“The Lord’s Supper” – Luke 22:7-20

How many of you have some kind of junk drawer at home?  I bet most of us do.  Most of them will be crammed full of stuff that we rarely use but we don’t want to throw away because some of it might be useful in the future but some of it is just purely sentimental.  What are some things you have in your junk drawer at home?

I found three things real quick in my drawer that I want to show you.  All three of these things will stay in that drawer forever and never be used for anything but I would never get rid of any of them.  The first thing I found was this watch.  It’s not a particularly valuable watch especially since the clasp is broken and it won’t stay working even with a new battery.  But it was my dad’s watch.  I remember him wearing it and he gave it to me years ago and it just reminds me of him.  So, it goes back in the drawer.

Next, I found this little slip of paper that says, “I rode a bull at Kowbell Indoor Rodeo”.  That brings back some really fun memories from about 20 years ago.  I keep this as proof that I really did ride a bull or two back in the day and lived to tell about it.  So, it goes back in the drawer.

Next, this is a real prized possession.  In this box are two silver dollars that were given to me the day I was born.  In fact, my birth announcement is in the box too.  One of the coins is from 1923 and the other is from 1896.  They might actually be worth something.  I don’t know and I don’t care.  I’ll never get rid of them.  Their value is all sentimental to me.  I keep all of these things just to look back on and remember.  So, it goes back in the drawer.

Now, we just finished a month and a half long sermon series based on Isaiah 43:18-19.  Can anybody tell me what any of that said? 

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.”

God said through Isaiah that we should forget the former things and He is talking about good things and bad things.  Forget your history.  You don’t live there anymore.  God is doing a new thing and yet Jesus tells us in Luke chapter 22 that there is one thing He wants us to remember.  He wants us to remember Him and we do that by sharing in what we call the Lord’s Supper.

I read this story.  One of the funniest memories I have of the trials and tribulations of making the journey from childhood to adulthood was our annual summer vacation trek from Chicago to a cabin usually someplace on a lake in Wisconsin or Michigan.  Every year, it seems, we would get on a highway a few miles out of the city, and mom would wail, “Oh my goodness! I think left the iron on." And almost every year we would turn around and go back. But as I recall, not once was it was ever plugged in. She often had the same fear that all our earthly possessions would disappear in a fire caused by her forgetfulness.  When I was about 14 years old, we were headed out of Chicago for Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and, sure enough, Mom gasped, “I just know I left the iron on."  My father didn't say a word, just pulled over onto the shoulder of the road, got out, opened the trunk and handed her the iron.

Just like that father, Jesus wants us to be sure we remember Him and what He has done for us.  Why is that so important?  He knew it was important to remember what He has done because it is the only way that we can be right with Him; the only way to have true, lasting peace and joy in this life and the only way to get to Heaven.

Jesus said to remember Him.  Let’s read about that in Luke 22:7-20.  Jesus and His disciples are about to celebrate the Passover and to really understand this passage, you need to understand the Passover.  The Passover celebration happened every year to commemorate what happened to the children of Israel all the way back in Egypt when they were slaves and God had sent all the plagues.  The last plague God sent was the death of all the first born.

In Exodus 12, it tells what God told Moses to do to keep from having their own first born killed.  All the people were to take a perfect male lamb and slaughter it at twilight then take the blood and put it on the sides and tops of their door frames and when the angel came to kill the firstborn of every household, he would pass over every house with that blood sign.

God told them that from then on they were to celebrate that day as a remembrance of what God had done.  So, that is why Jesus and His disciples were celebrating.  But I doubt if Jesus felt much like celebrating.  He knew He was just hours away from being arrested, tried and killed.  But this is how it happened.  Let’s read Luke 22:7-20.

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸ Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” ⁹ “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked. ¹⁰ He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, ¹¹ and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹² He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.” ¹³ They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So, they prepared the Passover. ¹⁴ When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷ After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. ¹⁸ For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

The commentaries tell us that the man in town would have been easy to spot because men never carried water like that.  That was a woman’s job.  We don’t know if Jesus had planned this out with that man as a sign or if Jesus was just foretelling what would happen.  It doesn’t matter.  It showed the disciples exactly where to go.

This is a fascinating passage, especially when you know what all was going on before, during and after all this.  If you read the other gospels, you see that while Jesus was mentally and spiritually dealing with what was about to happen to Him, the disciples were having a disagreement about who was going to have the best places of honor in the new kingdom Jesus was bringing in.  They were obviously missing the point on several levels.

So, this is where Jesus, in the middle of this ridiculous, petty argument just quietly walks over and gets a jar with some water in it and begins to wash their feet.  I wonder how long that argument lasted once Jesus started doing that.  Probably not long.

