The New Covenant in His Blood

Day Five John 13:3-10; Luke 22:15-20, 40-46, 49-51   from "Jesus Last Days, A Model For Our Days"

³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, ⁴ *got up from supper, and *laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. ⁵ Then He *poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. ⁶ So He *came to Simon Peter. He *said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” ⁸ Peter *said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” ⁹ Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” ¹⁰ Jesus *said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”

¹⁵ And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶ for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; ¹⁸ for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹ And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁰ And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood….    ⁴⁰ When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” ⁴¹ And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, ⁴² saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” ^{43 ]}Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. ⁴⁴ And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. ⁴⁵ When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, ⁶ and said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”…..         ⁴⁹ When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” ⁵⁰ And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. ⁵¹ But Jesus answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him.

As we continue through this week and our reflection on the events of Jesus last days, we come to a point where it is no longer merely the depth of Jesus teaching which is too much to reflect on, but also the events themselves are too many. So much happens in these last few days of Jesus life that our consideration is only able to scratch the surface of the highlights. Surely we could spend a lifetime here and not fully comprehend all of what Jesus did.

The reason behind Jesus trip to Jerusalem was the celebration of Passover. It is the sharing of this Passover meal, with His disciples, that is the setting for the events of our text. Again every word and every action of our Lord are carefully spoken and played out. The  ability of our omnipotent God to take a few brief hours and speak eternally is truly amazing.

Prior to the meal Jesus, the Master, bowed down and washed the feet of the disciples. This speaks through the ages of both the fact that Jesus is the one who will wash away the filth of the world from those who will follow Him and that anyone who desires to follow Jesus, and be a leader of men, must be willing to humbly bow down and serve those he would lead.

After the meal we see the institution of the sacrament of communion. Jesus offers the bread and the cup as a sign and seal of the New Covenant. The covenant of grace invoked by His shed blood. The covenant which allows us to obtain all the promises and the power of the word of God. I love verse 15 in Luke 22. Then He said to them, “with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Today on the other side of Jesus suffering, He would say to us, with fervent desire I desire to have fellowship with you. There is a song by Casting Crowns, “Who I Am”(video on worship video page), which says, “Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who You are”. That's a powerful truth.  What a marvelous privilege that we have in communion with God, because He desires it and accomplished all that needed to be done.

One final thing we learn there at the table is a lesson about forgiving. You see there at the table Jesus forgave all of the failures and disappointments of the disciples. The denier, the doubter, even the betrayer were all forgiven in advance through the perfect love of Jesus.

From the upper room we are moved to the garden. It is here that we see that Jesus obtained the power He would need to walk out the next few hours, on His knees in prayer.  We are told that the stress was so great that Jesus actually sweat drops of blood.(Luke 22:44) Jesus knew the magnitude of what lay before Him. He asked His closest friends to pray with Him. Three times we are told they failed in their opportunity to be faithful. They slept as He prayed. Which of us hasn’t at some time judged these disciples for their failure. Yet which of us can say we have never struggled to pray for more than a few minutes, let alone for hours.

One of the things I marvel at the most isn’t clearly spelled out for us. Rather it’s something I believe because of the nature of Jesus. Scripture tells us that Jesus prayed, “ O My Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: never the less not as I  will , but as Thou wilt.(Matthew 29:39KJV)   Jesus walked in faith and was completely obedient to the Father’s will. While surely He prayed those words because they are recorded. I believe that much of his prayer that night  was the one recorded in John 17, Jesus intercessory prayer. I believe that rather than spend His last precious hours pleading for Himself, He spent those hours agonizing for His disciples. I believe He pleaded with the Father to strengthen them in their temptation. I believe He sweat great drops of blood for Peter, for you  and for me. He knew our weaknesses and every trial we would face.

As we leave the garden we are left with yet another example that Jesus will never ask us to do something He wouldn’t do. One of Jesus followers, in an effort to protect his Master, cuts off the ear of one of the arresting party. Jesus, who taught that we should love our enemies, performs the last recorded healing miracle before His crucifixion and restores this enemy. Jesus love and compassion and all that He did are for every man. Even if you have been His enemy in the past, now is your time. Jesus wants to restore you. All you need to do is to say yes Lord, receive Him,  accept His love and His sacrifice on the cross. Ask and you will be forgiven.

Then go on with Jesus, as He goes on.