Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

Now when evening had come, He was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. And as they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” And being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” And He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” And Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said it yourself.”

And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (26:17-30)

As noted throughout these volumes, Matthew presents Jesus as King, the sovereign Lord of the universe come to earth in human flesh. Even in the midst of Jesus’ betrayal, mock trials, and execution, He is revealed in humble but regal dignity. Far from diminishing His majesty and glory, those events portray the powerful and culminating expression of His sovereign grace and power. Through man’s ultimate act of sinful depravity, God accomplished His ultimate act of righteous redemption.

In the previous chapter, four initial elements of preparation for Jesus’ death were unfolded. Each of those involved the plan and work of others than Christ Himself. Now, on Jesus’ last day (Thursday) with the disciples until after His resurrection, Matthew presents four elements of Jesus’ own preparation for His sacrificial death: experiencing the final Passover (26:17-25), establishing the Lord’s Supper (vv. 26-30), helping the impotent disciples (vv. 31-35), and praying to the Father (36-39). The present chapter will discuss the first two of those elements.

EXPERIENCING THE FINAL PASSOVER

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

Now when evening had come, He was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. And as they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” And being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” And He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” And Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said it yourself.” (26:17-25)

Leading up to and including the beginning of the final Passover meal are four sub-elements of Jesus’ own preparation for His sacrificial death: setting the time (vv. 17-19), sharing the table (v. 20-21a), shocking the Twelve (vv. 2lb-24), and signifying the traitor (v. 25).

SETTING THE TIME

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. (26:17-19)

The Jewish calendar was filled with religious celebrations, many of them involving feasts. The feast of Pentecost, or of Weeks, commemorated God’s provision at harvest time (see Ex. 23:16). It was that feast which the Jews were celebrating in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came upon believers and Peter delivered his first sermon (Acts 2). The feast of Tabernacles, or Booths, commemorated Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years, when they lived in temporary dwellings and were dependent on God’s direct provision for food and water (see Lev 23:33-43). The Day of Atonement was the highest holy day of the year, culminating in the once-a-year sacrifice offered for sins in the Holy of Holies by the high priest. The blood of the sacrifice was then sprinkle don the altar, symbolizing God’s provision of atonement for the sins of His people (Lev 23:27-32). The feast of Purim celebrated the protection from slaughter of the Jewish exiles in Persia through the intervention of Queen Esther (Esther 9:16-19). The feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, commemorated the victory of Judas Maccabeus over the Syrian despot Antiochus Epiphanes and the restoration of Temple worship in 164 B.C. (see 1 Macc. 4:36-61).

But in many ways the feast of Passover, closely associated with the feast of Unleavened Bread, was the central feast of the Jewish year. These two feasts combined to make an eight-day celebration that began with the Passover. As reflected in Matthew 26:17, the two were so closely connected in the minds of Jews that the feast of Unleavened Bread was used as a comprehensive designation that included the Passover. The two names were, in fact, used interchangeably to designate the entire eight day celebration. Technically, however, the Passover was celebrated only on the first day, the fourteenth of Nisan, and the feast of the Unleavened Bread followed from the fifteenth through the twenty-first of Nisan.

Both feasts commemorated the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. The feast of Unleavened Bread was named after the type of bread the Israelites were to take with them as they left Egypt in haste. Ordinary bread of that day, as in our own, used leaven, or yeast, to make it rise and become soft. Before a batch of bread was baked, a piece was pulled off and saved as a starter for the next batch. When it was later placed in fresh dough it would cause it to ferment and rise, and in every household that process was continually repeated.

Throughout Scripture leaven is used to represent influence, usually evil influence. Therefore, as a symbol of leaving behind all evil influence of their cruel and pagan captors, the Israelites were not to take with the many remnants of leavened bread they had prepared in Egypt. As part of the memorial they were henceforth to celebrate each year, they were to remove all leaven from their houses and eat only unleavened bread for seven days (Ex. 12:14-15).

