The Last Supper - Jesus’ Last Will and Testament
‘Likewise, after supper, He took the cup and, when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying, ‘Drink ye all of this; for this is the blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins. Do this as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me’
If, like me, you were taken Holy Communion Services as a child, you may recognise these words from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 1549. The rhythm of the words is forever written into my bones.
Printed at the time of William Shakespeare, the old Elizabethan language is matchless and strangely hypnotic.
That’s a good thing and a bad thing. Good because the words become so attached to your person they can be recalled at any time, with their associated reverence and the mood that falls as they are recalled; a certain peace that seems to be within the words as they are spoken. But a bad thing because hypnosis removes all conscious participation in the drama of the Last Supper. Detached from history it can become almost ‘a nothing’, a pointless ritual of repetition, a sleep-inducing drug.
The Last Supper was many things, one of which was the reading of Jesus’ Last Will and Testament, just hours before His arrest and crucifixion…in a code that the disciples could only break after the Resurrection.
‘This is the blood of the New Testament, in My blood’
The prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel had all prophesied two main events to come to pass sometime in the future:
• One day the Anointed One (translated as ‘Messiah’ in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and ‘Christ’ in the Greek of the New Testament) would be born
• A new covenant or testament – the words are synonymous – would replace the Old Testament
The terms of the Last Will and Testament, the ‘New Testament’ that Jesus announced and would come into effect upon His death just a few hours after the Supper had ended, are not shrouded in mystery:
‘Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah – not according to the covenant I made with their fathers when I…led them out from the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour saying, ‘Know the Lord’ – they shall all know Me from the least to the greatest.’ Jeremiah 31 v 31 – 34
‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes…’ Ez 36 v 27
The prophets of the Old Testament called the people back to (i) believe the promises in the Old Covenant and to (ii) obey the Law. The Old Covenant promises are written in Genesis 12,15, and 17, given through Abraham, and the Law was added later through Moses. But Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel looked beyond the Old Testament to the inauguration of a New Testament - which Jesus as the Messiah announced at the Last Supper.
It’s a Spirit joined to my spirit operation now
As beneficiaries of that Last Will and Testament, as New Testament believers or ‘Christians’, we should, at least be aware of the terms of the New Testament, or New Covenant. How odd it would be if a rich person was to die, and you were informed that you were a beneficiary, for you not to be keenly interested in the contents of the Will. Not only does self-interest kick in, but it is also your ‘right’ to receive the benefits of the Will as directed by the person who had died. It is, after all, what he or she wanted you to receive.
How odd, then that New Testament believers often have never read the terms of the New Testament inaugurated when the King of Glory died.
Leaving aside for the moment – that the New Testament is made with the House of Israel and Judah…which, at first sight, excludes all Gentiles, let’s look at the promises contained in the New Testament:
1. The Law is written on our hearts not on tablets of stone. It’s internal not an external set of commandments
2. Everyone in the New Testament ‘knows the Lord’ – it is no longer God up there, remote and beyond knowing, in heaven whilst we live our lives on the Earth
The heart operation alluded to in Jeremiah 31 is spelled out in more detail in Ezekiel 36. There’s a heart transplant:
3. Our hearts of stone, which were incapable of living the life of Christ, are replaced by hearts of flesh.
4. We are given a new spirit
5. And the Holy Spirit
6. The result is that we walk in His statutes…like Christ
The challenge of prophets is first to redirect us back to the promises of the New Covenant. To believe and have faith in God that He has done what He promised He would do.
And then to obey. But this obedience is not a dutiful conformation to a set of external commandments – specifically the Ten Commandments inscribed on stone tablets – but to trust that as God is writes His laws on our hearts our lives are transformed from the inside out.
We mustn’t turn back to the Old Testament, where we attempt with everything in us to obey the Law, be determined to be good, pray, go to church, read out bibles, and love our neighbour. A new way has been opened to us. He comes. His Spirit is joined with our deepest part, our new spirit, our new hearts of flesh. It’s a Spirit joined to my spirit operation now. We must have faith that God has done what He has promised.
All because Jesus was willing to go to the cross, for us.
I don’t know How God does what He does but the challenge is to believe that He has. And that this work goes on all day, every day, 24/7. I can’t stop it. I can’t stop God! That’s a ridiculous statement but one I continually need to acknowledge.
We mustn’t turn back to the Old Testament
He has given me a new heart, a new spirit, he has placed His Spirit in Me. He is writing His law in my heart. Against all the odds, His life leaks out of me.
Do we fail? Do we struggle? Do we need to return to the covenant? Of course. That’s why taking Holy Communion regularly isn’t a bad idea…it serves to remind us that the Will, the New Testament, has been read, that we are its recipients, and before long we are on our knees thanking God for His grace and undeserved love poured out, to Christ, for His willingness to suffer on our behalf.
What can we say?
Defeated we find victory in Him.
The Last Supper sustains us for all time.
As New Testament beneficiaries we: ‘take and eat, this is My body, which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me. ‘Likewise, after supper, He took the cup and, when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying, ‘Drink ye all of this; for this is the blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins. Do this as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me’
