Background
It is passover and Jesus sends 2 of His disciples to prepare the Passover meal. They want to know where to prepare it and Jesus tells them that when they enter Jerusalem they will find a man carrying a pitcher of water and that they should follow him.
Pitcher
At the house the man enters Jesus instructed them to tell the man: “The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?” The man will take the disciples upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where they should prepare the meal. The 2 disciples went to the city and everything happened just as Jesus said it would.
Jesus then tells His disciples that He has been eager to have this passover meal with them as it is the last time He will eat this meal until the meaning of the meal is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. Jesus then took a cup of wine and gave thanks for it and told His disciples to share it among themselves. He then thanks God for the bread, breaks it and gives it to His disciples telling them “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me”.
After supper he took another cup of wine and said “This cup is the new covenant between God and His people – an agreement with my blood, which is poured as a sacrifice for you”
Eager
Jesus tells His disciples that He has been very eager to eat this Passover meal with them. In other translations it is expressed “earnestly desire”. Jesus have been longing to eat this Passover meal with them. This would be the last Passover that Jesus would celebrate with His disciples until they would eat it together again in the Kingdom of God. It is no mistake that Jesus had this meal with His 12 disciples. God had a covenant with the 12 tribes of Israel and now it was almost time for the new covenant. The 12 disciples were symbolic for the 12 lost tribes of Israel. How amazing that Jesus would long to spend this meal with His disciples even though He knew that they would soon argue about who is the most important, while Judas would betray Him and Peter would deny Him and they would abandon Him in His time of need. Yet He was still longing to spend this meal with them. Jesus’s love is so amazing that it will overlook those things. His love is so amazing that He gave His life for us! That is perfect love! Just as Jesus longed to have the Passover meal with His disciples, so God longs that we would spend time with Him.
New Covenant
After the meal Jesus took the cup and said “This cup is the new covenant between God and His people – an agreement with my blood, which is poured as a sacrifice for you”. In Jeremiah 31:31-34 it is written “”The day is coming”, says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife”, says the Lord.” God promised a new covenant and this was the new covenant.
Let us look at the word covenant. A covenant is a solemn agreement between 2 parties. In this instance it would mean a formal agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general. God made this new covenant because He knew that humans are sinners and always make a mess of things. Christians believe this new covenant replaces the old covenant (Hebrews 8:13 “When God speaks of new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete It is now out of date and will soon disappear”.)
But what is different about this new covenant? This new covenant means a new relationship between humans and God which is mediated by Jesus Christ and that this ongoing relationship will be in fulfilment after the Second Coming of Christ. This includes all people: both Jewish and Gentiles. They only need to believe that Jesus is the son of God. The new covenant also breaks the generational curses of the original sin (Adam & Eve). This new covenant was established during this meal. Human beings could only be reconciled with God through the forgiving of their sin (atonement…… at – one -ment). As Christians this happened because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Let us remember how Jesus was the perfect lamb of God that was sacrificed for us so that we could be reunited with God. (Isaiah 53:7 “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth”.) Let us remember today how much God must love us to do this for us.
Here is a video I found about the last supper for those who would like to see it more visual. It is from Passion of the Christ and is about 3 minutes and 8 seconds in length. Well worth the watch!
My journey with God 