As already noted, the Passover celebration began the day before the feast of Unleavened Bread, although traditionally it was considered to be the first day of the combined festival. The Mosaic law required that sacrificial lambs for Passover be selected on the tenth day of the first month (originally called Abib and later Nisan) and that the lamb be kept in the household until it was sacrificed on the fourteenth (Ex. 12:2-6). In the year Jesus was crucified (whether taken as A.D. 30 or 33), the tenth of Nisan was the Monday of Passover week. Therefore, although the incident is not mentioned in the gospels, the disciples would have selected a lamb on the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, perhaps keeping it at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany, where they were staying.

As mentioned in the preceding chapter, over 250,000 sacrificial lambs were slain during a typical Passover in Jesus’ day. And because tradition required that no fewer than ten people or more than twenty were to eat of one lamb, the number of celebrants easily would have exceeded two million. Because the lambs had to be slaughtered within a two-hour period, an enormous amount of blood poured from the altar site in a very short period of time. Eventually it drained into the Kidron Valley, just east of the Temple, and for several days after Passover made that brook run bright crimson. The Brook Kidron thereby became still another symbol to Jews, reminding them of the necessity of the sacrificial shedding of blood for the atoning of sin.

Yet the blood of all those lambs together could not cleanse a single sin, just as it was “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to takeaway sins” (Heb. 10:4). Those thousands of lambs were but pictures of the one perfect sacrifice that the Son of God Himself was about to make on Calvary, as the sinless, unblemished Lamb of God, offering “one sacrifice for sins for all time” (Heb. 10:12).

It was probably early on that Thursday morning that the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” As mentioned above, they already would have selected a lamb several days earlier, but they had numerous other preparations to make. They would have to have the lamb slaughtered by a priest at the Temple, which, as explained below, could be done only between the hours of three and five in the afternoon. If they had not already done so, they would have to buy unleavened bread, wine, bitter herbs, and the dip for the Passover meal.

Each part of the meal was symbolic of some aspect of the deliverance from Egypt. Just as lambs had been slaughtered that long-ago night in Egypt and their blood sprinkled on the door posts to protect the firstborn from the death angel, so lambs were now slaughtered and their blood sprinkled on the altar. Likewise, the lamb was cooked and fully eaten the same evening, just as in Egypt. The four cups of wine served during the meal symbolized God’s four promises to His ancient people just before their deliverance from Egypt: “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God” (Ex. 6:6-7).

The bowl into which the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, and sometimes the bare hands were dipped (see Matt. 26:23) contained a paste called charoseth, composed of finely ground apples, dates, pomegranates, and nuts. That thick, brownish mixture was perhaps symbolic of the mud and clay used in the making of bricks for the Egyptians. Sticks of cinnamon, representing the straw used for the brick making, were also sometimes added to the charoseth. Into this mixture the bitter herbs would be dipped and eaten, as reminiscent of the bitterness of bondage coupled with the sweetness of deliverance.

The Passover lamb was to be slain at “twilight” (Ex. 12:6), which translates a Hebrew term literally meaning “between the two evenings.” Josephus explains that time as being between the ninth and eleventh hours of the Jewish day, which would be between three and five o’clock in the afternoon. After being slaughtered by the priest in the Temple court and having had some of its blood sprinkled on the altar, the lamb would then be taken home, roasted whole, and eaten in the special evening meal with the unleavened bread, bitter herbs, charoseth, and wine. Any of it that was not eaten before morning was to be burned (Ex. 12:8-10).

It is likely that by this time, that is, Thursday morning, the disciples would have bought the herbs, fruit, nuts, unleavened bread, and wine. But they did not as yet have a place to eat the meal, which had to be done within the city limits of Jerusalem. For obvious reasons, rooms suitable for eating a Passover meal were at a premium. Perhaps thinking that Jesus already had arranged for a room, the disciples asked Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”

Jesus’ answer no doubt was more than a little perplexing to the two disciples, identified by Luke as Peter and John (Luke 22:8; cf. Mark 14:13), who were sent to take care of the matter.

