Jesus Orders the Supper, Part 2 | The Lord’s Love of Fellowship

Luke 22:14-20

Luke 22:14 through 20, let’s begin by reading. “And when the hour had come, he,” that’s Jesus, “reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it’s fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.’ When he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the Kingdom of God comes.’ When he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, saying ‘this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’” And we’ll stop there.

The expectation which we see in verses 17 and 18, the expectation which is the hope for the future. “When he had taken up a cup and given thanks, he said take this and share it among yourselves.” Take this, share it among yourselves. This cup is raised during the meal. The one in verse 20 is raised after the meal. So Luke records two cups. In Matthew and Mark, there’s only one cup recorded, which correspond to Luke 22:20, his second cup. According to tradition, though, we know that in the Passover celebration between 3 to 5, cups were raised at the Passover celebration. Depending on the situation, the circumstances, typically we find a pattern of four cups following the pattern of the Mishnah that identified four cups of blessing or four blessings, in Exodus chapter 6, verses 6 and 7.

You can write those down if you’d like, that verses, if you’d like to, Exodus 6:6 and 7 and the four cups responded to the four blessings outlined in Exodus 6:6 and 7. They celebrated each one with a toast of this diluted wine. It wasn’t a, a full potency wine. They didn’t want anybody getting drunk at the Passover. So it was a diluted wine, wine diluted with water for the sake of sobriety, for the sake of thinking through the meaning of the elements here.

 The first cup is a cup of sanctification corresponding to Exodus 6:6, which says, “I am Yahweh and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” God, Yahweh is making a distinction there between you and the Egyptians. This is why it’s called the cup of sanctification. A setting apart. He sets apart his people. We can imagine Jesus made that toast, offering a short simple prayer, and it’s this prayer, it’s actually recorded. “Blessed are you, Yahweh, our God, who has created the fruit of the vine.” He lifts up the glass, this officially commences the meal.

 The second cup of Passover is called the cup of deliverance corresponds to Exodus 6:6, “I will deliver you from bondage.” Deliverance, cup of deliverance, delivering you from bondage, delivering you from servitude. It’s at the raising of this cup by the one presiding over the feast of the youngest member of the table is to ask why this night is different than other nights. If there’s a family celebrating, it’s the youngest child who can participate. He asks why is this night different than any other night? In response, the presiding host is going to tell the Exodus story, reading, explaining Deuteronomy 26:5 to 11.

In this case, since the presiding host was, actually there, must have been an exposition you would not want to have missed. The host would speak of the past, present, future faithfulness of God to Israel. Joel Green says, “The meal,” was, “interpreted as a present act of remembrance of and thanksgiving for God’s past liberation of an oppressed people, a celebration of God’s faithfulness, leads to hope in the future deliverance of God’s people.” So you see a past, present, future aspect of celebration.

 The cup of verse 17, Luke 22:17, could refer to either of these first two cups. But if Jesus followed the traditional pattern of the Passover order, it may be slightly better to see this cup as the second of the four cups, since his explanation has to do with looking to the future. Notice again, “When he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, ‘Take this, share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the Kingdom of God comes.’”

Verse 16, we see Jesus there is vowing to abstain from celebrating Passover until it’s fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And here in verse 18, he avows to abstain not only from wine, but of the fruit of the vine altogether. It’s like similar to a Nazarite vow. Once again, very strong language here, mirroring verse 16. “I say to you,” again, formal announcement. “I will by no means,” again, oume, strongest negation in the Greek.

“I will by no means drink of the fruit of the vine from now on,” i.e, after this Passover, “until the Kingdom of God comes.” That parallels the language of the Second Coming, doesn’t it? Which is going to coincide with the coming of the Kingdom of God, Jesus. In Jesus, the Kingdom of God came. It was inaugurated in him and through him, but it will not come, it will not be consummated until he comes again to set up that Kingdom on earth. And when that happens, this vow of the abstinence that he took will be lifted.

He will celebrate with his people in the realized Kingdom. See that referred to and if you look ahead to verses 28 and 29, “now you are those who’ve stood by me in my trials, and I grant you a Kingdom just as my Father granted one to me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on Thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Talking about this deliverance. Yes, a past deliverance.

Yes, God is always delivering us, but there’s a future deliverance coming and there’s a kingdom coming. It’s after the second cup as they made that toast. The group sings the first two songs of the Hillel, Psalms 113 to 114. The whole Hillel section is Psalms 113 to Psalm 118. But they sung at this point Psalm, Psalms 113 and 114, and after the meal is over, there are two more cups, which is when Jesus instituted the ordinance of communion.

