And the day of unleavened bread came, in which the passover was to be killed.
This verse names the day God had set for the sacrifice of His Son. Everything that follows in the chapter — the meal, the betrayal, the cross — hangs on it.
Luke counts this day the Jewish way, from evening to evening. One single day holds both the feast and the death it pictured.
The last day of His life of humiliation drew near. It was a day never to be forgotten, the centre, so to speak, of time. On the events of that day hung the interests of millions for eternity. That day began — for it is counted the Jewish way — with the keeping of the Passover, and it ended with the death and burial of the true Passover Lamb.
One writer traces the hours of that day.
The day of unleavened bread arrived, and Luke added, "when the Passover must be killed" (v.7). It was the day God had ordained for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. That day began at 6:00 pm. The mock trial took place during the night, and at 9:00 am that same day He was put on the cross. But knowing well all that awaited Him, the Lord was in calm control of all the circumstances.
Some have argued from John's Gospel that Jesus held the meal a full day early. Luke's own wording answers that.
"The day of unleavened bread." The supply of unleavened bread (Ex. 23:15) began, as we would say, at 6 p.m. on the Thursday, when the 14th of Nisan set in… Some compare John's Gospel and hold that the Lord kept the ceremony one whole day early. That theory already seems to be ruled out by Luke's own words, "the day … in which the passover had to be killed." Only the darkness of half of the technical day divided the Lord's celebration from that of the people of Jerusalem in general.
In the ESV the lamb "had to be sacrificed"; older versions read "must be killed." That word carries God's appointment, not human custom.
The Greek word is the more general one. It marks any kind of necessity: the necessity that lies in the nature of the case, or, above all, the necessity that comes by divine appointment. This gives it greater strength, and "must" is the way it is most often translated. See 2 Tim. 2:6; Luke 22:7; John 3:7… Those show the general use. These others, out of many, show the necessity fixed by the will and word of God: Matt. 16:21… Luke 22:37; Luke 24:7, 26, 44.
Luke names the feast and the sacrifice in one breath. They were kept as one feast, and they carry two halves of one truth.
The Passover was to be kept once a year, on the 14th day of the first month. With it went "the feast of unleavened bread," kept from the 15th day for seven days. It is counted as one feast, for sometimes it is called "the feast of the Passover" (Ex. 34:25; Luke 2:41; John 13:1). Unleavened bread was to be eaten for seven days, because the Passover speaks both of sins forgiven by the blood of the sacrifice and of sin condemned by the death of Christ. Leaven is a symbol of sin, and the seven days speak of its complete judgment by the death of the Lord Jesus.
Israel killed the lamb once a year as a picture. On this day the picture and the reality met.
The passover must have the basic place. The reason is plain. It is the well-known sign of the death of our Lord Jesus… Tied directly to it is the feast of unleavened bread — that is, purity according to Christ, where the leaven of man's nature cannot be allowed… On the very day that our Saviour died on the cross the Jews kept the passover… Our Lord Himself ate the passover on the regular day. Even the Jews who seized Him ate it, by Jewish reckoning, on that very same day, though for us it was the next morning. Christ died before that day was over.
Here Luke shows Jesus in a new role, and against a dark background.
In Luke 22 we see our Lord with the disciples, not now as a prophet, but about to become a sacrifice, meanwhile giving them the sweetest pledge of His love. On the other side stand the hatred of man, the weakness of the disciples, the falsehood of Peter and the treachery of Judas. Behind them is the enemy who had the power of death, with all his cunning and terror. The day of unleavened bread comes on, and the passover must be killed.
- Appointed — "must" is the word for a necessity fixed by God's own will and word.
- Dated — the day began at 6 p.m. with the Passover meal and ended with the burial of the true Passover Lamb. Supper and cross fell inside one Jewish day.
- Undivided — Luke calls it the day "on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed." That rules out the idea that Jesus kept the feast a day early. Only half a day's darkness separated His meal from the city's.
- Twofold — the Passover speaks of sins forgiven through the blood. The unleavened bread beside it speaks of sin itself condemned and judged.
- Fulfilled — while the people killed their lambs, the Lamb they pictured was dying that same day. The old sign met its reality.
And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the passover for us, that we may eat [it].
The last Passover is near, and the Lord's first move is a meal with His friends. He sends two men ahead to a house they have never seen — so who is arranging this evening?
Each of the four Gospels supplies a different piece of this errand. One writer lines them up, and notes that the man who helped prepare the meal never mentions it.
It is very interesting, in connection with the Lord's Supper, to see that in Matthew (Matt. 26:17) the disciples come to the Lord to know where to prepare the Passover supper, but we are not told who did it. Mark (Mark 14:13) says it was two disciples. Luke (Luke 22:8) tells us that these two disciples were Peter and John. John, with his usual reserve, says not a word about who prepared it. But when everything was ready for them to sit down to supper, he says, "He washed our feet and made us fit to enjoy it." Then, made bold by knowing such love, he leans his head on the Lord's chest.
Centuries of Passovers were now coming to an end. The One who began the feast arranged its last keeping Himself.
For many centuries Israel had kept the Passover, with more or less faithfulness. Now they would keep it in its full meaning for the last time. Within twenty-four hours its light would grow pale in the shining of the reality it pictured, when the true Lamb of God died on the cross. Remarkably, at that last full keeping, the One who instituted it was present to share it — the perfect, holy Man. He ordered the Passover to be prepared, and He decided the very place where they should eat it. The time, the manner, the place, were all His appointment. The choice lay not with the disciples but with Him, as verse 9 shows.
He does not just say, prepare the Passover. He adds, for us, that we may eat it. He wanted this meal, and He wanted it with them.
So He desired to eat this last Passover with His disciples, because He would eat it no more until it was fulfilled in the kingdom of God, that is, by His death... Notice also what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart needed this last testimony of affection before leaving them.
Others place the same moment against the wider background of that week — the plotting of the rulers, the betrayal, the coming denial.
In Luke 22 we see our Lord with the disciples not now as a prophet, but about to become a sacrifice, meanwhile giving them the sweetest pledge of His love. On the other hand, there is the hatred of man, the weakness of the disciples, the falsehood of Peter, the treachery of Judas.
