"And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer..." (Luke 22.14-15).

It was with a deep sense of the tragic nature of this Passover feast that Jesus came with his little band of followers to this upper room. It was to be of a character quite different from any that He and they had attended before. The hour appointed for the consummation of his sacrifice had all but come, and He had come up to Jerusalem with that object in view. Furthermore, the hour of the powers of darkness had also arrived and He was to be given into their wicked hands. Heretofore none had been able to lay hands on him, as He said, "My hour is not yet come." But now the situation was to be otherwise. Already the Prince of Darkness had made a breach into the little circle that had accompanied him to Jerusalem. Apparently disappointed in his Master, in that He had not seized the opportunity of his prophetic ride into Jerusalem to proclaim himself her king, Judas sought ways and means to force the hands of his Leader and Master. His cogitations over these ways and means laid his mind open to a suggestion from one who was watching the fast-developing situation with the most intense interest. "Why don't you betray him to the authorities," suggested the Evil One, "so that He has to use his power to free himself and so come into the open."

The author of the plot was his great adversary, for "the devil . . . put into the heart of Judas Iscariot . . . to betray him..." (John 13.2). Into the unsettled mind of the apostate Satan injected the traitorous thought, and because it was not thrown out forthwith, he also himself entered into the unhappy wretch, to take command. "Then entered Satan into Judas . . . And he went his way and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might deliver him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money." (Luke 22.3-5). Taking advantage then of the disaffection of one who could not understand the way of the Lord, Satan first intrudes into his mind an evil thought, then follows that with swift action by entering in himself, obsessing his victim, and taking command. At such an hour, and against such a target as the Son of God, Satan would not entrust the work of treachery to any member of his evil staff. Fallen angelic princes might be well able to guide the destinies of nations and peoples throughout the earth (see Dan.10.3-20) but they were no match for this hour, and for this sinless victim. Only the mighty "Prince of the Power of the Air" was competent to seize and exploit an opportunity like this, only he, in his own person, could see it through.

Seated at the festal board, Jesus knew what had been done; "as they did eat, he (Jesus) said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me" (Matt.26.21). "Is it I Lord?" was the question that ran round the company, until even the treacherous lips took it up. "It is he to whom I shall give a sop." Then when Jesus had tendered the morsel to the treacherous soul, "Satan entered into him" again (John 13.27). Even into the quiet retreat of that upper room the prince of evil had intruded himself, now to take full unbroken control of his dupe, till the victim he was seeking should be slain. That wicked act accomplished, he left Judas to exterminate himself in the flood of penitential misery that overwhelmed his soul.

After Judas had left the room, Jesus turned to Peter—Peter, the passionate, the impulsive, the ready-tongued!—to tell him that Satan wanted to get hold of him too, to shake him in the sifting-sieve, but… "for thee I have prayed"! There was no prayer for the deliberate betrayer, but there was a prayer, of deep solicitude, for the momentarily-overcome denier of the Lord.

Yet, freighted as this occasion was with such tragic things, the faithful Son had come to this hour with "great desire"! There was no shirking or hesitation in his attitude. He had come to this hour to be the "grain of wheat" sown into the soil of his Father's field, there to die, that men might live because of him. And so, even in this room, not the weakness of "this" or the wickedness of "that", could rob him of his solemn desire to take with them, for the last time until the Kingdom of God should be come, the emblem appropriate to that sacred feast.

Having partaken of the foods provided in the old time-hallowed way, Jesus took a piece of bread, then, after blessing it, passed it to the company, saying as He did so, "Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me." This was a counterpart, but on a higher plane, to that "eating" upon which they had all been engaged that night. He was to be the true, the real, the intended Paschal Lamb for the whole House of Israel, by means of which the Kingdom of God would come.

After that distribution He took the Cup and blessed it, and as He passed it to the little group his mind went forward to an entirely different line of thought. "This Cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22.20). Matthew adds another thought; "This is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins" (Matt.26.28).

Now, the Paschal Feast was not the occasion for the remission of sins in Israel. The feast associated with their cleansing from sin came much later in the year. The Atonement Day, with its sacrifices and its renewal of the Covenant (Heb.9.16-21) was connected with the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles) which fell, not in the first month, but in the seventh, year by year, continually. It may seem strange to us that Jesus' mind should run so far forward from that Paschal Feast, with its precise remembrance, to another Feast with such dis-similar associations, did we not know that in that first year of Israelitish history the deliverance from the Egyptian yoke and the inauguration of the Covenant at Mount Sinai were but the beginning and ending of their great redemption experience. The smiting of the first-born was the last blow needed to compel the Egyptians to "let My people go". Through the Red Sea and the desert wastes to the foot of Sinai the deliverer led them on, and there, the redemption begun by his glittering sword was consummated by his trumpet voice. The "passing-over" was a means to a greater end. That "end" was the Covenant-making with its undertakings on each side. Jehovah consented to be their God; they consented to be his people.

But, in after years, that Covenant needed to be purified by blood, and be renewed year by year on their Atonement day (Heb.9.18-21). Jesus' words over the Cup are in full keeping with this thought, though on a higher plane. He wanted to teach his loved ones a deep truth in this matter of the Cup.

