Luke 22:14-20 The fulfillment of the Last Passover

Luke 22:14-20 Jesus tries to explain the significance of the Last Supper. Parallel passages: Matt 26:20-29, Mark 14:17-25, John 6:41-58, John 13-17, I Cor 11:23-34.,   In celebrating the Passover, which was directed by Moses in Exodus 12:1-27, Jesus was able to identify how the key features of the Passover were types of Him.

·        Ex 12:2-3 Passover marks the beginning of the Jewish calendar, the first month of the year. Jesus' death is the starting point for our entire life in Christ.

·        Ex 12:3-6 They must start with an unblemished lamb, keep it for four days (the tenth through the fourteenth day of the month), and then kill it at twilight. Jesus was the unblemished lamb of God, who was with the people in the temple every day of the passion week, who was killed on the cross, before sundown, on the day of the Passover.

·        Ex 12:7 The blood of Jesus was shed on the cross, which would be the shape of the places where the blood was applied on the two door posts and on the lintel; it becomes cross-shaped when it drips from the lintel to the floor. (Lintel is the loadbearing or decorative member over a door).

·        Ex 12:8-11 They are to roast and eat the lamb, and completely consume it; in this Jesus gave them the symbolic celebration of the Lord's supper that we observe to this day of eating bread that is called the body of Christ. (I Cor 11:24-26).

In Luke, Jesus first explains that He had earnestly desired to eat this Passover with His disciples before He suffered, and would not do so again until it was fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Most likely this represents His divine perspective on the entire plan of salvation. That God's love for His children is so strong, so passionate, that Jesus yearned to accomplish it with an emotional fervor that was emphasized by His repetition of the greek word "epithumia" for emphasis. Perhaps great desire is a better rendering of this. That Jesus reflected God's eternal plan and desire for what He (Jesus) was about to accomplish. And that He would never eat the Passover with them again until it was accomplished. I think Jesus here is referring to God's revelation of the plan of salvation going back to events 1,500 years earlier when God had told Moses to command the Israelites to observe the Passover annually. Although most Jews view it as a reminder of what God did to deliver them as a nation from Egypt, God's intention was that it was a picture of what He would accomplish in delivering His people from sin through the death of Christ. This was coming to completion, plerothe, fulfilled.

          Next we have the taking of the bread and the wine, with Jesus' declaration that the bread is His body and the wine is His blood. (Luke 22:17-20) This statement is recorded in all of the accounts, with minor variations in wording. We also find it stated in John 6:48-58. Thus Jesus established a new ceremony for His followers, based on the Passover, in which unleavened bread was eaten and several cups of wine were consumed. The Lord's Supper is virtually universally practiced among Christians today, although variations in practice are large. These variations are probably important doctrinally to every group who is convinced that they have correctly interpreted the Scriptures and everyone else has it wrong. There is little point in trying to arbitrate or judge these variations in practice. The single largest issue in all this is the difference between treating Communion as a sacrament vs. a memorial service, and what are the implications of this difference in viewpoint for the lives of believers.

          The concept of transubstantiation is based largely on John’s account (John 6:48-58).  In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation is the doctrine that, in the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and the wine used in the sacrament are literally, not merely as by a sign or a figure, but in actual reality as well, changed into the substance of the Body and the Blood of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains unchanged. Jesus made the statement that His followers would not have life in themselves unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, which He would only have said if that were actually possible. And His words at the last supper (Luke 22:19-20) indicate that this is the medium by which He was making it possible.  So by whatever mysterious (and perhaps beyond our comprehension) mechanism, Jesus seems to be saying that the elements of the Lord's Supper are His body and blood, and that believers must partake of them in order to have eternal life. Whether this is a physical transformation or a spiritual identification (essence transfer) seems secondary to this fundamental truth, however difficult for us to accept or even comprehend.

          It is important to understand that Communion is not a magical rite, that the words that are said during the prayers over the elements are not a magical incantation. Neither Catholics nor Protestants believe that an unbeliever who eats the elements somehow gains eternal life - that is the stuff of Hollywood fantasies. Nor does partaking of communion without either faith or obedience guarantee acceptance by God. Paul said that anyone who partakes without examining himself eats and drinks judgment to himself (I Cor 11:27-30). So faith is essential to the efficacy of the sacrament. And not only faith, it is necessary to conduct self-examination, per Paul's instructions, to see if we are in the faith.  Of course, Jesus did not state all this in the account recorded in Luke. He simply identified the unleavened bread of the Passover celebration with His body and the wine with His blood.