I am always astounded that this is how Jesus chose to spend His final hours—with His friends, around a table, sharing a meal. No pomp and circumstance. Just a simple guest room and this ragtag group of followers that had become family. This was, of course, a meal most of them had partaken in every year. They would have known well the familiar cadence of the Passover. The lamb slain. The prayers spoken and songs sung. The food and wine. Each and every movement calling them to remember their rescue. They joined with generations of their ancestors who were called to regularly remember the exodus event—God lifting His people out of slavery and leading them to freedom. This was a familiar meal.
But this time, it was different. The tone shifted as the cross loomed large. It was no longer any other Passover. The familiar liturgy, as rich as it was, had never meant this much. As Jesus broke the bread and blessed it, it was no longer just bread to remember the exodus, but His own body. Taking the wine and giving thanks, it was no longer just wine, but His own blood poured out.
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” —Mark 14:24
Just as the blood of an unblemished lamb sealed the covenant promises of God to His people, even more would the blood of Jesus—soon to be spilled on the cross—seal this new covenant.
This is the blood that would change everything.
Week after week, year after year, generation after generation had offered sacrifices in the tabernacle and temple. The blood of animals was poured out as an atonement, a covering and payment for sin. Here, in this upper room with His disciples, Jesus declared that His blood was going to be enough. They wouldn’t fully understand it then. Not even in the days to come. But He had been preparing them for His death. He knew how heavy with sorrow they would be—how distraught they would be at His departure. But soon their sorrow would turn to joy (John 16:20) and they would tell the world of the sacrifice, resurrection, and new life found in Jesus.
This meal of remembrance, now memorialized in the Lord’s Supper (or Communion or the Eucharist, depending on your tradition), calls to mind the even greater rescue from our bondage to sin and the eternal liberation we find only in Christ.
What a kindness that we have this tangible rhythm of remembrance to recall the body and blood that changed everything for us. For all who have trusted in Christ, and come to the table, we remember and recount His sufficient sacrifice, His death that brought us life.
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39 thoughts on "The Last Supper"
16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” – John 16:16
I’m praying for Joanie. I’m so sorry we live in a world where sin exists and heartache is so real. May God cover you all with peace that passes understanding.
So much here in this devotional today. I think the main thing I’m noticing is the connection between Passover and Jesus being our sacrifice and deliverer.
The different gospels never mention Jesus drinking wine at the last supper. The words used are “cup” and “fruit of the vine”.
Jesus said His sacrifice is enough. Enough. Don’t add anything to it. It’s not “His sacrifice is enough but…” Nope. It’s enough. Period. Rest in this truth. Rest in the Truth.
I have a prayer request. A mom messaged me today. I have been following their story on Facebook. Joanie has Cystinosis. I believe she is near the end. Her mom Portia is struggling. She did tell me that she has prayed for either Joanie to have some life left without so many hospital visits and so much pain. If not to take her quickly. If you all could lift this family in prayer, I would greatly appreciate it. I know exactly what they are going through. As a matter of fact, I’m quite emotional just thinking about them. Thank you
Such a rich passage with emotion filled details. Thankful for many deep revelations through the insights many have shared. I remember when going through labour and about to give birth, the fear of suffering pain overwhelmed me, as birth pains increased, my mind was somewhat paralyzed. But truly the joy once my baby was born safe and sound forever replaced the anguish. Praise God for providing us the joy that no one can take from us. In a little while. In a little while we shall see Him. The world is rejoicing while we have sorrows but our sorrows will turn to everlasting joy. May we all be reminded of this great Hope. When we are still on this side of eternity, lets hold on to this hope that we shall see Him again and this joy shall remain. Just a little while. Be blessed dear sisters.
Traci, this was the first time I noticed it too.
