Given in Covenant Love
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
Even though this is only the second Sunday of Lent, we are moving ahead in the story this week — all the way to the table on the night before Jesus dies. Around that table, in the quiet intimacy of a borrowed upper room, Jesus says something astonishing:
“This is my body, given for you…
This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”
Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we repeat those words. But have you ever paused to ask what they meant when Jesus first said them?
Luke tells us it was Passover, the meal that commemorated God’s great rescue of Israel from slavery in Egypt. For centuries, God’s people had gathered to remember the night when the blood of the lamb marked their doors, judgment passed over them, and God bound himself to them in covenant love at Sinai. That covenant was not a contract. It was a binding of lives. God said, “You will be my people, and I will be your God.”
But in Luke 22, Jesus does something that must have felt shocking to his disciples. Instead of pointing back to the lamb, he points to himself. Instead of recalling Sinai, he speaks of a new covenant. And Instead of blood on a doorpost, he speaks of his own blood “poured out for you.”
Jesus is not simply predicting his death. He is interpreting it. He understands his cross as covenant-making love — as God binding himself to his people, not because they are strong or faithful, but precisely in their weakness. Before the disciples scatter, before Peter denies, before the betrayal unfolds, Jesus gives himself.
This Sunday, we will not only reflect on that covenant , we will receive it. We will come again to the Table where Christ gives himself to us in bread and cup.
Reflection & Discussion Questions:
When you hear the word covenant, what comes to mind — contract, obligation, promise, belonging? How does Scripture’s vision challenge or deepen your understanding?
Why do you think Jesus chose the Passover meal, the story of rescue and deliverance, as the setting to interpret his own death?
Luke shows us that the disciples will fail Jesus within hours of this meal. What does it mean to you that Jesus gives himself to them before their failure?
In what ways are you tempted to relate to God as if Christianity were a contract — “If I perform, God will accept me” — rather than a covenant grounded in Christ’s faithfulness?
As you come to the Table this Sunday, what would it mean not just to remember Christ’s sacrifice, but to receive again his covenant love?
Luke 22:14-20
When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.