Luke 22:13-15 “And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

Interesting that Jesus specified that ‘this’ Passover would somehow be different from the others. He had already celebrated two other Passover feasts with his apostles. Why was this one special? Because this year’s Passover sacrifice would be like no other before it and none that would come after. The Passover lamb had finally come that would once and for all redeem God’s people from the sin debt owed by all. Jesus, the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God, would willingly offer himself for us all. At this final meal with his disciples, Jesus would implement a new celebration that would require his sacrifice be remembered for all times. Jesus had told his disciples that his body and blood would be the food and drink that leads to eternal life (John 6:54-59). Many of his disciples stopped following him after that because it was more than they could handle (v.66). But the apostles who stayed by Jesus’ side would see this teaching come to fruition. For that night he would break the bread symbolizing his body (about to be broken) and he would share the cup of wine, the blood of the new covenant (about to be spilled for them and for all men).

Pray: “Heavenly Father, I sometimes forget that when I share communion with my brothers and sisters, I am re-enacting the meal my Lord Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before he became ‘our’ Passover lamb. His sacrifice truly saved us from the sentence of death, just like the lamb saved the children of Israel on that first Passover. Help me, when I break bread and share the cup with my church family, to do it with the solemnity worthy of his sacrifice for me…in the joy of my Savior’s name I pray - Amen.”