Our reading today packed a punch! Where to start the conversation? How’s it not to ponder the importance of EVERYTHING!! How each disciple at the Passover meal declared he wouldn’t be the one to betray Jesus. How they were singing a hymn on their way to the Mount of Olives. How Jesus had to admonish Peter, James & John three times, for falling asleep in the garden of Gethsemane. How Jesus revealed his being fully human …distressed, troubled, grievous to the point of death… fully knowing what was coming. How Jesus wasn’t arrested while in the temple preaching but like a common criminal. How a young man ran from the scene naked. (I love believing this was Mark’s cameo!) How witnesses at His trial contradicted their own fabrications. How Peter denied knowing Him three times. What drama, pathos, tension. All of this within about 24 hours, Thursday evening through Friday morning! (See “Jesus’s Final Hours”, page 89, our 2021 Lent study book, the Gospel of Mark.) But hold on to your Easter bonnets, Dear Shes, Resurrection Sunday is Coming! We know how His life ends, and His life in us begins. Thanks be to God.
In the main Scripture from Mark 14 verse “26 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.” I never really noticed the part about them singing a hymn. Isn’t it strange how when you read Scripture at certain times certain parts catch your eye and you realize — God MAKES YOU AWARE — that part of the Word seems new to you. This also may have to do with which one of the four Gospels I’ve read the account of the Lord’s Supper in — I’m not sure I’ve read it in Mark before.
Have a great Maundy Thursday and if you go to services I hope you enjoy them.
Be blessed and remember the Lord is always with you sisters.
All I can say is mercy. This is the kind of love that the Father bestows on us. Giving his only son to shed his blood for us. To be the sacrificial lamb. To rip the curtain of the tabernacle and allow us to have a deep and personal relationship with him. He longs to abide with us. To once again, be rejoined with his people and the kingdom he designed for us.
I found these links about Gethsemane. They both have short videos. We can’t even fathom how He suffered. He was sweating blood because of His distress. One of the sites that I found talked about how He suffered as a human, but that wasn’t the worst of it. He drank the cup of God’s Wrath. How can we even fathom what He endured? None of us could ever endure what He did. In Your mercy, God may this change us forever and for those that aren’t saved, may they hear and not be able to deny You. May they repent and be changed, saved and serve You here and until You call them home. Amen.
https://christ.org/questions-and-answers/what-did-christ-feel-in-the-garden-of-gethsemane/
https://moviecultists.com/why-was-jesus-sorrowful-in-the-garden-of-gethsemane
Here are two on the Cup of God’s Wrath:
https://youtu.be/n_5vbnJHPBI
https://youtu.be/3hdCgbt8tPI
Thank you anyone who prayed for me, yesterday. I reached out to an older friend in Christ and we prayed together. I also spent time in my church briefly walking through our live/interactive Stations of the Cross event. But mostly, I just feel the love of God so present. I don’t know what to say, but that God is amazing. God bless you all. <3
Me too Kenya. I’m always so convicted when I read this part.
WOW, so much to say. I too, never noticed the man wearing a cloth before. Thank you LEIGH GORHAM that was so helpful to me.
I found it helpful to realize that Jesus was fully human and fully God. That HE understands our pain and joy, but yet we can replace those feelings of pain with hope in Him. I love the simple words “I am” in verse 62. They mean so much.
HEIDI – I agree. How much do I trade Jesus for in my everyday life. I’m in Naples Florida right now with eye candy everywhere. I need to be careful not to get caught up. I’ve already indulged a bit. Aargh…I pray that my eyes stay looking up!! He is all we need. I have plenty of stuff, but without Jesus life would be so empty. I don’t want to trade Him for anything.
HEIDI such great news about your niece! Praying for her and her friend.
As Lindsey said, “What a kindness that we have this tangible rhythm of remembrance to recall the body and blood that changed everything for us. For all who have trusted in Christ, and come to the table, we remember and recount His sufficient sacrifice, His death that brought us life!”
That stood out to me too!
HIS death that brought us LIFE! Thank you JESUS!
What stood out to me today is v 65 …”the temple servants also took him and slapped him”. WOW!! How many times have I joined in on gossip or bad behavior because “everyone else is doing it” ? Lord change me- give me the strength to be different, even if it means to stand alone because I’m standing with Jesus!!!
May we all remember His sacrifice.
“He consumed the cup of our sin down to the dregs.” (-He Reads Truth today) It’s hard to fathom and I’m so very grateful. I weep for the world this morning and feel so strongly that the Messiah is ever waiting with a cup full of overflowing mercy to pour out on any one who aches in His direction. Lord come quickly and bring a world-wide revival. Sunday is coming!
❤️
Thank you!!!
