And as
they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and
said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and
gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
“For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the
vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s
kingdom.” Matthew 26:26-29 NKJV
As
we have been looking at the coming spring feasts, and the interest in the
occurrence of a blood moon eclipse on Passover, I have taken the opportunity to
share some of my thoughts on what it might all mean. Today I would like to talk for a moment
concerning something often overlooked about the Passover dinner Jesus shared
with His disciples. Specifically,
something Jesus said, and did, which differed from the norm of the Passover
Seder that most people would not be aware of if not Jewish or knowledgeable
about the rules regarding it.
First
of all, in Israel this event is called the Pesach Seder. Pesach is the Hebrew word for Passover, and
Seder is derived from the Hebrew word for order. The dinner is an intricate part of the
Passover celebration in which the memory of the deliverance of the children of
Israel from their bondage in Egypt is recalled.
‘For I
will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. ‘Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses
where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over
you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the
land of Egypt. ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it
as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You
shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Exodus 12:12-14 NKJV
In the
traditional Seder, there are fifteen steps, or observances which each signify
and relate to the deliverance on that first Passover in Egypt. I am not going to examine all of these today
but will encourage you to do that on your own to better understand why this is
such an important event. What I am going
to discuss today is four of those fifteen steps which I will call the Four Cups
of Wine. This is because during the
entire Seder, there are four instances where the participants drink a cup of
wine in remembrance of the promises God made to them when they were still in
bondage in Egypt.
“Therefore
say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an
outstretched arm and with great judgments. ‘I will take you as My people, and I
will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians. ‘And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.’ ” Exodus
6:6-8 NKJV
The
four cups of wine are taken to recall the four promises made in this passage
which are referred to as the “four I wills”.
The first cup is called the cup of Sanctification…”I will bring you out from under
the the burdens of the Egyptians”. The
second is called the cup of Blessing…” I will rescue you from their bondage”. The third is the cup of Redemtion…” I
will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”,
and the fourth cup is the cup of Acceptance…”‘I will take you as My people,
and I will be your God.”
In
the passage from Matthew 26, according to many scholars it is believed that
when Jesus said “Drink from it, all of you. “For this is My blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins” during the Seder with
His disciples, He was referring to the 3rd cup of the Passover, the
Cup of Redemption. Jesus was saying that
by His shed blood we can be redeemed from our bondage to sin just as the
Israelites were redeemed from their bondage in Egypt. He then went on to say, “But I say to you, I will not
drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new
with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
Why? In essence Jesus said He would not drink the
Fourth Cup, the Cup of Acceptance, until He could do so with those who have
chosen to believe in Him when we are together with Him in Heaven. Since this will occur after the rapture of
the Church, is Jesus somehow giving us a clue as to when the season of the rapture
might happen? Additionally, the
fourteenth step in the order of the Seder is the recital of the Hallel,
traditionally recited on festivals, followed by drinking the fourth cup of
wine. The Hallel is Psalms 113-118, with
chapters 113-114 recited before the meal and chapters 115-118 recited now. Take a closer look if you will at what we
find in the last chapter;
Open to
me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD, Through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise
You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This
was the LORD’s doing; It is marvelous in our
eyes. Psalms 118:19-23 NKJV
According
to the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral laws and traditions, Jesus is
waiting for the marriage feast before He drinks from this cup. (Mishnah, Pesahim 7:13) Since we know that the marriage feast takes
place after the rapture, is it possible that Jesus’ statement to His disciples
about waiting to drink the Fourth Cup of Passover is actually His way of
telling us that we will drink this cup with Him on a future Feast of Passover?
With
all of the attention being given to this upcoming Passover with its lunar
eclipse, and also the fact that Jesus was rejected as the Messiah ending the
sixty-ninth week of Daniel at this very time, is it possible there might be an
even better reason to be excited about what could occur in the next couple of
weeks? As Passover approaches, and in consideration
of what Jesus said, I think it might be an especially appropriate time for us
to be watching. Don’t you?
If
you have never made the decision to accept the sacrifice Jesus made for you by
dying on the cross for your sins, there is no better time than right now to do
so. Simply pray to the Father and ask
Him to forgive you for your sins and tell Him you believe that Jesus died for
you. Accept the gift of salvation He has
offered you and you too will drink of the cup of acceptance along with Jesus on
that future day when He will invite all of His believers to join Him in
drinking the Fourth Cup of Passover.
Keep
watching.
