Passage	Luke 22:7-23
Parallel Passages	Matt 26:17-30 Mark 14:12-26 John 13:1-35
Background
Synopsis of the passage	Jesus sends his main men to prepare for the Passover meal, the Last Supper. The have the meal, which Jesus positions as the model for the Lord support. Then Jesus reveals there is traitor among them, and the disciples ask each other who it could be.
Application
Title

 

       I.            Introduction

• We are three Sundays away from a big Christian holiday. Does everyone know what it is?
  • Yes, Easter, which is April 16.
  • In Easter we celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead. This is the most important event for Christians, even more than Christmas
  • That is because by rising from the dead, Jesus shows he has conquered death on our behalf, and proves that God agrees with Jesus’ ministry and message.
• Today’s bible passage is set the night before the Easter events. The scene is the Last Supper. It is the night Jesus will be arrested, condemned, and on the next day he will be crucified.
• This is the scene that Leonardo da Vinci captured in his famous painting. You can see there are a lot of things happening at this meal. There is food and wine on the table of course. Jesus is sitting in the middle looking pensive, but there seems to be some surprised people and heated discussion around him.
• In any case, the Last Supper in the Bible is a very significant event. Each of the four Gospel writers records it. What Jesus reveals at this meal is incredibly important; the apostle John gives 4 chapters to Jesus’ teaching at this meal.
• But all four gospels give the same key message.
• And that key message is what we will look at today through Luke’s account of the Last Supper.

   II.            The Passover meal

• V7,8: The meal was actually a ritual meal called the Pssover meal, part of a Jewish festival called the Festival of Unleavened Bread.
• (Show Slide of da Vinci and contemporary). This is probably what it might have looked like.
• The Passover is the remembrance of God liberating the Jews from slavery in Egypt. This is the start of forming Israel as a nation under God, and is the most significant event in their history – probably even more important than the giving of the Law under Moses.
• If you remember, Abraham’s grandson Jacob moved to Egypt when there was a big famine. Because of the famine Jacob’s son Joseph became a powerful official in Egypt and his family was welcomed there. But after 400 years his descendants, the Hebrew people had been turned into slaves.
• Moses was appointed by God to lead the Hebrews out from slavery in Egypt to become God’s people, his Son. But the Pharaoh would not listen, and would not let them go.
• So God punished the Egyptians with a series of 10 plagues, but after each one the Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go. Until the last one, the most terrible plague. In this last plague, the eldest male of every family would die.
• The Passover commemorates the night of the last plague, when God sent a destroying angel to take away the Egyptians’ eldest sons, but ‘passed over’ the houses of the Hebrews and spared them.
• Read Exodus 12:1-4, 21-30
• God told the Hebrews to kill a lamb and using a branch of hyssop, paint its blood on the frame of the doorway to their house. When the destroying angel saw the blood, it would ‘pass over’ their house, which is why this is called “Passover’.
• (Slide of smearing lintels and doorway)
• But in those houses that were not marked with the blood, the angel would kill the first born. Every first born person, rich and poor, good or bad. Even the animals, their first born would die.
• The lamb was killed, roasted and everyone in the house would east some of it.
• Every year, the Jews would remember this event, with a ritual meal rich with symbolism of bread baked without yeast, bitter herbs, special wine and the flesh of a special lamb.
• (Slide of Passover meal and elements). This shows the painting of the lamb’s blood around the doors, and inside the people is the first Passover meal – which we can also read about in Exodus 12. Notice they are eating standing up, because they are in such a hurry to leave.

III.             The Lamb who was slain

• Now picture the disciples at the Passover meal.
  • They are remembering the past.
  • They are remembering how they suffered in Egypt.
  • They are remembering killing the lamb, and the wails of the Egyptians through the night as God’s anger destroyed their eldest sons, their strength.
  • They remember eating standing up, eating the lamb that died for them, and the bread that was hard because there was no time for it to rise.
  • They remember the flight from Egypt through the Red Sea.
• But,
  • Where is the freedom of the past? They are not free now. The Romans have conquered them.
  • Being released from Egypt was only a temporary help. They soon fell into sin. No matter if they were given a moral code, a way to gain forgiveness, and the prophets to guide them, their hearts soon turned away from God and they fell into immorality.
  • So, where is God now? Has he now come to rescue them at last?
• Read V17-20
• I said earlier that Jesus taught something new at this meal. It is at this meal, that Jesus reveals how God has answered our need and provided for us.
• This is the New Covenant ‘in his blood’. This is why we call the second half of the bible the New Testament.
• This is the New Covenant, not like the religious covenant given through Moses:
  • We are forgiven and made acceptable to God by Jesus’s blood.
    • It is not by the sacrifices we make, of lambs or money or any other thing.
    • It is not by our religious and moral performance.
  • We live from the life that Jesus provides us, his body broken for us.
    • We are given Jesus’ life to take within us.
    • We don’t have to live in our own strength.
  • Making this new covenant is the main reason Jesus came.

