Luk 22:13-20 | KingComments | STEP | Then the first day of the Unleavened Bread begins, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Time goes on and the events that have been anticipated and foretold in previous centuries are about to be fulfilled. The shadows fade away and that to which they refer, comes into the light. That the Gospel according to Luke is the introduction to Paul’s letters finds here a new proof. Paul connects the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover spiritually. He speaks of “Christ our Passover” and of “celebrate the feast … with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” ( ). Further on in the first letter to the Corinthians he speaks about the Lord’s Supper as represented here by Luke ( ; ). If we understand the Passover, we will also understand the Lord’s Supper. The Passover is about the judgment of the firstborn, the pride and strength of Egypt, but also the pride and strength of the Israelites. The firstborns could only be spared if they were hiding behind the blood of the lamb. But that is not the only thing. Sparing, not dying, is only negative. The sequel to Exodus 12 shows that God spares to take for Himself. The firstborns must be sanctified for Him. That is positive. The Passover is a feast of sanctification, a feast of dedication. The church is the “church of the firstborn” ( ). We are all of and for Him. That is why the Passover is followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Lord Jesus is not handed over to Judas or the religious leaders or the Roman government at the time they decided. He determines the time, the way, the place for the Passover and thus the time of His being handed over into the hands of men. While He knows perfectly well the evil plans that His enemies make together with the traitor, He acts in perfect dependence on His Father. His Father’s plan states that He will eat the Passover together with His disciples. So that has to happen. To prepare the Passover, the Lord sends two of His disciples, mentioned by name, Peter and John, to prepare it for them. It is striking that only they write about the Lamb in their writings ( ; ; ). Peter and John ask where He wants them to prepare it. This is also the important question for every believer today when it comes to where he will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The Lord does not give an address, but does give indications. He wants them to look out for a man they will meet and who carries a pitcher of water. There are not many men with pitchers of water walking around. Water carriers are mostly women. So it will be a remarkable appearance. They must follow him and enter the house he enters. For us, this is an important indication when it is about the question where believers will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Discovering the place where the Lord wants to come together with His own is accompanied by spiritual exercises. This was also the case when God spoke to the Israelites about the place He had chosen for His Name to dwell there ( ; cf. ; ). The man with the pitcher of water on his head represents someone who in his life – of which the pitcher is a picture – applies the Word of God – of which the water is a picture – in its cleansing power (cf. ) and does the same with regard to the place where the Lord is. The Lord uses believers who are faithful to His Word to tell other believers who also want to listen to Him and be with Him about that place of coming together. The man brings the water to the house. With that water, the Lord may have washed the disciples’ feet ( ). We must be aware that we have to submit to the cleansing power of the Word when we come together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The place where Christ gathers His own is a clean place. When they entered, they had to ask the lord of the house on His behalf, the Master, for the guest room to eat the Passover. The word ”guest room” is the same word as in Luke 2 where it is translated ”inn” ( ). It only occurs once more in the New Testament, in Mark 14, where the Lord speaks of “ My guest room” ( ). In the first guest room there was no place for the Lord ( ). This is as it were the inn of the world where there is only room for people of the world, for people ‘from below’. The Lord also does not seek a dwelling place in the world. Opposite this inn He has His own ‘guest room’ where He is the Host and invites His own to be a guest with Him. There is room there for all true disciples, however weak and often unspiritual they may be. The Lord foretells His disciples that the lord of the house will be of immediate service to them. He worked in the heart of that lord the willingness to do so, as He did in the hearts of the owners of the colt He needed ( ). He will show them a “large, furnished upper room“. The accommodation where Christ invites His own is an “upper room”, an exalted room, a room above the level of the world, a room that is connected to heaven and not to the earth. There is a heavenly atmosphere. It is also a “large” room, there is room for many. And it is a “furnished” room, a place prepared by Him, no one needs to do anything about it as if something was missing. Peter and John go on their way and it all goes as the Lord has told them. In accordance with His command, they prepare the Passover at the designated place. They didn’t look forward to a place along the way that seemed suitable to them, but they simply followed His command.

‏ Luke 22:13-20

Preparations to Eat the Passover

Then the first day of the Unleavened Bread begins, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Time goes on and the events that have been anticipated and foretold in previous centuries are about to be fulfilled. The shadows fade away and that to which they refer, comes into the light.

