Jesus Is Fasting from the Fruit of the Vine until the Consumation

Read Matthew 26:14-29

      The parallels with Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper and the Jewish Passover are striking and dramatic.  Just as the people of Israel remembered their deliverance from Egyptian slavery by their eating of the Passover meal, so Messiah’s people will remember their deliverance from sin and death by their observance of the Lord’s Supper.  In both cases, a body was broken and blood was shed so that all who partook would be spared judgment and death.  “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

      But both Passover and the Lord’s Supper are forward-looking as well.  What began at Passover did not reach its consummation until the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, and what began at the cross of Christ will not reach its consummation until the Kingdom comes in all its fullness, when the last enemy will have been defeated forever, when his saints will see his face, and when every tear will have been wiped away. 

      Until then, we take the bread and the cup, in obedience, in remembrance, and knowing that we will do so “until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).  For his part, Jesus “will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (26:29).  Amen, Lord – thy kingdom come!