TGBC: sacrifice
The Good Book Club
Friday, March 23. Luke 22:1-23
Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people.
Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present.
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.’ They asked him, ‘Where do you want us to make preparations for it?’ ‘Listen,’ he said to them, ‘when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, “The teacher asks you, ‘Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ” He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.’ So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had 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.’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!’ Then they began to ask one another which one of them it could be who would do this.
Comments. Couple observations to open. First, Luke’s phrase “the festival of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover” subtly suggests to me that Luke’s intended audience, Theophilus, and perhaps Luke himself, was not Jewish, otherwise Luke would not need to clarify that the festival of unleavened bread was called the Passover.
Second, Luke who wrote in his Nativity Narrative that in Bethlehem there was no room for the Holy Family in the κατάλυμα, (not an inn, but a guest-room in an ordinary house) uses the same word here: Jesus and his apostles (Mark and Matthew say with “the twelve,” which precisely specifies the attendance that night) will eat the Passover meal, the Last Supper, in the κατάλυμα of an οἰκία, a common ordinary house, the guest room of a human dwelling - - the most common possible beginning and ending for the Son of God’s visit with us. Whether this commonality with us is significant theologically might depend on what one makes of it, and I’m not going to try and develop it this morning. BTW, Mark uses the same word κατάλυμα for the place of the Last Supper, Matthew does not. The room-in-a-house-hunting scenario does not appear in John. As a reminder, the kataluma, not an inn, is where Luke’s nativity story reports the Holy Family being for Jesus’ birth.
Now down briefly to business. Satan enters into Judas Iscariot and he makes his deal, different evangelists (gospel writers) draw different pictures of Judas, his personality, his ethics; Luke is straightforward, and one could assume that up until now Judas was just an ordinary man. Some scholars have said that giving him the name “Judas” symbolizes the Jews or the Judeans who hated Jesus and conspired to kill him, IDK.
In Luke (and also Mark and Matthew) the Last Supper is specifically the Passover meal, after sunset of the day the lambs are slaughtered. Not so in John, where the meal is specifically, with high theological, and specifically christological, symbolism, the day of preparation, before the Passover meal, the day the lambs are slaughtered, and in John the Lamb of God is slaughtered with them.
Whereas Mark and Matthew have only one cup, Luke describes two cups. Is there a discrepancy? No, the Passover meal in fact begins with a first (of four cups) cup of wine, why Mark and Matthew left that out while Luke, though using Mark as his source, included it, we do not know. Could it be that Mark was not Luke’s source after all?
Jesus takes and blesses and breaks and gives the bread, as indeed he does in every feeding account in the synoptic gospels (John is quite different), the four eucharistic actions making each event sacramental (again, John’s very different gospel does not do this). Unlike earlier feedings however, this one, the Last Supper includes the cup of wine as an outward and visible sign of bloody sacrifice, in addition to Jesus giving the bread as the body of Christ. As an aside, my lifetime observation and experience in the Episcopal Church is that most Episcopalians seem basically to hold, knowingly or not, a transubstantiationalist theology of the eucharist.
Finally, Jesus’ evident foreknowledge of Judas’ treachery (people like to explain this different ways, to me, it’s whatever the evangelist [gospel writer] may have intended, and Luke does not say) subtly covers (not as in “hides” but as in, “cover me, I’m going in”) Luke’s now clarifying revelation both that Jesus is the Son of Man and that Jesus knows himself to be the Son of Man.
Jesus’ damnation, “woe to that one” is chilling.
twellerpc@gmail.com
Friday, March 23. Luke 22:1-23
Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people.
Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present.
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.’ They asked him, ‘Where do you want us to make preparations for it?’ ‘Listen,’ he said to them, ‘when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, “The teacher asks you, ‘Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ” He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.’ So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had 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.’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!’ Then they began to ask one another which one of them it could be who would do this.
Comments. Couple observations to open. First, Luke’s phrase “the festival of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover” subtly suggests to me that Luke’s intended audience, Theophilus, and perhaps Luke himself, was not Jewish, otherwise Luke would not need to clarify that the festival of unleavened bread was called the Passover.
Second, Luke who wrote in his Nativity Narrative that in Bethlehem there was no room for the Holy Family in the κατάλυμα, (not an inn, but a guest-room in an ordinary house) uses the same word here: Jesus and his apostles (Mark and Matthew say with “the twelve,” which precisely specifies the attendance that night) will eat the Passover meal, the Last Supper, in the κατάλυμα of an οἰκία, a common ordinary house, the guest room of a human dwelling - - the most common possible beginning and ending for the Son of God’s visit with us. Whether this commonality with us is significant theologically might depend on what one makes of it, and I’m not going to try and develop it this morning. BTW, Mark uses the same word κατάλυμα for the place of the Last Supper, Matthew does not. The room-in-a-house-hunting scenario does not appear in John. As a reminder, the kataluma, not an inn, is where Luke’s nativity story reports the Holy Family being for Jesus’ birth.
Now down briefly to business. Satan enters into Judas Iscariot and he makes his deal, different evangelists (gospel writers) draw different pictures of Judas, his personality, his ethics; Luke is straightforward, and one could assume that up until now Judas was just an ordinary man. Some scholars have said that giving him the name “Judas” symbolizes the Jews or the Judeans who hated Jesus and conspired to kill him, IDK.
In Luke (and also Mark and Matthew) the Last Supper is specifically the Passover meal, after sunset of the day the lambs are slaughtered. Not so in John, where the meal is specifically, with high theological, and specifically christological, symbolism, the day of preparation, before the Passover meal, the day the lambs are slaughtered, and in John the Lamb of God is slaughtered with them.
Whereas Mark and Matthew have only one cup, Luke describes two cups. Is there a discrepancy? No, the Passover meal in fact begins with a first (of four cups) cup of wine, why Mark and Matthew left that out while Luke, though using Mark as his source, included it, we do not know. Could it be that Mark was not Luke’s source after all?
Jesus takes and blesses and breaks and gives the bread, as indeed he does in every feeding account in the synoptic gospels (John is quite different), the four eucharistic actions making each event sacramental (again, John’s very different gospel does not do this). Unlike earlier feedings however, this one, the Last Supper includes the cup of wine as an outward and visible sign of bloody sacrifice, in addition to Jesus giving the bread as the body of Christ. As an aside, my lifetime observation and experience in the Episcopal Church is that most Episcopalians seem basically to hold, knowingly or not, a transubstantiationalist theology of the eucharist.
Finally, Jesus’ evident foreknowledge of Judas’ treachery (people like to explain this different ways, to me, it’s whatever the evangelist [gospel writer] may have intended, and Luke does not say) subtly covers (not as in “hides” but as in, “cover me, I’m going in”) Luke’s now clarifying revelation both that Jesus is the Son of Man and that Jesus knows himself to be the Son of Man.
Jesus’ damnation, “woe to that one” is chilling.
twellerpc@gmail.com