(6)
Scripture Reading: Luke 22:1-23
In this message we shall consider 22:1-23. However, before coming to this section of the Gospel of Luke, I would like to give a further word on Luke 21:5-36.
In 21:34 and 35 the Lord says, “And take heed to yourselves lest at some time your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and anxieties of life, and that day come upon you suddenly as a snare; for it will come in upon all those dwelling on the face of all the earth.” Here the snare does not refer to the day of the Lord’s coming. Rather, the snare is the time of the great tribulation, the hour of trial, which will come upon the whole earth (Rev. 3:10). Thus, the great tribulation will come in as a snare upon all those dwelling on the face of all the earth.
In verse 24 the Lord Jesus speaks of the times of the Gentiles: “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive to all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” The times of the Gentiles here does not refer to the period of grace, which is the time for the Gentiles to be saved, as indicated in Rom. 11:25. In Luke 21:24 the times of the Gentiles signifies the time for the Gentiles to control the nation of Israel. This control began with Nebuchadnezzar and will be completed when Antichrist is destroyed at the war of Armageddon referred to in Revelation 19.
Verse 24 is a difficult verse for expositors. The reason for the difficulty is that certain prophecies in the Bible concerning the destruction of Jerusalem mingle two or three things together. The temple has already been polluted twice, and it will be polluted once more in the future. The temple was polluted first by Antiochus Epiphanes, who is signified by the little horn in Dan. 8:8-9. Antiochus was a type of Titus, the Roman prince who polluted the temple for the second time in A.D. 70. Hence, the prophecy in Daniel 8 mixes the pollution of the temple by both Antiochus Epiphanes and Titus. Furthermore, the prophecy concerning Titus at the end of Daniel 9 mixes him with Antichrist. Therefore, the prophecies in Daniel concerning the destruction of Jerusalem imply the destruction by Antiochus Epiphanes, Titus, and Antichrist.
As we read Luke 21:24, we may think that this verse describes the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. However, if we consider the context, we shall see that verse 24 does not refer to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Verse 25 says, “And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth anguish of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the billows.” According to history, such things did not happen after Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Furthermore, verses 26 and 27 go on to say, “Men fainting from fear and expectation of what is coming upon the inhabited earth; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power.” Of course, these things did not happen after Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Therefore, these verses indicate that the destruction in verse 24 should refer to a future destruction, the coming destruction of Jerusalem under Antichrist.
Today Jerusalem is free. But when Antichrist rises up against God, he will capture Jerusalem and destroy it. Luke 21:24 speaks of this coming destruction.
In 21:5-36 we have the Man-Savior’s prophecy of things to come. First, He unveils to His disciples the destruction of the temple (vv. 5-6). Then He goes on to speak of the plagues that will come between His ascension and the great tribulation (vv. 7-11). During this same period of time, the time between the Lord’s ascension and the great tribulation, the followers of Christ will be persecuted. The Lord speaks of this persecution in verses 12 through 19. Therefore, in 21:7-19 we see that two things will take place during the same period — plagues and persecution.
In verses 20 through 27 the Lord speaks concerning the great tribulation and His coming, and in verses 28 through 36, of the disciples’ redemption and the overcomers’ rapture. Before the time of trial, the great tribulation, we need to be watchful, at every time beseeching, so that we might escape “all these things which are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (v. 36). This is to be raptured before the great tribulation, that is, to be taken to the throne in the heavens. While the plagues are taking place and the persecution is going on, we are waiting to be raptured. But if we would be raptured before the great tribulation comes, we need to be watchful and take heed to ourselves, lest at some time our hearts be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day come upon us suddenly as a snare (v. 34). We need to be watchful so that our hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of the present life.
Luke 21:5—22:46 is a section in which the Man-Savior prepares the disciples for His death. The Lord accomplishes this preparation in two ways: first, by telling the disciples of things to come (21:5-36); second, by instituting His supper so that the disciples may participate in His death (22:7-23). Even by instituting His supper, or what we may call the Lord’s table, the Man-Savior was preparing the disciples for His redemptive death.
While the Lord was preparing both Himself and His disciples for His death, the opposers — the leaders in the Jewish community — were busy looking for an opportunity to arrest Him and put Him to death. The Lord’s sovereignty was exercised here, for this was the year in which Messiah had to be cut off, that is, the year in which the preordained Savior had to die. Furthermore, the exact month and day had been prophesied in the Old Testament. It was crucial, therefore, that the Savior be put to death on the exact day prophesied and typified in the Old Testament.
It was not easy for everything to be arranged so that the Man-Savior would be put to death at the exact time and place. This certainly required the exercise of the sovereignty of the Triune God. The Son prepared Himself to die. The Spirit and the Father were also working to prepare the environment so that the Son would die on the cross exactly according to what was prophesied and typified in the Old Testament.
