READ: Matthew 26:1-30a; Mark 14:1-31; Luke 22:7-38
WATCH:
PRAY: The traditional Jewish Passover prayer before drinking the first cup of wine is “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.” This same introduction is used for all of the scripted Passover prayers. Begin your prayers this week in a similar manner: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe…” Reflect on how God’s relationship with that to/for which you’re praying inform your prayer and God’s response?
DO: In the church, we often commemorate the Last Supper on a day called “Holy Thursday” or “Maundy Thursday.” Talk to others about what they think this day, especially the term “Maundy” means, and what it represents. Do they know what we commemorate on this day? Research and see if you can find out the origins of the term “Maundy” and/or what we do/say in worship on Maundy/Holy Thursday. OR
DaVinci’s famous painting depicts The Last Supper. The fiction novel and film The DaVinci Code has popularized much speculation about this painting and the actual event. Look into DaVinci’s painting, or read the book…how do these secular things inform your reading of Scripture?
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Who?
Jesus ate his last Supper with the twelve disciples (Mark 14:17; Matt 26:20). “It is not possible, however, to assume from this that the women mentioned in Mark 15:40; Luke 23:49, 55 were excluded” (Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981, p. 46). One early tradition states that “Mary and Martha were present at the Last Supper, but were not allowed to partake of the sacrament because Mary had laughed” (Jeremias, 46).
What?
For [those in the ancient Middle East] every table fellowship is a guarantee of peace, of trust, of brotherhood. Table fellowship is a fellowship of life. Table fellowship with Jesus is more… every meal with Jesus was for his followers a symbol, a pre-presentation, indeed an actual anticipation of the meal of the consummation (Jeremias, pp. 204-205).
“This meal…is the Passover meal, the table celebration of the whole people of God, the high point of the year” (Jeremias, p. 205). This is a meal of rejoicing, in which the Judean people celebrate the freedom that God won for them in the exodus. “The Jewish Passover celebration at the time of Jesus is both retrospect and prospect” (Jeremias, 205). This meal would have been marked with both a remembrance of the deliverance from slavery and an expectation of the coming deliverance. Early Jewish tradition even expected that the Messiah would come on the Passover night, as an interpretation on Exodus 12:42 which calls the Passover ‘a night of watching’ (Jeremias, pp. 206-207).
Note that the bread is broken, but Jesus does not connect this to the breaking of his body. In later manuscripts of 1 Corinthians 11:24 the words “that is broken” are inserted, and were carried over in the King James translation of the Bible. However, the earliest accounts omit these words, in line with John 19:31-37 and the symbolism of Jesus as the Passover lamb, which, according to Exodus 12:10, 46 was to be roasted whole (no bones broken)
When?
Jesus died on Friday (Mark 15:42; Matt 27:62; Luke 23:54; John 19:31, 42). Since at the time of Jesus the day was reckoned from sunset to sunset, this Friday (from 6pm on Maundy Thursday to 6pm on Good Friday) includes the whole of the Passion in the narrower sense: the Last Supper, Gethsemane, arrest and trial, crucifixion and burial…all the four evangelists agree also on this point (Jeremias, p. 16).
The Last Supper took place in the evening (Mark 14:17; Matt 26:20; 1 Cor 11:23; John 13:30) – according to the Jewish calendar, the beginning of Friday. This is why, in our current world, which ends each day in the evening, we celebrate the Last Supper on Thursday night. According to Jeremias, “this is by no means a matter of course! Nowhere else in the gospels do we hear that an ordinary meal was held at night… In fact, it was customary to have two meals a day: a very simple breakfast between 10 and 11a.m. and the main meal in the late afternoon… from its inception the Passover meal was eaten at night” (pp. 45-46).
The calendar date is slightly less certain. In each Gospel account Jesus’ death is connected with the Passover festival and the liberation God accomplished for the Israelites (cf. Exodus 12). “The Synoptic Gospels do this by placing the Last Supper within the context of the Passover meal. In the Gospel of John, the Last Supper is not a Passover meal, but the evening before, and the crucifixion takes place prior to the Passover meal, at the time the Passover lambs are being sacrificed” (Boring & Craddock, People’s New Testament Commentary, Louisville: Westminster, 2004, p. 161).
Where?
All four Gospel accounts agree that the Last Supper was eaten in Jerusalem. During the Passover, there would have been over 100,000 celebrants (most of them pilgrims) in the holy city. Most of these pilgrims, including Jesus, therefore, lodged outside of the city in nearby towns or surrounding areas (Matt. 21:14; 26:6; 26:30). It would have been very crowded to eat the Passover meal in Jerusalem; however, according to Scripture, the Passover lamb had to be eaten at the same place as the sacrifice – the temple (Deut. 16:7; 1 Chr. 35:13f.). “For lack of space the place of slaughter had to be separated from the place of eating: from the first century BC only the slaughter took place in the Temple area; the Passover meal was transferred to the houses of Jerusalem” (Jeremias, p. 43). Because of this, many rooms and houses were opened up to pilgrims, like the one where Jesus and his friends gathered, so that they could fulfill their holy obligation.
