Read Luke 22:7-38
Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare for the Passover meal that they are to share together. It’s part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and on the day when the Passover Lamb has to be sacrificed. While they eat the last supper together, Jesus reminds them again, a bit cryptically, of what he is about to do. He takes the bread and wine, shares them with the disciples and states the kingdom of God is coming, that his body will be given for them, that they are to remember his sacrifice and that his blood will be poured out as a new covenant for them. He also states that one of them will betray him, tells them what greatness looks like in God’s eyes, that in fact all of them will at least temporarily fail and deny Jesus that very day, that he will be numbered with the sinners and all that is written about him will be fulfilled.
By Ian Coutts (Gospel Community Vision Coordinator)
Reflection Questions
- Exodus 12 in the Old Testament is about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and in particular the Passover meal. Why were Jesus and the disciples observing the Passover together?
- In verses 19 and 20, what two parts speak of Jesus’ sacrifice for His people?
- In this retelling of the Passover meal, what food of the Passover meal is not mentioned? Why do you think that is?
- In verses 24-27, Jesus corrects the disciples on who and what it means to be the greatest. Why? What does it actually look like to be the greatest according to Jesus? Who is our perfect example of this?
- In verses 31-34, what is Jesus talking about here? (Consider the differences we’ve seen in the disciples and particularly Peter in Acts).
Family Around the Table
In these verses, Jesus shows how much he will sacrifice for His people. As a family, discuss all the things you can be thankful for to Jesus – The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
1. Exodus 12 in the Old Testament is about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and in particular the Passover meal. Why were Jesus and the disciples observing the Passover together?
I’m interested in what others thoughts are on this question as well as question 2.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover in Exo 12 was something that all Israelites were to observe. In fact, if they ate bread with leaven in it they were cut off from the nation of Israel:
Exodus 12:15
For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. (NIV)
In regards to the Passover meal, it involved a lamb being sacrificed and its blood put on the doorframes. Those who didn’t do this would have been destroyed. Thus the obedient people who did this left Egypt to go into the promised land and become the nation of Israel:
Exodus 12:12-13
12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (NIV)
Similarly, the disciples would eat the unleaved bread and drink the wine as symbols of the body and blood of Jesus that believers would put their trust in for their salvation (from sin, not from the Egyptians) and together would now be a kingdom of priests and a royal priesthood. Together they are the church, the body of Christ.