In Luke 22 we see that while the Man-Savior was preparing Himself to die, the opposers were busy with their plot, their conspiracy. At the same time, the enemy of God, Satan, also was busy. Whenever God is busy, Satan is busy as well. Hence, in chapter twenty-two both the Triune God and Satan were busy. In particular, Satan was actively using Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles appointed by the Man-Savior. Satan instigated Judas’ betrayal of the Lord Jesus. Satan injected into Judas the thought of finding an opportunity to deliver the Lord into the hand of those who wanted to kill Him. Therefore, in this chapter we see both the plotting of the opposers and the working of Satan. On the one hand, “the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might do away with Him” (v. 2). On the other hand, “Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went away and conversed with the chief priests and officers as to how he might deliver Him up to them” (vv. 3-4).
In 22:7-23 the Man-Savior instituted His supper as a replacement of the Old Testament Passover. In the Old Testament the Passover was a great matter, a matter that may be considered equal to God’s creation. In the Old Testament we first have the record of God’s creation. Then we see that the man created by God fell and eventually went down into Egypt. When God was about to save His people from bondage in Egypt, He ordained the feast of Passover. The Passover was the time when God’s people were saved and brought back to their right, which had been lost. The observance of the Passover lasted for more than fifteen hundred years, from the time of Exodus 12 until the night in which the Man-Savior had the last Passover with His disciples.
Luke 22:7-23 is a crucial section of the Word, for it marks the ending of the Old Testament Passover. Here we see that the Man-Savior instituted His supper, the Lord’s table, to replace the Old Testament Passover. From this we see that the night in which the Lord instituted His supper was a time of transition. A transition was taking place from the Old Testament Passover to the New Testament supper of the Lord. This is a matter of great importance.
In Luke 22 we must see the distinction between the Passover and the Lord’s table. Verses 7 through 18 are concerned with the Passover, and verses 19 and 20, with the Lord’s supper. Verse 7 says, “And the day of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed.” The feast of Unleavened Bread is a feast of seven days (Lev. 23:6). It is also called the Passover (Mark 14:1). Actually, the feast of the Passover was the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread (Exo. 12:15-20).
Luke 22:7 speaks of the day on which the Passover was sacrificed. In the Jewish calendar, which was according to their Scripture, a day began with the evening (Gen. 1:5). In the night of the last Passover day, the Man-Savior first ate the Passover feast with His disciples and then instituted His supper for them. Following that, He went with the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives. There He was arrested and brought to the high priest, where He was judged by the Sanhedrin late in the night. In the morning of the same day, He was delivered to Pilate to be judged by him and was sentenced to death. Then He was brought to Golgotha and crucified there at the third hour (today’s nine o’clock) in the morning, remaining on the cross until the ninth hour (today’s three o’clock) in the afternoon (Mark 15:16-41), for the fulfillment of the type of the Passover (Exo. 12:6-11).
In Luke 22:15 the Lord said to His disciples, “I have earnestly longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” The Greek words translated, “I have earnestly longed” literally mean, “with longing I have longed.” The Lord longed to eat the Passover with the disciples before He suffered, that is, before He went to the cross. The eating and drinking in 21:15-18 were the keeping of the last feast of the Passover before the institution of the Lord’s supper in verses 19 and 20.
In verse 16 the Lord goes on to say, “For I tell you that I shall by no means eat it anymore until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” The pronoun “it” refers to the Passover in verse 15, which will be fully fulfilled in the coming kingdom of God, when the Savior will feast with the overcoming saints (v. 30; 13:28-29).
God has a complete plan to redeem His people into His jubilee. The feast of the Passover is a sign of God’s full redemption, and this full redemption is the bringing of God’s chosen people into the full enjoyment of Himself. This enjoyment is a matter of the jubilee covered in the Gospel of Luke as the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah and the type in Leviticus 25. The jubilee is actually the enjoyment of God through His redemption. The feast signifying the jubilee was first the feast of the Passover in the Old Testament and then the Lord’s table in the New Testament.
The feast of the Passover was not completely fulfilled in the Old Testament. The Lord’s table, which also is a feast, replaces and continues the feast of the Passover. But not even this New Testament feast has been completely fulfilled; it will be fulfilled completely in the coming kingdom.
If we read the Bible carefully, we shall see that a feast is spoken of both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. This feast began in Exodus 12, and it continued for more than fifteen centuries until the night in which the Lord Jesus replaced it with His table. Today in the church life God’s people are attending this New Testament feast. However, this feast will not be fulfilled completely until the feast in the coming kingdom. This means that the feast in the kingdom will be the fulfillment of both the feast of the Passover and the feast of the Lord’s table.
Seemingly there are three feasts: the feast of the Passover, the feast of the Lord’s table, and the feast in the kingdom. Actually, these are not three feasts. On the contrary, this is one feast in three stages. God has established one feast through His redemption for our full enjoyment of the jubilee in three stages, and these stages are the Old Testament stage, the New Testament stage, and the kingdom stage.
