Passover, the Last Supper, and the Lord's Supper -- a study of Matthew 26:17-30
- mww
- 4 hours ago
- 18 min read
How well do you understand the Lord's Supper?
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Matthew 26:17-30
We study the crucifixion and resurrection at least once a year, but we much more infrequently study the events before the crucifixion -- like the Last Supper. Jesus' "Last Supper" communicates betrayal, sacrifice, hope, and love. We continue to practice the Lord's Supper today as a visual sermon sharing the good news of salvation.
Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover? (26:17)
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Mealtime
Do you have any meal traditions or habits? What do you remember about meals growing up? What are your meals like now? Did you have a special seating arrangement? Were there special meals for certain days? Were certain behaviors strictly frowned upon?
This week's passage is about the extremely serious Lord's Supper, but as a get-to-know-you, there's nothing wrong with sharing some lower-impact stories about your mealtimes.
Are You Public about Your Christianity?
Baptist Press just shared this report from Lifeway Research (the report first came out in January). It's simple and thought-provoking.
Only half of professing Christians seem to think it matters if other people know they are a Christian. That's profound. Let's start with the first question -- that other people don't need to know if I am a Christian. At the very least, it suggests that those professing Christians don't think their behavior matters. (I say "professing" because I don't understand how a born-again believer could think that.) Based on our Bible study last week, I hope everyone in your group realizes the error in that judgment.
So, let's talk about the other two: "Many people who know me are not aware that I am a Christian" and "I am hesitant to let non-Christians know that I am a Christian". Both of those have above 50% agreement. And it's a whole lot easier for me to see how a Christian might think that way.
This becomes your discussion: why might a Christian be nervous about broadcasting their identity in Christ? And why might they think that others don't know they are a Christian?
I know plenty of Christians (myself included) who feel like hypocrites in some of our behaviors and attitudes. We worry about how our bad witness would reflect poorly on Jesus, so better not to bring Jesus into the mix at all. What's the flaw in that reasoning?
And what other reasons can you come up with?
In this week's passage, we have three different parties:
Judas -- the professing disciple who would physically betray Jesus,
Jesus -- the one Man who actually did it all right, and
the Disciples -- all of which ran and hid during Jesus' need.
And all of this happening on a night when Jesus was identifying His followers with Himself closer than ever. It's not a good look for Jesus' followers. (Thank God for grace.) And yet, those are men chosen to accomplish Jesus' mission. So today we have been chosen by God as imperfect servants.
Your Favorite Symbols
This weekend is Memorial Day, a day filled with powerful symbols.
Which symbols most connect with you and why?
And this doesn't have to be a Memorial Day discussion; there are lots of symbols in our lives. Do you have a favorite? Is there a symbol that you find the most powerful? (And why?)
The "check engine" light and the "blue screen of death" are both symbols that are deep in my psyche. I'm a big fan of the Buc-ee's logo. But I'm still the most affected by a cross, the symbol of the death of Christ. (We will focus on that in next week's study.) How about you?
In this week's passage, we learn about the "last supper" -- Jesus invests new meaning in the powerful symbols of the Passover. Meaning we are to remember throughout human history.
Something on Your Bucket List
We've used this before, and we'll use it again, but this week, we actually have a bucket list item from Jesus. (Forgive me if you think that's too flippant.) In Luke 22:15, Jesus tells His disciples that He has long looked forward to sharing this Last Supper with them.
So, what's something on your bucket list? If you want to narrow it down, make it something like "What's a meal you want to eat before you die? -or- a place you'd like to eat? -or- someone you'd like to have a meal with?"
Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him the next day, so we will not fully appreciate how much this night meant to Him. But this is the sort of question that will help your group learn about each other.
Where We Are in Matthew's Gospel
When we studied Matthew back in 2017, we spent a while in this chapter:
This time around, we jump straight from 26:17-30 to the crucifixion. Feel free to skim those other posts if you want a refresher on the other events of this evening.
