For me, what I think is more lacking, is the fact that this was
Jesus sharing a meal with his disciples.
Not exact matches
The Pharisees, when they challenge
Jesus and His disciples, the only thing they can complain about is that they have
shared a
meal with tax collectors and other sinners.
For example, it has been suggested that most of the crowd whom
Jesus is said miraculously to have fed
with five loaves and two small fish, had brought packed
meals with them, but were reluctant to
share these until he set the example (John 6:5 - 15).
After many months of serving alongside
Jesus, the disciples are
sharing an intimate
meal with their Teacher who, to their dismay, is hinting about his impending death.
During the Last Supper on the night before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion,
Jesus shared the Passover
Meal with His disciples and imbued new symbolism into the bread and wine.
The Lord's Supper, the last
meal Jesus shared with his disciples, we commemorate in worship every time we
share the Eucharist.
When the two despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus expressed to the stranger their bewilderment that such a powerful prophet as
Jesus should have been condemned to death and be crucified, we are told that the risen Christ «began
with Moses and all the prophets, and explained to them the passages which referred to himself in every part of the scriptures».6 The story implies that the Scriptures, when properly interpreted, made it clear that the Messiah was «bound to suffer thus before entering upon his glory» 7 When finally they recognized the identity of this stranger as they
shared the evening
meal before he vanished from their sight, they said to each other, «Did we not feel our hearts on fire as he talked
with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?»
As part of these instructions, Paul refers to the Passover
meal which
Jesus shared with His disciples on the night before He was crucified (1 Cor 11:23 - 26).
We like to think that if we don't have a record of
Jesus» teachings on a matter, he must not have said anything about it, but we forget that
Jesus healed, blessed, taught, and
shared meals with people whose names we will never know, whose stories will never be immortalized in stained glass.
On that very night He was to be delivered up,
Jesus longed to
share a very special
meal with those who had become His friends; something which would be repeated often after the grave was empty.
They had dinner probably in front of an open air window, so people walking the streets could see that
Jesus, who claimed to be God, is
sharing a
meal with essentially the drug lord of the day.