The Last Supper

Luke 22

At Passover, Jesus takes bread and cup: 'this is the new covenant in my blood'.

CovenantSacrifice

6 connections

Covenant

direct

grows out of · the meal fulfilled

The Last Supper is a Passover meal. Jesus takes the bread and cup of a rescue from Egypt and gives them a new referent — his own body and blood — so the annual remembrance of one deliverance becomes the sign of a greater one.

Exodus 12 Luke 22:15 Exodus 12:14

direct

grows out of · the same words

Moses says 'the blood of the covenant' as he throws blood over the people at Sinai. Jesus lifts the cup and uses the identical phrase, adding one word: new.

Exodus 24 Exodus 24:8 Mark 14:24

direct

grows out of · the new covenant

Jesus does not invent the phrase. 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood' announces that Jeremiah's promise is now being enacted.

Jeremiah 31 Jeremiah 31:31-34 Luke 22:20

Priesthood

indirect

grows out of · bread and wine

The priest-king of Salem brings out bread and wine to bless Abram — the earliest appearance in Scripture of the two elements Jesus takes up on the last night.

Genesis 14

Sacrifice

direct

points forward to · body given

The meal interprets the death before it happens: broken bread, poured wine, 'for you'.

John 19

direct

grows out of · keep the feast

Paul's Passover line leads straight into instruction about the church's own meal, which he received and passed on.

1 Corinthians 5 1 Corinthians 11:23-26