The final section of Matthew's Gospel is unlike the rest. This is just a fast-paced sequence of events leading up to the Great Commission. (Yes, the Great Commission is Matthew's goal -- the Crucifixion accomplished our salvation; the Resurrection proved Christ's mission; the Commission is what Matthew wants Christ's new disciples to take with them.)
Here's a detailed outline:
The Passion (26:1-27:66)
The plot against Jesus (26:1-5)
The anointing at Bethany (26:6-13)
Judas's betrayal agreement (26:14-16)
The Last Supper (26:17-30)
Preparations (26:17-19)
Prediction of betrayal (26:20-25)
The Lord's Supper (26:26-30)
Prediction of abandonment (26:31-35)
Gethsemane (26:36-46)
The arrest (26:47-56)
Jesus before the Sanhedrin (26:57-68)
Peter's denial (26:69-75)
The Sanhedrin pronounces (27:1-2)
Judas commits suicide (27:3-10)
Jesus before Pilate (27:11-26)
The soldiers (27:27-31)
The Crucifixion (27:32-44)
The death of Jesus (27:45-50)
The effect of the death (27:51-56)
The burial (27:57-61)
The guard (27:62-66)
The Resurrection (28:1-15)
The empty tomb (28:1-7)
The Risen Christ (28:8-10)
The Jewish plot (28:11-15)
The Risen Messiah (28:16-20)
Jesus in Galilee (28:16-17)
The Great Commission (28:18-20)
That's a lot.
This week focuses on the Last Supper, which is not a part of the story we cover regularly. Here are four lessons on the topic from the last ten years:
You can see that this week's lesson is a repeat. I'm happy with my notes from that lesson, so please take a look at it. I'll try to add something new this time around.
This Week's Big Idea: Was This a Passover?
D. A. Carson makes a pretty big deal about this in his commentary, and sure enough, if you do your own internet research, you'll find edgy posts like "The REAL calendar the Jews used" or "When Jesus REALLY died"; stuff like that. These debates have been around for hundreds of years, so if you read a post suggesting that the author has found some new secret knowledge, just stop reading it. Either they're lying or they're ignorant. (Note: there are some scholarly skeptics out there, like this professor at Boston U, and I endorse reading well-researched articles. Just stay away from click bait.)
To make a long story short, here is the question in a nutshell:
Matt 26:17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
But compare
John 18:28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
And also
John 19:13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Aramaic, Gabbatha). 14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king!”
In this week's passage in Matthew 25 -- the Last Supper/Lord's Supper -- we're given a pretty strong indication that this was a Passover meal for Jesus and His disciples (and if you've been to a seder event at our church, you know that we believe the Lord's Supper and the Passover are connected).
But those two passages in John's Gospel seem to suggest that the Passover was the next day, or even the day following, which would itself suggest that the Last Supper couldn't have taken place on a Thursday.
Bible skeptics love this sort of thing. And there is no universally agreed-upon explanation, fueling the skepticism. But there is a pretty straightforward explanation that makes sense to me, for whatever that's worth.
The Calendar. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven-day event (with the yeast being removed from the house the day before it starts (Ex 12:18)). The first night of the feast is the Passover. On the 10th day of the first month, every family selects a Passover lamb (Ex 12:3). On the 14th day, they take that lamb to the temple to be slaughtered (Dt 16:7). At twilight -- between the 14th and the 15th day, the family eats the lamb with the Passover meal.
Challenge #1: we have to remember that Jewish days start at sundown, not midnight.
Interesting fact: this means that Jesus would have selected a Passover lamb on Palm Sunday, the day that He was celebrated as King. (The Gospel of John is not specific about the timeline, and therefore it isn't the point, but I can't help but wonder if Caiaphas's line about Jesus dying for the nation (John 11:30) happened at the same time -- the Sanhedrin has picked their Passover lamb.) This also means that Jesus' disciples would have taken their Passover lamb to the temple sometime during the day on Thursday.