 

• So now Christians celebrate a meal in obedience to Jesus’ command here, to remember what he has done.
• We call it the Lord’s Supper. But we are the ones who eat and drink, and it is Jesus we are taking in.
• But why did Jesus choose to die at this time, during the Passover feast?
  • First of all, we know that Jesus knew he would be crucified, and when. He predicted it to his disciples many times. He was well aware of when and how. Jesus decided when to arrive in Jerusalem. He managed the timing of the conflict with the religious leaders
  • This Passover meal was planned. Jesus had prepared for this meal. He had already moved someone to give them a place to meet. (v10-12).
  • There is no accidental timing here.
• Okay, so it was deliberate, but why during this time of Passover? Is there some connection between the Passover and the new covenant?
  • Yes, there is a deep connection between the crucifixion and the Passover.
  • The Passover lamb was a substitute for the life of the firstborn sons, a symbol of their strength and of the life of their whole families. Without the blood of the lamb, God’s anger would fall upon them and they would die.
  • Jesus is the Lamb of God, who is the substitute for our disobedient rebellion.
  • The Passover celebrates when God took action to release the Hebrew slaves from captivity, and set them free to become the people of God.
  • Jesus is the Lamb of God who sets us free from slavery to sin and the fear of death, so that we might be his children and his church.
  • The Passover demonstrates God’s supremacy over the gods of Egypt.
  • The devil is judged by the cross and his power destroyed
    John 12: ³¹ Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
• (Slide of Jesus as Lamb of God).

 IV.            I have eagerly awaited this meal

• This is not exactly what the people of Israel were expecting from the Messiah. They were expecting a king to give them national freedom, like Moses had done. They were not expecting one who would remove their sins.

 

• But now we can see why the timing of the Passover. It makes perfect theological sense.
• But now notice, what Jesus felt about it:
  He was eagerly awaiting this occasion, this day when he would tell them. The words here tell us Jesus desire for this time was very, very strong. in other passages, the same word is translated as “lust”.
• Since the first Passover, almost 1,500 years had passed. Every year, at God’s command, the Jews celebrated the Passover event (whenever they could).
• Each year, Jesus’ sacrifice for us was rehearsed. Every year the judgment of God was rehearsed. The judgment that passes over us because of Jesus. God was waiting for the right time to show his hidden plan.
• Jesus, sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven was watching his people. He saw the sacrifices of the Passover lamb, played out for year-after-year.
  And he was eagerly waiting for the day:
  • when he would become the Passover lamb, and die for our sins
  • when he would conquer death for us
  • When he would announce the judgment on Satan and seal his doom.
  • when he would make the effective sacrifice that would liberate those in slavery to death, the devil and sin.
  • when he would make a people for himself, a people reborn to live with him in heaven
  • when he would rescue us, permanently and finally.
• But this is not the only thing that Jesus is waiting for:

18 I tell you that from now on I will not drink this wine until the Kingdom of God comes.”

• Jesus vows he will not take another Passover meal until he is reunited with us at his second coming.
• Jesus will come again. When he comes again, it will be to ring us home to the Father, to give us our eternal bodies, and to set the world to right.
• When he comes, we will feast with him.

    V.            Closing

• Jesus says to us ‘I have eagerly waited to die for you’. And ‘I am eagerly waiting to come back to bring you home’.
• If you have not accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for yourself, please do. Repent and follow the one who saves.
• If you despair because of problems in your life, remember Jesus eagerly gave himself for you. He has not forgotten you. He is eager to give you what he has promised.
• God’s timing is not ours. Jesus watched the Passover from Moses time, 1500 long years, eagerly waiting for the day, before he came. And then he showed himself more gracious that we could ever expect or imagine.
• And he will come again, to celebrate the fulfillment of our salvation, a new body and a heart that no longer strays.
• Our salvation and the promise of heaven are the most precious gifts that Jesus promises us. Let us cling to them, and know that God cares for us, and is eager to rescue us.
• Let’s close with Jesus’ final words to the disciples at the Last Supper:
  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

¹⁷ On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Where do you want us to get the Passover meal ready for you?”

¹⁸ “Go to a certain man in the city,” he said to them, “and tell him: ‘The Teacher says, My hour has come; my disciples and I will celebrate the Passover at your house.’”

¹⁹ The disciples did as Jesus had told them and prepared the Passover meal.

²⁰ When it was evening, Jesus and the twelve disciples sat down to eat. ²¹ During the meal Jesus said, “I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

²² The disciples were very upset and began to ask him, one after the other, “Surely, Lord, you don’t mean me?”

²³ Jesus answered, “One who dips his bread in the dish with me will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will, but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!”

²⁵ Judas, the traitor, spoke up. “Surely, Teacher, you don’t mean me?” he asked.

Jesus answered, “So you say.”

The Lord’s Supper

²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. “Take and eat it,” he said; “this is my body.”

²⁷ Then he took a cup, gave thanks to God, and gave it to them. “Drink it, all of you,” he said; ²⁸ “this is my blood, which seals God’s covenant, my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you, I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

³⁰ Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

¹² On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the day the lambs for the Passover meal were killed, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and get the Passover meal ready for you?”

