Thankful to the End

14When the hour came, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. 15And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16for I say to you, I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”

– Luke 22:14-18
(NASB® © 2020)

22While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” 23And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many.

– Mark 14:22-24
(NASB® © 2020)

When Jesus was 12, He went with His parents to Jerusalem for the Passover. About 21 years later, we see Him with His disciples as they eat His last Passover together. Now the hour had come for His sacrifice, of whom the Passover was a foreshadowing: Christ, “our Passover,” as the Apostle Paul calls Him in 1 Corinthians 5:7. It was a unique moment when the picture found its fulfillment!    

He had earnestly desired to have fellowship once more with His beloved disciples a few hours before His death. He had told them only a little while earlier, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That evening, He had before Him this death, with all its blessed temporal and eternal consequences. He truly loved His own to the very end, that is, to the uttermost!

 

After they had eaten the last Passover together in the upper room, the Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper. During His absence, they were to remember what He had done for them out of love—and this still applies to us today!

 

Three times the Lord Jesus gave thanks in prayer that evening:

 

  • For the cup used at the Jewish Passover, which was symbolic of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.
  • For the bread, a symbol of His body, which He gave up to death for believers.
  • For the cup, symbolic of His blood, with which He purchased believers, and with which He redeemed them to God.

 

Although He was about to be led like a lamb to the slaughter, He stepped into the background and gave thanks for the mighty blessing His disciples would receive through His death.

 

We are called to give thanks to God in everything (see 1 Thess. 5:18), and at all times for all things (see Eph. 5:20). How wonderfully the Lord Jesus demonstrated this under the most difficult circumstances.

Are you His imitator in this respect too? Is the Lord’s Supper (the breaking of bread) just a weekly, obligatory routine for you, or can you say with all your heart, “your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul” (Isa. 26:8)? Realize anew that the Lord longs for you to reflect on His sufferings and proclaim His death!

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