Broken and Poured

The defining event in Israel’s history was, undoubtedly, the exodus from Egypt.

God miraculously rescued them from their slavery to the Egyptians and brought them out to be His people. The Passover commemorated this event.

And it is on Passover that Jesus tells His disciples another story of God’s rescue from a different kind of slavery.

The Passover meal was built around four cups of wine. The first two came before the meal and the second two came after.

Listen to Jesus in the book of Luke:

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. (Luke 22:19, NLT)

God had commanded His people that, during Passover, only unleavened bread was to be eaten.

Israel left Egypt in haste – they didn’t have time to let the bread rise, so they made it without yeast. Unleavened bread, then, reminded them of their freedom.

Leaven is also used in the Bible as a metaphor for sin. It only takes a little bit to work its way through the whole dough.

So, by removing the leaven, Israel was reminded not only that God had gotten them out of Egypt, but that He intended to get the sin out of them.

It is this unleavened bread that Jesus holds up and of which He says, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19, NLT)

This is my body. Without leaven – without sin. This is my body which is given for you. As you take it, as it breaks between your teeth, remember that my body was broken for you.

Jesus then takes a cup of wine.

Remember, the first and second cups of wine come before dinner and third and four cups come after dinner.

Jesus takes the third cup – the Cup of Redemption – and says, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.” (Luke 22:20, NLT)

Jesus is alluding to what the prophet Jeremiah had declared centuries earlier.

“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33, NLT)

Jesus is proclaiming the arrival of the new covenant – the new exodus story, the new rescue from a different slavery, the new and better redemption.

When we take the bread and drink the wine, we remember our exodus story.

We have been brought from slavery to freedom…

From darkness to light…

From death to life…

By the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus.

We’re not able to gather and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together right now.

But we will.

Until then, let’s keep telling our exodus story. Let’s keep celebrating His rescue and redemption. Let’s not forget to remember.

Take a look at Luke 22:19-20 and think about the bread and the wine Jesus chose to infuse with new meaning.

The Bitter Taste of Slavery

The four cups of wine used in the Passover, as we saw yesterday, allow us to track the story of the Last Supper.

At Passover, the Jewish people would recount the story of God rescuing them from their slavery in Egypt. But it was more than just a verbal retelling. Every piece of the Passover meal served as a visual retelling.

The four cups of wine represented the four promises that God made.

The sacrificial lamb was a reminder that the Angel of Death had passed over their homes.

The unleavened bread told of how they had to leave Egypt so quickly that there was no time to let the bread rise.

The bitter herbs tasted like the bitterness of slavery.

The first two cups – the Cup of Sanctification and the Cup of Deliverance – are taken before the meal. The last two cups – the Cup of Redemption and the Cup of Restoration – were taken after the meal.

As Jesus sat around the Passover table with His disciples, He predicted that one of them would betray Him. The disciples are shaken at the thought and ask Jesus who he means.

Now, Jesus could have just said, “Judas.”

But Jesus is Jewish. So, as he so often does, He answers them in a very Jewish way.

Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.” And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. (John 13:26, NLT)

Jesus dips the bread in the bowl of bitter herbs – intended to remind them of the bitter taste of slavery – and hands it to Judas.

Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.” (John 13:27, NLT)

Judas got up and hurried into the night with the bitter taste of sin on his tongue.

He never tasted the Cup of Redemption.

Judas, just hours later, leads the Temple guard to Jesus and watches as He is arrested on charges of blasphemy.

I don’t know what Judas expected to happen. I don’t know what Judas was trying to accomplish in his betrayal.

Maybe he was motivated solely by greed and the thought of thirty pieces of silver in exchange for Jesus sounded too good to pass up. Maybe he, like the crowds who had cheered at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, believed Jesus would lead a revolt again Rome and was attempting for force Jesus’ hand.

I don’t know what Judas was thinking.

What I do know is that he did not expect Jesus to die.

When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” (Matthew 27:3-4, NLT)

Judas was filled with remorse. But, as far as we know, his remorse never led to repentance.

The Bible tells us that Judas went out from the Temple and hanged himself.

The Cup of Redemption was still available to him.

It was too late to undo what he had set into motion. It was not too late to come back to Jesus.

But he took his own life without having tasted of it.

Have you tasted it? Have you let it wash away the bitter taste of sin?

So long as you have breath, it is not too late.

He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. (Ephesians 1:7, NLT)

Take up the cup, friends. Take it up and taste the redemption – the freedom, the forgiveness – that Jesus offers.

Read John 13:21-30 and think about a time that you had the bitter taste of sin on your tongue. Did you – have you – repented and tasted from the Cup of Redemption?

The (Unexpected) Guest of Honor

The Jewish calendar was built around seven festivals.

What we know as the Last Supper was actually shared on the first of those festivals –Passover.

As Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples, an argument broke out.

Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. (Luke 22:24, NLT)

This certainly wasn’t the first time the disciples had jockeyed for a position of honor. But why now? Why here?

See, at this time, the host would seat people according to their rank and status. Everyone knew what each seat meant.

Here’s what it would have looked like:

Jesus, as the host, would have chosen who sat where. The Bible doesn’t explicitly say how the disciples were arranged, but it does offer us a couple of clues.

One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at the table at Jesus' side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” (John 13:23-24, ESV).

We know the disciple spoken of here – the one whom Jesus loved – is John. John refers to himself this way all throughout his book.

Since they reclined at the table on their left arm, in order to lean back on Jesus, John had to be in front of Him – in the place of His right-hand man.

What about the guest of honor?

And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.” (Matthew 26:20-23, NLT)

Three people would share a dish. So, if John is in the right-hand man’s seat and Jesus is in the host’s seat…

Judas was the guest of honor.

Judas has already taken a bribe from the chief priests.

Judas plans to betray Jesus.

Judas intends to instigate His arrest.

And Jesus knows it.

So, why on earth would Jesus give Judas the seat of honor?

Because this is what it means to love your enemies. This is what it means to do good to those that mean you harm. This is what it means to extend mercy and grace.

This is how Jesus has loved us.

God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8, NLT)

We are His betrayers. We are accomplices to His arrest.

Yet while we were still sinners – while we were still enemies – He went to the cross for us.

If this is how Jesus treats His enemies, how then shall we treat ours?