¹³ Then Jesus sent two of them with these instructions: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him ¹⁴ to the house he enters, and say to the owner of the house: ‘The Teacher says, Where is the room where my disciples and I will eat the Passover meal?’ ¹⁵ Then he will show you a large upstairs room, fixed up and furnished, where you will get everything ready for us.”

¹⁶ The disciples left, went to the city, and found everything just as Jesus had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

¹⁷ When it was evening, Jesus came with the twelve disciples. ¹⁸ While they were at the table eating, Jesus said, “I tell you that one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

¹⁹ The disciples were upset and began to ask him, one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, do you?”

²⁰ Jesus answered, “It will be one of you twelve, one who dips his bread in the dish with me. ²¹ The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will; but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!”

The Lord’s Supper

²² While they were eating, Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. “Take it,” he said, “this is my body.”

²³ Then he took a cup, gave thanks to God, and handed it to them; and they all drank from it. ²⁴ Jesus said, “This is my blood which is poured out for many, my blood which seals God’s covenant. ²⁵ I tell you, I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine in the Kingdom of God.”

²⁶ Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

13 It was now the day before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He had always loved those in the world who were his own, and he loved them to the very end.

² Jesus and his disciples were at supper. The Devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus.^[a] 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him complete power; he knew that he had come from God and was going to God. ⁴ So he rose from the table, took off his outer garment, and tied a towel around his waist. ⁵ Then he poured some water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Are you going to wash my feet, Lord?”

⁷ Jesus answered him, “You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later.”

⁸ Peter declared, “Never at any time will you wash my feet!”

“If I do not wash your feet,” Jesus answered, “you will no longer be my disciple.”

⁹ Simon Peter answered, “Lord, do not wash only my feet, then! Wash my hands and head, too!”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Those who have taken a bath are completely clean and do not have to wash themselves, except for their feet.^[b] All of you are clean—all except one.” (¹¹ Jesus already knew who was going to betray him; that is why he said, “All of you, except one, are clean.”)

¹² After Jesus had washed their feet, he put his outer garment back on and returned to his place at the table. “Do you understand what I have just done to you?” he asked. ¹³ “You call me Teacher and Lord, and it is right that you do so, because that is what I am. ¹⁴ I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you. ¹⁶ I am telling you the truth: no slaves are greater than their master, and no messengers are greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷ Now that you know this truth, how happy you will be if you put it into practice!

¹⁸ “I am not talking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the scripture must come true that says, ‘The man who shared my food turned against me.’ ¹⁹ I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that ‘I Am Who I Am.’ ²⁰ I am telling you the truth: whoever receives anyone I send receives me also; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”

Jesus Predicts His Betrayal

²¹ After Jesus had said this, he was deeply troubled and declared openly, “I am telling you the truth: one of you is going to betray me.”

²² The disciples looked at one another, completely puzzled about whom he meant. ²³ One of the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was sitting next to Jesus. ²⁴ Simon Peter motioned to him and said, “Ask him whom he is talking about.”

²⁵ So that disciple moved closer to Jesus’ side and asked, “Who is it, Lord?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “I will dip some bread in the sauce and give it to him; he is the man.” So he took a piece of bread, dipped it, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. ²⁷ As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Hurry and do what you must!” ²⁸ None of the others at the table understood why Jesus said this to him. ²⁹ Since Judas was in charge of the money bag, some of the disciples thought that Jesus had told him to go and buy what they needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor.

³⁰ Judas accepted the bread and went out at once. It was night.

The New Commandment

³¹ After Judas had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man’s glory is revealed; now God’s glory is revealed through him. ³² And if God’s glory is revealed through him, then God will reveal the glory of the Son of Man in himself, and he will do so at once. ³³ My children, I shall not be with you very much longer. You will look for me; but I tell you now what I told the Jewish authorities, ‘You cannot go where I am going.’ ³⁴ And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

Exodus 12:1-30
The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb^[a] for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ⁹ Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass overyou. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut offfrom Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

¹⁷ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ¹⁸ In the first monthyou are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³ When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyerto enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁴ “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶ And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸ The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹ At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestockas well. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

A plant with a stem 3-4 feet long, growing in Egypt, Sinai desert, Palestine. Probably is the plant now known as Origanum syriacum, also called Wild Middle Eastern oregano. It has antiseptic properties.

The first mention of hyssop is in the Passover story. It is also referred to in  Leviticus 14:4 Leviticus 14:6 Leviticus 14:52 ; Numbers 19:6 Numbers 19:18 ; Hebrews 9:19 .
Psalm 51:7

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

 

John 19:29 God is a master artist and communicator!

A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.

• The Passover lamb they were commanded to kill must be male and without blemish. This lamb is a substitute for every firstborn male.
• The hyssop – purification. Used for the Passover lamb’s blood, and to give Jesus vinegar on the cross.

John 12:31-32
30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine.

31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”