Why the Last Supper?

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." Matthew 26:26-29

The time had come for Jesus to say goodbye to His disciples but how was He going to do it so that they would understand the significance of His death. During the Passover Feast Jesus instituted a new feast that has been part of the Christian church from the very beginning. The Passover Feast remembered the deliverance of the people of God from bondage in Egypt and at that time a lamb had to be slain for an offering to their God.

Jesus was about to show His disciples that the old order was coming to an end and a new and better way was about to begin. Jesus took the old and transformed it into the new. The Passover supper Jesus shared with His disciples was literally the last Passover supper that He shared with them but it was also the very first “Lord’s Supper.”

In the Passover supper the blood of the lamb was applied to the door frame and the meat was roasted and eaten. Jesus said that the bread represented His body which was broken for them and the wine represented His blood which was shed from them. In a dramatic way Jesus was showing His disciples that He fulfilled the requirements of the Passover lamb once for all. The disciples were not passive observers but the actively ate the bread and drank the wine.

The disciples did not realize at that time that this was the last meal that Jesus would sit down and eat with them. Jesus did eat fish in their presence and He did cook breakfast for them on the shores of Galilee but this was the last meal that they lingered over.

There were two lessons Jesus wanted His disciples to learn. First, that He would become their Passover lamb. They would never need another Passover lamb. They would never have to kill a sacrifice and paint the blood on their door frame. Each time they broke the bread and drank the wine together they would remember what Jesus had done. It wasn’t until after the Holy Spirit came upon the church that they understood what had actually taken place in that upper room.

Second, Jesus wanted to show the disciples that this was not the end but it was really the beginning of a new relationship. He said that we were to do the act of partaking of the bread and the wine until He returned for His church. He said that He would not partake until He would share the meal again in His Father’s kingdom.

When we partake of the Lord’s Supper we remember two things. First, that He is our Passover lamb and second, that He is coming again for His church. We must always look back but we also look forward.