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Scripture Reading: Mark 14:12-26
After the Lord Jesus enjoyed a feast in Bethany, He partook of the feast of the Passover and then instituted His supper as a replacement of the Passover (14:12-26). The Lord charged two of His disciples to prepare what was needed for the feast of the Passover (vv. 12-16). In the history of God’s economy, that was the last feast of Passover, for from that time the feast of Passover was replaced by the Lord’s table. This indicates that the old dispensation has been replaced by a new dispensation. Therefore, we today do not have the feast of Passover; instead, we have the Lord’s table, the Lord’s supper.
As we shall see, the Lord instituted His supper with bread and a cup. This indicates His death, His resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His enlargement, that is, His Body. The Lord, His death and resurrection, and His enlargement will eventually issue in the kingdom of God.
Mark 14:12 says, “And on the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, His disciples say to Him, Where do You want us to go and prepare that You may eat the Passover?” In the Jewish calendar, which was according to their Scripture, a day began with the evening (Gen. 1:5). In the night, the beginning of the last Passover day, the Slave-Savior first ate the Passover feast with His disciples and instituted His supper for them (vv. 12-25). Then He went with the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives (vv. 26-42). There He was arrested and brought to the high priest, where He was judged by the Sanhedrin late in the night (vv. 43-72). In the morning of the same day, He was delivered to Pilate to be judged by him and was sentenced to death (Mark 15:1-15). Then He was brought to Golgotha and crucified there beginning from the third hour in the morning, and He remained on the cross until the ninth hour in the afternoon (Mark 15:16-41), for the fulfillment of the type of the Passover (Exo. 12:6-11).
According to 14:13-16, the Lord sent two of His disciples and told them to go into the city, where they would meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. They were to follow him, and wherever he entered, they were to say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher says, Where is My guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” Then he would show them a large upper room furnished and ready, and in that room the disciples would make the necessary preparations. “And the disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it even as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover” (v. 16).
This account of the preparation for the Passover is mysterious. It reminds us of the Lord’s word to two of His disciples concerning the colt on which He rode into Jerusalem (11:1-6). Who provided the large upper room and furnished it and made it ready? Nowhere in the Bible can we find the answer to this question. This may indicate that the Slave-Savior’s instituting of His supper was a mysterious matter.
Mark 14:18 says, “And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, Truly I tell you that one of you will deliver Me up, one who is eating with Me.” This was the eating of the Passover feast (v. 16), not the eating of the Slave-Savior’s supper, which is in verses 22 through 24. The one who delivered up the Lord Jesus was Judas Iscariot.
Verses 19 and 20 say, “They began to be sorrowful and say to Him one by one, Is it I? And He said to them, One of the twelve, the one who dips with Me in the dish.” After Judas Iscariot was exposed, he left (John 13:21-30) before the Slave-Savior’s supper (Matt. 26:20-26). Judas did not participate in the Slave-Savior’s body and blood, because he was not a real believer in Him, but a son of destruction (John 17:12), considered by the Slave-Savior even a devil (John 6:70-71). Luke 22:21-23 seems to indicate that Judas left after the Lord’s supper, mentioned in the preceding verses (Luke 22:19-20). However, Mark’s record shows that Judas was pointed out by the Slave-Savior as His betrayer in 14:18-21 before He instituted His supper in verses 22 through 24. Mark’s record is according to historical sequence, whereas Luke’s is according to the sequence of morality. The sequence in Matthew’s record matches that of Mark.
Mark 14:22 says, “And as they were eating He took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take; this is My body.” This was the eating of the Slave-Savior’s supper after He and His followers ate the Passover feast in verses 16 through 18. He initiated this new practice for His believers’ remembrance of Him to replace the Passover feast, the old testament practice of the elect’s remembrance of Jehovah’s salvation (Exo. 12:14; 13:3).
This new practice of the new testament is to remember the Slave-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 Slave-Savior has drunk that cup for them (John 18:11), and His salvation becomes 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 Slave-Savior’s supper, which is a table (1 Cor. 10:21), a feast, set up by Him 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, displaying His redeeming and life-imparting death (1 Cor. 11:26). His blood separated from His body declares His death.
Verses 23 and 24 say, “And having taken a cup, He gave thanks and gave it to them; and they all drank from it. And He said to them, This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many.” 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 Slave-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 Slave-Savior wanted His followers to know this and to live a life based upon this and according to it after His resurrection.
In 14:25 the Lord went on to say, “Truly, I tell you, I will by no means drink anymore of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Here the Lord is speaking of the manifestation of the kingdom, in which He will drink with us after His coming back.
Verse 26 is the conclusion of the section on the Slave-Savior’s instituting His supper: “And having sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” This hymn was a praise to the Father by the Lord with the disciples after the Lord’s table.
