Passion Week Journey - Thursday's Last Meal

Its Thursday, and to the Jews in Jesus’ day, a major yearly event was about to happen: the Passover celebration. The Passover observance was established by God, not after but before He rescued His people from their slavery in Egypt. In Exodus 11, God warned about a horrible final plague that He was about to do, “About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die – from Pharaoh who sits on the throne, to even the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and even to all the firstborn of the cattle” (Ex. 11:4-5). Not one firstborn would escape the coming wrath of God – no man or animal – no Egyptian or Hebrew. All would suffer, and there was nothing anyone can do.

But God, in is infinite grace and kindness, presented a solution: sacrifice the lamb in the place of their firstborn. The lamb was to be carefully selected on the 10th day of the month. It not only had to be free of any blemish, but it also had to be an innocent, one year old male. Then on the 14th day, that lamb was sacrificed at twilight. Its blood was to be placed on the doorposts and lintel of every household, and no one was to leave until the morning. If they stayed in the house, then they were protected from destruction – because of the blood. The Passover observance was not just a remembrance of what God did in the past, but first and foremost, it was a celebration to the God Who keeps His covenant promise.

On Thursday, 1400 years later, on the very day the lamb was to be sacrificed (and then prepared, roasted and eaten the next evening), Jesus was at the Passover meal with His disciples. As they were eating (not the lamb, but the unleavened bread), Jesus took the bread, gave a prayer of blessing, broke it and gave it to His disciples, and said, “Take. Eat. THIS is MY body.” Then He took the cup, and after He offered another prayer of blessing, shared it with them, saying, “Drink. All of you. THIS is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Why did Jesus do this? Because of the sin of Adam, every last one of us are under a judgment of death. No one is exempt. Paul said in Romans 3:10, “There is none who are righteous. No, not even one.” And then later in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” Every living human since the fall of our first parents deserved to suffer the eternal wrath of God, and there is not anything we can do to save ourselves. But God is indeed gracious and kind, and He Himself provided us a salvation that only He Himself could prepare or present or orchestrate. He sent His only Son to be our innocent lamb who was to die in our place.

Just mere hours before Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and rejected – before He was falsely accused and condemned to die – before He was  whipped and beaten – and before He suffered and died on the cross, the Lord’s Supper was offered as a sign of deliverance that only the Son of God could offer. Only the eternal Son of God could pay the full penalty of the eternal wrath of God. And all we are called to do is ... believe.

The Lord’s Supper is called a Table of Grace. When we participate in this most sacred meal, in faith, we are proclaiming the Good News of God’s grace until Jesus comes again to bring us to our eternal home. This present pandemic may threaten our very life, but it cannot touch or tarnish the eternal glory that we will experience alongside our Savior Jesus Christ. Thursday was the promise of grace and His resurrection on that first Easter Sunday is the proof that God keeps His covenant of His love for us in Christ. This is the promise of God – and He will do it!