These passages can be hard to read and think about what Jesus endured for the sake of us, but the hope it gives! “I will see you again. Your heats will rejoice and no one will take away your joy from you.” Lord thank you for this hope you give. Praying for all of the requests.
In Old Testament it was a sin to drink the blood of sacrificed animals because it represented life. Now Jesus is telling us that we are to drink His blood—- BECAUSE—- it is LIFE!! Isn’t that beautiful. He is the ultimate sacrifice!! Praise God!
LEIGH GORHAM, We were on the same wavelength! THANKS for sharing the commentaries. As I read your notes, I vaguely remember hearing about that being Mark, but I had forgotten that. The commentaries add a rich layer to the setting!
These weeks I’ve read over and over in the commentaries and heard in the podcasts various versions of the statement “I love this season of lent …”. I struggle to relate to that! I enjoy being intentional and typically “seasons” of something will help us to do that, so it’s the rhythms of intention that I’m enjoying, not lent. I especially struggle with THIS week every year. I very, intensely selfishly do NOT like reading the events leading up to/of the crucifixion. Especially dragging it out and reading the days “in real time”. For me it’s sincerely anxiety-causing. I joined in today and will continue this week because the truth of what Jesus did for me (us) needs to be accounted and remembered and felt and known. It’s unbelievably important to keeping perspective on my life and circumstances- on keeping appropriate perspective on this world and events. But just being fully open- I do NOT enjoy it… Easter- I enjoy. ;)
If anyone listened to the podcast they heard this too- but something so interesting they shared about the payment Judas set up for the handing over of Jesus was equivalent to the common “asking price” for a slave. He sold off the Savior for a slave’s price. I judged that for a moment and then was smacked in the head with the question- well, Heidi, how much do YOU trade Jesus for in your everyday life..? Sadly- the price Judas received is more than what I’ve given Him up for some days. Various comforts, situations where I’m CERTAIN I know better/make my own choices… I “give him up” much too easily sometimes. And yet- he’s always right there lovingly wanting me back, to show me doing life with him is so much richer and better. So while I really dislike this “season”- I’m at the same time so grateful for it and what it brought to us as a people of God. Adoption, inclusion, unending love and forgiveness… too much :)
UPDATE for those keeping count- yesterday (Wed) my niece received her 30 day chip!! She is so excited. But beyond that- you should know she’s gotten this chip a couple times before but she told me last night it never meant much. She didn’t really care bc she wasn’t fully committed to sobriety. But this time she feels proud, she feels successful and she’s recognizing the enormous changes that are happening. She sent me a text a couple of days ago that said she was suddenly so overwhelmed with the realization of how much God was working in her life. She hadn’t noticed it before. She said “It was like I suddenly KNEW God was working in me and around me continuously because of people praying for me- not bc of ME, but completely the prayers of others…” Y’all I about hit the floor! For Him to decide now was the timing to answer that prayer of her eyes being opened to the Spiritual work around her- I’ve/we’ve been praying that for her for months now. But she was finally in a mental space to be able to understand that thought.
Thank you for your prayers for her. Please please don’t stop… I am still in communication with her friend who is living back at home with her mom (massively toxic environment) and praying for her- please pray for her to find community, support, encouragement and (hopefully) a better living situation.
Grateful for all of you!!! ❤️
Sorry for the early post. The full version of my comment is the second post of mine. ❤️
I did some research awhile wondering about the young man too, but I honestly forget what I read. I was just thinking about it, thinking “I wonder if that is Mark, putting himself in the story in a humble way”. That’s so cool to see it may have been! Kind of like John always referring to himself as the disciple who Jesus loved!
If anyone was like me and wondered what the significance or meaning of the verses in Mark of the man who came out during the seizure of Jesus – the man in nothing but linen – I searched some commentaries and found one I that shared insight and possibility I hade never realized or considered. I wanted to share it here for anyone who wanted to read it too.