The command in this verse produces a question in the next one. One writer praises them for asking.
How good to see that the disciples did not trust themselves to decide where to prepare the Passover, but rather asked Him to direct them. If they had not had this simplicity of faith, they could not have expected His miraculous answer to their question.
The Lord had no home in Jerusalem. Yet the difficulty was only ever theirs.
But where? The Lord had no home at Jerusalem, as He had at Capernaum, nor had He spent a night inside the city walls all that week. Where then should they find a suitable room for the purpose? They did not know, so they asked Him... God always has ready what is needed for His work... Probably the man was a secret disciple, though clearly unknown to the Apostles as such. His name is never mentioned.
Some stumble at such exact foreknowledge. One writer replies that the power which described the scene also arranged it.
There is no ground of difficulty here for anyone who believes the Word of God. He could describe the person, the place, the time and the circumstances in advance. He was in communion with the divine power and grace that controlled the heart of the Jewish householder. That man had been a stranger until then, yet he gladly agreed to let the Lord use his room for the Passover feast with His disciples. God ordered everything in honour of His Son for the last Passover. To me that is beautifully fitting as a testimony in Jerusalem, where the religious leaders, and even a disciple, along with the crowd, were hardening themselves to their ruin in rejecting and killing Him.
- Sent. The errand begins with Him. He chose Peter and John, and Luke alone gives us their names.
- Set. This was the last Passover to carry its full meaning, and He fixed the time, the manner and the place.
- Asked. They did not decide for themselves where to prepare. Without that simple faith they would not have looked for His answer.
- Supplied. God always has ready what His work needs. An unnamed householder, likely a secret disciple, had the room waiting.
- Shared. He wanted this last meal with them. His heart needed that sign of love before He left them to suffer.
But they said to him, Where wilt thou that we prepare [it]?
Passover was near, but the Lord owned no house in Jerusalem. The two men He sent ahead had no address to go to. Their reply is a short question. It shows both their own emptiness and His full command of the situation.
The question was not laziness. In that city, a room for their Master was not easy to find.
The Lord had no home in Jerusalem, as He had in Capernaum. He had not spent a night inside the city walls all that week. So where would they find a suitable room? They did not know, so they asked Him, "Where will You have us prepare it?" God always has ready what His work needs… The chief priests and Pharisees had ordered that anyone who knew where He was should report it, so that they might arrest Him (John 11:57). Providing a room for Him could bring the owner trouble, if he did not report Him. But the owner was willing to do what the Teacher wanted.
Peter and John could have used their own judgment. They did not. That choice made room for the answer they received.
It is good to see that the disciples did not trust their own judgment about where to prepare the Passover. They asked Him to direct them. Without that simple faith, they could not have expected the miraculous answer He gave them.
They showed the same trust when they carried out His reply.
The Lord Jesus had no home of His own. But He knew well how to put His hand on everything God's service needed. The owner of the guest room was no doubt someone who knew Him and honoured Him. The disciples knew that their Master was enough. They attempted nothing on their own. They looked to Him for direction, and acted on it. So the One who had nowhere to lay His head did not lack a suitable place for His last meeting with His own.
His answer settled every detail before any of it happened. The exactness points to who is speaking.
Oh, the perfect, divine dignity of Him who, while He was Man, was also God! How the glory of His Godhead shines out here! You see it in His quiet majesty, His conscious power, and His full knowledge. At the same time, you see how clearly everything is marked out. Nothing is left to what we might call a "perhaps," a "maybe," or "chance." One who is Master of every circumstance arranged the whole thing. He has it all in His own hand.
He was days from His death. That took nothing from His rights or His knowledge.
The Lord had now reached the time of His deepest humiliation. Yet the glory of His person and His rights over all things stayed the same… In the house they were sent to, they would find a heart prepared by grace to receive the Lord… He knows all circumstances and all hearts.
That week the nation's leaders were closing ranks against Him. Yet God saw to it that His Son had what He asked for.
He could describe the person, the place, the time and the circumstances in advance and in detail. He was in communion with the Divine power and grace that controlled the heart of the Jewish householder, a man who had been a stranger until then. That power and grace made him glad to let the Lord use his room for the Passover meal with His disciples. God ordered everything in honour of His Son for this last Passover. To me that is a fitting testimony in Jerusalem. There the religious leaders, and even one of the disciples, along with the mass of the people, were hardening themselves to their own destruction as they rejected Him and put Him to death.
Their question is not only history. Writers apply it to us today.
When the Lord told Peter and John to prepare the Passover supper, they asked, "Where will You have us prepare it?" We may ask the same today: "Where shall we go to worship?" He then told them to go into the city. There they would meet a man carrying a pitcher of water, and they were to follow him. This man may picture for us the Holy Spirit and the pitcher of water the Word of God. We are to go where the Spirit and the Word of God would lead us.
- Empty hands. They had no house, no room, no plan — and God always has ready what His work needs.
- Empty hands ask. They did not trust themselves to decide; that simplicity of faith is what left room for His answer.
- The answer is exact. He named the person, place, time and circumstances in advance, and left nothing to "perhaps" or chance.
- The answer includes the host. Behind the open door was a heart prepared by grace, because He knows all circumstances and all hearts.
- The question is still ours. "Where will You have us prepare it?" becomes "Where shall we go to worship?" — and we go where the Spirit and the Word lead.
And he said to them, Behold, as ye enter into the city a man will meet you, carrying an earthen pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he goes in;
The Lord sends Peter and John to get the Passover ready, and when they ask where, He gives them no address — only a sign to follow. Everything turns on two questions: how could He know it, and what does the room He asks for tell us about Him?
The sign works only because it was odd.
Verse 10 puts the Lord's foreknowledge on display. Carrying the water was the task of the women; a man bearing a pitcher of water was a very uncommon sight. Yet He knew a man would be doing this unusual thing. He knew Peter and John would meet him as they entered the city.
How could anyone know this in advance? One commentator finds no difficulty, and follows the Lord's knowledge into the heart of the man who owned the house.
