Luke 22:15

‘And he said to them, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer,” '

Jesus' strong words here, which are a clear translation of an Aramaic idiom ‘desiring I have desired'), stress how important this Passover meal is to Him. There is a similarity of urgency here with His previous words, ‘I am come to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled, I have a baptism to be baptised with and how I am straitened until it be accomplished' (Luke 12:49). He had steadfastly set His face towards Jerusalem for this purpose, and now the time had come. He Himself was going forward towards the suffering that He had predicted and it was in the light of that that He had this great and burning desire to eat ‘this Passover' (either the Passover meal or Passover lamb, the word could indicate either) with them beforehand. He had wanted to share with them His last hours and His last Passover. Soon He would no longer be with them, and He knew how much they would miss Him. We are probably also to see in it how much, humanly speaking, He would miss them and regretted having to leave them, even though He knew that it was for their good. It may also indicate His eagerness that what was now about to happen should be over as quickly as possible, i.e. ‘I have been earnestly waiting for this'.