Now, the picture we probably all get in our mind of this is what Leonardo Da Vinci painted of them all sitting around a table with Jesus in the middle but it wasn’t like that.  We know that it was customary to lie on your stomach and prop yourself up on your left arm and eat with your right.  They had a strict menu of unleavened bread and some bitter herbs, some matzo balls, an egg and a mixture of fruits and nuts.  All of it had great sentimentality for the Jewish people and it all represented something about their life and escape from Egypt.

They had probably all taken this meal in celebration since before they could remember but now Jesus says something they have never heard before.  He starts by saying that He is anxious to eat this Passover meal with them but that He will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the Kingdom of God.  Now, I’m no great food connoisseur.  I think pigs in blankets are a great meal.  But can you imagine what Jesus is talking about here?

Can you imagine the feast that we will have with Him when we all get to Heaven?  Dos Chiles got nothing on that!  Not only that but can you imagine celebrating Passover… with Moses and Aaron?  With King David and Abraham?  With all the men in that room on this day including our Lord and Savior Jesus???  I get chills thinking about that.

Now, it would have been customary for them to have one cup or glass full of wine or grape juice of some sort and they would just pass that cup around.  I’m glad we don’t have to do that to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, especially with all the sickness going around but that’s what they did.  But then Jesus said something different.  He probably has the cup right there but He takes the bread and breaks it and gives each person a part of it.  Then He says, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

There are two parts to that sentence and neither part probably made sense to the disciples.  It didn’t make sense because it hadn’t happened yet.  His body had not yet been broken nor had the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of Jesus been made.  I can’t help but think that Jesus said this, of course for the disciples to remember later on, but just as much to us; so we would remember.

Think about it.  He breaks the crusty, unleavened bread and at the same time says that He is giving His body to be broken.  He didn’t have His life taken from Him.  He gave it away.  He made the choice – for YOU!  Then Jesus said that we should eat this bread in remembrance of Him.  That didn’t make sense to the disciples like it does us now.  For them, they were remembering what happened in Egypt to their forefathers thousands of years before.  Now, Jesus says to remember Him.

Two elderly ladies were playing cards together one evening like they had done since they were kids when one of them finally said, “You know, we’ve been friends for many years and, please don't get mad, but for the life of me, I can't remember your name. Please tell me what it is."  Her friend glared at her. She continued to glare and stare at her for several minutes. Finally, she said, "How soon do you need to know?"

We forget so easily!  It’s why we have these little rocks in these goofy little cups here on the pulpit.  They remind us of what God has done for us.  Somebody tell me in just one sentence what God has done for you.  He has done countless wonderful things for us as individuals and as a church but here, in Luke 22, He says remember me for laying down my life for you.  John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”  So we remember that great love today. 

Now go on to verse 20.  He takes the cup and blows their mind with something else new.  Jesus says we now have a new covenant.  That’s where we get the “New Testament”.  It’s a new promise or a new agreement between man and God.  The Old Covenant said that when a person sinned, they had to make a sacrifice of some sort of animal.  Jesus was saying His sacrifice on the cross was the new way, the new promise, the new covenant and all we have to do is believe.  The sacrifice has been made once and for all.

But as great and incredible as that is, we would even forget about that if we didn’t take the Lord’s Supper as a reminder so that is why we are here today.  Some people call it “communion” because we take the bread and juice as we “commune” with God and each other in our remembrance but whatever you want to call we are to remember the sacrifice Jesus made.

I find it interesting that nowhere are we called to remember His miracles or His character or where He went except when He went to the cross.  We are called on to remember His blood, specifically.  It’s why we sing all those songs about His blood that will never lose the power or “Are You Washed In The Blood”, “Covered By The Blood” and “Nothing But The Blood”.  “His blood is a fountain…”  How gory that would be if you didn’t know why we sing and celebrate and remember the blood of Jesus.  He said we should remember it because “it was poured out for you”.

So, we are going to do that right now but before we do we have to hear from Paul who wrote in 1 Corinthians 11, “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. ²⁹ For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.”

The Lord’s Supper is a celebration but it is a somber celebration and we should take it with the utmost reverence and never without being as completely free from sin and as clean and forgiven as possible and we do that by going back to what David wrote in Psalm 139.  He said, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Let’s do that right now and if you have never done that before then what a perfect day to do that.  Go to God in prayer and ask Him for your forgiveness based, not on what you have done, but on what we remember Jesus has done for us.  He is the pure and perfect Lamb that was slaughtered for us.  All we have to do is believe but when we do, that belief will result in a changed life, full of peace and joy, forgetting what we are called to forget but remembering what we are called to remember.  Do it today.