Luk 22:14-20 | KingComments | STEP | 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 ( ). Through His surrender to the cross He can eat with us, which means to have fellowship with us (cf. ). 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 ( ) 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.

‏ Luke 22:14-20

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.