Passover Plans (Luke 22:1-23; Exodus 12)
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A Conspiracy to Kill (verses 1-6)
These verses in Luke 22 begin a rapid movement toward the cross. While the chief priests and scribes (the very men who should have been most prepared to receive Christ!) were seeking how they might kill Jesus, the unthinkable happens: one of Jesus’ own disciples came to them to conspire with them. Although Judas himself was led by his own greedy desires and made no effort to resist the devil, the entire process demonstrates God’s sovereignty and is a fulfillment of what was predicted in Psalm 41:9. Satan’s attempt to destroy God’s plan of redemption is seen all throughout the Bible, he ultimately fails in each of them and God’s sovereign plan for His people is preserved. In this account also we see the Lord’s sovereign plan unfolding through the dark events. Satan and the Pharisees were not the only ones that wanted Jesus to suffer and die, and Judas was not alone in his desire to betray Jesus, but Jesus Himself desired to suffer both betrayal and destruction. Jesus was determined to die in order to establish God’s everlasting Kingdom on earth.
The Passover Plot (verses 7-13)
While all Jesus’ opponents had plotted together against Heaven, they did not realize that they were playing their roles in the real plot of the Passover. Knowing that He had been betrayed and that the conspiracy was in motion already, Jesus gives instructions to keep the location of this final meal a secret. It would have proven to be too easy of a place to arrest Jesus if the location of their Passover meal is known, so the details are kept even from the disciples, except from the two that were sent to arrange the room.
Desire, Not Dread (verses 14-16)
With the appointed hour approaching, we would expect Christ to feel dread, but Luke records that Jesus felt desire. His earnest desire was to be with His disciples in His final hours so that he could express His love for them (John 13:1), instruct them (John 13-16), pray for them (John 17), and prepare them for His departure (John 16:32-33). He also earnestly desired to see the significance of the picture in the Passover become a reality.
Passover Pictures (verses 17-20)
The pictures in the Passover were two-fold. First, it was to serve as a memorial of Israel’s original deliverance out of the slavery of Egypt. Second, it was a promise of final deliverance from sin and death. Now the time had come for the promise made long ago with the instituting of the Passover, the final deliverance from sin and death was about to be accomplished. Jesus had celebrated this meal annually since He was a child, and was now celebrating it for the last time until it is completely fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. He was teaching that the Passover was not to be continued any longer, but instead, he was instituting a new ordinance, the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus instructed to remember His death each time they eat the bread and drink the wine. The two elements in the Lord’s Supper are intended to preach a visible sermon of Christ crucified, showing that Christ’s death is the life of man’s soul. With the cup, representing Jesus blood, Jesus affirming that He was inaugurating the New Covenant spoken of in Jeremiah 31. This Last Supper with Jesus and His disciples is actually the First Supper, anticipating the future celebration of the banquet feast of the Lamb of Heaven (Revelation 19:9).
Judas and Jesus (verses 21-23)
Judas, the one that had conspired to betray the Lord, had the audacity to sit with Him at the final Passover celebration. He was acting out of his own free will, since he was evil and could only do what was in his own heart. Nonetheless, his betraying hand served the ultimate plan of God to destroy the works of the evil one. If God used the greatest crime in history to accomplish the greatest good imaginable, He can also accomplish His will for our good through the little things in our lives as well.
– What is the significance of the Lord’s Supper? Why do we continue to observe it? In what ways does the Lord’s Supper look to past, present, and future realities? What are we supposed to be primarily remembering when we take the Lord’s Supper together?