A New and Better Passover

Matthew 26:17-30

1) The Intentional Preparation (vv 17-19)

2) The Shocking Prediction (vv 20-25)

“Tidy Matthew intentionally changed Mark’s ‘Rabbi’ to ‘Lord’ so that all who use the single title ‘Lord’ in his Gospel are sincere believers and all who use ‘Rabbi’ are inadequately related to Jesus. The title ‘Lord’ in Matthew expresses the right view of Jesus. Matthew uses the title ‘Lord’ more than any other Gospel writer.” --Dale Bruner

“This is a perfectly formed remark under the circumstances. A clear ‘yes,’ if it had been heard, might have provoked the other disciples’ fury and, surely, Judas’s mock indignation. A ‘no’ would have been untrue. And no response at all could have suggested that Judas’s person or question was indifferent to Jesus. But Jesus loved even Judas, and loved him enough to give him still one more chance. Jesus had to find a reply to Judas’s question that was not a yes, a no, or a no comment. Jesus’ ‘those-are-your-words’ reply is an intentionally evasive or ambiguous affirmative…the words tell Judas, ‘I know who you are.’” --Dale Bruner

3) The New and Better Passover (vv 26-30)

Jeremiah 31:32-34 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

“Worthiness for reception of the Lord’s Supper is not a sinless worthiness; otherwise Jesus’ express gift in the Supper—‘the forgiveness of sins’ (v28)—is nonsensical.” --Dale Bruner