There is no ground of difficulty here for anyone who believes the Word of God. He could describe the person, the place, the time, and the circumstances in advance. So He was in communion with the divine power and grace that controlled the heart of the Jewish householder — a stranger until then — and made him gladly agree to let the Lord use his room for the Passover feast with His disciples.
One commentator sets this errand beside an earlier one, when the Lord sent disciples to fetch a donkey.
If the earth had accepted the Lord, He had a right to fill the throne of David. But the citizens would not have Him. So, rejected as a King, He had to become a stranger... The first was to get Him a donkey and, as Lord of the fullness of the whole earth, He claims it from its owner. He says, so to speak, "You are the owner, but I am the Lord." The man bowed to the claim... Now He sends out a mission, as a traveller going into a guest chamber. How the Lord knew how to change Himself! He knew how to abound and how to suffer need.
One commentator draws out what that one room says about the Lord — and about His people.
Notice how He points to that one spot as the place where, to His own mind, it was fitting for Him to eat the Passover with His disciples. And it was there He instituted the Supper... He means simply this: that He was a Stranger here, and that we must be strangers too. He is showing us how His earthly circumstances must form and determine ours. How touching! The Creator of all, He who formed everything, who also holds everything up, had not a spot in His own creation!
Their question is what made room for the sign.
How good to see that the disciples did not trust themselves to decide where to prepare the Passover. Instead they asked Him to direct them. Without this simple faith, they could not have expected His miraculous answer to their question.
Commentators differ on what the sign pictures. One sees the pitcher as small next to what waits inside the house.
Follow where the man with the water goes in, and there you will find the place made ready, which only He can fill. For the Old Testament leads this way to the New. The pitcher holds only water, and it leads to the place where the living streams soon flow out in their fullness.
Another reads the man himself as a picture, and turns the sign into an invitation.
The Lord told the disciples to follow a man carrying a pitcher of water, and he would show them the spot. Is this not a picture of the Holy Spirit? and does not the pitcher of water speak of divine resources and refreshment? If you wish to enjoy this large place, let the Holy Spirit lead your soul into it. You may break bread with a very correct body of Christians and yet never know this large upper room furnished.
- Ask — The disciples did not pick the place. They asked, and that simple faith left room for His answer.
- Follow — The answer was a person to walk behind, not an address. The Lord had seen that unusual sight before it happened.
- Claim — As with the donkey, He claims what is not His by law. The householder bows, because divine power had already moved his heart.
- Guest — The room He claims is a guest chamber. The Creator of everything had no spot in His own creation, and His strangeness here shapes ours.
- Arrive — The jar holds a little; the upper room holds far more. Commentators read the sign two ways: the Old Testament leading to fuller streams, or the Spirit leading a soul into a large place.
and ye shall say to the master of the house, The Teacher says to thee, Where is the guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples?
The Lord sends two disciples into Jerusalem with a message, not a favour to ask. They must find a householder and repeat their Master's words. Everything turns on the weight of that one short sentence — and on why the One who owned no house in Jerusalem had a room waiting for Him.
The disciples carry no bargaining, no explanation, no name to drop. The householder answers to nothing more than the words that name who is asking. The ESV reads "The Teacher"; older translations have "The Master," the wording these writers follow.
Then the light from behind the scene (vv. 8-13) makes a passage. It is the Lord; and no matter what He suffers, or what lies before Him, we still find the divine knowledge and power. There is the chamber! What calm and peaceful dignity! It is no effort, nothing put on for show. Everything yields before the unwitnessed authority of this rejected Saviour. Everything, that is, except the unrenewed heart of man — the very thing to which that authority had been shown most plainly. To the householder, unknown it seems to every eye but one, it is enough to hear, "The Master says to you."
A man days away from the cross claims the room as His own.
It was One who was going to die, yet He still went there with royal, divine rights. He had not forfeited His place as Messiah, though He was going to suffer as Son of man on the cross. He therefore takes possession as the Master, and the good man of the house at once agrees to His claim. All was before His eyes. There was no lack of power to act upon the conscience and affections of men.
The Lord told Peter and John to look for a man carrying a water jar.
The Lord's foreknowledge is strikingly displayed in verse 10. Carrying the water was the task of the women; a man carrying a pitcher of water was a very uncommon sight. Yet He knew there would be a man doing this unusual thing, and that Peter and John would meet him as they entered the city. He knew also that the "master of the house" would answer the message the disciples brought in the name of "the Master." No doubt he recognised the Master as his own Master. In other words, he was one of the godly in Jerusalem who acknowledged His claims, and the Lord knew how to lay His hand upon him.
The word points to a real custom in a crowded city at festival time.
Records tell us that at feast times many people came to Jerusalem from distant places. Those living in the city who were able gave up a room for the use of any who came to worship. So the term "guest-chamber" came into use. The disciples found such a room ready, furnished and prepared, where the Lord kept the last Passover with His disciples.
The Greek word behind "guest room" appears in the story of His birth too. Mark then records this errand with one word changed.
From the Greek verb kata-luo we get the noun kata-luma. It is the word used in the story of our Lord's birth, in Luke 2:7, when there was "no place for them in the inn." The only other time the New Testament uses it is when the Lord ate the last supper with His disciples in the large upper room… Mark 14:14 has the same question that Luke records here. But in the better reading of the Greek text, one word is changed: "Where is My guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" Yes, it was His guest room; His disciples; and His supper.
He had to ask for a room because He had none. That did not leave Him without resources.
The Lord Jesus had no home of His own, but He knew well how to put His hand on all that was needed for the service of God. The owner of the guest-chamber was no doubt someone who knew and revered Him. The disciples knew the sufficiency of their Master. They attempted nothing on their own. They looked to Him for direction, and acted on it. So the One who had nowhere to lay His head had no lack of suitable accommodation for the last meeting with His own.
He wanted the room for a meal with His own, and it was the last of its kind.
In Luke 22 we see our Lord with the disciples. He is with them not now as a prophet, but as One about to become a sacrifice, meanwhile giving them the sweetest pledge of His love… It was the last act of communion of Christ with them. He eats with them: He will not drink. Another cup was before Him.
