Luke
22:14-20 (NIV)
When the
hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. And He said to them,
“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until
it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” After taking the cup, He gave
thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the
fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, gave
thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for
you; do this in remembrance of me.” In
the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new
covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.
The story of the Last Supper is so well-known by
Christians and even unbelievers that most of us hardly pay attention to
passages like this. When we think of
the Last Supper, we think of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous 1498 painting (the
original displayed at the Convent of Santa Maria
delle Grazie in Milan, Italy), most recently popularized as a central theme in
Dan Brown’s controversial book “The Da Vinci Code”. This passage (and similar ones in Matthew
26:17-30 and Mark 14:17-25) serves as the basis for communion celebrated in
church services and other religious ceremonies.
Several truths are
worth remembering from the gospel stories about the Last Supper:
· The model Jesus
gave about giving thanks before eating a meal.
· The covenant Jesus
established between Himself and all mankind that is commemorated each time we
participate in communion.
· The eating of bread
and drinking of wine (juice) that represents His sacrificial death for the
forgiveness of sins of anyone/everyone who believes in what He did.
· The importance
Jesus placed on partaking in communion to remind you of Him and what He did for
you.
Jesus said that the bread represents
His body given for others.
Sometimes, if you listen carefully to the communion leader’s words, he
will say that the bread represents Jesus’ body “broken” for you. None of the gospel stories about communion
use the word “broken” in relationship to Jesus’ body although it is used to
describe the bread being broken.
However, some translations of I Cor 11:24 will use the word “broken” where Paul is writing about The Lord’s Supper.
Jesus’ body was not broken during/after His crucifixion. To hasten death of a crucified person, his
legs would be broken that subsequently prevented the ability of that person to
push himself upward, thereby chest muscles would collapse and cause
suffocation. When the Roman soldiers
broke the legs of the two thieves to hasten their deaths and then came to the
cross of Jesus, Jesus was already dead so they did not break His legs. John 19:36 quotes Psalm 34:20 “Not a bone of
Him shall be broken”.
What did Jesus and His disciples actually eat
and drink at the Last Supper? Well, this
passage mentions bread and more modern translations use “cup of wine” instead
of “cup” and “wine” instead of “fruit of the vine”. Arguments exist on both sides that the wine
was or was not alcoholic. It can only be
conjectured what other foods where eaten that night although likely they were
foods eaten during Passover meals that included lamb, eggs, bitter herbs,
charoseth (mixture of almonds, apple, wine, sugar, and cinnamon), karpar
(mixture of celery, greens, and parsley) and salt water.
“When the hour came” has significant
meaning. In Jesus’ earlier ministry, the
Bible states that “My time is not yet at hand” (John 7:6), “My time has not yet
fully come” (John 2:4, 7:10) and “His hour had not yet come” (John 7:30 and
8:20). Both in Jesus’ life and in your
life, there is a time and purpose for everything if you simply put your faith
in God to work things out. God’s timing
is always perfect. He appointed the time
for Jesus to die for our sins and He appoints a time for everything (Eccles
3:1-8). We humans always want to run
ahead of God and allow the “tyranny of the urgent” to dictate our lives. Yet, by allowing the Lord to control your life,
everything that is supposed to happen in your life will happen according to
God’s timing, not yours. How much stress
in life would be eliminated if people had this attitude as a result of strong
trust in the Lord?
Pray about God’s timing in your life. Ask Him for more patience to wait on Him to
work out His plan for your life. Ask Him
to help you be more aware and discerning of His promptings to wait or to
act.
“Never run before God gives you His
direction. If you have the slightest
doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever
there is doubt----wait.” Oswald
Chambers, Jan 4 devotional in his book My Utmost for His Highest.
“Sometimes God doesn't tell us His plan because
we wouldn't believe it anyway”. -- Carlton Pearson
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