For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples gathered about the table with Him in the upper chamber at the Passover supper, His last Passover before His suffering and crucifixion, in the few quiet hours before Gethsemane. Their meetings had usually been seasons of calm joy, but on this night He was troubled, with a burdened heart, a troubled spirit, and a shadowed countenance, and He spoke in tones of touching sadness. He clearly foresaw His near suffering, grieved over the ingratitude and cruelty of those He came to save and the terrible fate awaiting them, and the disciples saw that something weighed heavily on Him and sympathized without knowing the cause, while He used the time for their benefit. With strong desire and longing He expressed His wish to eat this Passover with them before He suffered, yet declared He would not eat of it again until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
This was virtually the last Passover ever to be celebrated, because type was to meet antitype when the Lamb of God, the spotless Lamb about to offer Himself for sin, was slain for the sins of the world, and Christ was soon to receive His full baptism of suffering. The Passover recalled Israel's deliverance from Egypt and pointed forward to Christ, commemorating the deliverance and the innocent lamb slain in Egypt whose blood on the doorposts turned away the destroying angel. That was fulfilled in Christ as the sinless, spotless Lamb of God whose merits alone avert the judgment and condemnation of fallen man. He spoke in obedience to the Jewish law, observing all its divinely appointed ordinances, and identified Himself with the paschal lamb as its great antitype by connecting the Lord's Supper with the Passover.
At this last Passover the declaration marks the transition from the Passover, which was to end with its types pointing to His death, to the Lord's Supper, which He instituted there as a lasting memorial service commemorating His death in its place. Immediately after this declaration He took the cup and gave thanks and told them to divide it among themselves, declaring He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples gathered about the table with Him in the upper chamber at the Passover supper, His last Passover before His suffering and crucifixion, in the few quiet hours before Gethsemane. Their meetings had usually been seasons of calm joy, but on this night He was troubled, with a burdened heart, a troubled spirit, and a shadowed countenance, and He spoke in tones of touching sadness. He clearly foresaw His near suffering, grieved over the ingratitude and cruelty of those He came to save and the terrible fate awaiting them, and the disciples saw that something weighed heavily on Him and sympathized without knowing the cause, while He used the time for their benefit. With strong desire and longing He expressed His wish to eat this Passover with them before He suffered, yet declared He would not eat of it again until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
This was virtually the last Passover ever to be celebrated, because type was to meet antitype when the Lamb of God, the spotless Lamb about to offer Himself for sin, was slain for the sins of the world, and Christ was soon to receive His full baptism of suffering. The Passover recalled Israel's deliverance from Egypt and pointed forward to Christ, commemorating the deliverance and the innocent lamb slain in Egypt whose blood on the doorposts turned away the destroying angel. That was fulfilled in Christ as the sinless, spotless Lamb of God whose merits alone avert the judgment and condemnation of fallen man. He spoke in obedience to the Jewish law, observing all its divinely appointed ordinances, and identified Himself with the paschal lamb as its great antitype by connecting the Lord's Supper with the Passover.
At this last Passover the declaration marks the transition from the Passover, which was to end with its types pointing to His death, to the Lord's Supper, which He instituted there as a lasting memorial service commemorating His death in its place. Immediately after this declaration He took the cup and gave thanks and told them to divide it among themselves, declaring He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.