The Meal

The Meal

Matthew 26:17-30

Main Idea: The Lord’s Supper reminds us of Jesus’ substitutionary and sacrificial death until he returns.

I. The Shadow of Passover (26:17-19)

Surrounding Jesus’ final meal with his disciples is the observance of Passover. This was the high point of the Jewish calendar, as Passover was the most significant of their feasts and festivals in remembrance of God’s great deliverance of his people from slavery.

Exodus 12:14: This day [Passover] shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever.

As the Israelites observed Passover in Jerusalem annually, each component of the meal was infused with symbolism and significance:

  • Unleavened bread (to remember their hasty exit from Egypt)

  • Bitter herbs (to remember their time of bitterness)

  • Cup of salt water (to remember their tears in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea)

  • 4 cups of wine (to remember the four promises of Exodus 6:6-7)

  • A lamb (to remember their deliverance by the blood)

II. The Sorrow of Sin (26:20-25)

In this intimate setting, Jesus prepares his disciples for his impending betrayal. Though this was in the sovereign plan of God (“as it is written of him”), it does not lessen the responsibility of this sinful action by Judas. The response of the other disciples (“Is it I, Lord?”) shows a humble awareness of their own capacity to sin, and established the need for this meal in the first place. 

Matthew 26:31: Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

It is essential to keep together these two complementary ways of looking at the cross. On the human level, Judas gave him up to the priests, who gave him up to Pilate, who gave him up to the soldiers, who crucified him. But on the divine level, the Father gave him up, and he gave himself up, to die for us. As we face the cross, then, we can say to ourselves both, “I did it, my sins sent him there,” and “He did it, his love took him there.

~ John Stott, The Cross of Christ

III. The Substance of Christ (26:26-30)

As Jesus presides over the Passover meal, he breaks from the script and the story to insert himself: “this is my body… this is my blood of the covenant.” As the fulfillment of Passover, Jesus presents his impending death and crucifixion as:

  1. Sacrificial (cf. John 1:29, 1 Cor. 5:7b; 1 Peter 1:18-19)

  2. Substitutionary 

The concept of substitution may be said to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.

~ John Stott, The Cross of Christ 

1 Corinthians 11:26: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

[The Lord’s Supper] is a happy remembrance. Our remembrance of Christ is chastened with repentance, but it is also perfumed with faith. The Lord’s Supper is no funeral meal, but a festival; it is not a fast, but a feast. My happiest moments are spent with the King at his table, when his banner over me is love. The death of Christ is a well-spring of solemn joy

~ Charles Spurgeon, “The Blood Shed for Many”

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