1 The Last Supper Luke 22:7-20 Argyle 2/28/16 52 Key Bible Stories Introduction to Scripture Most of us know a fair amount about the Last Supper. Give us a quiz on it and we would do pretty well. 1. What was the Jewish festival that Jesus was in Jerusalem for? 2. Who was invited to the Supper? 3. How did the Last Supper get its name? 4. What was the menu at the Supper? 5. What did Jesus say the bread represented? What did the wine represent? 6. When did Jesus say they would eat this meal again? Even through most of us are pretty familiar with the Last Supper, I want to invite you this morning to join me in reexamining this event. Keep in mind that next week being the first Sunday of the month, we will be following Jesus instructions and reenacting the Last Supper as we take communion together. But, our observance of the Lord s Supper is more than a reenactment. We are not like a group of Civil War enthusiasts who get dressed up to reenact a historical battle. No, something real and present is going on when we celebrate the Lord s Supper. You could say that we are firing real bullets when we share the break and the juice. And most important, Jesus is present with us as we celebrate the Lord s Supper, just like he was 2000 years ago with his first disciples.
2 We want to give careful attention to this morning s Scripture passage, so that we will be prepared to meet the Living Lord Jesus at his table next week. (Read) (Pray) Jesus Perspective at the Last Supper Notice first of all Jesus perspective at the Last Supper. We read in verse 14, When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." The first thing you notice is that Jesus was very aware of what was going to happen to him. He knew he was going to suffer and die. Not long before this he had told them, We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. Everything Jesus did that night, everything that Jesus had done in his entire life had been done in the shadow of the cross. This was all part of God the Father s plan for him and at the Last Supper Jesus was only a few hours from the culmination of that plan. Yet, he was looking toward the future. He said that the Last Supper would not be the last time he would eat with his disciples. It would just be the last time until they ate together when his kingdom was fulfilled. In Revelation 19 we read
3 about the great wedding supper of the Lamb that will take place when Christ returns. All of us who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior have an invitation to that greatest of all wedding receptions. At the Last Supper Jesus was aware of his impending death, but he was also aware that this would not be the end. One day he would eat again with his followers when the kingdom was fulfilled. There is one other thing about Jesus perspective that I caught my attentino this week and that is his eagerness to celebrate this meal with the disciples. The Message Bible translation translates verse 15 this way - You ve no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you before I enter my time of suffering. Given the immediate circumstances, it is surprising that Jesus would have been so eager to eat this Passover meal with his disciples. What was going on here? Encounter With God suggests it is because the time had finally come for Jesus to accomplish the mission his Father had given him. Jesus purpose was to die for the sins of the world so that people could be reconciled to God. The time had come. Jesus may, also, have been eager because at the Last Supper he had the opportunity to give his disciples some last minute instructions. In his gospel, John includes four chapters of teaching that Jesus did that night. Much of it was about how they were to carry on Jesus work after he was gone and that he would send
4 the Holy Spirit to help them do that. This Passover meal also gave Jesus the opportunity to give his disciples some tools for understanding the meaning of coming death as he used the bread and cup as metaphors of his body and blood. We ll talk more about that in a minute. I wonder, however, if one of the reasons Jesus was eager to celebrate this Passover with his disciples was because he just loved being with them. In our new members class we ve just read a little booklet called My Heart Christ s Home. It is a great little explanation of how to have a personal relationship with Jesus. If you ve not read it, I ve put a few extra copies out in the Vestibule and Lobby this morning for you to pick up. One of the things that the author talks about is what many of us call a Quite Time. A Quiet Time is a regular time that we spend with God reading his word and talking to him in prayer. Usually when we talk about Quiet Time we talk about how having a regular Quiet Time is absolutely crucial to us growing as Christians. We won t grow in our relationship with Jesus unless we spend time with him. But one of the things that Bob Munger suggests in My Heart Christ s Home is that Jesus, himself, looks forward to these times that we spend together. I think it is hard for most of us to imagine that Jesus wants to hang out with us, but why wouldn t he? He created us and loves us. He was willing to give up his privileges as the second person of the Trinity to take on human flesh to live in our world for us. And, he willingly died on a cross for us to rescue us from the
