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The New Exodus
An Experiential Worship Experience
Matthew 26:17-30
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’”
So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
(Matthew 26:17-19)
The preparations about which the disciples were asking were extensive.
Toward mid afternoon of Thursday, the lambs (one per "household") would be brought to the temple court where the priests sacrificed them. The priests took the blood and passed it in basins along a line till it was poured out at the foot of the altar. They also burned the lambs' fat on the altar of burnt offerings. The singing of the Hallel (Psalms 113-18) accompanied these steps.
As opposed to our 24-hour clock, In the Hebrew culture, the next day did not begin at midnight, but after sunset. So, once the sun went down, it became “Friday.” The "household" would gather in a home to eat the Passover lamb.
Preliminary Exercise: Searching for the Leaven
According to Leviticus 23:6 and Numbers 28:17, Jews were forbidden to use yeast in their bread for seven days during and after Passover. Exodus 12:18 says that yeast should be removed from the house on Thursday. So, at noon of Thursday, all the leaven (the yeast) in the house was taken out.
This was to remind the Israelites of their hurried departure from Egypt, when without waiting to bake leavened bread they carried dough and kneading-troughs with them, baking as they wandered.
The prohibition on leaven was also used as a teaching device: fermentation implied disintegration and corruption, and to the Hebrew anything in a decayed state suggested uncleanness. Rabbinical writers often used leaven as a symbol of evil and of man’s hereditary corruption. Just as the leaven works its way through a whole loaf of bread, so our sin can and very often does work its way through the entire family of God.
1. The First Cup
To start out the feast, the head of the household would pray, giving thanks for the feast day (the Passover Kiddush) and for the wine, praying over the first of four cups to be drunk throughout the meal. A preliminary course of greens and bitter herbs was followed by the Passover haggadah--in which a boy would ask the meaning of all this, and the head of the household would explain how the symbols pertain to the Exodus.
The Passover, he would explain, is the celebration of God “passing over” the Israelites when they were in Egypt. He would recount the story from Exodus 11 and 12—of how Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go, and how, as a final blow against the evil of the Egyptians, God would kill every firstborn in Egypt, but would spare the Israelites of the same fate:
“On that same night I
will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and
animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The
blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike
Egypt.
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall
celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance.
(Exodus 12:12-14)
After explaining this, they would sing the first part of the Hallel (Ps 113 or Pss 113-14).
2. The Second Cup (Matthew 26:20-25)
Then a second cup of wine introduced the main course—the Passover Lamb, which had been roasted with bitter herbs.
Recline on the floor and share in the lamb (or specially-seasoned veggie-burger if
you are a vegetarian).
It was at this juncture that Matthew 26:20-25 occurred:
When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.”
They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely not I, Lord?”
Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.
The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?”
Jesus answered, “Yes, it is you.”
The NIV is misleading: it gives the impression that a particular "one" is in view, when in fact most if not all those present would have dipped into the same bowl as Jesus, given the eating styles of the day.
Jesus' point is that the betrayer is a friend, someone close, someone sharing the common dish, thus heightening the enormity of the betrayal.
3. The Third Cup (Matthew 26:26-29)
This was followed by a third cup, known as the “cup of blessing,” accompanied by another prayer of thanksgiving.
This is what is recorded in Matthew 26:26-29
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Jesus again gives thanks, probably with some such prayer as "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine." Jesus “gave thanks,” the Greek word is
eucharistesas which has given us the word "Eucharist." Some Protestants have avoided the term because of its associations with the traditional Roman Catholic mass, but the term itself is surely not objectionable. We are to “give thanks” as well.
Jesus understood the violent and sacrificial death he is about to undergo as the ratification of the covenant he is inaugurating with his people. He is using the same kind of language that was used when Moses ratified the covenant of Sinai by the shedding of blood in Exodus 24:3-8.
When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’S words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.”
Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said.
He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD.
Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”
Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:3-8)
Therefore, what Jesus was saying is this: What we have here is a new exodus!
In the Old Testament, God saved the people from the evil of Pharaoh and created a deep, lasting relationship with them by creating a covenant relationship with them, giving them the Law that spelled out the stipulations of this covenant relationship between the people and God. Moses received that Law written on Stone Tablets and in the Book of the Covenant. Moses ratified the covenant with the blood of the animals at that sacrifice. And then he says, in verse 8,
“This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Now, at this Passover Meal commemorating that event of the Exodus, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, tells them that the bread is his body, and the wine is the blood of the New Covenant. He says, echoing those words from Exodus,
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Christ saves his people from their sins is his sacrificial death. Again, we have a “Covenant” between man and God. Again, it is ratified with blood. But this time it is the “New” Covenant. In fact some of our ancient manuscripts actually has that word there—“This is my blood of the new covenant…” and in Luke’s account of this event, Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” This is what the Prophet Jeremiah spoke of—
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
(Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Therefore, we are to see the Exodus as a "type" of a new and greater deliverance! It is a
foreshadowing of the spiritual reality of what the whole Bible points to!
 The incredible deliverance of the Exodus was commemorated each year with the Passover Feast. The Passover celebrates how God saved the people and led them to the Promised Land in which they can dwell with God in covenant relationship.
The Last Supper, eaten on Passover, and the Lord’s Supper, that we do in remembrance of this event, celebrates that God saves us from sin and is leading us on the exodus to the Promised Land in which we can dwell with God in covenant relationship. Only our experience is grander and more powerful—for we have the Law written on our hearts.
Therefore, this Third Cup, called the “Cup of Blessing” in the Hebrew tradition, truly is the greatest blessing of all! It is the blessing of eternal life!
D. A. Carson writes, “as the people of God in the OT prospectively celebrated in the first Passover their escape from Egypt, anticipating their arrival in the Promised Land, so the people of God here prospectively celebrate their deliverance from sin and bondage, anticipating the coming kingdom.”
That is why Jesus says “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
This is what we celebrate at Communion!
4. The Fourth Cup
After this, it was customary to sing the rest of the Hallel (Pss 114-18 or 115-18) and probably drank a fourth cup of wine.
And that is basically what we read in Matthew 26:30.
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
(Matthew 26:30)
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