The Terminology. This is where the edgy skeptics think they're being edgy. Jewish records from the few hundred years around the time of Christ are not uniform in their terminology. Some records seem to refer to the entire Feast as the Passover. Some records call every Friday "Preparation Day" (because it's always preparation day for the Sabbah). In other words, John wasn't saying "preparation day for the Passover" but "Preparation Day of [during] the Passover" (John 19:14).
In other words, the Last Supper was part of the Passover, taking place on Thursday night (which is Friday morning of the Jewish calendar). The trial and execution took place on Friday, which was the "Preparation Day" during the Passover, which was being used to refer to the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread. Other records exist using the terms in that way, so John wasn't being weird.
[One consequence: John never said that Jesus died at the same time as the Passover lambs.]
A Trial During a Feast? That last point raises one last question: is it believable that the Jews would push for a trial and execution on a Preparation Day during a high and holy feast? In fact, yes. The Mishnah Sanhedrin 11:4 says that a heretic should be executed during a feast so that the people would hear of it quickly.
Bonus Big Idea: The New Covenant
I figure that my Big Idea is pretty obscure for most of my readers, so let's throw in another critical topic that everybody should know and understand -- the Covenants. I'm so happy with how the Bible Project handles this that I'll hand it over to them:
Humans have broken every covenant made with God. So, God Himself became human and fulfilled those covenants on our behalf, opening the door to a new kind of covenant. The critical passage for us here is Jeremiah 31:
27 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of people and the seed of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear them down, to demolish and to destroy, and to cause disaster, so will I watch over them to build and to plant them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. 29 “In those days, it will never again be said, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ 30 Rather, each will die for his own iniquity. Anyone who eats sour grapes—his own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
This new covenant will not be with a nation but with individuals. And every individual who enters into this covenant will become the people of God.
And what Jesus tells us is that we don't have to worry about breaking this covenant because He is the One who will enter into covenant with God, and when we trust and follow Him, He keeps the covenant on our behalf.
Related: The Lord's Supper
The "Last Supper" is what we call the event during Jesus' last night with His disciples before the crucifixion. The "Lord's Supper" is what we call the ordinance He instituted during the Last Supper which we still celebrate today. I put a lot of time into this topic in a previous post, so if you have questions about
beliefs about the Lord's Supper
how different churches practice the Lord's Supper
the connection between the Lord's Supper and the Passover
please read that post.
Part 1: Passover and Betrayal (Matthew 26:17-25)
17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 18 “Go into the city to a certain man,” he said, “and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time is near; I am celebrating the Passover at your place with my disciples.’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. 20 When evening came, he was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21 While they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” 22 Deeply distressed, each one began to say to him, “Surely not I, Lord?” 23 He replied, “The one who dipped his hand with me in the bowl—he will betray me. 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, his betrayer, replied, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” “You have said it,” he told him.
These verses set up the rest of the evening (primarily the Lord's Supper and the arrest in Gethsemane). You just want to give whatever explanation about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover that you think will help your group.
Why is Passover so important? I covered this at length in the Exodus 12 post linked above. There are two defining events in the Bible: the Exodus in the Old Testament, and the Crucifixion in the New Testament. Those events are memorialized in two defining rituals: the Passover in the Old Testament and the Lord's Supper in the New Testament. And those events are intimately tied to the overarching themes of the Bible: the Old Covenant (Testament) and the New Covenant (Testament). So, when we see the New Covenant as the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, then we would realize that the Lord's Supper (at least in some way) is the fulfillment of the Passover.
The way David presents the seder meal (we do this at our church every 3-4 years on Maundy Thursday) clearly demonstrates exactly how the Passover points to Jesus and how the Lord's Supper fulfills the Passover.
Here are some additional articles if you want more.
There's nothing supernatural about verse 18. Jesus had just prepared ahead of time. (You could make this a topic if you wanted to: how do you plan ahead for a big meal, say, on Easter soon after church?) There was a lot going on, and this was a very (very!) special event to Jesus.