Which is the institution itself, which is the faith of the fellowship, the faith of the fellowship. The I’m using the faith and with the definite article, emphasis on that to emphasize a particular faith, a particular doctrinal content. The institution of the Lord’s table is about a memorial. It’s about a, a remembrance. It’s the heart of which Jude called, “the faith once for all, delivered to the Saints” and the Lord’s table and it’s two very simple elements, bread and cup.

Deeply significant symbols, the bread and the cup, they focus on the theology of this table. They refer to a theological significance, a soteriological meaning. After singing the first two Hillel Psalms, according to Alfred Edersheim, Jesus as the presiding host over this meal; according to Edersheim, he says this, “The host would dip some of the bitter herbs into the saltwater or vinegar,” He’d, “speak a blessing and,” then, “partake of them,” and, “then hand them to each in the company.” And, “next he would break one of the unleavened cakes…, of which half was put aside for after supper. This is called the Aphiqomonor after-dish… [The other dish]( not the Aphiqomon),” this is, this other dish, “is elevated and these words were spoken:” about this bread, though he broke. ‘This is the bread of misery which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. All that are hungry come and eat; all that are needy, come, keep the Pascha,’ the sacrifice, the lamb, End Quote.

 After this, after he pronounced this blessing, the guests would eat the meal. So we have the unleavened bread, we have the bitter herbs, we have the charoset sauce, the, the roasted lamb. After the meal, the host then returned to that one loaf, the half a loaf that was set aside for after supper; the Aphiqomon, eaten as dessert, so to speak, after the meal. Kind of a, a refresher after the meal. This is one and the same bread as that referred to as the bread of misery, because it was broken off from the bread of misery. But all who are hungry are encouraged to come and eat of this bread, and all who are needy are encouraged to come and partake of this bread. This is the bread, then, that Jesus appropriates and repurposes and gives new meaning to as a memorial ordinance. According to verse 19, it’s the bread of remembrance.

 Look at verse 19, “When he’d taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it, gave it to them, saying, ‘this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” “This is my body”, when Jesus says, this, he is clearly referring to the physical loaf or piece of bread he’s holding in his hand. And notice it’s a physical piece of bread, in his physical hand, which is attached to his physical arm. Physical arm attached to his physical body. We understand.

 When he says this is my body, we understand, he’s speaking in a metaphor, isn’t he? Let’s not be confused by the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation in which they believe the bread is literally his body. That it literally changes from physical bread into his physical body. Which means that the priest, every time offering the bread, every time offering the mass, he’s re-sacrificing Christ every time.

This is what they believe, every time he performs the mass. A new sacrifice every time he gives the bread. This is the Roman Catholic doctrine and it’s a blasphemous, I, I know it’s a harsh word, but it’s true that it’s a blasphemous denial of the gospel. Why is it blasphemous? Why is it a slander, which is what blasphemy means, ultimately, is a lying slander against the gospel. Because the Bible tells us that Jesus’ death is the once for all sacrifice. It is done; his sacrifice on the cross.

That’s why the cross that we have in our church here doesn’t have a body on it, it’s empty. Why? Because that sacrifice is done, it’s complete, it’s perfect. It is the all-sufficient sacrifice that paid for the sins of the people according to Romans 6:10, Hebrews 7:27, Hebrews 10:10, 1 Peter 3:18. Many other scriptures and the theology of the entire New Testament teaches exactly this. This is what the gospel is based on.

So to say we’re re-sacrificing Christ in the mass is a blasphemy, a slander about the efficacy of that once for all sacrifice. It’s saying it wasn’t enough, it’s insufficient, that is a lie, that is not true. Now in the text here, the point of Jesus breaking the bread, I used to think that that was about Jesus illustrating his broken body, broken on the cross. But as we understand from the Gospel narratives, his legs were not broken, were they? Nothing in him.

He was not broken, in broken bones, but he was preserved. Rather his breaking the bread on this occasion not to, not to, illustrate his body broken, but rather to portray simply a single loaf of bread. Just, he just is breaking off pieces of this one bread to give it to many, so one feeding the many. That is what is pictured in the single bread broken for them. It’s the union and identity of those who partake of that single loaf that though being many, they share in one loaf, one bread broken and divided and distributed to them.