That the Gospel according to Luke is the introduction to Paul’s letters finds here a new proof. Paul connects the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover spiritually. He speaks of “Christ our Passover” and of “celebrate the feast … with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1Cor 5:7-8). Further on in the first letter to the Corinthians he speaks about the Lord’s Supper as represented here by Luke (Lk 22:19-20; 1Cor 11:23-26).

If we understand the Passover, we will also understand the Lord’s Supper. The Passover is about the judgment of the firstborn, the pride and strength of Egypt, but also the pride and strength of the Israelites. The firstborns could only be spared if they were hiding behind the blood of the lamb. But that is not the only thing. Sparing, not dying, is only negative. The sequel to Exodus 12 shows that God spares to take for Himself. The firstborns must be sanctified for Him. That is positive. The Passover is a feast of sanctification, a feast of dedication. The church is the “church of the firstborn” (Heb 12:23). We are all of and for Him. That is why the Passover is followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Lord Jesus is not handed over to Judas or the religious leaders or the Roman government at the time they decided. He determines the time, the way, the place for the Passover and thus the time of His being handed over into the hands of men. While He knows perfectly well the evil plans that His enemies make together with the traitor, He acts in perfect dependence on His Father. His Father’s plan states that He will eat the Passover together with His disciples. So that has to happen.

To prepare the Passover, the Lord sends two of His disciples, mentioned by name, Peter and John, to prepare it for them. It is striking that only they write about the Lamb in their writings (1Pet 1:19; Jn 1:29 ; 36; Rev 5:6). Peter and John ask where He wants them to prepare it. This is also the important question for every believer today when it comes to where he will celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord does not give an address, but does give indications. He wants them to look out for a man they will meet and who carries a pitcher of water. There are not many men with pitchers of water walking around. Water carriers are mostly women. So it will be a remarkable appearance. They must follow him and enter the house he enters.

For us, this is an important indication when it is about the question where believers will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Discovering the place where the Lord wants to come together with His own is accompanied by spiritual exercises. This was also the case when God spoke to the Israelites about the place He had chosen for His Name to dwell there (Deu 12:5; cf. Song 1:7-8; Jn 1:38-40).

The man with the pitcher of water on his head represents someone who in his life – of which the pitcher is a picture – applies the Word of God – of which the water is a picture – in its cleansing power (cf. Eph 5:26) and does the same with regard to the place where the Lord is. The Lord uses believers who are faithful to His Word to tell other believers who also want to listen to Him and be with Him about that place of coming together.

The man brings the water to the house. With that water, the Lord may have washed the disciples’ feet (Jn 13:1-20). We must be aware that we have to submit to the cleansing power of the Word when we come together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The place where Christ gathers His own is a clean place.

When they entered, they had to ask the lord of the house on His behalf, the Master, for the guest room to eat the Passover. The word ”guest room” is the same word as in Luke 2 where it is translated ”inn” (Lk 2:7). It only occurs once more in the New Testament, in Mark 14, where the Lord speaks of “My guest room” (Mk 14:14).

In the first guest room there was no place for the Lord (Lk 2:7). This is as it were the inn of the world where there is only room for people of the world, for people ‘from below’. The Lord also does not seek a dwelling place in the world. Opposite this inn He has His own ‘guest room’ where He is the Host and invites His own to be a guest with Him. There is room there for all true disciples, however weak and often unspiritual they may be.

The Lord foretells His disciples that the lord of the house will be of immediate service to them. He worked in the heart of that lord the willingness to do so, as He did in the hearts of the owners of the colt He needed (Lk 19:31-35). He will show them a “large, furnished upper room“.

The accommodation where Christ invites His own is an “upper room”, an exalted room, a room above the level of the world, a room that is connected to heaven and not to the earth. There is a heavenly atmosphere. It is also a “large” room, there is room for many. And it is a “furnished” room, a place prepared by Him, no one needs to do anything about it as if something was missing.

Peter and John go on their way and it all goes as the Lord has told them. In accordance with His command, they prepare the Passover at the designated place. They didn’t look forward to a place along the way that seemed suitable to them, but they simply followed His command.

