Matthew 26:20-35

The Final Passover And The Declaration Of The New Covenant (26:20-35).

This second subsection is carefully patterned around the Passover meal. It commences with a warning of Jesus' coming betrayal, describes the Passover and the establishing of the Lord's Supper, and concludes with a warning of the coming desertion of His disciples and of Peter's coming threefold denial. Thus the institution of the Lord's Supper, revealing the Lord's future provision for His own, is placed within a framework of the betrayal, desertion and denial of those who were closest to Him, which serves to demonstrate how necessary that provision was. It is a mirror-image of God's grace at work, operating in the midst of a world in turmoil.

It can be analysed as follows:

a Jesus declares that one of His Apostles will betray Him (Matthew 26:20).

b Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper and then establishes the new covenant in His blood (Matthew 26:26).

a Jesus declares that the remainder of His Apostles will forsake Him and Peter will deny Him three times (Matthew 26:31).

The instituting of the Lord's Supper is therefore enveloped within a picture of the total failure of His chosen Apostles, one in betrayal and the others in great fear, emphasising that what Jesus is to go through He must go through alone. It is clear that this aloneness was necessary to the fulfilment of God's purpose, for in the very nature of things none other could have a part in the carrying through of the essential saving activity of God in Jesus.