Judas had been disappointed in the three hundred pence lavished on the Lord, and he, covenanted with the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver—less than half the value of the ointment, and only the price of a slave The time was come for the Lord to be crucified, but these chief priests and elders had decided not to apprehend Him on the feast, because they feared a tumult; yet He was delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and Judas' offer brought it about. It was an opportunity which they could not let slip.
The disciples come (ver. 17) to inquire of the Lord, where they should prepare the passover, and they were instructed to go to a certain house in the city. Here we see the authority of the Messiah “The Master saith.” So His instructions were carried out, and they prepared the passover.
“And when the even was come (ver. 20), the time for eating the passover, he reclined at table with the twelve.” Then the Lord tells them, “One of you shall betray me!” Exceeding sorrowful, they began to say, “Is it I Lord?”
“The Son of man goeth as it is written of him” (ver. 23). There we see it fulfilled by the will of God. Although “by the foreknowledge of God,” it did not relieve Judas of his responsibility. Peter speaks of stumbling whereto they were appointed—not appointed to be disobedient, but to stumble if they were disobedient, but all is foreknown. The guilt of it rested on Judas, but “it had been good for that man if he had never been born.” How appalling! Yet after hearing this Judas says, “Is it I, Rabbi?” Never once is it said that he ever called Jesus “Lord"! The others did. Jesus replies, “Thou hast said.” A modest way of asseveration; we get it again in the latter part of this same chapter (ver. 64).
We were noticing before that the passover was an annual feast for an earthly people, but the supper here instituted—the Lord's supper—is for a heavenly people. And I suppose it is not too much to say that it is the most blessed privilege the saint can have this side the glory. When you think that it was the night of His betrayal
“When all around Thee joined
To cast its darkest shadow
Across Thy holy mind!”
Here we have the express desire of the Savior's heart at that time. And it is our privilege—yea, indeed, our duty—to conform to these desires; and the Holy Spirit has recorded it in permanent form that we may consider its injunction again and again.
Everything connected with Christianity is marked by simplicity. We get the institution of the supper here; the teaching about it in the Epistle to the Corinthians; and its observance in the practice of the early disciples as recorded in the Acts. They “came together” on the first day of the week—not to hear a sermon—but “to break bread” (Acts 20:7). The practice of some is to come together to hear a sermon, and they put the Lord's supper in a corner of the service, at the end! Others give it the place of a corner at the beginning, and say it is introductory to the assembly of God, so hurry to get it over, so as to leave room for ministry, or worship. In neither case could they be said to come together to break bread. When we come together to break bread “ministry” before the supper is an intrusion; after the remembrance of the Lord, there is plenty of room, for whatever ministry the Spirit may be pleased to give. Worship and the Lord's supper is the object and character of our coming together “in assembly” on the Lord's day to remember Him, and thus it will be, I am sure, if we desire to meet the Lord's mind, and to do His will, What we specially have to note is Paul's revelation in his Epistle to the Corinthians, that he had received of the Lord that which he also had delivered to them. Thus was it not only to “the eleven,” but through the apostle for us Gentiles who have believed in Christ risen from the dead and now on high. To Paul it was given direct from heaven. At its introduction it is connected with the kingdom, but Paul connects it with the Lord's coming. We may safely say that this will go on till He does come. It is marvelous that in a day of such declension it should have been recalled to us in its original simplicity. It is a dead Christ we remember, while knowing Him as alive for evermore. The first day—the very mention of the day—reminds us we are on the glory side of the Lord's resurrection. But then His death brings us there, and it is the love of the One who went there for us we specially remember. We go there to remember Him, and it touches the secret springs of our heart, and the Lord knows how to bring them out. The first day of the week is “the Lord's” day—though only once is it so designated. The same word is used of “the Lord's” day, and of “the Lord's” supper; even of the table it is different. “The day of the Lord” again is quite different, being a period of judgment. As we come along in this chapter we shall see that what opens the grave is the death of Christ, the very act that rent the veil opened the graves; but He was appointed to be the first that should rise from the dead; so the saints did not come out of the graves till after His resurrection. And I take it those mentioned are of the company of those of whom it is said, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” Christ is the firstfruits, and “the first resurrection” includes not only the O.T. saints and the church, but also the Apocalyptic martyrs. There would be no point in saying “after his resurrection,” seeing that He is the firstfruits, if these saints were as Lazarus and died again. They had risen bodies. Heb. 11 speaks of those who died in faith before Christ came, and that we have something better; they will not be “made perfect” before us. These no doubt had died in recent times. They “went into the holy city, and appeared unto Mary"; they did not continue to live here again like Lazarus. This was peculiar and connected with the glory of the Lord's resurrection. The word “saint” constantly occurs in the Psalm and is represented by two words, “holy” and “gracious;” both are used.