It was not the custom in Israel for the Covenant blood to be drunk by any one. It was always used for sprinkling: some of it, by the Priest in the Most Holy Place as a covering for sin; and some of it by the Mediator, later in the day, at the rededication service of the people as they renewed their Covenant with their God (Num.29.7-11). When, in due time, Jesus' blood comes to be used as the blood of the New Covenant it will not be drunk. It will be sprinkled or presented by himself as the great High Priest in the anti-typical Most Holy Place, on behalf of those whom God has invited to make a New Covenant with him (Jer.31.31; Heb.8.8-12), in place of that old Covenant which failed through the weakness of the flesh ‑that is, with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. The blood of the New Covenant is intended for Israel's cleansing and for ratifying her New Covenant, even though shed so long ago. But until then it is accounted to flow in those who have drunk at that Cup throughout, and will remain in them until in the Age to come it is efficacious for Israel's cleansing, when, after their banishment and subsequent regathering to this land, they will have become ready to covenant a New Covenant with their God.

Looking back to that historic night in Egypt we can see that Heaven's last visitation affected one member of each household in a manner altogether different from the rest. Though in a way, all the household were under the blood, only the firstborn was in danger of the firstborn's fate. Had there been no blood on the lintel of that house, the destroying sword would have entered within, and the fate that was to befall the Egyptian would have befallen the firstborn of Israel too. The life of the slain lamb was the price required for the sparing of the firstborn's life; and yet, though thus preserved from the agonies of death, that very passing-over separated him away from his family unto the Lord. Spared thus from being cut-off from his family, yet in that night, he was truly separated from the old family home-life to belong exclusively to the Lord.

In later days, Moses reminded Israel that God had said "all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast; mine they shall be; I am the LORD" (Num.3.13). The record of this demand is first set out in Exo.13.2—a demand made on "the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies" (Exo.12.51). Here then, during that fateful night, God separated out a first fruits of the nation to be his own possession, many days before He brought the remainder unto himself at Sinai. Though in the meantime between Egypt and Sinai all the nation's firstborns were exchanged for all the males of Levi (see Num.3.11-13), yet the principle of separation remained the same, and when the whole community of the nation came to the holy mount, Levi was separated (in the firstborn's stead) unto the Lord to be a special channel of the Lord (as a firstborn, Exo.4.22), out of all the peoples of the earth, had had its own firstborn (or a tribe in lieu thereof) separated out from its own ranks, so that through its services their nation's standing and Covenant might be renewed from year to year.

This is exactly in accord with the principle involved in the words of the Lord to his disciples in the upper room. His mind had gone far forward to the establishment of the Covenant conditions between his Father and the regathered hosts of Israel, and to the part therein that He himself must play. But that much-to-be-desired event lay far ahead on the stream of time. It was as if some far-sighted son of Israel could have looked forward to Sinai from some point of the night when the Passover feast was in progress, in his Egyptian hut, and could have said to the firstborn of the family that there was something specially important for him in this night's happenings, with regard to the Covenant that then lay so many days ahead.

Jesus was talking to the first nucleus of the firstborn class of this Gospel Age. Others have entered into this same privilege (and though of Gentile birth, yet, by faith have gained joint-inheritance in Abraham's seed) and may drink from the Paschal Cup as did those first members of the class. It is still the blood of the New Covenant which they drink; of the Millennial Covenant, but till that time is come it is to be taken as the bond of union between him, whose blood it was and those in whose bodies it, by drinking, has come to be.

Let no one stumble at this conclusion or this privilege, nor interweave or jumble other lines of truth into this. It is our heritage in the truth to separate out things that differ, and see things each in its own light. Jesus' words stand out sharp and clear. First, there is the breaking of the bread in true Paschal form—and Jesus, the true Paschal Lamb, is the One on whom we feed during the darkness of this long Gospel night (1 Cor.5.7). And secondly, there is the drinking of the life-blood of the Covenant of the future Day, to be in us the bond that ties us to our Lord in that great work, till the death He has died has claimed us too (Rom.6.3-5). Concerning these two things the words of Jesus are clear and precise: each line of thought is definite and well emphasised, and thereby He invites us not only to share together the broken loaf of his sinless body, but also to take and hold within ourselves the precious blood—more precious than all the world's finest gold—until He asks us to yield it up again so that therewith He may accomplish his Covenant purposes. The flight of time brings nearer, with every passing year, that auspicious event: but even so, not yet is the long Passover night at an end. The great antitypical visitation of the last of the ten plagues upon the oppressors of his Israel people still lies ahead of us. Till the great deliverance is brought to pass it is still appropriate to take the broken bread and drink the out-poured blood, knowing, the while, that the great consummation is fully assured by his death.

Once more, by the grace of God, it will be our privilege to gather at the table of the Lord, and take again the tokens of his great sacrifice. Let all who see this occasion to be a privilege—a sacred solemn feast before the Lord—look well to themselves that they eat and drink not unworthily.

AOH