The Celebration of the Passover

The Lord reclined at the predetermined time. The apostles may recline with Him. He takes the initiative. He knows that everything now goes to the fulfillment of what is written about Him. In the law everything points to Him. He is the true Lamb. The prophets also pointed to Him as the suffering Servant of the LORD.

In His infinite and therefore incomprehensible and at the same time overwhelming love for us, He is addressing Himself at this moment to His apostles with an expression of His heart from which His deep desire for fellowship with them speaks. He expresses His earnest desire to eat “this Passover” with them.

It will be the last Passover, for during this Passover He shall be delivered, and He will suffer and die. During this Passover, the Passover will be fulfilled in His Person. That stands before Him. Before He will endure the suffering, He would like to share with His apostles something about the true meaning of the Passover for Him and for them. It is not about fulfilling a ritual, but about fulfilling God’s counsel with a view to the kingdom in the hearts of His own.

The Lord informs His apostles that He no longer attaches any significance to the Passover as a meal of remembrance. The celebration and remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt on the basis of the lamb has lost its meaning through His rejection. When He establishes the kingdom of God, He will be the glorious center of that established kingdom. He will establish it after He has delivered His people from their enemies by judging them, as He did in Egypt. In the kingdom of peace which will follow then, His people will honor Him with their sacrifices, and He will have fellowship with them therein, of which eating is the symbol. Now suffering awaits Him.

In another sense, the Passover is fulfilled in the kingdom of God as it now exists in the hearts of those who believe in Him (Rom 14:17). Through His surrender to the cross He can eat with us, which means to have fellowship with us (cf. Rev 3:20).

The cup is also part of the Passover. He also gives it to them to share among themselves. The cup speaks of joy. It presents that joy to them. They may rejoice about the deliverance once from Egypt. We may rejoice in our deliverance from bondage of sin.

He Himself will no longer have any part in it on earth. Only when the kingdom of God is established He will rejoice with them about the foundation of that kingdom that He has yet to lay.

In another sense, the kingdom of God has already come, namely there where Christ is recognized in faith. All those born of God have entered into the kingdom of God (Jn 3:5) and with them the Lord rejoices about the consequences of His work. Every time we come together, we may experience it. Then we may express the joy in our hearts and share this joy with Him.

Institution of the Lord’s Supper

Then the Lord takes bread to give it a new meaning, namely that of His body. Before He gives it to His disciples, He thanks God for it. He thanks God for the surrender of His own body, which will soon be hung on the cross. He knows the true meaning of the bread. Yet He thanks God for it. It is a proof of His unconditional surrender to the will of God.

Then He breaks the bread and gives it as broken to His apostles. With this he institutes a new meal of remembrance. It is no longer the Passover as a reminder of the deliverance from Egypt, but the Supper as the lasting testimony of His love. The Lord points out that this bread represents His body which is “given” for them.

The Lord’s Supper is presented by Luke in connection with everything that has been given to us, as members of the church, on the basis of the work of the Lord Jesus. We can think about that when we meet on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. This is not about the “many”, as in the Gospel according to Matthew, but about “you”, who are the disciples as the ones who will form the church. It is about seeing what God has given us in this Man, for it is His body. It is not only a given body, but a body surrendered to death.

The Lord says to His disciples to think of Him when they celebrate the Supper. Doing it in “remembrance” of Him is not found in the Gospel according to Matthew and the Gospel according to Mark, but only here and in 1 Corinthians 11 (1Cor 11:24-25). We think of Him as the dead Christ, while we know Him as the living Christ.

He gives us as members of the church many reasons to think of Him. We may think of Him as the eternal Son Who wanted to become Man for us and we may think about His perfect life and His complete surrender at the cross. We can also see Him in heaven, crowned with glory and honor (Heb 2:9) and we may look forward to His coming. These are all reasons to admire and worship Him.

The cup also receives a new meaning. The Lord Jesus connects to the cup “the new covenant” based on His blood. With this He indicates that the old covenant has fallen short. The old covenant did not bring the promised blessings because the people did not meet the conditions attached to it.

The new covenant does not depend on the faithfulness of man, but on the faithfulness of God and Christ. Christ takes upon Himself all the obligations of the new covenant. He has fulfilled them all and He has shed the blood for it. The blood is “My blood”. It is poured out for His own, so that they are free from the punishment that the old covenant brought with it, to enjoy the blessings that the new covenant brings with it.