Luke 22:14-18

1 st. Luke 22:14-18. Jesus opens the feast by communicating to the disciples His present impressions. This first step corresponds to the first of the Paschal feast. The hour (Luke 22:14) is that which He had indicated to His disciples, and which probably coincided with the usual hour of the sacred feast. According to the law (Exo 12:17), the Passover should have been eaten standing. But custom had introduced a change in this particular. Some Rabbins pretend to justify this deviation, by saying that to stand is the posture of a slave; that, once restored to liberty by the going forth from Egypt, Israel was called to eat sitting. The explanation is ingenious, but devised after the fact. The real reason was, that the feast had gradually taken larger proportions.

There is in the first saying of Jesus, which Luke alone has preserved (Luke 22:15), a mixture of profound joy and sorrow. Jesus is glad that He can celebrate this holy feast once more, which He has determined by His own instrumentality to transform into a permanent memorial of His person and work; but on the other hand, it is His last Passover here below. ᾿Επιθυμίᾳ ἐπεθύμησα, a frequent form in the LXX., corresponding to the Hebrew construction of the inf. absolute with the finite verb. It is a sort of reduplication of the verbal idea. Jesus, no doubt, alludes to all the measures which He has required to take to secure the joy of those quiet hours despite the treachery of His disciple.

Could the expression this Passover possibly denote a feast at which the Paschal lamb was wanting, and which was only distinguished from ordinary suppers by unleavened bread? Such is the view of Caspari and Andreae, and the view which I myself maintained (Comment. sur Jean, t. ii. p. 634). Indeed, the number of lambs or kids might turn out to be insufficient, and strangers find themselves in the dilemma either of celebrating the feast without a lamb, or not celebrating the Passover at all. Thus in Mischnah Pesachim 10 there is express mention of a Paschal Supper without a lamb, and at which the unleavened bread is alone indispensable. Nevertheless, there is nothing to prevent us from holding that, as we have said, the two disciples prepared the lamb in a strictly private manner. It would be difficult to explain Luke's expression, to eat this Passover, without the smallest reference to the lamb at this feast.

By the future Passover in the kingdom of God (Luke 22:16) might be understood the Holy Supper as it is celebrated in the Church. But the expression, “ I will not any more eat thereof until...,” and the parall. Luke 22:18, do not admit of this spiritualistic interpretation. Jesus means to speak of a new banquet which shall take place after the consummation of all things. The Holy Supper is the bond of union between the Israelitish and typical Passover, which was reaching its goal, and the heavenly and divine feast, which was yet in the distant future. Does not the spiritual salvation, of which the Supper is the memorial, form in reality the transition from the external deliverance of Israel to that salvation at once spiritual and external which awaits the glorified Church?

After this simple and touching introduction, Jesus, in conformity with the received custom, passed the first cup (Luke 22:17), accompanying it with a thanksgiving, in which He no doubt paraphrased freely the invocation uttered at the opening of the feast by the father of the house, and which we have quoted above. Δεξάμενος, receiving, seems to indicate that He took the cup from the hands of one of the attendants who held it out to Him (after having filled it). The distribution (διαμερίσατε) may have taken place in two ways, either by each drinking from the common cup, or by their all emptying the wine of that cup into their own. The Greek term would suit better this second view. Did Jesus Himself drink? The pron. ἑαυτοῖς, among yourselves, might seem unfavourable to this idea; yet the words, I will not drink until..., speak in favour of the affirmative. Was it not, besides, a sign of communion from which Jesus could hardly think of refraining on such an occasion? The expression fruit of the vine, Luke 22:18, was an echo of the terms of the ritual Paschal prayer. In the mouth of Jesus, it expressed the feeling of contrast between the present terrestrial system, and the glorified creation which was to spring from the palingenesia (Matthew 19:28; comp. Romans 8:31 et seq.). The phrase, I will not drink, corresponds to the I will not any more eat of Luke 22:16. But there is a gradation. Luke 22:16 means, This is my last Passover, the last year of my life; Luke 22:18, This is my last Supper, my last day. These words are the text from which Paul has taken the commentary, till He come (1 Corinthians 11:26). They are probably also the ground into which was wrought the famous tradition of Papias regarding the fabulous vines of the millennial reign. In this example, the difference becomes palpable between the sobriety of the tradition preserved in our Gospels, and the legendary exuberance of that of the times which followed. Luke 22:29 of Matthew, 25 of Mark reproduce Luke's saying in a somewhat different form, and one which lends itself still better to the amplification which we find in Papias.