With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God

 

 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.  Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."  And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.  But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table.  And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"  Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.  

Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.  And He said to them, "The king of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.'  But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.  For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves?  Is it not he who sits at the table?  Yet I am among you as the One who serves.  But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials.  And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

 

- Luke 22:14–30 

 

Yesterday we read that the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.  And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.  Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.  So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.  And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.  So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.  Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.  And He sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat."  So they said to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare?"  And He said to them, "Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters.  Then you shall say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready."  So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.   

When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.  Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  My study Bible explains that Christ has a fervent desire for this Passover because this meal will give the mysteries of the new covenant to His followers, and because this event will bring about the great deliverance of humanity from sin through the power of the Cross.  

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."  This first cup is the conclusion of the Old Testament Passover meal, which Christ eats with His disciples to fulfill the Law.  Until the kingdom of God comes means until Christ's Resurrection, my study Bible says.  For at that time He will again eat and drink with His disciples (Luke 24:43; Acts 10:41).  

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."  The word translated as gave thanks has at its root the Greek word "eucharist" (εὐχαριστέω/eucharisteo).  My study Bible comments that this word immediately came to refer to both the Liturgy and the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Before the end of the first century, it notes, a manuscript called the Didache (the earliest teaching manual of the Church; Didache means "Teaching" in Greek) refers to the celebration of the Liturgy as "the Eucharist."  In the year AD 150, moreover, St. Justin said of Holy Communion, "This food we call 'Eucharist,' of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing [holy baptism] for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ commanded us." Jesus says, This is My body:   My study Bible comments that the Orthodox Church has always accepted these words of Christ as true, "that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from Him is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus" (St. Justin Martyr).  See also John 6:51-66.

But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table.  And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"  Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.  My study Bible remarks that Judas also is invited to the table for the mystical supper, as Jesus is seeking by all means to save him.  Judas' unworthy participation will lead to his utter destruction (see 1 Corinthians 11:27-30; compare Esther 7). 

 

Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.  And He said to them, "The king of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.'  But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves."  My study Bible comments that such a small-minded dispute is out of place in the context of the mysteries which Christ has just revealed. (Perhaps it is because Christ has spoken of the coming of the Kingdom, the nature of which they do not yet fully understand.)  My study Bible asks us to note that Jesus first corrects the disciples by comparing them to the power-hungry Gentiles, whom they themselves considered an abomination, and contrasting them to Himself, who serves us although He is the Lord of all. 

"But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials.  And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."  My study Bible quotes from the commentary of St. Ambrose of Milan here:  "Christ judges by discerning the heart, and not by examining deeds.  So also the apostles are being shaped to exercise spiritual judgment concerning faith,and in rebuking error with virtue."  The apostles will not judge with earthly judgment, my study Bible says, but by the witness of their own lives.  Since God's kingdom begins with the Resurrection of Christ, the authority of judgment has already been given to the apostles and their successors in the journey of the Church on earth (Matthew 16:19; John 20:23).  

The Eucharist, by its very name, asks us to consider the importance of gratitude in our lives.  Something that is so central (in the Christian viewpoint) to all of humanity -- indeed, all of creation -- is a factor that forms a building block of the plan of God.  That is, if we accept that Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8), then we understand that even as the only-begotten Son, Christ was always the One who would sacrifice for our sake that we would be fed with unceasing good from God.  It indicates for us that the Son was always the fountain of water that springs up into everlasting life (John 4:14), and the bread of life, so that Jesus could teach, "He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst" (John 6:35).  In Christ's sacrifice then, is the reality of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world so that we all may partake of these tremendous gifts of such depth that we must call them mysteries.  It is clear that Christ's sacrifice will be for all people, for all time, but even more than that -- for the redemption of all the "world."  John's Gospel tells us, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  In the Greek, the word translated as "world" is κόσμος/kosmos, indicating not just the earth, but all of creation, the universe.  Therefore with this central event to all of spiritual life, the initiation of the Eucharist, we can grasp that our gratitude for what we are given is not just central to our faith, but central to the very foundation of creation in that the Son is not only Jesus the Incarnate Son who was crucified for us on the Cross, but also the Son of God who always was the Lamb slain for us.  The Son always was the One who gave Himself to give us eternal life, and to feed us with His Body and Blood so that we might have everlasting life with Him.  When we fail to practice gratitude, then, we are missing on the very source of our lives, and we fail to know something essential for our very well-being as creations of God.  We're missing our own foundation without it.  There is an epidemic of depression that seems to be noted by sociologists and psychologists, especially those who study the effects of social media, and very much an alarming trend among the young in terms of increasing affliction.  While we aspire to greater and greater wealth and feats of technology and innovation in a material sense, we might well wonder why it is afflicting people -- and especially young people -- with a growing sense of unease, loneliness, and rates of depression.  In Christ's sacrifice, in the Eucharist, we may partake of what makes us one Body, what is literally called Communion, for the root of sacrifice has always been sharing to make community identity with that which we worship.  In Christianity, it is God the Son who sacrifices Himself (as willed by God the Father) once for all time, that we may find ourselves in God's love and community, and in this sense the Eucharist is the gift that keeps giving, inexhaustibly and eternally.  In the science of psychology, it is well-known that the practice of gratitude is in itself one method to counteract depression.  But perhaps we might take that a step further with a deeper insight, and a much, much greater perspective on creation itself, to understand gratitude as the root of our being and spiritual relationship to Creator.  Without it, we falter.