We have seen that as the Lord and His disciples were eating, He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is My body” (v. 22). First the Lord and His disciples ate the Passover; then the Lord established His table with the bread and the cup to replace the feast of the Passover. He did this because He would very soon fulfill the type and become the real Passover to us (1 Cor. 5:7). Now we are keeping the real feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Cor. 5:8).
The bread of the Lord’s table is a symbol signifying the Lord’s body broken for us on the cross to release His life that we may participate in it. By participating in this life, we become the mystical Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), which is also signified by the bread of the table (1 Cor. 10:17). Hence, by partaking of this bread, we have the fellowship of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
The Lord was broken on the cross in order to release His life. The release of the Lord’s life is in resurrection. Therefore, breaking is a matter of death, and releasing is a matter of resurrection. Through being broken on the cross, the Lord was able to release the divine life from within Him so that we might participate in this life. By participating in the Lord’s divine life, we become the mystical Body of Christ, His enlargement. This means that by enjoying the bread we become Christ’s mystical Body.
As His enlargement, Christ’s mystical Body is also signified by the bread on the table, as indicated in 1 Corinthians 10:17. Hence, by partaking of this bread we have the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
The Lord’s blood redeemed us from our fallen condition back to God, back to the inheritance we lost through the fall of Adam, and back to God’s full blessing. Concerning the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 10:21), the bread signifies our participation in life, and the cup, our enjoyment of God’s blessing. Hence, it is called the cup of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16). In this cup are all the blessings of God and even God Himself as our portion (Psa. 16:5). In Adam our portion was the cup of God’s wrath (Rev. 14:10). Christ has drunk that cup for us (John 18:11), and His blood has constituted the cup of salvation for us (Psa. 116:13), the cup that runs over (Psa. 23:5). By partaking of this cup we also have the fellowship of the blood of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
Mark 14:25 speaks of the fruit of the vine. The fruit of the vine within the cup of the Lord’s table is also a symbol. It signifies the Lord’s blood shed on the cross for our sins. His blood was required by God’s righteousness for the forgiveness of our sins (Heb. 9:22).
Mark 14:24 says that the Lord’s blood is the blood of the covenant. The Lord’s blood, having satisfied God’s righteousness, enacted the new covenant. In this new covenant, God gives us forgiveness, life, salvation, and all spiritual, heavenly, and divine blessings. When this new covenant is given to us, it is a cup (Luke 22:20), a portion for us. The Lord shed the blood, God established the covenant, and we enjoy the cup, in which God and all that is of Him are our portion. The blood is the price Christ paid for us, the covenant is the title deed God made to us, and the cup is the portion we receive from God.
Concerning the Lord’s table, we have the blood, the covenant, and the cup. When we come to the Lord’s supper, we see a cup on the table. That cup is a covenant and is also related to the blood. Therefore, the blood, the covenant, and the cup are one. The blood is the price paid by Christ, the covenant is the title deed of our inheritance, and the cup is the portion we receive and enjoy. Christ paid the price. God made the covenant, and we enjoy the portion.
By instituting His table the Lord Jesus was indicating to His followers that they would enter into His death and resurrection. The Lord served them not only with His body and blood, but also with His death, resurrection, Himself, and His enlargement, His mystical Body. At His table He served His disciples with Himself, with His death and resurrection, and with His mystical Body as His enlargement. This means that the disciples should enjoy His death, His resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His enlargement.
I doubt that the disciples were clear concerning the significance of the Lord’s supper when the Lord Jesus instituted it. They heard the words spoken by the Lord, but they probably did not understand them. According to what the Lord Jesus prophesied in the Gospel of John, when the Spirit of reality came, He led them into all reality (John 16:13), including the reality of the supper instituted by the Lord. Then the disciples certainly recalled the Lord’s words. They may have said, “On the night the Lord was arrested, He instituted a table with the bread and the cup. We did not understand the significance of this at the time. Now we know that the Lord’s intention was to bring us into a full realization of His all-inclusive death, His wonderful resurrection, Himself, and His mystical Body as His enlargement.”
The Lord’s death, resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His enlargement are for the producing of the new man. This new man is the development of the seed of the kingdom in chapter four. The full development of the new man will be the kingdom. Instead of reading the Bible in a superficial way, we need to be enlightened to see this vision.
Today the Lord Jesus is still bringing us into the reality of His table. Before He entered into death, He instituted the table with His death, resurrection, Himself, and His enlargement, which are signified by the broken bread and the cup. The bread signifies His mystical Body. The Lord’s blood has become a cup as the portion for us covenanted by God and paid for by Christ. Week after week we review this story at the Lord’s table.
When we come to the Lord’s table, we are not celebrating a religious communion or performing a so-called mass. On the contrary, at His table we have a revelation of the Lord’s death, resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His mystical Body as His enlargement. As we participate in His death and resurrection, as we take Him as our all-inclusive replacement, He becomes everything to us for the producing of the new man. Eventually, this new man will become the kingdom of God. When this process has been fulfilled, the Lord Jesus will come back to receive this new man and to have the kingdom. May we all see such a marvelous vision!