- Word. Peter and John carry no argument — only "The Master says to you," and the door opens.
- Knowledge. The man with the water jar, the householder, the room: all were before His eyes before either disciple set out.
- Claim. Days from the cross He has lost none of His royal, divine rights, and the householder agrees at once.
- Provision. The One with nowhere to lay His head still knew how to put His hand on everything needed for the service of God.
- Purpose. He borrowed the room for one thing: to eat the Passover with His own. It was His last act of communion with them before He suffered.
And *he* will shew you a large upper room furnished there make ready.
The Lord sends Peter and John to prepare the Passover. When they ask where, He describes a room He has never entered — its size, its floor, its readiness. Commentators read the scene on two levels: what it says about the One giving the directions, and what the room has come to mean for Christians today.
The two apostles had no idea where to go. One writer traces the answer to the man who owned the room:
The Lord had no home in Jerusalem, as He had at Capernaum, and He had not spent a night inside the city walls all that week. Where then would they find a suitable room? God always has ready what is needed for His work... Probably the man was a secret disciple, though the apostles did not know it at the time. His name is never mentioned. The chief priests and Pharisees had ordered that anyone who knew where He was should report it, so that they could arrest Him. Providing a room for Him could bring the owner trouble. But the man was willing to do what the Teacher wanted. He showed them a large upper room furnished, with the couches and the carpets all ready, and now it was clear who they were for.
The instructions are exact: man, house, room, timing. One commentator treats that as evidence, not a puzzle:
There is no ground for difficulty here for anyone who believes the Word of God. He could describe the person, place, time and circumstances beforehand, in exact detail. He was in communion with the divine power and grace that controlled the heart of the Jewish householder. That power made the man — a stranger to Him until then — gladly agree to let the Lord use the room for the Passover feast with His disciples. God arranged everything in honour of His Son for this last Passover. That seems to me beautifully fitting as a testimony in Jerusalem. There the religious leaders, and even one of His disciples, along with the crowd, were hardening themselves to their own destruction by rejecting and killing Him.
The word behind "guest room" was an ordinary one. It appears at the start of Luke's Gospel too, and the echo is striking:
This is the word used in the story of our Lord's birth, in Luke 2:7, when "there was no place for them in the inn."... And in Mark 14:14 we find the same question, but (in the better reading of the Greek text) one word is changed: "Where is My guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" Yes, it was His guest room; His disciples; and His supper.
The householder gives up the room at once, without argument. That easy compliance says something about the One asking:
He was going to die, yet He went there with royal, divine rights. He had not given up His place as Messiah, though He would suffer as Son of Man on the cross. So He takes possession as the Master, and the owner of the house at once accepts His claim. Everything was before His eyes. There was no lack of power to act on the conscience and affections of men. He could have turned all the others as He bowed this man's heart. But how then would the Scriptures have been fulfilled, and sin blotted out, and God glorified?
Commentators read the three words that describe the room — large, upper, furnished — as a picture of the Christian's place. Start with "large":
Once we come into Christianity we are in touch with what is large. Take first that most dreaded enemy of man. He ruins our prospects and hurries us off the stage of our short life. Yet even "death is ours." Death can only bring the believer more fully into the region of his blessings. Christianity is large, for it is eternal. It is large, for it has to do with the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Christianity is large because it breathes the air of resurrection.
Pollock reads the room's height as a contrast with the blessings promised under the law:
Judaism was like a room on the ground floor: it offered earthly blessings... But Christianity offers no earthly blessings — ours are heavenly. The room is an upper one, because in picture the disciples were to be taken away from the influences of the earth.
The room came ready. Nobody had to carry anything in. Another writer draws a practical conclusion:
The furnished room reminds us that God has made every provision for the Church: no human additions are needed, such as a robed choir, stained glass windows, imposing ceremonies, musical instruments, and so on.
Pollock ends his study by asking where such a place is found now, and answers from the same passage — the man with the water jar led the two disciples to it:
You may break bread with a very correct body of Christians and yet never know this large upper room furnished. On the other hand, the actual room in which you break bread may be small, on the ground floor, and very bare of furniture, and yet you may have found this spot we are speaking of.
- Prepared before asked — the Lord had no house in Jerusalem, yet God always has ready what His work needs. The host was probably a secret disciple, and his name is never given.
- Prepared in detail — He named the person, place, time and circumstance in advance. Such accuracy is no problem for faith.
- Prepared for a King — He was on His way to die, yet He claimed the room by right. The owner's instant yes showed a power that could have bowed every heart in Jerusalem.
- Prepared, not decorated — large, upper, furnished: room enough for what is eternal, lifted above earthly blessing, and already supplied. Human additions add nothing.
- Prepared for you — commentators apply the room to Christian worship today. Correct surroundings are not the same as being in that large place; the Spirit leads you there.
And having gone they found it as he had said to them; and they prepared the passover.
They went, they found, they made ready. One short sentence closes the story of the upper room. Two questions sit behind it. How did Jesus know all this in advance? And what were the two disciples preparing on the last night before the cross?
The detail in Christ's directions makes the outcome striking. He had named the person, the place, the time and the circumstances. Every part held. One writer answers the doubter directly:
There is no ground of difficulty here for anyone who believes the Word of God. He described the person, the place, the time, and the circumstances in advance. He could do so because He was in communion with the divine power and grace that controlled the heart of the Jewish householder. That man was a stranger up to then, but that same grace made him gladly agree to let the Lord use his house for the Passover meal with His disciples. It seems to me beautifully fitting that God should order everything in honour of His Son for the last Passover. This was a testimony in Jerusalem. There the religious chiefs, and even a disciple, along with the crowd, were hardening themselves to their own destruction as they rejected and killed Him.
Nothing here was loose or approximate. That is where the majesty of the moment lies:
Oh, the perfect, divine dignity of Him who, while He was Man, was also God! See how the perfection of His Godhead glory shines out here! It shines in the majestic quietness, the conscious power, and the fulness of knowledge that marked Him. At the same time you see how clearly everything is mapped out. Nothing is left to what we might call a "perhaps," or "maybe," or "chance." One who is Master of every circumstance arranged the whole thing, and He holds everything in His own hand.
