Philip Fogarty shows us the meaning of the Last Supper in the light of Mark’s gospel.
When we come to the story of Jesus’ last hours, we have to be careful to place it in its proper context. The Gospel writers are not writing history in the modern sense of the word. They approach the story of Jesus’ death from a religious and theological perspective.
Not bibliography but theology dominate the choice of events that the Evangelists narrate. It is also important to remember that in trying to understand what happened to Jesus, the Evangelists naturally made wide use of the symbolism found in the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament).
Passover feast
Jesus’ disciples ask him where he wants to celebrate the feast of Passover (14:12ff). He sends two of the disciples into Jerusalem, saying to them that they would meet a man carrying a pitcher of water – an unusual event in itself.
Water-carrying in jars was usually the job of women, whereas men only carried water in a leather bottle when they went on journeys or out to work in the fields.
The two disciples are to follow the man and then say to the owner of the house that the man enters, ‘The Master says: where is my dining room in which I can eat the Passover with my disciples?’ Jesus has already said, ‘He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparation for us there.’ The disciples go off and find everything as Jesus has told them, and they make preparations for the Passover meal.
The upper room was probably above a shop or some sort of business. Perhaps Jesus knew about this room from a previous visit and had already made arrangements with the owner so that he could celebrate the Passover with his disciples there.
Imminent betrayal
At any rate, Jesus arrives in the evening with the Twelve and while they are eating, he says, ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me.’ The disciples are shocked and they ask one another, ‘Not I, surely?’ Jesus tells them that the betrayer is one of the Twelve present in the room eating with them.
‘Yes’, he says, ‘the Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born.’
Jesus’ words are a reminder of the words in Psalm 41:9, ‘Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread (shared table-fellowship with me), has lifted his heel against me.’ Such betrayal, in Jewish eyes, was one of the greatest of all betrayals.
Foreknowledge
How does Jesus know what is going to happen to him and or that one of his close friends will betray him? Did he have divine foreknowledge of what was about to befall him? Not necessarily. He may well have known about the various plots to do away with him.
As they eat their meal, Jesus takes some bread, says a blessing, breaks it and gives it to the Twelve. ‘Take it,’ he says ‘this is my body.’ Then he takes the cup, gives thanks, and gives it to them and all drink from it. He says to them, ‘This is my blood, theblood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many. I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink of any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.’
Jewish tradition
What was Jesus doing when he said these familiar, perhaps too familiar words? It is important to remember that Jesus was a Jew and so, if we are to understand what he was doing at the Last Supper, we need to take account of the customs and traditions of the Jews, as well as the scriptural background that lies at the heart of Mark’s account.
Jesus and the Twelve have gathered to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread or Passover with a special meal. At the Jewish table, it was customary for those gathered to say grace before and after a meal. God was blessed for the gift of life and for the maintenance of life.
Before the meal, loaves were placed on a napkin and God was blessed for bringing forth bread from the earth. The bread was then uncovered, raised, broken and distributed among those present. After the meal, wine was poured into a cup, God was blessed, the cup was taken and raised, water was poured in and the cup was consumed. Our Eucharist has its origins in this Jewish ritual.
God and history
For the Jews, all of history was present to God. Every generation was equally present to his all-seeing eye. So, for example, when God inspired Moses to lead the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, God knew that the Exodus would affect not only those slaves but each succeeding generation as well.
So remembering what God had done during the Exodus became something alive for each succeeding generation. It was not just a matter or a memory of something that had happened in the distant past, which was now over and done with, but something that continued to affect peoples’ lives in the present. This is the Passover context in which the Last Supper takes place.
Mosaic Covenant
Jesus’ words, this is my body and this is my blood, are complimentary ways of saying this is myself, or my life. When he says that his blood is ‘the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many’ (a Hebrew way of indicating countless numbers), he is alluding to the Book of Exodus where Moses sealed a covenant with God by sprinkling the blood of sacrificial animals on the people (24:8).
The Covenant was a very basic and sacred Jewish metaphor that described the close relationship between God and his people. It was a bond, accompanied by a great sense of awe, which stressed God’s choice of the people of Israel in a special way. That Jesus’ blood would be poured out is a reference to the prophet Isaiah: ‘He poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors’ (53:12).
Prophecy
What does Jesus mean when he says, ‘I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God’? Jesus has enjoyed many meals during his lifetime, often with sinners and disreputable types, reaching out to them, offering them God’s salvation.
Wine was used, however, only for special festive meals. At this important meal with the Twelve, Jesus is facing the possibility of imminent death, and so may not drink wine at festive meals again. His mission to date has largely been a failure in the sense that Israel has not, by and large, heeded his message.
Nonetheless, his prophecy is one of hope that God, despite Jesus’ death, will make the kingdom come in all its fullness, will finally rule successfully over his rebellious people and creation, and, when that happens, Jesus will drink new wine, will celebrate, with all those who have been saved out of death, himself included.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (October 2007), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
