Family Dinner (Matt. 26:26-30)

Family Dinner
Matthew 26:26-30

INTRODUCTION:
When I was growing up, my family had at least two meals together every day. Unless Dad had yet another part-time job that meant he had to be away from the family at breakfast, generally speaking, we ate breakfast and dinner together every single day.

There are happy memories of us eating dinner together. We talked about our day. We laughed. We poked fun at each other. We talked about the Bible. Sometimes we would get a board game and play it. Dinner time was family time. It was fun time. Never did any of the children, even when we became teenagers, ever try to skip out on spending our time together at the dinner table. And Rachel and I tried to do the same thing with the girls as they were growing up.

The event we are going to study today is the event that brings us together every Lord’s Day… The “family dinner” Jesus begins with His apostles; and we will be studying from Matthew’s account - 26:26-30.

The time has come for Jesus to go to the cross. Everything Jesus did, He did it on His Father’s time schedule. The prior Saturday, Jesus stays with some friends in Bethany. It is the Sabbath so Jews were not supposed to do any normal work on that day. In Numbers 28-29, God gave Israel a list of all the animals which were to be sacrificed every day, every week, every month, and every holiday for every year.

Every day, Israel was sacrificing two one-year-old male lambs which were perfect specimens. The last week of Jesus on earth, let’s say from Sabbath to Sabbath (8 days), Israel offered sixteen lambs that week.

But, on the Sabbath days, Israel was to offer two more one-year-old male lambs, perfect male lambs. So that’s four more lambs that were sacrificed that week, for a total of twenty lambs.

The Passover, of course, was the celebration which commemorated the exodus out of Egypt, commanded by God in Exodus 12. In addition to the Passover, there was also a week-long celebration known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So, during this specific week, since it was the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, each day of the celebration, Israel was to sacrifice: a burnt offering of two bulls, one ram, and seven one-year-old perfect lambs. They were also to offer a goat for a sin offering. That’s an additional 14 bulls, 7 rams, 7 goats, and 49 lambs. That’s a total of 69 lambs that were sacrificed that week that Jesus went to the cross.

And that’s not counting the lambs which were sacrificed by each family individually as God required of them in Exodus 12…

SUNDAY:
These sacrifices were being offered to God on Sunday, so-called “Palm Sunday,” when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people cried out “Hosanna [Save us please!] Son of David, who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matt. 21:9).

MONDAY / TUESDAY:
We do not know exactly how these days should be divided up in the text. But these sacrifices were being offered in the temple when Jesus told His disciples, “If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive’” (Matt. 21:21-22).

If the Jews had been thoughtful about all those sacrifices, they knew that they had to trust God. After all, what connection does slitting the throats of animals have to do with taking away sin…? Except God told them to do it. Seventy-one times in the OT, God told Israel, if you will do such and such, generally referring to animal sacrifices, “you will make atonement for your souls.” Seventy-one times. God says, “If you obey My commandment, you will receive forgiveness of sins.” So Israel had to sacrifice those animals, and then trust that God would forgive them as He promised.

WEDNESDAY:
Apparently it was on Wednesday that Judas connived with the priests to betray Jesus into their hands. These sacrifices which I have mentioned were being offered, when Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. If these 30 pieces of silver were the Roman denarius, then it was worth one month’s wage. If these 30 pieces of silver were shekels given to the temple, it may have been worth up to four month’s salary.

The only motivation given in the Scriptures for Judas’ betrayal is money (cf. John 12:6). While we can imagine that some type of disappointment in the person and work of Jesus might have been involved in Judas’ actions, the Scriptures do not give us any hint in that regard.

THURSDAY:
This is the day. Jesus sent out disciples to prepare for Him the Passover meal. All around Jerusalem, families were worshipping God together by eating the Passover lamb. Then Jesus and His twelve apostles assemble in the room to thank God for leading Israel out of the Egyptian slavery recorded in the book of Exodus and - at least many Jews - were anticipating a second “exodus” as the Messiah would lead them out of slavery to the Roman Empire.

That, of course, was not what Jesus was about. He was anticipating leading sinners out of the bondage to sin…

LEADING UP TO DINNER - 26:20-25:
The table at which Jesus and His apostles sat is not the famous table of the Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting. This table was shaped like a “U” with three cushions on each side, on which diners would lean on their elbows with their feet extended away from the table.

When evening arrived, Thursday evening known by the Jewish calendar as 15 Nisan, Jesus and the twelve were in the upper room. They were eating the Passover meal when Jesus predicted that one of the twelve would hand Him over (ver. 21). Jesus had just made reference to His burial (ver. 12) and had, of course, predicted His death, burial, and resurrection multiple times (16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 26:2). Now, the disciples are extremely distraught and began asking if the betrayer was each of them (ver. 22). Jesus plainly said in verse 23 that it would be one who was dipping his hand with Jesus in the dish. This dish was probably a sweet relish or sauce made from fruit and nuts. We are not sure if we should understand Jesus to be making a general announcement that someone sitting at the table (in other words, a friend) would betray Him or if Judas was, at that moment, dipping his hand with Jesus. It does not seem the latter is the correct understanding, otherwise it seems the apostles would have turned on the betrayer.