Christ's knowledge reached past the address to the man who lived there:
In the house he entered, they would find a heart prepared by grace to receive the Lord. They were to say to him, "The Teacher says, Where is the room where I shall eat the Passover with My disciples?" He knows all circumstances and all hearts. The disciples find the man just as He had told them, and they prepare the Passover.
What they did that day is the pattern for everyone who trusts Christ's word:
As will always be the case for faith, they found things just as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover. How little they understood all that was involved in this at the time! Later they would see it with better understanding, especially when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. But they were obedient.
One writer draws a careful line between this preparation and another one later in the same Gospel:
"Prepared the passover" means the first Passover meal itself. Do not confuse this preparation with the paraskeuē, a word of a different formation, used in Luke 23:54 in the closest connection with the Sabbath. That word was also a name for the whole period from one sunset to the next in each week.
The meal they made ready was also the last of its kind. What follows in the chapter sets the two suppers side by side:
Read Luke 22:7-20, and you will see the Passover of the Jews and the supper of the Lord shown one after the other. From then on the second was to replace the first, and that for ever. The first, along with other meanings attached to it, foreshadowed the great Sacrifice which in due time would put away sin. The second now celebrates the great fact that this sacrifice has been offered, and that, for faith, sin is put away.
The owner gave his room for one evening. It may have served far beyond that night:
Very possibly that upper room was well known afterwards and much used. There seems nothing against the idea that the Lord appeared there to the eleven on the day of His resurrection. It seems just as possible that six weeks later, in that same room, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the assembled company of disciples, with the owner probably among them. The Teacher! That title would and did appeal to the man. For the Teacher the owner gave the room, and he was surely repaid many times over.
- Said — Christ named the person, place, time and circumstances in advance. He left nothing to chance, because He is Master of every circumstance.
- Prepared — Grace prepared the owner's heart before anyone prepared the room. Christ knows all circumstances and all hearts.
- Found — This is faith's normal experience: they went, and found things just as He had told them.
- Obeyed — They obeyed while understanding very little. Fuller understanding came later.
- Repaid — The house lent for one evening may have hosted the risen Lord and the outpoured Spirit. And the meal made ready that night was the last Passover, replaced for ever by the supper that celebrates sin put away.
And when the hour was come, he placed himself at table, and the [twelve] apostles with him.
One short sentence opens the last night of Jesus' life. Commentators stop over three things in it: the hour, the One who set it, and the company He kept.
Luke does not say Jesus found a convenient time. He says the hour came. One writer traces that hour back to God's own instructions for the Passover.
Deuteronomy 16 gives the instruction about the Passover: the month, the day, and the place. It was not to be kept just anywhere, but at the place the Lord God would choose to put His name, in the evening, at sunset. So Jesus was at the place God had chosen for the sacrifice of the Passover, and the month, the day, and the hour had come: the going down of the sun. As for the chief priests and scribes, they were looking for a way to kill Him. They did not know that He was the true Passover Lamb. They did not understand that the time had come for the Passover to be killed. But when the hour had come, He sat down with the apostles.
The Passover had a long history behind it. One writer marks what made this one different.
For many centuries the Passover had been kept. Now it was to be kept for the last time in its full meaning. Remarkably, the One who first gave it was there to share in it. He ordered the Passover to be prepared, and He decided the very place where they should eat it. The time, the manner, the place, were all His appointment.
Another writer hears that same control in the calm of the whole scene.
How the perfection of His glory as God shines out here! It shows in all the majestic quietness, conscious power, and fullness of knowledge that marked Him. At the same time, see how plainly everything is marked out. He leaves nothing to what we might call a "perhaps," a "maybe," or chance. One who is Master of every circumstance arranged the whole thing, and He holds everything in His own hand.
One writer sets the tenderness of this table against everything closing in from outside.
In Luke 22 we see our Lord with the disciples, not now as a prophet, but about to become a sacrifice, meanwhile giving them the sweetest pledge of His love. On the other hand, there is the hatred of man and the weakness of the disciples. There is the falsehood of Peter, the treachery of Judas, and the cunning and terrors of the enemy who had the power of death… It was the last act of communion of Christ with them.
Men were closing in to destroy Him. In Luke it is Jesus who takes the first step toward the table.
In the moment when man gave Him up, the Lord drew closer to His own, and drew His own closer to Himself. Here in Luke it is the Lord who proposes to them to go and prepare the Passover… This was the moment of His rejection. Satan had put it into the heart of Judas to betray Him, and He well knew the violence and wickedness going on in the city. Yet the Lord drew His own closer to Himself and drew closer to them.
Luke names them as apostles — the men He had called out and kept nearest to Himself.
He was with His disciples in the upper room for one purpose: to keep the Passover supper. The company was Jesus and the twelve. He had called them out to be His apostles, His beloved followers and His chosen witnesses. He chose them to see more of His face than anyone else in the world, and to hear more of His words than others. He brought them into scenes of closest intimacy.
One of the twelve at that table was the traitor. Some use this to argue that known evil can be allowed at the Lord's table.
Judas is named as taking part in the feast and asking a question… Only the Lord knew his character. His fellow apostles did not seem to have any suspicion of him. But to argue from this case that we ought to allow known evil at the Lord's table is simply wicked. To say that we may have traitors at the table is to confess our own weakness. To say that we ought to have known traitors is shocking to any holy mind.
- The hour set. God fixed the month, the day, the place and the hour of the Passover. Jesus was there on time, the true Passover Lamb His enemies did not recognise.
- The hour arranged. The time, the manner and the place were all His own choosing. He left nothing to chance, and the disciples only carried out what He decided.
- The hour shared. That table was His last act of communion with them. It was the sweetest pledge of His love, offered while hatred, weakness and treachery pressed in.
- The hour of drawing near. At the exact moment man gave Him up, He drew His own closer to Himself — the initiative to prepare the meal came from Him.
- The hour tested. No one on earth stood closer to Him than these men. Yet a traitor sat among them, known only to the Lord. That calls for humility, never for welcoming known evil.
And he said to them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.
