Luke 22, 14 – 16
Something to read
When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfilment in the kingdom of God.”
New Revised Standard Version
To read the King James Version, click here
Something to think about
Jesus is now fasting. He has not eaten the Passover again since sharing this last supper with his disciples. This isn’t to say he didn’t eat again with them. He did.
After his resurrection he cooked a fish breakfast for some of them on Lake Galilee’s beach; his leftover fish bones providing enigmatic evidence for the physical reality of his new body.
What did Jesus mean by saying he’d not eat the Passover again until it found fulfilment in the kingdom of God? The Passover meal they were about to eat pointed back to the passing over of the angel of death as Israel’s first born were spared.
Now Jesus uses it to point forward to the new creation that he would inaugurate through his resurrection. The promise to eat again with them was Jesus’ hint at both his and their resurrection.
He would eat Passover again when the Kingdom of God had arrived in fullness, when he and countless others would sit down to what the book of Revelation splendidly calls the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Something to do
When you sit down to eat supper tonight, remember Jesus is ‘fasting’. But, also remember, the day is coming when he will eat again, with us, in the Kingdom of God.
Something to pray
Lord Jesus, we long for the day when we sit at your table in the Kingdom of God. We do not deserve such a place of honour and so pray that through your grace, mercy and love we would be invited to the great wedding supper of the Lamb.
Amen.
Today’s contributor is David Muir, Christian Aid’s Senior Regional Co-ordinator for its London and South East region.