Jesus is Excited about Holidays and Dinner
Now when the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table and the apostles joined him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Then he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
It is a really rich experience to celebrate a Passover meal with some people that can give you a good commentary on what is going on. If you take it slow and pay attention, you can see the Messiah show up all over the Passover meal.
Jesus is genuinely excited to celebrate this meal with all of them. The Passover is a celebration of when Moses led Israel out of Egypt and slavery and into the promised land. They were delivered and saved from 400 years of suffering and slavery.
That deliverance pointed to the eventual work of Christ on the cross – freeing all who would believe in Him from the slavery of sin.
He is also excited because He knows that the last and final deliverance is about to begin. From Passover to Pentecost was the salvation and establishment of the Jewish people. The same is in progress right now with the Church.
We have been delivered. Christ has died for our sins. We have been established as a people. The Holy Spirit is in us to lead us. At some point, the fulfillment of the Kingdom will happen and we’ll join Christ in a grand feast for eternity.
The bread, made in haste to show the urgency of their salvation, is Christ’s body. It will be broken as easily as a cracker, and we must take His life in the flesh into our own lives.
The wine is a sign of a covenant, and they’d drink FOUR CUPS at the Passover meal. Each cup symbolized something, and this one is the cup of confirmation, finality, or consummation.
It’s a big deal of a dinner, and Jesus is excited to go through all of this for each one of us. He knows that it’s His last meal before His persecution. He also knows that it’s His last Passover meal with sinners.
From here on, it’ll be saints all around. See you there.
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