Jesus sits down to His last meal with the disciples. His first words tell them how much He had wanted this evening. In the same breath He names the suffering that is only hours away.
Older translations read "with desire I have desired." The ESV puts it as "earnestly desired." One writer gives the force of the word.
Satan's power and illusion held men's souls. Our perfect blessed Saviour passed through that night, His last with His disciples. He ate that Passover supper of which He speaks in those touching words: "With desire ('earnest, yearning longing,' as the word means) I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer."
The same Greek word appears elsewhere in the New Testament with a very different sense. So what makes a longing holy?
"Desire" and "lust" are really the same word, as many passages show… It is the thing longed for that gives the feeling its character. If the object of the craving is good, according to God, then it is a holy desire. So the Lord Himself uses this very word when He speaks to His disciples here… "Lust," as James teaches, starts in us. But holy "desire" is the fruit of the Spirit of God working in the believer.
Compare His side of the table with theirs. The longing ran one way.
First of all His desire is to eat that paschal feast with His disciples. He was the only One who knew what it meant. To Him it spoke of a burden no mere man ever bore, or ever could bear. And yet with desire He desired to eat of that passover before He suffered. He knew it was the immediate forerunner of His death on the cross. Yet not one of the disciples desired to eat it with Him as He desired to eat it with them. This is love, and love is self-sacrificing.
The roast lamb in front of Him was a picture of Himself. One writer asks what He was thinking as He looked at it.
What a moment! On the night He was betrayed, Jehovah-Jesus sat down with His apostles to eat the last Passover with them before He died. A better blood had to be shed — the blood of the Lamb of God… On the table before Him and His apostles lay the roast lamb, and He Himself was the blessed reality it pictured. What was the train of His thoughts when the Holy Lamb of God looked at the picture before Him? Was it His own sufferings? Yes, but in what way? "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer."
What He wanted from them was company — and He wanted it precisely because of what was coming.
Verse 15 is a most beautiful expression, restrained, yet showing the depth of His desire for fellowship with His disciples at the moment when His great sufferings were imminent… In deep affection for them He sought their affections too, some little comfort of their fellowship in view of His very soon being utterly alone on a cross of unspeakable agony.
This was the last Passover He would keep. He did not brush the old order aside.
Here the Lord shows how His heart goes out… As the words that follow show, He is closing His time on earth with them, and the old order of things with it. He closes it with honour, magnifying it by celebrating it. At the same time He longs for the better thing beyond — its glorious fulfilment in the Kingdom of God. His suffering was the only way to this fulfilment, and it was itself the strongest proof He could give of His longing for it.
At the Passover He ate with them. At the supper, minutes later, He was the one who gave.
Notice here two things. The Lord set up the supper after the passover, and He Himself ate the passover with them. It was His service to fulfil all righteousness. At the supper it was different. He entered deeply and perfectly into its character, in all its marvellous blessing to us, so that He gave thanks. Yet instead of eating, He gave it to His disciples to eat. He said, "Take, eat."
- Longing — The doubled wording means an earnest, yearning ache. The same word is elsewhere translated "lust." What is longed for decides whether the desire is holy or evil.
- Love — Not one disciple wanted that meal as much as He did. Love like that is self-sacrificing.
- Lamb — He alone knew what the roast lamb meant, because He was the One it pictured. Better blood was about to be shed.
- Last — It was His final Passover. He honoured the old order by keeping it, and looked past it to its fulfilment in the kingdom of God. His suffering was the only road there.
- Legacy — He ate the Passover with them. The supper that followed He did not eat; He handed it to them: "Take, eat."
For I say unto you, that I will not eat any more at all of it until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
This was the last Passover meal Jesus would share with His disciples before the cross, and He points past it to a fulfilment still ahead. Two questions follow: what fulfils the Passover, and which kingdom is He waiting for?
The Lord opens the meal by telling them how much He wanted it.
First of all, His desire is to eat that Passover meal with His disciples. He was the only One who knew what it meant. To Him it spoke of a burden no mere man ever carried or could carry. And yet He longed to eat that Passover before He suffered. He knew it came right before His death on the cross. Yet not one of the disciples wanted to eat it with Him as much as He wanted to eat it with them. This is love, and love is self-sacrificing.
This was the last Passover of its kind. Its meaning pointed forward to the cross.
So far, this was the last Passover kept as God meant it to be kept. When the Lord died and the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the Mosaic ritual began to fall away. Believers from among the Jews came to see that their place was outside the camp, and they left Jerusalem and the temple behind. The Lord's death fulfilled the Passover, just as the coming of the Holy Spirit fulfilled the feast of weeks. The blood of the Passover lamb was a picture of the blood of Christ. He is our Passover, and He has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7). But at that moment the Passover was not yet fulfilled. So the Lord took part in it.
He eats with them. He does not drink with them. Then He puts something else in its place.
I think the account of the Passover in Luke shows the old system passing away and the new coming in. He shows true love to His disciples by eating with them for the last time — a token of affection, but He will not eat it any more. Then the Passover cup — fellowship and joy in it — He does not take at all. They are to divide it among themselves; He will not drink of it till the Kingdom of God comes. Then He sets up the new thing in His body broken — the remembrance of a new and better deliverance — and the Cross, the new covenant in His blood.
The change was not a repair of the old arrangement. The whole footing is new.
In the next place the Lord breaks every link with the old order of things. He says, "I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." In this verse the question is not setting up the kingdom, or establishing it as things were. He is about to establish things on a wholly new basis through redemption, through the work He was about to do before God.
Commentators differ over the timing of "the kingdom of God" here. Some read it as the kingdom that was about to arrive in a new, moral form:
It was about to come in a moral way. Luke holds to that great principle: God was about to establish His kingdom in what you may call the Christian system.
Others place it further ahead, at the day when Israel sees the One they rejected:
He would not eat the Passover again until its spiritual meaning is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. His own death did fulfil the meaning of the Passover. But Israel stays blind to this until they "look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced" (Zech. 12:10), and He will bring in the kingdom for that nation. Only then will the Passover be fulfilled for them.
He shares the food. He passes the cup to them untouched. One writer reads this as a refusal of gladness.