There's a lotta lotta debate about these locations, but many maps put the "Upper Room" in the far south of the city. According to tradition, Jews living in Palestine were supposed to eat the Passover within Jerusalem. BUT the meal could not begin until after sundown. That's why Jesus and His disciples were lounging in a room together. And when sundown hit, Jesus first dropped the terrible news of betrayal.
John's Gospel (13:30) suggests that Jesus sent Judas away from the feast not long after it began and before the Lord's Supper. (This supports the biblical teaching that the Lord's Supper is only for Christians.) The "main course" of the Passover is the lamb itself, eaten with a fruit puree which was scooped out of a bowl with a piece of bread. (In other words, it was customary for feasters to share a bowl and a loaf of unleavened bread.) And immediately before that, feasters share bread dipped in a bitter herb (like horseradish). Either of those could have been when Jesus gave the bread to Judas.
[Side note: Why did John not talk about the Lord's Supper? The short answer is "we don't know". The longer answer is that the other Gospels talked about the Lord's Supper, so John probably focused on the other things that happened that evening -- like the washing of feet and Judas leaving the feast -- things that became more profound to him after decades of pondering them.]
Here, Jesus emphasizes the bitterness of betrayal -- someone close to Him; someone sharing an intimate meal with Him. It's a work of great evil on the part of Judas.
This use of "Son of Man" more clearly than anywhere shows the dual identity of the Messianic King with the Suffering Servant.
[And no, I have no idea how the disciples didn't pick up on what was happening! Yes, Jesus was being intentionally ambiguous here, almost certainly because He didn't want another disciple to interfere in what Judas was about to do. But, come on, men.]
Be sure that Judas willingly participated in this betrayal. He was no puppet of God or of Satan. He was a willing tool of Satan.
Part 2: The Lord's Supper (Matthew 26:26-30)
26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 But I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke want us to see the bitter combination of betrayal and sacrifice. While Jesus is doing this beautiful thing for His disciples (and all future Christians), Judas is plotting with the Sanhedrin about catching Jesus at Gethsemane.
We have three accounts: Matthew+Mark 14:23-26, Luke 22:19-20, and 1 Cor 11:23-25. They are all slightly different, reflecting how the different disciples remembered the evening. The slight variations in wording and action should be read as complementary -- like the different details with the resurrection accounts.
One of the controversies with a Christian seder meal is that we don't know for certain exactly what happened during a first-century Jewish Passover. In other words, the outline I'm sharing below may not be exactly what happened! But the Gospel writers did not clarify, so we can be certain that these details are not the point.
Here's how the Last Supper/Passover/Lord's Supper might be recreated:
The first cup -- the "cup of salvation"
Washing of hands
Salt water and bitter herbs
Breaking and hiding the middle matzah (afikomen)
The "four questions"
The second cup -- the "cup of deliverance"
More washing and blessing
More bitter herbs (horseradish)*
The main meal*
Finding and eating the afikomen*
The third cup -- the "cup of redemption / blessing"*
Blessings and psalms
The fourth cup -- the "cup of hope"
Closing psalms
[Psalms 113-118 are commonly the ones included.]
#10 might have been when Jesus said "take and eat".
#11 might have been when Jesus said "take and drink".
That schedule makes sense theologically. The fact that in the Passover, Jews take a stack of three matzahs, remove and break and hide the middle one, only to eat it after the meal, is so incredibly strange but also a perfect symbol of the Trinity is suggestive. And the fact that the third cup points to Elijah specifically because he points to the Messiah sure makes us think of John the Baptist and Jesus. But don't get too attached; it's a "best guess" recreation. If it were super-important, the Gospel writers would have given us those details, and we would today probably be celebrating a "Christian Passover" rather than a Lord's Supper. But that's not what Jesus did -- the Lord's Supper is NOT a "Christian Passover"; it's something completely new. It's what the Passover pointed to from afar.
[You might remember my emphasis that Sunday is not a "Christian Sabbath"; it's something completely new -- the Lord's Day. Same principle applies here.]
