Luke 22:14, “14 When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.”

• Through the life of Jesus we constantly see Jesus saying “My hour has not come, My time has not yet come” and in verse 14 the hour has come, and Jesus reclines at the table with the apostles to celebrate Passover.

Luke 22:15-16, “15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

• In verse 15 Jesus says the phrase, “I have earnestly desired.” The phrase, “earnestly desired” in the original language is difficult to translate, but it is like saying “desire upon desire.”
• It means Jesus has been longing for this moment to sit down with the apostles really bad. In Genesis 1-2 the Father, Son and Spirit speak creation into existence, and in Genesis 3 sin enters into the story and fractures everything that was created to be good, so that in Genesis 3:15, read it on your own, there is the promise that “one day all of creation is going to be restored” and in Luke 22, verse 15 Jesus says, cue Phil Collins on the drums, dun, dun, dun-dun, dun, “And I’ve waiting for this moment for all my life.”

Luke 22:17-18, “17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”

• In verses 17 and 18 Jesus takes the cup of wine for the Passover celebration, and begins to apply the Passover celebration to Himself.
• In verse 15 Jesus says, “Before I suffer, Jesus is pointing them and us to His death.”
• Verse 16, “I shall never again eat, again Jesus is pointing them and us to His death.”
• Verse 18, “I will not drink of the vine until the kingdom of God comes, again Jesus is pointing them and us to His death.”
• Every year these men would gather at the table to celebrate Passover, and the lamb was a major part of the celebration. The lamb was the reminder of the sacrifice that was made in Exodus 12. The lamb would spend time with the family before it was slaughtered. The lamb was just enough for everyone in the family to participate, and in Luke 22 there’s no mention of the lamb, and it is because Jesus is the lamb.

Luke 22:19-20, “19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

• The phrase, “new covenant” is a relational phrase. Jesus is introducing to us what it means to be in relationships with the God of Scripture.
• The Passover celebration would have reminded them of being rescued from death, and rescued to life, but the life would have been with a temporal king, earthly king, geographical king, ethnic king, and in verse 20 Jesus uses the phrase, “new covenant” because Jesus is the ultimate king.

It reminds me of one time we were at the beach when my son was about 4-years old. Tucker is walking toward the ocean, and the waves are crashing up against him, and he is giggling with a little nervous / excited giggle.

Eventually one of those waves got so big it knocked Tucker down, and as he would try to get up the next wave would knock him down again. This pattern of getting up and knocking down happened 2-3 more times until the last wave knocked him down so hard that he couldn’t get up, so I grab him by the arm to pull him to his feet.

That’s a little bit of what’s being described in Luke 22. The waves of life are hitting us over and over and over, and we somehow thought, “If we are smart enough and strong enough we can stand against the waves.”

But, the plan has always been for Jesus to come and take the pounding of the waves upon Himself to the point of death on a cross, and conquer those waves through the resurrection, so that we might find life in Him, and not just temporal life in Him, but eternal life in Him.