Matthew 26:17-30 - Homiletics

The last Supper.

I. THE PREPARATION .

1 . The question of the disciples. It was now the first day of Unleavened Bread, "when the Passover must be killed"; apparently, therefore, the fourteenth of Nisan, which seems to have been sometimes regarded as the beginning of the feast (see Josephus, 'War of the Jews,' Matthew 5:3 . 1), though the fifteenth was legally the first day. It is possible, therefore, that the disciples may have come to our Lord at the beginning of the fourteenth, according to the Jewish reckoning, that is, after Sunset on the evening of the thirteenth; and thus the last Supper may have taken place a day before the legal time for the Passover. This is, perhaps, the most probable explanation of the apparent differences between St. John and the first three evangelists. The disciples asked the Lord where he would have the Passover prepared; they may have thought that he would keep it at Bethany, which was reckoned within the limits of Jerusalem for the purposes of the feast.

2 . The Lord ' s directions. He sent Peter and John to Jerusalem, giving them a sign whereby to find the house which he had chosen. They were to say to the good man of the house, "The Master saith, My time is at hand; I keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples." There was a mysterious power in the Lord's message; the house was freely lent now, as the ass had been lent on the previous Sunday. There was a mysterious meaning in the words, "The Master saith, My time is at hand"—a meaning into which neither the disciples nor the householder could enter. Possibly, also, those words may imply that the Lord would keep the Passover before the appointed day, for his time was at hand—the time when he must depart unto the Father.

II. THE CONVERSATION AT THE SUPPER .

1 . The Lord ' s prophecy of the betrayal. "When the even was come, he sat down with the twelve." The Lord showed his holy lowliness; the twelve showed the workings of human pride even at that solemn hour. He washed the disciples' feet; but among them there was a strife, which of them should be accounted the greatest. Strange that these petty jealousies could have found room in apostles' hearts at such a time, in such a presence, after such warnings of the coming cross. Pride is one of our deadliest spiritual enemies; it has wrought sad evil in the Christian Church. We feel its power in our own hearts; we must crush it down if we would follow Christ. He taught them the blessedness of humility by word and by example; and then, as if to humble them still further, he told them the sad truth, "One of you shall betray me." It may be that the words were spoken, not only in sorrow, but also in love; it may be that even now the Lord would have called Judas to repentance, as he would have gathered the hard-hearted Jews unto himself, but they would not; and now Judas would not. He had yielded himself to the tempter; Satan had entered into him ( Luke 22:3 ), and there was hope no longer. The Lord's holy soul was filled with the deepest sorrow; this awful treachery wounded his holy human heart with the acutest pangs; in the mysterious union of the human and Divine he knew its dreadful issues.

2 . The questions of the disciples. The Lord's sorrow communicated itself to the disciples; they were exceeding sorry. Sorrow has a humbling effect. The disciples felt now the influence of the Lord's holy sorrow. They did not answer, like St. Peter afterwards, with passionate assertions of their faithfulness; but they whispered each one, even Peter, it seems, with trembling anxiety and self-distrust, "Lord, is it I?" Not, let us observe, "Is it this man or that man?" but, "Is it I?" The Lord did not answer at first with that distinct intimation which be gave shortly afterwards to St. John ( John 13:26 ). He said in general terms that the traitor was one of those nearest to him—one who sat at the same meal, was using the same dish. Perhaps it was said in tenderness; he would even now, if it were possible, win that guilty soul to a sense of sin, to sorrow and repentance. Therefore he continued, in tones of deeper awfulness, to speak of the impending treachery. "The Son of man goeth;" so it was written in the Scriptures; so it was determined in the eternal purpose of God. But God's foreknowledge is not inconsistent with the free will of man. The man does what must be, for it was foreordained; yet his will is not forced. The will of man is sacred, it is free; we feel the truth of this in our hearts, though we cannot see through the veil of awful mystery which bangs around. "Woe unto that man!" It is an utterance of sorrow, as in Matthew 24:19 , not an imprecation. "Woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed!" It was through Judas; he had sold himself to Satan. Christ saw that evil figure behind him, prompting him to his hellish crime. He would have warned him even now; he tells him of the dreadful consequences of the sin which was in his thoughts. "Good were it for that man if he had not been born!" How it must have rent the loving heart of the most merciful Saviour to say those awful words! But the sternness was the sternness of love; he gave the traitor a glimpse of the tremendous future, to save him, if it were possible, in spite of himself; to save others from the like fearful doom. But Judas would not heed; he had not yet joined in the questions of the disciples. But now he too said, "Master, is it I?" Perhaps he felt forced to do so; to say nothing, while all the rest were asking the question, seemed to separate him from the others; it might look like an acknowledgment of guilt. Perhaps it was said in wantonness, or bitter scorn, or in that desperation which is the last stage in atrocious guilt. The Lord answered simply, "Thou hast said." It was an ordinary form of affirmation, yet it seems to refer the traitor to his own evil heart—he would find the answer to his question there.