It is from David Guzik’s commentary: “Now a certain young man followed Him… and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked: Jesus was forsaken even by a young follower, who in the confusion fled naked. Since the earliest days of the church, commentators have supposed this young man to be Mark himself. It was his humble way of saying, “I was there.”
i. Many people suppose that the upper room where Jesus held the last supper just a few hours earlier was at a home owned by Mark’s family. Acts 12:12 says that the disciples used to meet at the home of Mark’s mother. It may be that the arresting army led by Judas first came to Mark’s home, because that is where Judas last left Jesus. When Judas and the group came and found them gone, it would have been easy for Judas to suppose that they went to Gethsemane, because Jesus was accustomed to going there (Luke 22:39). When Judas and the group started out for Gethsemane, we can imagine that young Mark hurriedly dressed in a simple linen cloth and set out to beat Judas and his gang to Gethsemane so that he could warn Jesus.
ii. “It is usually supposed that Mark himself, son of Mary (Acts 12:12) in whose house they probably had observed the Passover meal, had followed Jesus and the apostles to the Garden.” (Robertson)
iii. “The modest spirit of Mark seemed to say, ‘Friend Peter, while the Holy Ghost moves me to, tell thy fault, and let it stand on record, he also constrains me to write my own as a sort of preface to it, for I, too, in my mad, hare-brained folly, would have run, unclothed as I was, upon the guard to rescue my Lord and Master; yet, at the first sight, of the rough legionaries, at the first gleam of their swords, away I fled, timid, faint-hearted, and afraid that I should be too roughly handled.’” (Spurgeon)”
So fascinating, Leigh! Thanks for sharing this. I was so curious & hadn’t ever noticed that part of the story before. This makes a lot of sense.
If anyone was like me and wondered what the significance or meaning of the verses in Mark of the man who came out during the seizure of Jesus – the man in nothing but linen – I searched some commentaries and found one I that shared insight and possibility I hade never realized or considered. I wanted to share it here for anyone who wanted to read it too.
Jesus thank You for Your life giving blood of redemption. Amen
FULLY human and FULLY God… the only able sacrifice.
I think the part that stands out me every year is Jesus’s distress over the situation. I guess it makes this so much more real to me because he experienced an emotion we all know too well – proving that he was part human but also proving that now, as he fights for us in heaven, he does truly know the meaning of pain and sorrow and distress. In contrast though, we see his assuredness and lack of doubt – even in pain – as an example of faith we ought to have in all moments of our lives. Always grateful for this reading and the awareness of the celebration we are approaching.
I love lent. I’m thankful for she reads truth and the community here. I will ask for pray for healing in my home and for restoration in Jesus name.
❤️
Mark 14:38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Lord, may I always remember these words of Yours. It’s when I am looking around at something or someone besides You that the enemy’s lies can grab my attention.
Sisters, I am so thankful for this community and its prayer warriors.
We all know that Easter is coming, as it does every year. Reading again the details of these events draws me in to what Christ and His followers were doing on the days leading up the Christ’s sacrifice for me, for us, for humanity. I am looking back, knowing what happens next, and can’t imagine how scared and uncertain they were as things unfolded. Thank you, Jesus.
BROOKE P – I have 4/21 marked for prayer.
LIANA DELACORTE & SUE DALOS -so glad you are with us. Praying for you, your husbands and your marriages. H
LAURA & COURTNEY – praying for your families. Praying your daughters feel your love for them, and especially God’s love for them.
KATHERINE M – thank you for sharing this great news!
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lords been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground.
He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from;
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
6 We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the Lord has punished him
for the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
and like a sheep silent before her shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment,
and who considered his fate?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
Jesus KNEW what was ahead and in His own strength was overwhelmed. He gives us such a powerful example of surrender to the Father’s will. An example of what it means to bring glory to God over self. The Father strengthened Him and He will do the same for us whenever we have to do the “hard” thing before us.
LIANA DELACORTE – praying you will press into God and the Bible more and more. May the Lord give you the words to say when your husband asks, but may your changed life speak louder. I pray you have a Christian friend who can encourage you and help answer questions. If not this community is available until you have one.❤
There is much sorrow in this passage. Jesus captured, beaten, and mocked. The disciples scattered. Peter denying Jesus and then realising what he has done. It’s heartbreaking. But the story doesn’t end here. The disciples saw Jesus again and He replaced their sorrow and mourning with joy. A joy that no one can take away. Our stories, they can be filled with hardship and tears. But what no one can take away is the sure promise that the end will be one of joy and rejoicing.