 In fact, the verb, he broke, is only used in the New Testament to refer to breaking bread at meal time for the purpose of sharing with all those who are at the table. That’s the verb that’s used here, only used in the New Testament for distributing out of this one loaf to feed everybody who are there. It’s sharing. That’s the idea. So just as the one bread sustains the many at a meal, so also the one body of Christ which he gave for his people.

 Jesus is very clear here, using substitutionary language and substitutionary nature of his giving. Literally on behalf of you all is what his body is given for, on behalf of you all. His body, by which he means his life; his body is, by metonymy, is life, sacrificed for them. It’ll sustain them, just as bread sustains a physical body. His life sacrificed for them will sustain them, in the remembering of him, in the remembering of his sacrifice for their sins; his death in exchange for their life. This is a spiritual truth that sustains the soul, that sustains the life. It’s God conveying eternal life through these words, through this doctrine, through this theology by which he sustains our spiritual life.

And so it is, that the Aphiqomon, the, what before was called the bread of misery or came from the bread of misery, now it’s become the bread of remembering. What once was bitter, what, what once was the symbol of misery in the meal has become really the dessert. It’s become the symbol of salvation. One body shared by all, one body that sustains them all and gives them all life. It’s just what Jesus said in John 6:53, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

 The command that he gives there in verse 19, that last sentence, “do this in remembrance of me.” Do this, it’s a present imperative, so it’s, continually be doing this; continually in order to be remembering me, to keep me in your minds, to keep reminding yourselves of the life that you all possess, because of my death for you.

Second element in the Lord’s table is the cup, verse 20. “This is the cup of the new covenant,” says there in verse 20, “And in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten.” So this is after the meal’s over, he took another cup in the same way he took the cup. Same way as what? Same way as taking the bread. So Luke here is preparing us to, to receive another metaphor, see another analogy here between the cup and something spiritual, some spiritual meaning.

So he says, “In the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, saying this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” So here they are, after they’ve eaten their fill, as the meal is winding down, Jesus lifts up another cup. This is the third cup, the cup of redemption. Final line of Exodus 6:6, “I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments,” is what that says. This is the cup, then, the third cup of that Passover Seder meal. This is the cup that Jesus appropriated and repurposed for the Communion Cup when he instituted the Lord’s Supper.

 It’s the cup of redemption, which is the perfect cup to symbolize the New Covenant that was ratified by his blood. A cup of redemption. New Covenant is a redemptive covenant. Now depending on what translation you have, not all translations are equally clear at this point, but the New American Standard, the Legacy Standard Bible, which I’m using, also the ESV if you’re using the English Standard Version, they’re most helpful and clear in their translations.

 Jesus said, according to the translation here, “this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Okay, so if you’re taking notes, write down the first half of that sentence. But instead of the word, is, which is a copula, an equating verb, right? Instead of the word, is, write an equal sign. Okay? So it should read like this. The cup, this cup which is poured out for you, equals the new covenant in my blood. In other words, the cup poured out for you is not the blood Jesus shed on the cross. The syntax doesn’t allow for that interpretation. The cup is, the cup is, actually, something else. And you say, don’t leave us in suspense. What is the, something else?

Jesus refers to the blood here to provide his apostles with a vivid picture of a violent death. It’s a bloodletting. It’s a blood shedding. This is the violent death, the bloodletting of the lamb, that pictured in what happened, literally, Peter and John sacrificing earlier that day at the temple, the blood of that lamb sprinkled at the base of the altar. So they, they’ve got the picture, they understand the blood shed from a lamb. Apostles get that?

So what is the cup then poured out for you? If it’s not the blood poured out for you, what is the cup poured out for you? Look over it in this same chapter in verse 42, verse 42, where Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and he says, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” That expression, this cup, it is the same exact expression as in verse 20. Literally, it’s this near demonstrative pronoun, this the cup, τοῦτο τὸ potērion, the exact same phrase in both locations, both verses.

So it’s not the blood being poured out, it is the cup poured out, that is to say, the cup of suffering which the Father gave to the Son, that he should drink the cup of suffering, that he should drink the cup of God’s full wrath to secure the redemption of his people in the new covenant which was ratified in his blood. For without the shedding of blood, Hebrews 9:22, says, “There is no remission for sins.”

 The Mosaic covenant according to Exodus 24, we read this in verses 6 to 8. And this is about the Mosaic covenant and the gathering up of blood from bulls sacrificed as burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on behalf of Israel. And it says there in Exodus 24, verse 6, “Moses took half of that blood and put it in basins,” a lot of basins, a lot of containers of blood. “The other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.” I would imagine half of that blood sprinkled on the altar had to drench that altar in blood. “And then he took the book of the covenant, and he read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, ‘All that Yahweh has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient.’”

