Last Supper And The Passover

The context of the Last Supper is the connection made with the Passover. The Last Supper happens during the Passover. Jesus and the disciples are sharing a Passover meal, and the Lord's Supper is the new Passover, or fulfillment of the original purpose of the Passover meal. Now, if we look at the parallels with the Passover meal, what happens during the Passover? We have an act of redemption that occurs in the Passover, which is that the lamb was slaughtered, and the blood of the lamb was placed over the doorpost of those who are in households of faith, and death passed over those households. This clearly points to the death and blood of Jesus Christ, where Christ's blood covers us so we escape the realities of death brought about by Adam's fall into sin.

The other part is that this is then commemorated and celebrated through the symbolic eating of a lamb, right? No! Do they eat a picture of a lamb? No, they actually eat the lamb, so they eat the instrument of redemption. A lamb is the thing that's sacrificed, and an actual lamb is the thing eaten. There is a connection between the one who was sacrificed and then the one who is eating. This is the case in all the Old Testament sacrifices; is that in those sacrifices where the animal is actually eaten. The instrument of redemption, when it is an animal that is killed that animal is eaten. There is not just a picture of the animal that's eaten; that animal is actually eaten. Part of receiving the blessing of that sacrifice is the whole act, including the sacrifice itself. The partaking of that sacrifice or eating of that sacrifice is very much part of it.

This is what's going on in the Lord's Supper. That's the context there in which Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper. Then why would we believe that anything different is happening? It's pretty; clearly, he's just using a language of sacrifice to say, well, I'm the one that is going to be sacrificed, and you are going to actually eat my body and take my blood instead of just eating the body of the lamb now you're going to receive the true body and blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

- Dr. Jordan Cooper