Why did He not take the cup? The Passover rules did not require it. "Now," said the Lord, "I will not taste joy." As an obedient Jew, He kept the Passover, but joy waited for Him in the kingdom. Till then, He knows no earthly joy.
- Desired — He longed for this meal knowing it was the last before the cross; He wanted it more than any of them did.
- Fulfilled — the Passover pointed forward, and His death answered it: "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."
- Finished — the last true Passover closed the old system. In its place He gave bread and cup, the memorial of a better deliverance.
- Delayed — commentators differ on the timing. Does "the kingdom of God" mean the kingdom coming now in a moral way, or the day when Israel sees the One they pierced?
- Deferred joy — He ate but would not drink. The cup of gladness waits for the kingdom.
And having received a cup, when he had given thanks he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For I say unto you, that I will not drink at all of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God come.
Jesus has just eaten His last Passover with His twelve apostles. He gives thanks over the cup, then hands it on without drinking. His words draw a line. Table joy with His friends on earth ends here, and only the coming kingdom will reopen it.
Luke records two cups that evening. This one belongs to the Passover meal. It is not the supper Jesus gives His disciples a moment later.
It was this cup that He told them to divide among themselves — not that of the Lord's supper. Our Lord Jesus never took part in His own supper. He shared the Passover supper, but not His own. For this is for us, being the witness of a redemption which He wrought for us (not for Himself, of course)... The Lord's Supper speaks to us of perfect peace through His suffering. He did not need it: He gave it all to us.
One writer explains His refusal from the history of the feast itself.
The original rules for the Passover say nothing about a cup. As Deuteronomy 16:3-8 shows us, there was no room for one, because the feast in the month of Abib was not a feast of joy. What God had instituted, the Lord conformed to. Of what man had added, the Lord did not partake. He did not, however, condemn the cup as wrong. But the time for joy that goes with full redemption had not come, so He did not drink of it Himself. When He had given thanks, He handed it to His disciples to divide among themselves.
There was a reason He would not drink.
He eats with them: He will not drink. Another cup was before Him. As for this cup, they were to take it, and divide it among themselves. It was not the Lord's Supper, but the Passover cup. He was about to drink of a far different cup, which His Father would give Him — the reality that the Passover pointed to, and the basis of the Lord's Supper.
Elsewhere Kelly names what that other cup held: "the cup of God's wrath against sin, in contrast with the joy symbolized by the ritual of the Passover" (William Kelly).
Why does the verse speak of wine at all?
The fruit of the vine is the sign of social joy, "wine which cheers the heart of God and man." They sprinkled it again and again in the burnt offerings and the peace offerings. Now, of this fruit of the vine He would drink no more, while His disciples would drink deeply of His death, the true drink... So His social life with His disciples here on earth was closed. It would never be renewed in the same way. They would enter spiritually into the power of His death, and one day they would be with Him again in joy in the kingdom of His Father.
Turpin sees Jesus taking openly the place that had always been His:
He was always the true Nazarite here on earth — separate from men, though living among them in all the grace of His heart. But now He openly takes up the character that had always been His inwardly.
Commentators differ on when that kingdom comes. Kelly points out that Luke does not use the phrase the way the other Gospels do.
The other Gospels connect it with the future. Luke speaks of what was to be made good shortly — "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit."
Another writer sees the same promise pictured long before, when Melchizedek met Abram after a battle:
He met him with the fruit of the vine which, as we know, is to be drunk in the kingdom. He refreshed Abram with a feast after the warfare was accomplished, and gave him a blessing from the possessor of heaven and earth. His acts, therefore, were those of one who was standing in the kingdom.
Luke gives the bare fact. The other two accounts add something.
Mark adds that in the coming Kingdom the fruit of the vine will have a "new" character. Matthew adds a further detail: the drinking will be "with you."
- Cup one. The cup He hands over is the Passover cup, not the Lord's Supper. He never drank His own supper, because it stands for a redemption He worked for others.
- Cup two. He passes the cup of joy because His Father holds out another cup to Him — the cup of God's wrath against sin.
- Cup refused. Wine is the sign of shared gladness. By refusing it He closes His social life with the disciples on earth and takes openly the place of the true Nazarite, separate from men.
- Cup promised. The delay is not a cancellation. Melchizedek's feast after the battle shows that the fruit of the vine belongs to the kingdom, once the warfare is over.
- Cup shared. Mark adds that the wine will be "new." Matthew adds that it will be drunk "with you" — not alone, but at a table shared again.
And having taken a loaf, when he had given thanks, he broke [it], and gave [it] to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me.
On the night before He died, Jesus sat at the table with His disciples. He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and put a lasting memorial of Himself into their hands. Two questions follow: what does the bread mean, and why does He ask us to remember Him?
The timing was deliberate. He gave this supper on the worst night of His life. Betrayal, denial and desertion were all waiting for Him.
The Lord was about to enter a dreadful conflict with all the powers of darkness. He was about to meet all the deadly hatred of man, and to drink to the last drop the cup of God's righteous wrath against sin. He had a terrible day ahead of Him — the most terrible ever faced by man or angel. Yet despite all this, we read that on "the night when he was betrayed" He took bread. What unselfish love this is! That same night was a night of deep sorrow, the night of His agony and bloody sweat. One disciple betrayed Him, another denied Him, and all of them deserted Him. On that very night, the loving heart of Jesus was full of thoughts about His Church.
Before He broke the bread, He thanked God. The cross was right in front of Him.
What a moment that must have been, when they heard Him giving thanks in view of His death on the cross! Thanksgiving, not prayer, occupied Him at that time. How this speaks to us! His act of giving thanks showed what He knew. Nothing could be added to increase the power of His atoning death. Once that death had taken place, nothing a sinner needs from a sacrifice would be missing. His thanksgiving fully proves that His sacrifice is enough, and that its power lasts.
Luke's wording is personal. Matthew and Mark record "for many." Luke records "for you," pointing straight at the people at the table.
Notice the difference in the words that set up the Lord's supper. Matthew and Mark have "My blood shed for many." Luke has "My body which is given for you" and "My blood which is shed for you." His love shines out in these words. Luke alone gives His loving request, "Do this in remembrance of Me."
