God’s Grace
For Meditation
We’ve been talking a lot about food in our summer series. Think for a moment of all the meals you’ve eaten over the course of your life. No doubt they’d number in the thousands. Perhaps what is surprising is how few of them you actually remember or can describe. Most of them are the routine ingestion of calories, more functional than memorable. When they are memorable, it can be because there is something exceptional (good or bad) about the food, the company or the conversation.
The disciples have spent three years with Jesus and eaten countless meals with him, but the meal they share in Sunday’s text is different from all the others. It marks a dramatic and unexpected new direction in God’s story.
The Passover meal was a celebratory meal for the Israelites. Over the course of the dinner they remembered how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. With special food and wine they would retell the story using Scripture and song to evoke the power of God’s faithfulness to his people. As you read the text try to imagine how the disciples might have experienced this meal. How is Jesus laying the foundation for what we call the Lord’s Supper, the meal that the church has shared in for over two thousand years? Think about how we can taste and see God’s goodness as we partake together.
Matthew 26:17-30
17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
18 He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21 And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
22 They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?”
23 Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
25 Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?”
Jesus answered, “You have said so.”
26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.