Coming back to our chapter, let us look at particulars. It is a request. “Jesus took bread and blessed.” The “it” in our version might lead people astray. It is, “he gave thanks,” in another Gospel. If God blesses, He confers a benefit, and gives happiness and joy. If man blesses his fellow it means, desiring happiness for him; but if we bless God, we praise Him, we speak well of Him. It means to “laud,” to “extol.” So the Lord looked up, and blessed—equivalent to giving thanks. The “it” is in italics and is left out by many. Then He “break and gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.” How simple! How blessed! To part with this simplicity and introduce “transubstantiation” or “consubstantiation” —how very terrible! That body, pointing us to the body prepared for Him, that which was unique—for the Lord Jesus was perfectly man as well as Son of God—that body was “prepared.” “Mine ears hast thou digged,” is in Heb. 10, “a body hast thou prepared me.”
So in contrast to all the human race there was a preparedness to do the will of God, and our salvation is wrapped up in that will. On that body too our sins were laid, and there was perfect willingness on the Savior's part to do God's will. He suffered the Just for the unjust. And He who knew no sin was also made sin for us. “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and as a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,” our old corrupt evil nature. He died to it; and He died for our sins. Made sin for us He bore its condemnation; hence we are to reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:2). Up to chap. 5 of that Epistle it is a question of sins; i.e., what we have done; but from verse 12 to the end of chap. 7 it is a question of sin, the root, our evil nature; and it is a wonderful help to get that clearly in the mind. “This is my body"... and “he took the cup.” It is put somewhat differently in Luke 22, and in 2 Corinthians 11. In the latter (ver. 24) the word “broken” should not be there—it is simply— “which is for you.” “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” The cup comes first in 1 Corinthians 10:16, not to guide us in partaking of it, but Godward. All hangs on that blood. How it brings before us that other cup which He drank for us! When we think of its awful contents, we see nothing short of that could have met our need.
In preaching the gospel we must bring out the value of that blood. Although the life of the Lord Jesus was throughout so God-glorifying—a life of faith and perfect obedience from beginning to end, without a failure, the Man of prayer—yet that glorifying life could not of itself, prospectively and retrospectively, effect the salvation of one single soul—he must die if any are to be saved. “He suffered for sins.” There are sufferings that are non-atoning, and sufferings that are atoning. Peter speaks of witnessing the sufferings and partaking of the glory; Paul reverses it. Jesus suffered at the hands of man for His faithfulness to God: He suffered at the hands of God for His faithfulness to us—sufferings we shall never know. That which is deepest in the cross is known only to God and to Christ. He endured more (and only a divine person could have endured it) than all the lost will endure eternally. The center of two eternities, and the greatest wonder of all eternity, the greatest glory brought to God, in all His nature and every attribute, and a salvation glorifying to God and in every particular suitable to us, was brought about by the cross. The heavens declare the glory of God, but that is not where God's highest wisdom is seen; the angels learn it through the church.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and here was One who did it perfectly. I take it that the name “Father” speaks of grace, and the Father's grace is seen through the whole life of the Lord Jesus. “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” His holiness would not permit Him to rest where sin prevailed, and His grace would not let Him rest where sorrow prevailed. So the Lord Jesus was always at work doing the Father's will. Each Gospel brings out His divinity, but in John's Gospel the prominent thing is the divine side; so there He raises Himself (chap. 2). “I have power to lay it down [his life], and I have power to take it again,” a divine Person is speaking; and when He gave up the ghost He said, “It is finished” —a divine Person putting His own imprimatur on the work He had accomplished.
In Matthew it is the King rejected and the door opened to the Gentiles, and you get them here. “My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins,” not only for Israel but for the Gentiles. His blood would avail for many. Here you see this new covenant is the covenant prophesied of by Jeremiah. That covenant is not yet made, but that blood on which it will be established is here. The covenant of works in Ex. 25 told the penalty of disobedience, death; that is what that blood spoke of; this speaks of remission of sins.
Is it not marvelous how people can turn to the law! It was for man in the flesh, for man not risen with Christ, whereas the Christian is a risen man (Col. 3). The law demanded righteousness but never made one soul righteous, and all who are on that ground are under the curse. But we have died to it. The law has nothing to say to one who has resurrection-life. We know the blessedness of a ministration of righteousness, not demanding it but giving it; and a ministration of glory. The hope of righteousness is to be with Christ in glory. The Christian's rule of life is Christ, not the law. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” There is a couplet by George Herbert:
“Whoso aimeth at the sky,
Shoots higher far than he who aims a tree.”
And if our aim is Christ we press on.
So we have got the blessing of the new covenant— “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” There is going to be a people on the earth in whom that will be true. God will sprinkle clean water upon them and take away their stony heart and give them a heart of flesh, and that is when they are brought under the blessing of the new covenant. The clean water is the word. The Lord referred Nicodemus to Ezekiel 36; 37, the breath that makes the dead bones live. But we come in before that day comes; and we have this blessing of remission of sins without waiting for the confirmation of their covenant.
God has concluded all in unbelief that He might have mercy on all. The Jews are now on a common level with others as “all guilty.” I do not think “to the Jew first” is applicable now, it was at the beginning.
In Jeremiah we get the bread for the mourner and the cup of consolation, so what the Lord was using here was quite familiar to them. The Lord dealt differently with them afterward. When the Holy Ghost was given the disciples were in a very different position, but it is surprising how little they took in although the Lord spoke so pointedly and simply.