IN
REMEMBRANCE OF ME
LUKE
22:14-20
(See
also Matthew 26:26-30
and
Mark 14:18)
Luke
22:14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with
him.
Susie: “The
hour” would be sundown when Passover officially began. All twelve of the
apostles were with Jesus for the Passover meal, including Judas who was
plotting to betray Him.
Susan: This
proves that the Jewish people were “night people” since their day began at
night. I and many others of you are in good company. LOL
Luke
22:15-16 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover
with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof,
until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
Susan: The
double use of “with desire I have desired” is a method of emphasis in the
Hebrew language. We might say, “I have passionately desired.” He wanted to
celebrate the Passover with His family of apostles because He knew the last
part of His journey He would have to endure alone, for even the Father would
turn His back on Him.
Luke
22:17-18 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide
it among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the
vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
Susie: This
was the first cup of wine out of four taken in the Passover Seder. We will
explain them a bit further in the lesson. This cup signified God’s promise to rescue
the Israelites from Egypt and set them apart as His people once more. It
represents sanctification, purifying and dedicating the people. Jesus had the
apostles share this cup, but it is not the one that represented His blood shed
for us.
Luke
22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them,
saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Susan: The operative
word here is “remembrance.” The Passover meal established by God and delivered
by Moses was done in remembrance of how God delivered the Israelites from
slavery in Egypt. It was only a foreshadowing of the ultimate deliverance from
slavery to sin and death that Jesus would accomplish on the cross for Jew and
Gentile alike. The Passover meal was a prophetic type of Jesus’s being the
perfect sacrificial, Passover Lamb. The ordinance of Communion or Lord’s Supper
established by Jesus at His last Passover meal belongs to the church which
includes both Jews and Gentiles who trust in Jesus alone for salvation.
Susie: The
instructions for the Passover meal in Deuteronomy make clear that the bread was
unleavened—cooked without soda, yeast, or any other ingredient that would make
it rise. Think Matza cracker.
Deuteronomy
16:3 Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat
unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth
out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou
camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.
Susan: John’s
gospel tells us that Jesus referred to Himself as the “Bread of Life” (John
6:35) and even portrays Himself as manna that came from Heaven:
John
6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this
bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world.
Susan: Therefore,
since Jesus is the “Bread of Life,” it is befitting that He used the bread to
represent His body.
Susie: Look
at a Matza cracker. It has brown stripes to remind us of the beating Jesus was
given with a cat-o’-nine-tails and has tiny holes to remind us that His hands,
feet, and side were pierced.
Luke
22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament
in my blood, which is shed for you.
Susan: There
are four cups of diluted wine used in the Passover Seder. Each of the cups are
associated with promises God gave the Israelites but have their ultimate
meaning in the promise fulfilled in the Messiah, Jesus Christ who gave His life
for people of all races.
Susie: We
synthesized the following chart from information we found at:
We both felt this was the most
concise explanation of the significance of the four cups we had ever seen.
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Susan: The
cup that Jesus designated as representing His blood which would begin the new
testament or covenant was the Cup of Redemption. The verse associated with this
cup is Exodus 6:6b, “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.” Wow! Think
about Jesus’s position on the cross! This gives me goose bumps of the Holy
Ghost kind!
Jeremiah
31:31-34 Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with
the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the
Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel;
After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto
the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I
will remember their sin no more.
Ponder
this and Apply it: In the symbolism of the Lord’s Supper, we see
the stripes Jesus bore at the hands of the Romans, the holes created in His
flesh by the nails and spear, His arms stretched out upon the cross, and the
blood He shed to redeem us from the grip of sin and death. Jesus tells us to
observe communion in remembrance of Him. The next time you partake of the bread
and the wine (or juice), solemnly but joyfully remember the sacrifice it
represents.
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