PASSOVER AND THE NEW COVENANT
Luke 22:1-20– June 26, 2022
Verses 1-6 completes the end of the day on Wednesday per John MacArthur. Many others, like Arnold Fruchtenbaum, say it completes the end of the day on Tuesday and simply tell us the gospel is silent about Wednesday. Both agree with verse 7, Thursday begins.
Luke 22:1-6. V1 – The Festival of Unleavened Bread and the Passover are two separate overlapping festivals that in Jesus’ day in 1st century Israel, and to this day, the two feasts were combined into one 8-day observance all labeled Passover. The Festival of Unleavened Bread follows Passover and lasts 7 days in memory that there was no time to add leaven, aka yeast, in their bread before quickly departing Egypt. Passover is celebrated as it was the time of the tenth plague on Egypt where the blood of a year old lamb without defect was put on the doorframes of the houses where they ate the meat of the lamb. Go to Exodus 12, 23:15 and Deuteronomy 16:1-8 for more information.
V2 – We know from earlier chapters how the chief priests and the teachers of the law hated Jesus and wanted to get rid of Him. But unlike them, the people knew only a man of God and/or the Messiah could do what Jesus had done in raising the dead, casting out demons, healing the lame and sick, and teach as He taught in the temple. They cared only for their power and position. This whole thing is full of sad absurdity as they are in the midst of this holiday season that celebrates life and the leadership schemes to end the life of one who comes to bring life.
V3 – JC Ryle wrote, These words are peculiarly awful. To be tempted by Satan is bad enough. But when Satan “enters into a man,” and dwells in him, the man becomes indeed a child of hell.
V4-5-6 – Look how quickly things go south for Judas once he lets Satan enter him. Matthew 26:14-16 tells us Judas asked What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you? They paid him 30 pieces of silver. And Judas immediately started looking for a chance to betray Jesus. Why 30 pieces of silver? Exodus 21:32 tells us it is the price for a slave that has been gored by an ox – 30 pieces of silver. Fruchtenbaum- The priests took the 30 pieces of silver from the Temple treasury fund. One major purpose of the Temple treasury was to purchase sacrifices.
Thursday
Luke 22:7-13. It is estimated over 1 million people came to Jerusalem for Passover. Jesus sent only Peter and John. He did not want to permit Judas a chance to betray Him before His last teaching to His disciples before He was betrayed.
Jewish tradition was such that each family celebrated Passover together with an elaborate meal. As the disciples had no home in Jerusalem or family, they had to find a place to celebrate. Jesus first sent them to make preparation, likely to the market to buy a lamb. But they needed to know where to prepare the meal. It was unusual to see a man carry a pitcher of water as that was typically a woman’s task while men normally carried water about in skins.
This man would stand out and they were to say The Teacher asks. There was no commanding or demanding, there was instead a simple request. They found things just as Jesus had told them and they prepared the Passover meal.
Luke 22:14-18. That evening after darkness fell and it became Friday when they all reclined at the table eating the Passover meal. There would be a few surprises. First Jesus told them He would suffer. And He would not eat this meal again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. Then He told them to divide the wine among them and repeated what He had just a moment earlier that He would not do this again until the kingdom of God comes.
He will someday in the future share this ritual meal with His disciples when He returns to earth to reign.
Then, in the middle of the Passover meal, He made a prophetic proclamation that when He went to the cross, He would begin by His sacrifice a new covenant that would replace the covenant of the Law, the Mosaic covenant.
Luke 22:19-20. When the bread was lifted up at Passover, the disciples expected to hear what they had heard or said themselves as the head of the meal: “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let everyone who hungers come and eat; let everyone who is needy come and eat the Passover meal.” The main course of the meal was a lamb. It had no tie to their time as slaves in Egypt except as a sacrifice that allowed God’s judgment to PassOver the home that believed and marked the doorframe with the blood of the lamb. Jesus was instituting the new covenant prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah in 31:31-34.
In this new covenant Jesus asks us to commemorate His death, as we partake of the bread and wine in remembrance of what He did by dying for our sins.
Bottom Line:
How do we take advantage of this new covenant? We like to say it is as easy as A-B-C, but it is not all that easy as we must first be aware of our need for forgiveness of our sins. To do that we have to give up our pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, stiff-necked attitudes and Admit we are sinners, confessing our sins to God. And we have to Believe Jesus really did die for our sins on the cross and rose on the third day. Then we have to Call upon Him, Jesus the Christ, as our Lord and Savior. He is our Passover saving us from the death of Hell.