Why?
For Mark, “Jesus gives himself, his life, to seal God’s covenant (14:24). The covenant constitutes the people as God’s own people, binding them together with God and each other. Mark relates blood to the covenant with Israel, which is here sealed (Exod. 24:6-8; Zech. 9:11). Jesus’ disciples…are incorporated into God’s covenant with Israel” (Boring & Craddock, 161-162). “The Markan words ‘for many,’ … interpret the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for sins” (Boring & Craddock, 269).
For Matthew, “The whole action is related to the forgiveness of sins, the words dropped from Mark’s description of John’s baptism [compare Mark 1:4 and Matthew 3:5-12]. Forgiveness is dissociated from John’s baptism and related to Jesus’ covenant-renewing death” (Boring & Craddock, 172).
In Luke, “Jesus commands the disciples to repeat the act, which the church in Acts continued to do (Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7) and which millions of Christians have continued to do until this day as the central act of Christian worship” (Boring & Craddock, 269). As in Mark, Jesus gives himself to seal God’s covenant. The words “new covenant” in Luke 22:20 reflect the fulfillment of God’s promise to renew his covenant with Israel (Jer. 31:31). “Although other New Testament authors understand Jesus’ death as an atoning sacrifice (Rom 3:23-25), Luke is very reserved with regard to this interpretation… The Passover lamb was not a sacrifice for sins, but a symbol of God’s liberating act at the exodus. For Luke, the Eucharist is understood within the framework of the Passover and is not related to the lamb sacrificed as a sin offering (see 1 Cor. 5:6-8).
In 1 Corinthians, the institution of the Lord’s Supper is prefaced with the words, “The night when he was betrayed.” In Greek, the same word means ‘handed over’ or ‘delivered up’ and can be interpreted as an account of Judas’ betrayal, as well as God’s delivering up Jesus for the redemption of our sins. In Isaiah 53:6, 12 the same word is used to describe God’s ‘delivering up’ the Suffering Servant.
“The Eucharist is a symbolic act instituted by Jesus that cannot be reduced to one or several ‘meanings,’ but points the participant in several directions.
1. The Eucharist points backward to something that really happened:
- it points back to the Passover, the festival that celebrated God’s liberation from Egypt (Luke 22:15)
- it points back to the covenant made with Israel that is now eschatologically renewed (1 Cor. 11:25; Luke 5:36-38; 22:20)
- it points back to the inclusive meals Jesus celebrated with his disciples and with outcasts (Luke 5:29-32; 7:29, 34)
- it points back to the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples
2. The Eucharist points forward to the future:
- Since there is one loaf and one cup (1 Cor. 10:17), it points forward to the time when the one church will be manifest in reality, when all Christians can celebrate together the breaking of bread in the name of Christ.
- The Eucharist points forward to the end of history (Mark 14:25; 1 Cor. 11:26), the final consummation of the kingdom of God, pictured as the messianic banquet where all are included and where there is food, drink, and fellowship for all.
3. The Eucharist points outward:
- The Eucharist points out to the whole church, a reminder that discipleship is not individual and Christian life is not just congregational. As there is one body, one church, one faith, one hope, one baptism (Eph. 4:4-5), so there is one loaf and one table for all (1 Cor. 11:26).
- The Eucharist points beyond the church to the world, as a testimony to God’s act in Christ. It is itself a proclamation of the death of Jesus and its meaning (1 Cor. 11:26).
4. The Eucharist points inward:
- In 1 Cor 11:27-28 believers are urged to examine themselves (not their neighbors!), but the ‘examination’ is not in order to see if they are ‘worthy,’ for none is worthy, least of all those who suppose that they are. The Lord’s Supper is the supreme testimony to the grace of Christ, who eats and drinks with sinners (Luke 5:29-32). The self-examination is to see that the Eucharist is celebrated in a proper manner and does not degenerate into a casual and empty ritual, a secular dinner party, or a meal that emphasizes the distance between rich and poor and thus violates the unity of the church. Still and all, the worshiper reflecting on the meaning of Jesus’ body and blood cannot but become more aware of personal sin and forgiveness.
5. The Eucharist points upward:
- The Eucharist points upward to the reality of the divine world.
- The Eucharist points upward to the experience of the presence of God in Christ… The fact of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist does not depend on how it is explained. It is important for believers to understand that the Eucharist is more than ‘just’ a symbol, that something really happens in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:28-35; 1 Cor. 10:14-22). " (Boring & Craddock, 533-534)
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