So does the bread change? No — the words paint a picture.
"This is my body," are the Lord's words. There is no need, though, for fanciful ideas about the bread. Let us be clear: the material is bread, and it stays bread. He was using a figure of speech, the kind often on His lips… By saying "This is my body," He gave the loaf a special meaning. This loaf, and nothing else, was to be the emblem of His body, and so bring His body back to their minds.
He asks us to remember a Person. At the table everything else gives way to Him.
In coming together to break bread, we not only express the oneness of the body, show the Lord's death, and together await His return — we remember Him in a special way. Self drops out of sight — self with its failures, self with its blessings, self with its service. PEOPLE, however loved and honoured in their ministry, are ignored. The most pleasing circumstances, or the most depressing cares, are given no place. Meanwhile the LORD HIMSELF — Lord as the One who died — commands the heart and the mind of the believer. "Do this in remembrance of ME." This makes the Supper beautifully simple, yet precious beyond words.
The verse holds a command as well as a memory. That command calls for company.
In this loving request we have something to do, as well as someone to remember. It is also the expression of one body. "Do this" means an act we carry out with others. When we are alone, we may have sweet memories of the Saviour's precious words and ways, and of His suffering, even to death, for us. But here is something to do… If I do not do it, I do not carry out His mind.
This meal is not the Passover. The two look in different directions.
At the passover Israel remembered the LORD's goodness toward them; at the Lord's Supper the death of the Lord Jesus was to be before the mind… The passover looked back only. Keeping the Lord's Supper, we look back and we look forward, for as 1 Cor. 11:26 says, we show the Lord's death "until he comes." He died for us, and we eat of His supper in remembrance of Him.
- Love that night. He gave the supper on the night of betrayal — the setting proves the love behind the gift.
- Love thanking. He gave thanks before He broke the bread: His sacrifice would need nothing added to it.
- Love for you. Luke's "given for you" narrows the vast work of the cross down to the people at the table.
- Love pictured. The bread stays bread; it is the chosen emblem that brings His body back to mind.
- Love remembered. "In remembrance of Me" asks for Him, not for our benefits. "Do this" makes it an act we carry out together — looking back at His death, and forward to His coming.
In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup [is] the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Luke's account of the last supper moves in two stages. First comes the Passover meal with His twelve disciples. Then, after it, He hands them something new: a cup He calls a covenant in His own blood.
One commentator marks the exact point where the old meal ends and the new one starts.
In Luke's account, the Passover Supper and the Supper He set up are clearly separate: verses 15-18 give the one, verses 19 and 20 the other. The Lord's words about the Passover show that the old order was closing.
Older English translations call the cup a "testament," meaning a will, and say the blood was "shed" where the ESV says "poured out." Commentators say the word means a covenant — an agreement — and that the context settles it.
"Testament" is here quite out of place; what does someone who guarantees a promise have to do with making a will? The word in itself can carry either sense... The context decides with certainty. In Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24 and Luke 22:20, forgiveness of sins is tied directly to the "new covenant" (not testament), just as in Jeremiah 31:31-34. And what has "blood" to do with a "will"? That it should be the basis of a covenant is a familiar truth.
Jeremiah had announced a new covenant centuries earlier. Here the Lord adds what Jeremiah never said.
At last, in the upper room in Jerusalem, speaking only to the twelve disciples, the Lord referred to it — and in a way that showed heaven had not forgotten it... But He added two important details to what Jeremiah had revealed. First, the covenant would rest on the blood of a sacrifice. Second, that blood would be His own... The covenant will not be made with Christians, but with the house of Israel and the house of Judah — though Christians share, even now, in blessings connected with it: the knowledge of God and the forgiveness of sins.
The Lord gives the cup on its own, after the meal.
And so with the cup "after the supper," who could hesitate as to what that cup set forth? He Himself says, "In My blood." It is not blood inside the body, but blood apart from it, separated from it — that is, in death. The so-called "sacrifice of the mass" denies all of this.
Matthew's Gospel records "for many." Luke records "for you." One writer says this makes justification — being counted right with God — a personal matter.
Luke's point was not to say "for many." That was most fitting in Matthew's Gospel, because it shows that the power of Christ's blood reaches beyond the Jew... In Luke it is more personal, and so it deals more closely with the heart and conscience. Many a man accepts justification by faith in a general way. But the moment you make it personal, he shrinks from taking the place of a justified man, as if that would be too much for God to give him! In truth, no one can go on with God properly until divine grace settles the personal question. So the Lord here settles it for them personally.
That same blood is why a believer can come to His table at all.
From these words we learn that the blood of Christ is the only ground on which we can be at the Lord's table at all... Why is it that we can be in such sacred nearness without fear and dread? Why are we not ashamed of ourselves, with our eyes full of tears because of our sins? The answer lies in the words, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. It is shed so that you may be with Me at My table, a blood-washed company that will remember My death and sound My praise through all eternity."
Commentators note a gap between the shedding of the blood and the making of the covenant.
The new covenant rests on the blood which is drunk here in symbol. The old covenant was set aside. Establishing the new one required blood. At the same time, the covenant itself was not yet established; but God had done everything on His side.
So where does that leave Christians?
Israel will enjoy the blessings of the new covenant, and that covenant will rest on the blood of Christ. Yet when the Lord set up His supper, He mentioned that covenant and then tied the blessings of the disciples — and ours too — not to a covenant that has never yet been made, but directly to His precious blood, shed long ago on the cross... We have nothing to do with the new covenant, though the blood it rests on is the blood in which we have an everlasting interest.
- Blood first. A covenant needs blood. Jeremiah never said whose blood it would be; the Lord names it as His own.
- Blood apart. The Lord gives the cup on its own. Blood outside the body means one thing: death.
- Blood for you. Luke's "for you" turns a wide truth into a personal one and settles the conscience.
- Blood as ground. That blood, and nothing else, lets a believer sit at His table without shame.
- Blood before the covenant. God's side is finished. The covenant itself still awaits Israel. Meanwhile, those who trust Christ already draw their blessing straight from the cross.