The Last Supper
Hello, my name is Danny and I was a Latter-day Saint for 60 years.
This is part 4 of the Bridegroom Messiah series – with the subtitle “The Last Supper.”
In part 2 and 3 of my previous videos - we found Jesus being referred by John the Baptist as the “Bridegroom” Messiah, who has a “bride.” We know that the “bride” of the Bridegroom is true Israel. Then at the start of Jesus’ ministry, He along with Mary His mother and His disciples attended a wedding in Cana. And we read and discussed the miracle Jesus performed there, which was turning water into wine.
I also quoted Old Testament scripture that the long-awaited Bridegroom would give the prophesied “wine of salvation,” when His “hour” comes. So, the question is - when exactly does that take place? When does Jesus give the wine of HIS wedding? When is HIS wedding banquet?
The answer to these questions lies in the latter part of Jesus’ response to Mary in John 2:4 “My hour has not yet come.” These words form a bridge between the sign of the messianic wedding performed by Jesus at Cana - and the reality of the messianic wine that is given in the Upper Room and then consummated on the cross.
Here we need to make a few points about the Last Supper and the passion of Christ: First, Whenever Yeshua speaks of His “hour” - He is referring to the time of His passion and death. The following are examples: Here Jesus pauses in His teaching to pray to the Father. John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Then what is called the “High Priestly Prayer in John 17:1 “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” Then at the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples Mark 14:41-42 “And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.” Again, in Mathew 26:45 “Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
At the wedding in Cana, in a powerful way - Jesus is saying to Mary, “It is not yet time for me to provide the wine of the banquet of YHWH. I will provide that supernatural wine, but only at the hour of my passion and death.” But out of respect for His mother’s request, He nevertheless performs a sign that points forward to the “hour” of His passion by turning water into wine. The “hour” of Jesus’ passion and the time when He will provide the wine of salvation will begin at the Last Supper in the upper room.
Repeatedly during His public ministry, Jesus speaks of His “hour” as a future time and event. But finally, when the Last Supper finally arrives - this is what happens: John 13:1-4 “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded himself.” The arrival of Yeshua’s “hour” is tied with the beginning of the Last Supper from which Judas departs to betray Him. Jesus the Bridegroom Messiah celebrates with His disciples a wedding banquet as He goes to His passion and death. His “hour” has come. And it is a total, self-sacrificial love for His bride – that Jesus is manifesting in His wedding “hour.”
So, when Jesus informs His mother in Cana at the beginning of His ministry that it is not yet time for the wine of which she speaks – the wine of the messianic banquet of the wedding of God to His people - Jesus will give the wine of salvation at the Last Supper, when “the hour” of His passion has arrived.
The other Gospel writers along with Paul reveal that at the Last Supper, Yeshua is not simply celebrating a new Passover. Through the wine of the Last Supper, which Jesus identifies as His blood – Jesus is also inaugurating the new wedding covenant spoken by prophets of the Old Testament. Listen to these gospel accounts: Matthew 26:27-28 “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament (covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Mark 14:24 “And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.” Luke 22:20 “Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.” And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:25 “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament (covenant) in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” In all these passages, Jesus identifies the red “wine” of the Last Supper with the “blood” of a “new covenant.”
Any first-century Jew hearing Yeshua referring to the “blood” of a new “covenant” would have recognized the allusion to the first covenant - between God and Israel that was made back at Mount Sinai. Compare those words of Jesus at the Last Supper with words of Moses at Sinai. Exodus 24:8 “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.”
By identifying the wine of the covenant at the Last Supper with His blood - Jesus is speaking of the New Covenant that the Old Testament prophets had foretold God would one day make in place of the covenant - that had been sealed at Mount Sinai but, had since been broken numerous times. Jeremiah 31:31-33 “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper in the Upper Room are a kind of “new Sinai,” in which - He inaugurates a new union or Ketubah or marriage covenant between God and true Israel. Consequently, the Last Supper is a wedding banquet between God and true Israel.
At the Last Supper, Yeshua is celebrating the covenant banquet with His twelve disciples. Yeshua states in Luke 22:28-30 “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Together, those twelve men symbolically, represented the bride of God – the people of Israel. Just as YHWH wed Himself to the twelve tribes of Israel at Mount Sinai through the blood of animals in the Old Covenant - So now Jesus unites Himself to the twelve disciples through the blood of the New Covenant, which is sealed in His own blood.
By means of this new covenant - Yeshua reveals that He is the true Bridegroom Messiah, and this new Israel meaning true Israel which is the bride, will be established through His disciples. Under this new wedding covenant, it is no longer the blood of bulls and goats that will be poured out - but the blood of the Bridegroom Messiah, who is the God of Israel come in the flesh.
And, just as Jesus’ “hour” began at the Last Supper, when He “loved” His disciples “to the end” – So now He gives up His perfect life on the cross and declares “It is finished” meaning “It is consummated.” In this way, not only is the Last Supper a wedding banquet, but the crucifixion is the ultimate act of His agape love. It is the sacrifice of the Bridegroom Messiah, giving Himself up for the sake of His bride.
Instead of changing water into wedding wine as He did at Cana, Jesus now changes the red wine into His blood – the blood of the new and everlasting marriage covenant. At the Last Supper, Jesus gives His bride the greatest wedding gift He could probably give – the gift of Himself. It began in the Upper Room and was consummated on the wooden cross. This wine is the wine through which YHWH will take away the sins of His people.
I hope you are seeing the significance of this continuing theme throughout both the Hebrew Record and the Apostolic Record. It will play a major role in identifying those who are called the “bride” and are taken up to the heavenly New Jerusalem at the Bridegroom Messiah’s Second Coming. Which I believe took place at the final destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Thank you for listening. Next week, I want to teach from the account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. It will continue to play significantly into our theme of the Bridegroom Messiah.
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God Bless!