One thing we do know for certain -- nowhere in a Passover ritual are the phrases "this is my body" or "this is my blood". These words would have shocked the disciples; what Jesus was doing was something new. And that's what we celebrate today.
The imagery Jesus uses is so powerful that we don't need to know a thing about the Passover to understand what Jesus was doing. And I'm pretty sure that's the point -- Jesus' followers from all over the world and every age of history could share this event and see clearly how it points to Jesus.
First, bread and wine are universal symbols. Every culture has a kind of bread and a kind of fermented water (that makes the heart glad, so to speak). [Note: this was wine, y'all. But it was also heavily watered down; there were children participating, after all.]
John realized the profundity of Jesus' "I Am" statements -- like "I am the bread of life" and "I am the true vine" -- after decades of thinking about them. I Am the Bread of Life -- Jesus' difficult words in John 6:25-40 (also, can you lose your salvation?
In the Lord's Supper, Christians eat the bread and drink the wine, which represent Jesus' body and blood. It is as intimate a participation as a symbol will allow.
What Does "Is" Mean?
I'm not being snarky. Most debates about the Lord's Supper come down to the definition of "is". Catholics conclude that the wafer and wine miraculously cellularly become Jesus' body and blood during the "words of institution" spoken by the priest. Lutherans don't like that, but they say that "is" must mean "is", so Jesus' actual body and blood is literally present within the wafer and wine.
The word has (and has always had) a wide semantic range. It could mean "this means my body" or "this represents my body" or "this literally turned into the cells of my body". We're going to have to make some theological choices. And considering the "I Am" statements, I'd say that Baptists are in the right for treating the bread and juice as symbols.
In fact, we can point to the two ordinances as "visual sermons of the gospel" -- baptism represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the believers' connection with that; the Lord's Supper represents the sacrifice of Jesus and the believers' connection with that. Every time we see those things, we see the gospel (if we're doing them the way Jesus wants us to).
Back to the passage.
The Bible is clear that forgiveness of sin requires the shedding of blood (Heb 9:22). So to does the ratification of a covenant (Ex 24:8). Jesus knows what's going to happen to Him the next day, and He also understands the significance. He offers Himself willingly. He "pours out" His life for the good of His followers (including us!), that we might be saved. This "new covenant" (see Luke) is the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 -- written on our hearts, not on tablets of stone. Jesus' sacrifice is sufficient to forgive the sins of every person, but it is only "efficient" to forgive the sins of those who come to Jesus for salvation -- "many". I.e., that gift is only yours if you choose to receive it.
What does it mean that Jesus will not drink from this "fruit of the vine" again? Quite simply, Jesus is about to die and then ascend into heaven. No drinking of earthly wine in heaven, I guess. But Jesus has recently told parables of the "wedding supper" (like in Matthew 22), so we know He is already looking forward to the day when that feast happens "for real".
Paul picked up on the double imagery here:
1 Cor 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 both looks back to Jesus' death and also ahead to His return. It looks back to the first Lord's Supper and ahead to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.
Our goal would be that everyone in our Bible study groups truly appreciates what the Lord's Supper is and why we keep it today. My guess is that most of your people have partaken of it many, many times in their life -- this is your chance to see how well they have paid attention.
Closing Thoughts: Taking a Class Lord's Supper?
I've seen comment about this over the years -- a class studies about the Lord's Supper and then takes it as a class during class time.
It's a free country, but I discourage that. The Lord's Supper was given by Jesus to His disciples, and it was first celebrated by the groups that would eventually be churches. In other words, the Lord's Supper was given to your church, not your class. We don't want to isolate ourselves in the event that Jesus intended to show our love and compassion and participation with one another.
Paul also picks up on this:
1 Cor 10:16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, since all of us share the one bread.
The Lord's Supper should unite us around the sacrifice of Jesus. Therefore, at the least, I think this means it should be a whole-church action.
Yes, I know that this leads to questions about legalism and the practice of "closed communion" (which then gets into the theology of other churches and how they practice the Lord's Supper). Those are for another day.