The Last Supper for New Beginning

A. The Passover lamb (7-13)

7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked. 10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.” 13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

1. What is the Passover?

2. God has prepared

B. The Last Passover

1. Jesus eagerly desired (14-15)

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.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

2. Prophesy of suffering and glory (16-18)

C. The First Communion (19-20)

19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

1. Jesus’s death was the beginning

2. The new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Summary

The Passover originates from the event of slaughtering a lamb in order for the Israelites to escape from (pass over) God’s judgment, at the time of the exodus from Egypt. Jesus became the sacrificial lamb for all of us beyond time and culture, and died on the Cross. Jesus is the one who saved us from sin and let us live in the new covenant with God. At Communion, we remember that our life is thus renewed by Jesus’ death. “The Last Supper” was the first Communion, which marked the beginning of the new era.

For Discussion

1) What is the purpose of Communion?

2) What is the new covenant?