III. THE INSTITUTION OF THE HOLY COMMUNION .

1 . The bread. The Lord passes from the old covenant to the new, from the Passover to the Holy Communion. He did so "as they were eating," during the protracted ceremonies of the Paschal supper, while they were thinking of God's great deliverance vouchsafed to their forefathers. He announced himself as the true Lamb of God, the one Sacrifice of which all the sacrifices of the Law were but figures. He took bread, and blessed. He gave thanks for the fruits of the earth, as was customary at the Passover. He blessed God the Father who giveth our daily bread, who giveth the Bread of life; he blessed bread and. wine, consecrating them by his words for this new sacred use. He gave thanks (St. Luke and St. Paul), and by that thanksgiving made the Holy Communion to be a Eucharist—a service of thanksgiving. He brake the bread, and himself "gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body." He had prepared them to receive these wonderful words. A year ago in the synagogue at Capernaum he had announced the great truth that the food of the Christian soul is the flesh and blood of Christ. Then he had promised that spiritual food ("The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world"); no w he gives it. "This," he said—"this which I give you, is my body." He stood before them, his natural body yet unbroken, his flesh and blood not yet separated, as he gave them the holy food. He had taught them in that great sermon which had offended so many of his disciples, that "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." He had told them, "He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." They would understand. that "the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith." They would understand as much as is given to us men to understand of that which must ever remain a sacred mystery. It was God incarnate who spake those holy words. His words, his actions, must have a deep, wide-reaching, mysterious meaning, passing our poor intellect. It is enough for us to know and believe that the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper.

2 . The cup. Afterwards the Lord took the cup, the third probably of the four cups which, at that time, were drunk at the Paschal supper; that third cup was called "the cup of blessing". Again he gave thanks, making it a Eucharist, and bade them all drink of it: "For this," he said, "is my blood of the new covenant." "The cup of blessing which we bless," says St. Paul, "is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" "To such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ." The old covenant made between God and his chosen people was ratified and inaugurated by the blood of sacrifices. "Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you" ( Exodus 24:8 ). It was necessary that the new covenant which the Lord had promised by his prophet ( Jeremiah 31:31 ) should be inaugurated with blood, for "with out shedding of blood is no remission." The Lord Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, being both Priest and Victim; his blood is the blood of sprinkling, which can purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. It is the blood of the new covenant—the blood with which the covenant of grace was inaugurated. The partaking of that cup in repentance, faith, and love brings home the blessings of the new covenant to each believing soul. That blood was now being shed, the Lord said; the hour of his death was so near at hand that he regarded it as already present. He gave himself now in solemn purpose, in voluntary self-sacrifice, to die for men, as he gave his body and blood to be forever the spiritual food of the Christian soul. It is shed " for many," about them, with reference to their needs; for all in a true sense, for "he died for all," he is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world; for many, in a deeper, holier sense—many, not all, alas! wash their robes, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. And it is shed for the remission of sins; for that blood purgeth the conscience, that blood cleanseth from all sin, that blood is accepted as a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. Then with what grateful love, with what fervent hope, ought all Christian people to come to the Holy Eucharist! for the bread and wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received become by his ordinance the means whereby the body and blood of Christ are received after a heavenly and spiritual manner by the faithful. And that body is the bread of life, and that blood is the blood of the new covenant, sealing the blessings of the covenant of grace to those who in faith partake of that holy /bed. Thus coming, may we experience in our inmost souls the truth of the well known words, "O my God, thou art true; O my soul, thou art happy" (see Hooker, 'Eccl. Pol.,' ch. 67, sec. 12).

3 . The new wine of the kingdom. The Holy Eucharist looks not only backward, to the death of Christ, but forward also, to the marriage supper of the Lamb. For the Lord said that he would drink no more of that fruit of the vine, till that day when he shall drink it new with his chosen in the kingdom of his Father. Then the wine shall be new, not the new wine of this world, but a fountain of gladness and rapture such as hath never entered into human heart. The Lord shall share that gladness with his redeemed. He rejoiceth in their salvation; they rejoice in his most precious love. "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."

4 . The departure. The last Supper was over. They sang a hymn, the conclusion, probably, of the Hallel. The Lord and his disciples chanted the praise of God in those precious psalms, which, from the time of David onward, have ever been the Church's treasury of devotion. They sang of that cup of salvation which, in a Christian sense, they had just received. They sang (and surely they must have felt that those sacred words had now a deeper meaning than ever) how "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." They sang of the Stone which the builders refused, soon to become the Headstone of the corner. They repeated the "Hosanna!" of Palm Sunday, and ended their high chant of praise with the solemn refrain, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever." As the Lord was with his disciples then, singing with them, so may he be with us, in our hearts, singing with us, when we chant the praises of God in the sanctuary. His presence, his inspiration, make praise and prayer acceptable. And now the last psalm was sung, and they went forth into the night. So should the Christian soul, strengthened and refreshed by the holy sacrament, go forth to meet the Lord.

LESSONS .

1 . Hate pride; remember your sins; earnestly seek the grace of lowliness.

2 . Say, "Lord, is it I?" Do not think of your neighbours'sins, but of your own.

3 . Come often to the Holy Communion. Come; for it is the Lord's commandment. Come; for it is the food of the soul.

4 . Seek to realize the presence of the Lord in prayer and praise.