5 penalty of our sins. Of course, he was eager to spend these last few hours with these men who he loved so much. Jesus perspective at the Last Supper is very revealing. He knew he was about to be killed, yet he looked ahead to the future. He knew this would not be the end for him. And for a whole lot of reasons, he eagerly desired to eat this meal with his disciples. Jesus Actions at the Last Supper Next, we want to look at Jesus actions at the Last Supper. I mentioned a minute ago that part of Jesus eagerness to eat the Passover with his disciples was the opportunity it gave him to provide some tools for his disciples to understand the meaning of his death. One of the things we often read in the gospel is that the disciples didn t understand something Jesus said or did until after his death. That would certainly have been true of his actions here at the Last Supper. As they sat down to eat that night, they had gathered to celebrate the Passover. This was the Jewish feast that remembered and celebrated God s deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt 1500 years earlier. On the night of their escape from Egypt, God sent the last of 10 plagues on the Egyptians that were intended to convince the Egyptians to release God s people from slavery. The tenth plague was the death of all the first born sons in Egypt. God told the Israelites that to protect themselves from this plague they needed to sacrifice a
6 lamb and sprinkle its blood on the doorposts of their houses. When the angel of death would see that blood, he would pass over that house and the firstborn son in that house would be saved. So, the red wine that the Jews would drink at the Passover would remind them of the lamb s blood that had protected their ancestors from death in Egypt. Jesus took that graphic image and applied them to his death. He broke bread and gave it them saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." And then he took the cup and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Jesus said the broken bread represented his body that would be broken for them and the wine poured into the cup represented his blood that would be poured out for them. It s kind of gross when you think about it. Why such graphic images? Why these physical representations? Jesus Purpose in the Last Supper That leads to my final point which is Jesus purpose in the Last Supper. Why did Jesus tell his disciples to celebrate the Lord s Supper over and over again? The key is in the phrase, do this in remembrance of me." Jesus wanted them and wants us to remember the significance of his death on the cross. I don t have to tell you the importance of memory. The last couple of years of my dad s life he increasingly suffered from dementia. Once when I visited him
7 in the nursing home he complained about being tired. When I asked him why he was so tired he said, My army unit is trying out a new jeep so they flew me to France last night to look at it. Another time he asked to borrow some money from me. When I asked him what he needed the money for he said, Last night I went downtown to the office, but I didn t have money to take the subway back home. So I borrowed change from one of the girls. Alot of times dad s memory lost was kind of funny, but sometimes it was painful. The most painful thing about it was he didn t remember that my mom had died. He was convinced that she had run off with another man and that tortured him. Some days he would just cry. Other days he would want to change his bank account, because she was withdrawing it for a trip with her boyfriend. So, my brothers and I would try to convince him that mom was dead, which was a weird emotional trip in itself. We would show him her obituary and the bulletin from the funeral service. One time my brother made him watch the video of mom s funeral. Each time, he would say, Oh, that s right. Miriam s gone. And then ten minutes later, Did I tell you that your mother has a boyfriend. And then we would just argue with him, defending the honor of our mom. One time with tears in my eyes I yelled at him, Dad, Mom is dead. Would you please get that through your head. He calmly responded, I wish you would be as nice to me as you are to your parishioners. Ouch!
8 It is crucial that we remember that Jesus died and why he died. The Apostle Peter wrote, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (I Peter 3:18) He died so that we could be forgiven for our sins and reconciled to God. He died so that we could be adopted into God s family. He died so that we would have a seat reserved for us in heaven. We can t afford to forget all of that. If we do, we will go back to trying to earn God s love and we ll be caught up in that endless cycle of Does he love me or does he love me not. If we forget the reality and meaning of Jesus death we won t know that we are loved by God and accepted by him and equipped by him to do his work and co-heirs with his Son. So many of us live diminished lives because we forget the meaning of Jesus death. We live like shrunken raisins when we were saved to be plump grapes. The purpose of Jesus death is that we would remember the significance of his death and live the full and abundant lives his death made possible. Conclusion The last week of Jesus life began with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The next day he threw the moneychangers and merchants our of the Temple. Then Jesus spent a couple of days teaching in the Temple where he often sparred with the religious leaders. Now that last week is hastening to its appointed end. Jesus
9 ate a final meal with his disciples where he prepared them for his departure. After the Last Supper they headed to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.