First of all they were to go into the city and find a certain man, obviously someone they did not know. From the other two synoptic gospels we learn that the man would be carrying a pitcher of water (Mark 14:13; Luke 22:10). That would have set him apart noticeably for identification, because it was highly unusual for a man to carry such a domestic article.

When the man was found, the disciples were to say to him, “The Teacher says, ‘My time is at hand; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.’ ” The man carrying the water pitcher was probably a servant in the house where the meal was to be eaten. Therefore when Peter and John followed the servant home, they repeated Jesus’ words to the owner, who then showed them “a large upper room furnished and ready” (Mark 14:14-15).

That clandestine approach to securing a meeting place was necessary to prevent Jesus’ premature betrayal. Had the Lord announced the place earlier, Judas would surely have told the chief priests and elders (see Matt. 26:14-16), who would have arrested Jesus secretly there after dark and before the meal and the vital instruction He planned as part of it. Even when the instructions were given to Peter and John, Judas had no way of knowing the location. He and the other nine would not find out until they arrived that evening.

In God’s redemptive plan it was necessary for Jesus to keep the Passover . . . with His disciples. It would be His last opportunity to teach them (see John 13-17) and to have intimate fellowship with them. But more importantly even than that, it would be the time of His transforming the Passover supper of the Old Covenant, marked by the shedding of lambs’ blood, into the Lord’s Supper of the New Covenant, which would be marked by the shedding of His own blood (Luke 22:20). He therefore eliminated any possibility of His arrest before that crucial task could be accomplished.

Because Jesus told Peter and John to identify Him as the Teacher, it seems probable that the servant carrying the water pitcher, and certainly the owner of the house, were believers in the Lord. Likely Jesus secretly had prearranged for the room with the owner, who is nowhere identified by name. In any case, the Lord knew in advance that the accommodations would be large, located on an upper level, and be fully furnished for the meal (Mark 14:15).

Jesus’ statement, “My time is at hand,” was perhaps more for the sake of the disciples than the two men whom Peter and John would encounter. Time does not translate chronos, which refers to a general space or succession of time, but rather to kairos, a specific and often predetermined period or moment of time. Jesus’ time was also, of course, the Father’s time, the divinely appointed time when the Son would offer Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the world (cf. 1 John 2:2). Until now, that monumental time had not come and could not have come (see John 7:6), but at this particular Passover it could not fail to come, because it was divinely ordained and fixed. That last Passover supper would set in motion the final, irreversible countdown, as it were, for the crucifixion.

I am to keep the Passover translates what is sometimes called a prophetic present tense, because it uses the normal form of the Greek present tense to state the future as if it had already arrived. Understanding the statement in that way is fitting, because our Lord was on a divine mission set in a divine timetable, both of which were unalterable. He not only was ordained to celebrate that last Passover Himself but to celebrate it with His disciples.

The profundity of Jesus’ declaration is not apparent on the surface. As the events surrounding this occasion are carefully studied, however, it becomes clear that this seemingly rather ordinary statement was of momentous significance.

First of all, our Lord declared His commitment to keeping the Passover. He observed the Passover for the same reason He had been baptized, “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). Not only as a Jew but also as God’s own Son it was incumbent upon Him to obey every divine commandment of the Old Testament law. “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” He declared at the beginning of His ministry; “I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17).

Observing this particular feast was especially important to Jesus. As recorded in Luke’s account, He told the disciples, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). It was by divine imperative that Jesus not only observe this last Passover of His earthly ministry but that He observe it with the Twelve.

It was without hesitation that the disciples, Peter and John, did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. Peter and John would then have had to get the lamb, probably at Bethany, and take it to the Temple for sacrifice. They were doubtlessly charged with this important task because they were the most intimate with Jesus of the Twelve. In any case, the tradition required that only two men could carry a given lamb into the Temple. Otherwise the court of sacrifice would have been hopelessly crowded, with thousands of animals to be slain and only two hours in which to do it.

It is clear from this passage in Matthew, as well from many other sin all four gospel records, that Jesus and the disciples ate the Passover meal on Thursday evening. Certain other passages, however, such as the one cited below from John’s gospel, indicate that some Jews celebrated the Passover on Friday, which seems to create a contradiction and has given some scholars what they think is proof of scriptural error.