 Not even ten chapters later, what are they doing? Dancing around a golden calf, aren’t they? And yet, “hear all that Yahweh has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient.” I think they’re sincere. I think they mean it. And “so Moses took the blood,” verse 8, Exodus 24, “sprinkled it on the people, and he said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.’”

That’s the same language that Peter uses, 1 Peter 1:2, “that those who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that they may obey Jesus Christ,” and then what? “Be sprinkled with his blood?” Same thing here, you people sprinkled by his blood, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father, “to you people,” Peter says, “may grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.”

 The first covenant entered into by their voluntary, “all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.” Then the blood is sprinkled. You know what happens here? The blood is sprinkled and then he draws the people in. It’s unilateral, it’s unconditional, it’s God doing on behalf of his people, what they cannot do for themselves. He gives the Lamb of sacrifice. He does the work. It’s all of God, all of his grace, all his redemption.

There was a fourth cup, the cup of praise according to Exodus 6, verse 7. “I will take you for my people. I will be your God, and you shall know I am Yahweh, your God.” It’s because of the third cup though, not the cup lifted up at the Passover, but the cup poured out on Christ at his death, when he, which he drank to the dregs, the cup of divine wrath on behalf of you, his people, on behalf of me.

It’s because of that cup that we’re able to partake of the new covenant in his blood, and we’re able to think about that fourth cup, the cup of praise, the language of Exodus 6:7. “I will take you for my people. I will be your God. You shall know I am Yahweh, your God.” You know that language is further expanded in the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. Write that down in your notes somewhere. Jeremiah 31:31 to 34. God says about this. He says, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,” it’s, “not like the one I made with their fathers, which they broke.”

But this is the one, I’ll put my law within them; no longer an external law, all written on tablets of stone. I’ll put my law within them; it will be on their heart that I’ll write it. “I will be their God and they will be my people. And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh, know Yahweh, know Yahweh.’ For they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares Yahweh, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more.’”

 So Jesus told the apostles in verse 17, to take the cup, his cup. He said take this, share it among yourselves. He took one bread in verse 19, gave thanks for it, broke it, gave it to them. One cup, one bread, signifying the common fellowship of one people. This is the cup now that he refers to in verse 20. It’s the third cup that he repurposes for this institution of the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper, communion. But it points to the cup that was poured out on him when he suffered on the cross.

 One cup, one bread signifying common fellowship of one people sustained by Christ in his sacrifice, made partakers of the new covenant in his blood. Paul says, “is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing.” The word sharing is Koinonia. The word fellowship. It could mean also, partnering, is another translation, for that. Is not the cup of blessing, which we bless, a Koinonia?

A partnering in the blood of Christ, is not the bread which we break, a sharing? Again, Koinonia in the body of Christ, since there’s one bread. We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread, all of us sustained by this offering, all of this sustained by this eternal life in Christ; he being the bread that comes down from heaven for us. And beloved, this is what communion means. This is what the Lord’s Table is all about.

 The Lord’s Table is about the love of Christ for all of his friends, whom he loved perfectly to the uttermost to the very end, by dying for their sins. He loved them to the very end, to the very uttermost, to the fullest extent that he could, by dying for their sins. Lord’s table is about hope for the future, as Paul puts it in 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.”

And that’s an affirmation of our hope, isn’t it, that he is risen from the dead, that he is coming back. He will return. And all this is true. We live our lives in light of that hope, in light of that eschatology, really. That’s when he returns again. That’s when we will share the Passover meal with the true final Passover lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then thirdly, we see that the Lord’s Table is about a deep theology, the faith, soteriological truth about the faith, once for all delivered to the Saints.

“For Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just, for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” This is about reconciliation. “He,” himself, “being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” We too then being put to death. It’s the end of us when we come to Christ. Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Coming to Christ means the end of you. It means the death of self, the death of all your old man, old nature. It’s gone, but then made alive in the Spirit.

 We have a life because of his resurrection life that raised him from the dead, and we partake of that true spiritual life, an eternal life, that continues to grow us in sanctification to be like him. Faith, hope, and love: These three are pictured in this text, in the love of Christ, the hope of resurrection, according to the faith, we share regularly in his table with the church that gathers in his name. That’s the appropriate way to have this institution of the Lord’s Table, as a gathered church in remembrance of him.