LUKE 22:7-20
7 Then came the first day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
8 And Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.”
9 They said to Him, Where do You want us to prepare it?”
10 And He said to them, When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters.
11 And you shall say to the owner of the house, `The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”‘
12 And he will show you a large, furnished upper room; prepare it there.”
13 And they left and found everything just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.
14 When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.
15 And He said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, Take this and share it among yourselves;
18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
Jesus knew what was about to unfold. He sensed death and darkness closing in upon Him, yet He did not seclude Himself in preparation. Rather, the Lord chose to spend the final fleeting hours with His friends around a table flowing with bread, wine, and spiritual significance. Jesus wanted to be close to those whom “He loved … to the end” (John 13:1).
The apostle Luke takes care to point out that Jesus and His disciples gathered in the upper room to celebrate the Passover. There, they shared a meal known as the Seder, whose liturgy and symbolic foods recall how God liberated Israel from bondage in Egypt, crushed Pharaoh’s armies, and cared for the former slaves in the wilderness until they arrived in the land He’d prepared as their home. Every Passover at the shared meal, Jewish families retold the grand story of God’s provision and rescue—a reminder that God was not finished with them, that He would restore and spiritually heal their people yet again.
Given this, Jesus’ meal with His disciples carried all these echoes of Israel’s history and stirred again their tenacious faith in the guarantee of God’s promises. In the days ahead, those men would face despondency and confusion. Stung by the horror of the cross, they would quake with fear and outrage. They’d grasp for hope, clinging to any possibility that the story Jesus had begun was not finished. But all this travail was still to come. For now, Jesus ate and drank with the disciples and tried to explain to His perplexed friends how He would soon pour out His very body and life for their healing.
Offering this cup and broken bread, Jesus knew that His death would enact what the prophet Isaiah foretold—that it would require His wounds if any of us were ever to be healed (Isa. 53:5). Though the disciples could not comprehend the meaning of His words at the time, our Savior presented a promise to die and then to rise from the dead for them, for all of us who would believe it.
JOHN 13:1
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.ISAIAH 53:5
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
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