The apostle John notes that after the Passover meal Jesus took His disciples out of the city to the Garden of Gethsemane, which was on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. He was arrested there and taken first to the high priest Annas (John 18:13) and then to the house of his father-in-law, Caiaphas, who also still held the title of high priest (v. 24). A few hours later, while it was still early on Friday morning, Jesus was taken to Pilate. But the Jewish leaders would “not enter into the Praetorium in order that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover” (v. 28). Unlike Jesus and the disciples, those Jews obviously had not yet eaten the Passover.

Some interpreters suggest that because those religious leaders would surely have celebrated the Passover at the proper time, Jesus must have moved His observance up a day. But Jesus was meticulous in His observance of the Mosaic law and would not have desecrated such an important feast by observing it at the wrong time. Even had He wanted to do such a thing, however, He could not have, because the lamb eaten at the Passover meal first had to be slaughtered by a priest in the Temple and have its blood sprinkled on the altar. No priest would have performed that ritual a day earlier, or even an hour earlier, than the law prescribed.

Other scholars suggest that the chief priests and elders involved in Jesus’ arrest were a day late in their observance. But in spite of their control of the Temple, even those ungodly men would not have dared make an exception for themselves for this most celebrated of all feasts. Not only that, but John recognized Friday as the legitimate Passover day, reporting that when Pilate finally agreed to Jesus’ crucifixion “it was the day of preparation for the Passover” (John 19:14). In the same verse he states that “it was about the sixth hour,” that is, noon on Friday.

Some three hours later, “about the ninth hour,” Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). Shortly after that, “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit” (v. 50). John therefore specifically recounts that our Lord died within the prescribed time of sacrifice for the Passover lambs, from three to five o’clock in the afternoon of Passover day. At the very time those lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple, “Christ our Passover also [was] sacrificed” on Calvary (1 Cor. 5:7).

In addition to that evidence for a Friday Passover and crucifixion is the fact that, just as the tenth of Nisan was on a Monday the year Jesus was crucified, the fourteenth (the day of Passover, Ex. 12:6) was on the following Friday. Still further evidence is Joseph of Arimathea’s taking Jesus’ body down from the cross on “the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42; cf. John 19:42). That day of preparation referred to the weekly preparation for the Sabbath, not preparation for the Passover, as in John 19:14. Unless it was qualified (such as being for the Passover), the day of preparation always referred to preparation for the Sabbath and was commonly used to designate Friday, the day before the Sabbath (Saturday).

Why, then, did Jesus observe the Passover on the previous evening?

The answer lies in a difference among the Jews in the way they reckoned the beginning and ending of days. From Josephus, the Mishna, and other ancient Jewish sources we learn that the Jews in northern Palestine calculated days from sunrise to sunrise. That area included the region of Galilee, where Jesus and all the disciples except Judas had grown up. Apparently most, if not all, of the Pharisees used that system of reckoning. But Jews in the southern part, which centered in Jerusalem, calculated days from sunset to sunset. Because all the priests necessarily lived in or near Jerusalem, as did most of the Sadducees, those groups followed the southern scheme.

That variation doubtlessly caused confusion at times, but it also had some practical benefits. During Passover time, for instance, it allowed for the feast to be celebrated legitimately on two adjoining days, thereby permitting the Temple sacrifices to be made over a total period of four hours rather than two. That separation of days may also have had the effect of reducing both regional and religious clashes between the two groups.

On that basis the seeming contradictions in the gospel accounts are easily explained. Being Galileans, Jesus and the disciples considered Passover day to have started at sunrise on Thursday and to end at sunrise on Friday. The Jewish leaders who arrested and tried Jesus, being mostly priests and Sadducees, considered Passover day to begin at sunset on Thursday and end at sunset on Friday. By that variation, predetermined by God’s sovereign provision, Jesus could thereby legitimately celebrate the last Passover meal with His disciples and yet still be sacrificed on Passover day.

