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14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. ~ Luke 22:14-20
In Luke 22-24 we are given the story of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The paradox of all paradoxes. On that cross we see Him suffering yet exalted, punished yet innocent, hated yet loving, subjected yet sovereign.
The Lord Jesus willingly embraced His cross to die as God’s sacrificial lamb, the innocent substitute dying for His rebellious creation, bearing the full wrath of God for all of our rebellion. He came to earth as a baby and grew to be a man, in order “to give His life a ransom for many.”
Our text happened on Thursday night of the Lord Jesus' final week on earth. It was the day God had long ordained on the fourteenth of Nisan, the day of Passover, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was the time when everything He had ever anticipated was unfolding according to the perfect plan of His Father. But before He died, He met with His apostles, fulfilling the Passover and beginning the New Covenant.
In v.14-16 we read, "When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, 'I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.'"
On that evening the Lord Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant and inaugurated the New. He took all who would ever believe, from the Passover to the Lord’s Table. He ended a millennia of the sacrificing of countless lambs for the forgiveness of sin. And, in order for those trapped in sin to be delivered from judgment, the requirement of death was met through His perfect sacrifice.
The message of the Passover is: God delivers the sinful through the death of the innocent substitute. But, no person has ever been delivered from divine judgment by the death of any animal. The repeated sacrifice of animals was simply a continual reminder that God does deliver by the death of an innocent substitute. And some of the people waited for that perfect sacrifice that would be satisfactory to God. This was the point of all those Old Testament sacrifices.
At the perfect time the long awaited day came when God offered His Son as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. The Lord Jesus is that perfect substitute for all sinners who would invite Him to be our Savior. He became God's satisfying sacrifice when God poured out His wrath on Him on our behalf.
In v.17-18 we read, "17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
The cup, throughout the scriptures, was representative of the wrath of God. And, now, it is the reminder of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus on the behalf of each believer. The wine has long been the symbol of God's blessing, reflecting His goodness to His people in delivering us from the penalty of sin through His Son.
In v.19-20 we read, "19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."
The death of the Lord Jesus brought to the end the legal requirements of all the ceremonial law including all of the dietary laws and all of the Sabbath laws. In fact, immediately after the Lord's resurrection, the church started to meet on the first day of the week. His substitution brought to the end the Old Testament ceremonies, and rituals.
Now, the moral law has not changed because God doesn’t change. Of course, the moral law is sanctification teaching, not justification teaching. Obeying the moral law does not get us into heaven, it gets heaven into us, now. Following God's moral law garners for us His wisdom, and the more we walk in His wisdom, the more we will experience His sanctification.
The Lord Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it. This bread was long a reminder of the affliction of Israel in Egypt, but now it is to commemorate the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross for our sin.
Sin can only be forgiven when just payment is made, and the payment is death. The only acceptable death could only be made by a sinless and blameless substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ is that substitute.
The Lord's Supper is simply a remembrance of what He accomplished for us on His cross. He’s not in the bread or in the wine, physically or spiritually. The bread and the wine are object lessons of His body and His blood which were given for us. The two elements are meant to enable us to understand what He did for us on His cross.
Only when justice has been satisfied can we be delivered from the judgment of our sin. When the Lord Jesus died the death that we could not, He accomplished all that satisfies the righteous requirements of the God of the Bible. God made Him sin who never committed one sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
