Luke 22:14-23

Luke 22:14-23

And when the hour became, He reclined to eat and the apostles are with him.  And He said to them, “I desired by a strong passion to eat this Passover with you all before I am to suffer.  For I say to you all that I should surely not eat it until when it should be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.  And after receiving a cup while giving thanks He said, “Take this and divide it into them.  For I say to you all that I should surely not drink from this time now from the produce of the grapevine until when the kingdom of God should come.  And after taking bread, after giving thanks, he broke it and he gave to them while saying, “This is my body – the one that is being given over you all.  Do this into my remembrance.”  And the cup similarly after eating, while saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood – the one that is being poured out over you all.  But look, the hand of the one who hands me over is with me upon the table.  In one case the Son of Man journeys according to the thing having be appointed; but in the other case, woe to the man that through whom He is being handed over.  And they began to inquire with themselves the thing who then might be out of them – the one who is about to do this thing.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

The Passover story is probably my favorite demonstration of God’s incredible foresight.  Thousands of years prior to Passover, God instituted a rite that would take on very rich meaning.  In the middle of the Passover, a piece of bread is broken and hidden and found to be made whole again.  This bread represents the Messiah.  As this rite is being acted out with the disciples, Jesus says about this broken piece of bread, “This is me.”  Jesus will be broken.  He will be hidden for a time.  He will be discovered whole again.  Jesus takes this thousand-year-old rite and gives it an incredibly real and new meaning.

For the record, He does the same thing with the cup.  Jesus takes the cup of redemption and says, “This is me.”  He tells the disciples that He is the redemption of the world by using a rite that God instituted many hundreds of years ago.

What does this say about the wisdom of God?  What does this say about the omniscience of God?  What does this say about God’s ability to know our circumstance and provide what we need before we even know that we need it?

Second Thought:

There are some other things that we can pick up besides this incredible understanding of the Passover.  Do you hear Jesus’ words?  He desired to have this moment with the disciples.  He knows what is coming.  He knows that it won’t be too many hours before a nail will be forcibly driven into His arms so He can hang from a tree.  In the presence of that knowledge, Jesus desires to have this moment with His disciples.  Jesus is willing to trade pain and misery for a moment of life with all of us.

How great is the sacrifice of God?  How much greater is God’s love than our sinfulness?

Third Thought:

Jesus ends this passage with a warning.  The Son of Man will suffer as it has been foretold.  However, it will be worse for those who cross Jesus and find themselves on the wrong side of God’s plan.  We shouldn’t take Jesus’ words in a sense of ultimate judgment.  But we can know that Judas didn’t have a pleasant end of this life.  He had to live with the guilt.  He knew he was wrong.  He knew he had handed over God’s Messiah to die.  I can’t imagine how true Jesus’ words were in Judas’ life.  Woe indeed.

How can this part of the story help us to understand what each of our sins mean to God?  How can this part of the passage help us understand God’s grace as He forgives each of us of our sins?

Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 22:24-30