The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

A New Passover:  A Day of Remembrance on Another Day of Remembrance:  Mt.26:17 – 35

^26:17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?’ ¹⁸ And he said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, ‘My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’’’ ¹⁹ The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. ²⁰ Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples.  ²¹ As they were eating, he said, ‘Truly I say to you that one of you will betray me.’ ²² Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to him, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’ ²³ And he answered, ‘He who dipped his hand with me in the bowl is the one who will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.’ ²⁵ And Judas, who was betraying him, said, ‘Surely it is not I, Rabbi?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said it yourself.’ … ³¹ Then Jesus said to them, ‘You will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ ³² But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’ ³³ But Peter said to him, ‘Even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away.’ ³⁴ Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’ ³⁵ Peter said to him, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.’ All the disciples said the same thing too.

I’ve heard of husbands and wives who renew their vows by holding another marriage ceremony.  Imagine a couple doing that, on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.  She wears the same wedding dress she wore twenty years before, and he wears the same suit.  They regather their friends and family.  This time, they add their adult children to the ceremony.  They repeat their vows.  But their voices are no longer eager with naïve adoration.  Instead, they ring with humility and power, resonating with the weight of years, of the wonder of knowing one another for so long, and of the difficulties of their old age ahead of them.  Their twenty-fifth anniversary becomes doubly significant.  They make a fresh, new commitment on top of an older one.

          Jesus did a similar thing with the Jewish Passover.  He was giving new meaning to it, deepening it.  Centuries ago, God made a commitment to Israel, to be with them, even if it meant saving them from slavery in Egypt and journeying with them through the wilderness.  That was the first Passover – and it resulted in ‘Independence Day’ anniversary celebrations every year in the Jewish calendar.  But when God came in the person of Jesus, he was making a fresh, new commitment layered on top of the older one.

Jesus would offer salvation from another slavery – not from an external enemy, but an internal one.  ‘He will save his people from their sins’ (Mt.1:21).  He would address the real tyrant – not Pharaoh, nor the Romans, but the deepest reason why Israel was still captive to their enemies:  the sin lodged in their very own humanity.  This is why he points to his ‘body’ and ‘blood’ as the true meal that the disciples need to ‘eat.’  Jesus is cleansing his own body and blood of all sinfulness.  He was taking the fallen humanity he was born into and will finally put it to death, in order to rise as a new kind human being.  Jesus will offer his new, resurrected, God-drenched humanity to them, and they must internalize it, by the Spirit.  That will be the dramatic new Passover Exodus:  God’s deliverance of a human nature from the clutches of the corruption that had infected all human nature. 

Ironically, almost all of Israel will desert God at the altar, so to speak.  ‘You will all fall away…’  Jesus’ death and resurrection was God’s act of renewing His covenant vow with His people.  Jesus plays both parts in the renewal of the wedding vows:  God’s part, and Israel’s part.  Many Israelites will watch Jesus die.  But no Israelite will stand by to knowingly celebrate what was really going on in the person of Jesus.  The Jewish leaders just want their careers and their nation the way it is.  Judas Iscariot will refuse Jesus, and the gears of his betrayal machinery turn one more notch (Mt.26:21 – 25).  The rest of the disciples – Simon Peter especially – make big promises of loyalty, but they’ll soon flee for their lives (Mt.26:31 – 35).  Jesus’ mother, other women, and the disciple John will watch Jesus die, but in sheer grief.  So no Israelite truly hears the ‘I do’ quietly spoken between Jesus and the Father. 

Only after Jesus’ death and resurrection will the disciples and everyone else begin to piece together how much God loved them in the person of Jesus, and from what he was delivering them.  We’ll look at the different aspects of Jesus’ experience that day. 

We celebrate a union this day, a union of the human and the one true God.  In the person of Jesus, both divinity and humanity said, ‘I do.’  And they embraced each other.