Once again we see how God sovereignly and marvelously provides for the precise fulfillment of His redemptive plan. Jesus was anything but a victim of men’s wicked schemes, much less of blind circumstance. Every word He spoke and every action He took were divinely directed and secured. Even the words and actions by others against Him were divinely controlled (see, e.g., John 11:49-52; 19:11).

SHARING THE TABLE

Now when evening had come, He was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. And as they were eating, (26:20-21a)

It was now sometime after six o’clock on Thursday evening. Although the original Passover meal in Egypt was eaten in haste while standing, with loins girded, sandals on the feet, and staff in hand (Ex. 12:11), the ceremony had changed through the years and had become more leisurely. Therefore, rather than standing, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples . . . as they were eating.

The eating of the Passover meal involved a strictly defined sequence. First, the initial cup of red wine mixed with water was served. Wine was always mixed with water before drinking, but during Passover it was diluted with a double amount of water, lest anyone should desecrate the most sacred occasion by becoming drunk. Partaking of the first cup was preceded by the giving of thanks to God (see Luke 22:17).

Second, the ceremonial washing of hands preceded the main part of the meal, signifying the need for moral and spiritual cleansing and holiness of heart. Because they were celebrating God’s deliverance from spiritual bondage to sin as they remembered His deliverance from physical bondage to Egypt, it was important that celebrants come to the table cleansed.

It is significant that shortly after that the disciples started another “dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest” (Luke 22:24). After having cleansed their hands, it was obvious that their hearts were still as proud, self-serving, and ambitious as ever (cf. Mark 9:34). It may have been at this time that Jesus “rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, . . . began to wash the disciples’ feet” (John 13:4-5). The Lord specifically explained to the disciples that He had washed their feet “as an example that you also should do as I did to you” (v. 15). Washing another person’s feet was normally done by a servant and was considered by most Jews to be the most demeaning of tasks. Jesus’ example of humble, selfless service was a stinging rebuke of the disciples’ pride and a profound lesson in condescending love.

To that visualized rebuke the Lord added a verbal one, saying, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called ‘Benefactors.’ But not so with you, but let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the servant” (Luke 22:25-26).

The third part of the Passover meal was the eating of bitter herbs, symbolic of the bitter bondage their forefathers had endured in Egypt. As mentioned above, these herbs and pieces of unleavened bread were dipped in the charoseth, the thick mixture of ground fruit and nuts.

The fourth part was the taking of the second cup of wine. When the head of the household, the Lord in the present case, took that second cup, he would explain the meaning of the Passover.

Following that would be singing from the Hallel, which means “praise” and is the term from which hallelujah is derived. The Hallel consisted of Psalms 113-18, and at this point the first two were normally sung.

After the singing, the roasted lamb would be brought out. The head of the household would again wash his hands and then break pieces of the unleavened bread and hand them out to be eaten with the lamb.

SHOCKING THE TWELVE

He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” And being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” And He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” (26:2lb-24)

Paradidmi (betray) literally means to give over and was often used of delivering a prisoner over to prison or punishment. Jesus had mentioned His impending death to the disciples several times, but this was the first time He mentioned His betrayal. And it was especially painful for the disciples to hear Jesus say that the betrayer would be “one of you.”

In the ancient Near East, the eating of a meal with someone was considered a mark of friendship, and therefore to eat with a person just before betraying him would be to compound the treachery. When David experienced the betrayal of a trusted friend, he lamented: “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend. We who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the throng” (Ps. 55:12-14).

Being well aware of Jesus’ many enemies, the disciples were hardly surprised that He would be betrayed. But it was unbelievable that the betrayer would be one of their own group. Understandably, they were deeply grieved. John reports that they were “at a loss to know of which one He was speaking” (John 13:22). Judas was perhaps among the least suspected, because his being the group’s treasurer indicates his integrity was thought to be beyond reproach. In the midst of their agonizing and probable tears, the disciples “began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing” (Luke 22:23). While discussing the matter among themselves, they may have pointed accusing fingers at one another, as Luke’s account might suggest (cf. v. 24). But to their credit, the primary concern of each man was the possibility of his own culpability, and they each one began to say to Jesus, “Surely not I, Lord?”

