There is something awesome in
that last Passover celebrated by the Lord Jesus. That night He was under no illusions. He knew exactly what it was that awaited
Him. He also knew by whom it would
come. Reclining at the table in oriental
fashion, he says quite plainly that one of the twelve will betray Him, and one
after the other asks: “Is it I?” “Is it I?” “Is it I?” Their hearts were breaking. They’d been with Him long enough to know that
whatever He said was truth. He didn’t
lie. He didn’t exaggerate. He didn’t deceive. He just spoke what was and let the chips fall
where they may. The truth He spoke at
the table that night was so painful that their hearts felt torn in two as He
looked about them with such love.
“The Son of Man goes as it is
written of Him.” What was written? To
what was He referring? Listen to what
the prophets had said: “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? Why are you so
far from helping me? So far from the
words of my groaning....They have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all
my bones.” “His visage was marred more
than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” “He was despised and rejected by men, a Man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed
Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”
“He was bruised for our iniquities.”
“The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has
put Him to grief.” “He bore the sins of
many.” “They will look on Me whom they
have pierced, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and grieve
for Him as one grieves for a first-born.”
Pain. Suffering.
Crushing defeat. Rejection. Hatred.
Torture and death. These stare
Jesus in the face that night. And He
looks at them unflinchingly. He knows
that they will come to Him through Judas’ betrayal and he speaks of Judas’
future in terms very bleak indeed.
“Better for that man not to have been born.”
But with all of that facing
Him, Jesus looks at the Passover meal spread out before Him and what fills His
heart? Not despair. Not anger.
With His suffering about to begin, Jesus’ heart is filled with joy and
yearning. Luke’s Gospel tells us that
Jesus said to them: “With fervent desire
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Throughout their years
together they had seen it happen a hundred times. Jesus, with food before Him, lifts His holy
eyes to heaven and blesses God His Father, giving Him thanks and praise, and
then they share the meal together. He
taught them at the meals. He laughed
with them at the meals. He loved them at
the meals. Mealtime with Jesus was
nothing less than heaven on earth. And
now He’s getting ready to leave them, to take away His visible presence from
them. This was to be the last meal that
He would ever share with them in the old way.
In a sense it was all over, and yet in a way more wonderful than any of
them could ever have imagined, it was still to go on and be better than it ever
was before.
With joy in His heart, He
took the break in His hands, hands soon to be pierced by nails, and lifted His
eyes one more time to the skies and blessed the heavenly Father and then broke
it and gave it to them and said the most awesome words: “Take,; this is My body.” With wonder in their eyes they took the bread
and ate it. Wondering, for Jesus, as we
just said, was not given to lying or exaggerating or saying anything but the
absolute truth. “This is My body.” In fear and trembling they received it, and
they wondered. And then He did the thing
that was unthinkable for a Jew. He took
in his hand the cup, He lifted it up and gave thanks over it - and you just
think what it means that that night and for that cup Jesus could give thanks -
and He gave it to them and said: “This
is My blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.”
Now, no good Jew would ever
drink blood, would ever even conceive of the idea. God’s law given through Moses repeatedly
stressed that never could God’s holy people drink blood or even eat meat with
the blood in it. God had said: “The life is in the blood.” And now Jesus reaches them the blood, the
covenant blood, the blood of His new covenant, and bids them drink up.
Did He smile to see the
perplexity on their faces as one after the other they drank? He had just given them and through them given
to His Church until the Last Day the manner and the means by which He would
still have table fellowship with His own.
In the Body and in the Blood, His Body given for many, His Blood of the
New and everlasting Covenant, He would still be with His disciples. Giving them forgiveness. Loving them.
Strengthening their faith.
“Truly, I say to you, I will
not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in
the kingdom of God.” Yes, He looked the
cross straight in the eye, but He saw that the cross wasn’t the end. On the other side of the cross and darkness,
there was the day of joy, the day when the Son of Man would lift the cup of
wine at the Feast that does not end, the day when His family would be all
gathered together, not just the 12 disciples but the 12 tribes of the New Israel,
all His brothers and sisters.
The writer to the Hebrews
understood what was going on in the heart and mind of Jesus that night when he
wrote: “For the joy set before Him, He
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and is sat down at the right hand of
God.” So it was that the meal that
night, which was to reach to the ends of time, bringing Jesus’ presence in His
body and blood to his people, ended with a song. Not a dirge, but a hymn of joy. One of the Hallel Psalms, sung at the
Passover. A going home psalm. The song of THE pilgrim on the way to THE
holy city, bringing His family home with Him. Amen.
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