We may say that the Passover was the Old Testament jubilee. When the Passover was established, the oppressed Israelites were released from bondage in Egypt, released from the tyranny of Pharaoh. The Israelites had been captives in a condition of slavery. On the negative side, the Passover set them free from that bondage. On the positive side, the Passover brought them into a feast to enjoy the lamb, which is a symbol of Christ as the embodiment of God. On that day the children of Israel were brought into the enjoyment of God; they enjoyed the lamb and the Passover. Later, in the wilderness, they enjoyed manna. After they entered into the good land, they enjoyed the riches of the land, which is a type of Christ in His all-inclusiveness. Now we can see that the Passover set the Israelites free from bondage and brought them into the enjoyment of God. However, they eventually lost this enjoyment and were carried away again into captivity.
In Luke 4 the Man-Savior proclaimed a further stage of the jubilee — the New Testament jubilee. The New Testament jubilee also has a symbol or sign, and this symbol is the Lord’s table. The Lord’s table is a sign of the jubilee that sets us free from bondage and brings us into the full enjoyment of the Triune God. The Lord’s table is not only a replacement of the Old Testament feast of Passover; it is also a continuation of that feast.
The New Testament feast of the Lord’s table will be replaced and continued by the feast in the coming kingdom. The feast in the kingdom will be the feast in the third stage. This coming feast, which will be a replacement and continuation of the Lord’s table, will also be a symbol of the jubilee. At that time God’s chosen and redeemed people will be freed from all occupations, bondages, and slaveries and will be brought into the enjoyment of the Triune God in the kingdom age.
Luke 22:17 and 18 say, “And having received a cup, when He had given thanks, He said, Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you, I shall by no means drink from now on of the produce of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Certain readers of this chapter may think that this is the cup of the Lord’s table. However, this is the cup of the feast of the Passover, not the cup of the Lord’s table. In verse 16 the Lord and His disciples ate the Passover feast, and in verse 17 they drank the cup of that feast. Verses 19 and 20 speak of the Lord’s table. We need to make a clear distinction between the two feasts in 22:7-23. It may be helpful to mark our Bibles to indicate that the feast of Passover ends with verse 18 and the Lord’s supper begins with verse 19.
Luke 22:19 says, “And having taken a loaf, when He had given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this unto the remembrance of Me.” The loaf in verse 19 is not the loaf of the Passover; it is the loaf of the Lord’s table. Furthermore, in this verse the Lord said, “Do this unto the remembrance of Me.” Thus, it was not a remembrance of what took place in Exodus 12. Taking the bread of the Lord’s table is done in remembrance of the Man-Savior.
Verse 20 says, “And similarly the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is being poured out for you.” Once again, this is not the cup of the Passover; rather, this cup is the new covenant in the Lord’s blood.
God made a covenant with redeemed Israel in Exodus 24:3-8 (Heb. 9:18-21), which became the old testament, as a base for Him to deal with His redeemed people in the dispensation of law. The Man-Savior came to accomplish God’s eternal redemption for God’s chosen people by His death, according to God’s will (Heb. 10:7, 9-10), and with His blood instituted a new covenant, a better covenant (Heb. 8:6-13), which became the new testament after His resurrection (Heb. 9:16-17), as a base for God to be one with His redeemed and regenerated people in the dispensation of grace. This new covenant replaced the old covenant and simultaneously changed God’s old dispensation to His new dispensation. The Man-Savior wanted His disciples to know this and live a life based on it and according to it after His resurrection.
We have emphasized the fact that the Man-Savior instituted His supper, the Lord’s table, after He and the disciples ate the Passover feast. He initiated His supper for His believers’ remembrance of Him to continue and replace the Passover feast, the Old Testament practice of the elect’s remembrance of the Lord’s salvation (Exo. 12:14; 13:3). This new practice of the New Testament is to remember the Man-Savior by eating the bread, which signifies His body given for His believers (1 Cor. 11:24), and drinking the cup, which signifies His blood shed for their sins (Matt. 26:28). The bread denotes life (John 6:35), the life of God, the eternal life, and the cup denotes blessing (1 Cor. 10:16), which is God Himself as their portion (Psa. 16:5). As sinners, their portion should have been the cup of God’s wrath (Rev. 14:10). But the Man-Savior drank that cup for them (John 18:11), and His salvation has become their portion, the cup of salvation (Psa. 116:13) that runs over (Psa. 23:5), the content of which is God as their all-inclusive blessing. Such bread and such a cup are the constituents of the Man-Savior’s supper, which is a table (1 Cor. 10:21), a feast, set up by Him so that His believers may remember Him by enjoying Him as such a feast. Thus they testify of His rich and marvelous salvation to the entire universe and display His redeeming and life-imparting death (1 Cor. 11:26).