It was doubtlessly because Jesus had just rebuked them for their self-serving egotism and fleshly ambition that they now showed signs of genuine humility and self-distrust. They were brought face to face with the sinfulness of their own hearts. Because their sins of pride had been so clearly exposed, they were open even to the possibility that somehow they had unwittingly said or done something that endangered their Lord.

Jesus’ response did nothing to alleviate their anxiety. In fact, it emphasized again that the betrayer was one of them. He said cryptically, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me.” Because each one of them had dipped his hand . . . in the bowl, the disciples had no better idea of the betrayer’s identity than before. Jesus did, however, assure them that only one of them was guilty and that the others genuinely belonged to Him. “I do not speak of all of you,” He said. “I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me’” (John 13:18). Jesus’ quotation from Psalm 41:9 referred to Ahithophel’s betrayal of David by helping Absalom plot against his father (see2 Sam. 16:15-17:3). Ahithophel was an Old Testament parallel to Judas, the ultimate betrayer.

But Jesus then put the betrayal in its divine perspective by assuring the disciples that the heinous act would work to the fulfillment of God’s sovereign plan. The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him. Jesus did not fall into Judas’s trap but rather Judas, by his wicked rejection of Christ, became an instrument of God’s plan. God would use even that vile scheme to work the righteousness of the Son of Man. The betrayal had been written ages beforehand in the pages of divine prophecy. Jesus Christ was “delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Judas’s malicious decision to reject and betray Christ was used by God in fulfilling Christ’s gracious mission of redemption. An unholy man in the hands of a holy God was used to accomplish a holy purpose.

Contrary to the perverted reasoning of some interpreters, the fact that this sinful act was used by God to provide salvation from sin did not justify Judas by making evil good. God’s sovereignly turning evil to His own righteous purposes does not make a sin any less sinful or the sinner any less guilty. God turned Judas’s betrayal to His own divine purposes, but He did not thereby transform the son of perdition (John 17:12) into a son of righteousness. Judas was not an unwitting saint but a willing devil (John 6:70). The suggestion that he intentionally betrayed Jesus in order that the world might be redeemed through the crucifixion is as unscriptural as it is ludicrous. He had no interest in the salvation of the world or the coming of the kingdom. He was a consummate thief, a disillusioned, selfish mercenary who soon would sell out his teacher and friend for a mere thirty pieces of silver.

The Lord made clear that Judas’s destiny was damnation. Despite the fact that God used the betrayal to fulfill prophecy, Jesus said, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” Judas’s future in hell was so terrifying that he would have been infinitely better off if he had not been born. He is the most graphic and tragic example of the people about whom the writer of Hebrews says that, because they “go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. . . . How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:26-27, 29).

Yet Jesus’ fearsome warning of judgment seems also to have been a final gracious appeal for Judas to turn to Him for salvation before it would forever be too late. He refused.

SIGNIFYING THE TRAITOR

And Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said it yourself.” (26:25)

Had Judas not said to Jesus the same thing as the others, he would have become suspect. He therefore imitated their astonished disbelief and parroted their anxious queries to the Lord. He even called Jesus Rabbi, as if to reinforce his feigned loyalty.

Jesus did not respond with a direct accusation but said simply, “You have said it yourself,” affirming that Judas had condemned himself out of his own mouth.

It is obvious the other disciples did not overhear that brief exchange, because Peter privately asked John to question Jesus about the betrayer’s identity, which he did. “Jesus therefore answered, ‘That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.’ So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon s Iscariot” (John 13:24-26). John thereby learned the appalling truth about Judas, but he apparently did not tell Peter at that time.

As soon as Judas took the morsel he sealed his destiny for all eternity, because “Satan then entered into him” (John 13:27). The supreme adversary of God and the ruler of darkness came himself to reside in Judas, and he became hellish to the core of his being in a way that perhaps no other human being has exceeded. In betraying the Son of God, Judas became the arch sinner of all human history.

