when we spend more time talking on social media than talking to him in prayer, when we dishonor the authorities Jesus has placed over us, when we fail to help our neighbors in need, when we allow lust to linger in our hearts and minds, when we steal time from our employers, when we speak or listen to gossip, when we covet what God has not given us – we are rejecting Jesus as the Son of God, the Lord of our lives. It’s as Isaiah said: we thought nothing of him (Isaiah 53:3). Here’s the problem: if Jesus is not the Son of God, if he’s not the King of kings and Lord of lords – not only over all of creation but over our lives – then we have no substitute for our death, no one to take the punishment for our sins, no forgiveness, no life, no salvation. The harsh reality is that anyone who despises and rejects Jesus now is doomed to be despised and reject by God forever (Luke 12:8-12).

But here’s the good news: there is still hope for people like you and me, who have despised and rejected Jesus by our sinful lives. The fact that Jesus was and is despised and rejected doesn’t change who Jesus is! And when we are ready to confess that we have often rejected Jesus’ lordship of our lives – then we’re fully prepared to receive this unchanging and unchangeable Jesus – not only through faith, but also through the Supper he instituted on that Last Passover which validates his identity as the Son of God and our Savior.

How does the Last Passover validate Jesus’ identity? Well, let’s do a quick review of the Passover Festival. Even before the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt, he had commanded them to celebrate the Passover Feast annually to recall how the angel of death passed over the homes of those who had believed God’s Word, slaughtered a lamb and painted its blood on their doorposts (Exodus 12:14). Each year the Israelites were to celebrate this feast to remind them that it was the Lord who had redeemed them from their slavery in Egypt. Over the course of time, it became traditional for the Israelites to share four cups of wine during this meal to recall the four promises God had made to them in Exodus 6: tell the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD. I will bring you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from being their slaves. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the LORD your God, the one who brought you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians (Exodus 6:6-7).

Here’s a brief overview of what the feast would have looked like. As the Passover meal began, the youngest child was sent outside to look for the Messiah, the Christ, because Jewish tradition expected the Christ to come on the eve of the Passover. The youngest child would then ask, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” And the family rehearse the history of how God had redeemed and liberated Israel from Egypt and what it meant. The meal began with the sharing of the first cup of wine. Next, they ate bitter herbs, which reminded them of the bitterness of slavery. The second cup was shared followed by the eating of unleavened bread – unleavened (made without yeast) because the Israelites had to leave in haste, before the bread could have a chance to rise. The third cup passed was known as the cup of redemption. They sang some psalms and hymns and then passed the fourth cup.

Luke only records the passing of two cups, the first and third. The matzah, the unleavened bread, was placed on the table in a special container called a matzah tosh. This white, silk bag was divided into three compartments for the three matzah wafers. Today, Jewish Christians understand this to symbolize the triune God, with the middle matzah, or wafer, represented the Christ. While none of this was commanded by God in the OT or described in detail in the Gospel accounts, if this was how the disciples understood the symbolism, it is interesting to put yourself in their shoes that night. In their minds, what was Jesus implying when he took bread (the middle wafer), and when he had 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”? Theologically and grammatically, of course, Jesus meant exactly what he said: this is my body. On another level, though, it would have meant: “I am the Christ. I am the Son of God. I am the Savior you’ve been waiting for.” The breaking of the bread was Jesus’ final prediction that his body would be broken on a cross for us. Now, whether the disciples understood this significance that night – or whether that’s actually how they celebrated the Passover meal – is all debatable. What’s not debatable is that Christians eventually understood the deep significance of taking and eating the unleavened bread; as Paul explains: the bread that we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). In the Lord’s Supper, we are receiving nothing less than the physical body of the Son of God.

Luke continues: in the same way, he took the cup after the supper. This would have been the third cup, to which this promise of God was attached: I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment (Exodus 6:6). We can hear echoes of this promise when Jesus says: this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is being poured out for you. Let’s put the pieces together. When Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross to pay for our sins, God indeed executed a great act of judgment: he condemned his sinless Son in our place, and in place of every sinner who will ever live. According to Matthew’s account, this Last Passover meal was never completed; they never drank the fourth cup of wine. After they sang the appointed psalms, they went to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:30). Why didn’t they finish the meal? Because within a matter of hours, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross would fulfill God’s promise of redemption. And, as a result, the Passover meal which anticipated full redemption would be replaced by the Lord’s Supper which delivers completed redemption – in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

So what does this all mean for us tonight, thousands of years and thousands of miles away from that Last Passover. Well, Jesus still tells us to do this in remembrance of me. In English, “to remember” something means to think backward in time mentally to something that isn’t currently present – like looking at a photo album. But that’s not what the Greek word Jesus uses here, anamnesis, means nor what the Hebrew word for “remember” (zakar) meant. Both were intended to lead the people to remember something which – while it may have happened in the past – has a present and ongoing impact. In other words, when the Jews were encouraged to “remember the exodus,” they were to remember the event long ago which made them free today! (I suppose you could compare it to the American celebration of Independence Day – that event which occurred so long ago but still impacts us today.) When Jesus says do this in remembrance of me, he’s telling us that the benefits and blessings he won by his death on the cross 2000 years ago are present and being distributed here and now. Tonight, we, who personally know what it’s like to be enslaved to sin, death and the devil, are to remember that here and now in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, we are receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which gives us the forgiveness, life and salvation – and liberation from sin, death and the devil.

Why should we continue to celebrate the Last Passover two thousand years after it took place? Or, to steal a line from the Jews: “what makes this night different from all other nights?” It indicates that Jesus was – and continues to be – rejected – just as it had been determined. It implicates us; it convicts us as sinners who have caused Jesus’ suffering by our sinful thoughts, words and actions. It identifies Jesus as the promised Son of God and Savior of the world. And, it is the day our Savior instituted a new meal, the Lord’s Supper, to grant us the blessings he won by his life, death and resurrection long ago: forgiveness, life and salvation. The Last Passover is indeed a precious gem to be treasured and examined; it is truly a night to remember. Amen.