Jesus' Last Supper with His Disciples

The last supper that Jesus shared with His disciples was a Passover meal, at which time He explained the significance of His death and instructed them about His future care for them.

The day the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus knew the time of His death was near. He wanted to warn His followers one last time and encourage them about the future, so He had Peter and John prepare the meal in a special place. He then reclined with His followers at the table and said, “You can’t imagine how I have anticipated eating this meal with you before I suffer. I’ll not eat it again until we share it together in the Kingdom.”

He took the cup at the beginning of the meal, blessed it, passed it around, and said, “I’ll not drink wine again until God’s kingdom arrives.” He also blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to them with a metaphor, saying, “This is my body, given for you. Break and eat it like this as a reminder of what I have done and will do for you.”

At the end of the meal, he lifted the final ceremonial wine cup and initiated another symbolic remembrance: “This cup is the new covenant, my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus’ followers’ minds were swimming. So much was changing. As Jesus mentioned the New Covenant, their minds must have gone back 600 years to Ezekiel and Jeremiah’s first mention of the New Covenant: complete forgiveness and cleansing; Yahweh would be their God and they His people; He would give them a new heart and write the Law on their hearts. This would be established through the shedding of Jesus’ blood? That’s what He said. Wait, shed blood? Jesus was going to die? Their concern must have shown on their faces.

Jesus continued. “Don’t worry. You trust God, right? Trust Me, too. There is plenty of room for you as well in my Father’s home. I’m leaving to prepare the way, to get things ready. Then I’ll return and get you so we can live there together. You know the way I have to take.”

Thomas wasn’t so sure. “Master, we don’t know where you’re going. You expect us to know the way?”

Jesus said, “I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Life. No one can know God the Father or arrive in His house apart from Me. To know Me is to know the Father. Seeing Me is seeing Him!”

Then Philip spoke up. “Master, show us the Father, and we will be happy.”

“Philip, after all this time with Me, you still don’t get it? You see Me, you see the Father. So why say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? What I am saying are not empty words; I speak on my own. The Father, residing in Me, is working through Me. Either believe Me, when I tell you that I am in my Father and my Father is in Me or believe because of the works you see Me do.”

If Jesus’ followers were struggling before, imagine now. Jesus couldn’t have said it any plainer: He is God. They had been eating with God at the table! They had traveled and spoken and lived with God in the flesh for three years. And yet, He was leaving. He was going to die. Why? How?

Jesus comforted them again. “I will talk to the Father. He will provide you another Friend, a Counselor, so you will always have someone with you: the Spirit of Truth. Ungodly people won’t receive Him—they don’t have a clue. But you know Him already. He has been staying with you and will even be in you!”

Here was more information for His followers to ponder. They had read Ezekiel’s prophecy telling how the LORD God would put His Spirit in them as part of the New Covenant. Now Jesus—God, according to what He had just said—spoke of the Spirit of Truth that would be in them.

Jesus continued. “I want you to know before I go: the Counselor Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will make everything plain to you and remind you of all the things I have told you. Rest in the unparalleled peace I leave with you, and know that you are not being abandoned. Don’t be upset. Don’t be afraid.”