Lest that devil incarnate participate further in the Passover meal with them or in any way interfere with Jesus’ last precious moments with the true disciples, and to set him loose for the final scenes of his treachery, the Lord said to the betrayer, “What you do, do quickly” (v. 27b). Except for John, the others did not know why Jesus gave that instruction to Judas but supposed “because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, ‘Buy things we have need of for the feast’; or else, that he should give something to the poor” (vv. 28-29). Jesus knew who the betrayer was; John knew; and Judas himself knew. But the rest did not know.

ESTABLISHING THE FUTURE PROVISION

And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (26:26-29)

After Judas left and Jesus was alone with the eleven faithful disciples, He transformed the Passover of the Old Covenant into the Lord’s Supper of the New Covenant.

Passover was the oldest of Jewish festivals, older even than the covenant with Moses at Sinai. It was established before the priesthood, the Tabernacle, or the law It was ordained by God while Israel was still enslaved in Egypt, and it had been celebrated by His people for some 1,500 years.

But the Passover Jesus was now concluding with the disciples was the last divinely sanctioned Passover ever to be observed. No Passover celebrated after that has been authorized or recognized by God. Significant as it was under the Old Covenant, it became a remnant of a bygone economy, an extinct dispensation, an expired covenant. Its observance since that time has been no more than a religious relic that serves no divinely acknowledged purpose and has no divinely blessed significance. To celebrate the Passover is to celebrate the shadow, after the reality has already come. Celebrating deliverance from Egypt is a weak substitute for celebrating deliverance from sin.

In fact, Christ ended the Passover and instituted a new memorial to Himself. It would not look back to a lamb in Egypt as the symbol of God’s redeeming love and power, but to the very Lamb of God, who, by the sacrificial shedding of His own blood, took away the sins of the whole world. In that one meal Jesus both terminated the old and inaugurated the new.

Jesus’ institution of the new memorial consisted of three primary elements: the directive (vv. 26a, 27), the doctrine (vv. 26b, 28), and the duration (v. 29).

THE DIRECTIVE

And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; . . .” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; (26:26a, 27)

It is not certain as to what part of the meal they were eating at this time, but the supper was still in progress, and our Lord instituted the new memorial in the midst of the old.

First, Jesus took some bread and offered a blessing of thanks to His heavenly Father, as He always did before eating (see, e.g., Matt. 14:19; 15:36). The unleavened bread was baked in large, flat, crisp loaves, which Jesus broke into pieces before He gave it to the disciples with the instruction, “Take, eat.” The fact that He broke the bread does not symbolize a broken body, because John makes clear that, in fulfillment of prophecy, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken” (John 19:36; cf. Ps. 34:20), just as no bones of the original Passover lambs in Egypt were broken (Ex. 12:46).

Shortly after that, when He had taken a cup and given thanks again, He gave it to them saying, “Drink from it, all of you.” The verb behind given thanks is euchariste, and it is from that term that we get Eucharist, as the Lord’s Supper is sometimes called.

As would be expected, all eleven disciples drank of it (Mark 14:23). It should be noted that the Roman Catholic practice of not allowing the entire congregation to partake of the cup is in direct contradiction of Jesus’ explicit directive, of the disciples’ obedient example, and of Paul’s later teaching (see 1 Cor. 10:16, 21; 11:28).

Those two acts of Jesus were normal features of the Passover, in which unleavened bread was eaten and diluted wine was drunk at several points during the meal. This was probably the third cup, called the cup of blessing. Paul refers to it by that name in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?” (10:16). It is from the King James translation of that verse (“. . . is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?”) that Communion, another name for the Lord’s Supper, is derived. A few verses later Paul refers to this cup as “the cup of the Lord” (v. 21).

THE DOCTRINE

“this is My body. . . . for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (26:26b, 28)

Breaking the unleavened bread was a normal part of the traditional Passover ceremony. But Jesus now gave it an entirely new meaning, saying, “This is My body.” The original unleavened bread symbolized severance from the old life in Egypt, carrying nothing of its pagan and oppressive “leaven” into the Promised Land. It represented a separation from worldliness and sin and the beginning of a new life of holiness and godliness.