In verse 24, Jesus states that these events are being worked out in order to fulfill prophecy, what “has been written.” Yet, even as God, in His sovereignty, works events in order to bring about the sacrifice of His Son, it is also true that the betrayer is responsible for his own choices. In that sense, Jesus declares that it would have been better for the betrayer to have never been born (ver. 24-25).

In pure hypocrisy and unaware (at that moment) that Jesus knew all things, Judas echoed the question of the twelve: “It is not me, is it?” But Jesus penetrated the facade and stated in verse 25 plainly that it was Judas.

THE FAMILY DINNER - 26:26-31:
We know that Jesus and His disciples ate unleavened bread because they were in the middle of the Feast of Unleavened Bread so the Jews had to remove all the yeast out of their house. Jesus took the bread, gave a blessing (which gives us the word “eulogy”), broke it and gave it to the disciples. He said, “Take. Eat. This is My body.” We know that Jesus did not mean this in a literal sense and His Jewish disciples would not have understood this in a literal sense because it was against the Law of Moses to eat raw flesh with its blood in it.

Out of the 311 times the word “blood” is found in the OT, Leviticus is the most blood-saturated book. “Blood” is found in this book 86 times, or once every other page (in my Bible)! And seven times in the book of Leviticus, God told Israel that they could not eat blood: 3:17; 7:26-27; 17:10, 12, 14; 19:26.

So it is safe to understand that Jesus meant the bread symbolizes His body - the Lamb that would be sacrificed the following day for the sins of the world.

Similarly, Jesus took the cup (probably the third cup of the meal), and giving thanks (which gives us the word “eucharist”), He gave it to them, commanded each of them to drink from it. As the bread pictured to them the body of Jesus, so the wine in the cup would picture for them the blood “of the covenant,” which would be poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

The Hebrew word “covenant” meant a “treaty” between two nations. God uses the word 284 times in the OT, mostly to refer to His treaty or covenant which He made with the nation of Israel. The Greek word is found 33 times in the NT and this is the first time the NT uses the word. In fact, this context is the only time Jesus uses the word “covenant” in His ministry.

Moses used the phrase “the blood of the covenant” in Exodus 24:8 as a part of the sacrificial service. What Moses meant was that the blood sprinkled on the people made atonement for them (covered their sins) so they could be in this “covenant relationship” with God.

Almost 1,000 years after Moses lived, the prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34) told Israel that God was going to establish a new covenant with Israel but the new covenant would be different. In the New Covenant, non-Jews would be able to be a part of that relationship and there would be complete forgiveness of sins. Sins were forgiven the Jews when they offered their animal sacrifices, but they had to offer their animal sacrifices constantly. That would not be true once the Messiah comes.

Observe that Jesus says this “cup” is “My blood of the covenant” which is “poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” The word “many” was often used by Jews to portray that idea of “everybody.”

Now, it is remarkable that so many Bible scholars will be so detailed in so many aspects of their scholarship but the vast majority of them will overlook (ignore?) the parallel, both in Greek (εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν) and in English of the phrase “forgiveness of sins” which is used here, of the blood of the Lord’s Supper, and of immersion in water in Acts 2:38. If the preposition “for” (εἰς) in Matthew 26:28 means “in order to obtain forgiveness of sins,” then the same preposition, in the exact same phrase in Acts 2:38, means “in order to obtain forgiveness of sins.” Clearly, the NT writers wanted to draw the two together showing, in the words of Ananias to Saul of Tarsus, that it is through the immersion in water (baptism) that the blood of Christ washes one of their sins (Acts 22:16; cf. Heb. 10:22; Rev. 1:5).

In verse 29, Jesus promises that He will not drink (or eat) of the meal until He does so with them in a new way in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of His Father. While it is popular to apply this promise to the “messianic banquet” which we see hinted in Matthew’s gospel (5:6; 8:11; 14:20; 15:37; 22:11-12; 25:10, 21, 23), it is far better to see Jesus predicting the communion He would have with His followers when they observe the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 10:16-17) on the first day of every week (1 Cor. 11:20ff; 16:1-2; Acts 20:7).

Once the disciples, and Jesus, had finished the Passover meal, they sang psalms together (Psalms 113-118), and left to go to the Mount of Olives.

WEEKLY DINNER:
The Lord’s Supper is clearly one of the central points of Christian worship. The early church observed the memorial under the guidance of the apostles (Acts 2:42) and the missionaries taught it in the newly-formed churches (Acts 20:7). Paul gave more explicit instructions in his letter to the Corinthians (11:19-17-32; 16:1-2).

I began this lesson with a discussion about my own family dinner times when I was growing up. The last time Mom and Dad visited us, we played Yahtzee. I still have their scorecards with Mom and Dad’s handwriting on them. Those are special to me. Maybe you have your own parents voices recorded that you could listen to. That would indeed be special. The weekly communion of the Lord’s Supper ought to be special to us every time we take it. It reminds us that Jesus died for us - for the forgiveness of sins - and it reminds us that we enjoy that forgiveness of sins because we were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

Take home message: Dine with Jesus weekly; it anticipates our supper with Him in heaven!