By His divine authority, Jesus transformed that symbolism into another. From henceforth the bread would represent Christ’s own body, sacrificed for the salvation of men. Luke reports that Jesus added, “given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (22:19), indicating He was instituting a memorial of His sacrificial death for His followers to observe.

In saying the bread is His body, Jesus obviously was not speaking literally. A similarly foolish misunderstanding already had caused the Pharisees to ridicule Him and many superficial disciples to desert Him (see John 6:48-66). It is the same misunderstanding reflected in the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. That literalistic notion is an absurd misinterpretation of Scripture.

Jesus’ statement about eating His body was no more literal than His saying He is the Vine and His followers are the branches (John 15:5)or than John the Baptist’s calling Him the Lamb of God (John 1:29).

As the disciples drank of the cup Jesus said, “This is My blood of the covenant.” From Luke we learn that the Lord specified “new covenant” (22:20), clearly distinguishing it from all previous covenants, including the Mosaic.

When God made covenants with Noah and Abraham, those covenants were ratified with blood (Gen. 8:20; 15:9-10). When the covenant at Sinai was ratified, “Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words’ ” (Ex. 24:8). When God brought reconciliation with Himself, the price was always blood, because “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22; cf. 1 Pet. 1:2). A sacrificial animal not only had to be killed but its blood had to be shed. “The life of all flesh is its blood” (Lev. 17:14), and therefore for a life truly to be sacrificed, its blood had to be shed.

Jesus therefore did not simply have to die but had to shed His own precious blood (1 Pet. 1:19). Although He did not bleed to death, Jesus bled both before He died and as He died—from the wounds of the crown of thorns, from the lacerations of the scourging, and from the nail holes in His hands and feet. After He was dead, a great volume of His blood poured out from the spear thrust in His side.

Obviously there was nothing in the chemistry of Christ’s blood that saves. And although the shedding of His blood was required, it symbolized His atoning death, the giving of His unblemished, pure, and wholly righteous life for the corrupt, depraved, and wholly sinful lives of unregenerate men. Representative of the giving of that sinless life was the pouring out of that precious blood for many for forgiveness of sins. That blood made atonement for the sins of all mankind, Gentile as well as Jew, who place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The many includes those who trusted in God before Christ died as well as those who have and will trust in Him after His death. Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and every other true believer who lived before Christ, was saved by Christ’s atoning death, as are believers of the New Covenant age. It was because of that truth that Jesus declared to the unbelieving Jewish leaders, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

THE DURATION

But I say to you, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (26:29)

As noted above, the divinely-ordained Passover remembrance ended when Jesus celebrated it that night with His disciples. Any observance of it since that time has been based solely on human tradition, the perpetuation of an outward form that has long since lost its spiritual significance. But for those who belong to Jesus Christ, that event in the upper room began a new remembrance of redemption that the Lord will honor until He returns in glory.

Fruit of the vine was a common Jewish colloquialism for wine, which Jesus told the disciples He would not drink with them again until that day when He would drink it new with them in His Father’s kingdom. He had instructed them to remember Him in the eating of the unleavened bread, which represents His sacrificed body, and in the drinking of the cup, which represents His shed blood as a sacrifice for sin. “Do this,” He said, “as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25). That memorial was to continue until that day in His Father’s kingdom.

The Lord’s promise to drink with the disciples in that future kingdom was another assurance to them of His return, an assurance that would take on intensified meaning after His death, resurrection, and ascension. “When I return to establish My kingdom,” He promised them, “you will all be there and you will all drink the cup new with Me.” In other words, the Lord’s Supper not only is a reminder of our Lord’s sacrifice for our sins but also a reminder of His promise to return and share His kingdom blessings with us. From those words we learn that the end of this present age does not signal the end of this observance.

The supper concluded with the singing of a hymn, probably Psalm 118, the last psalm of the Hallel. Then they went out to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus would pray fervently to His Father, be betrayed by Judas, and be arrested by the officers of the chief priests and elders.