Jesus used his final Passover Seder to give his disciples the clues they would need to interpret his death and resurrection. This would be a new covenant Passover, changed in one very significant way from the Seders the disciples had always observed.
Just a few days before, Jesus and his disciples had joined thousands of others on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. As Jesus rode a donkey’s colt into the city, the people waved palm branches, hailing him as a King. That same day, shepherds were bringing thousands of lambs into the city to be used for the Passover celebrations later that week. And God was bringing Jesus, his own Passover lamb, to Jerusalem.
Here, we want to look at the most important points in the disciples’ final Seder with Jesus. Every Seder includes the same core features, organized around three matzos, which are called a Unity, and four cups of wine which are called:
The Cup of Blessing
The Cup of Instruction
The Cup of Redemption
The Cup of Praise
The Seder begins when the mother lights the candles and recites a blessing:
“Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments as we kindle the festival lights.”
The father brings the symbolic foods to the table on a platter. This would include wine, three matzos wrapped in linen, karpas (parsley), salt water, an egg, charoseth, horseradish (or other bitter herbs), and a lamb bone.
The father pours the first cup of wine, called the Cup of Blessing, and recites a blessing:
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, creator of the fruit of the vine.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.”
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, creator of the fruit of the vine.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.” “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
The leader explains that this is the night they celebrate their ancestors going from slavery to freedom. Then the group recites each of the ten plagues God had to bring upon Egypt to make it happen, and as each is remembered, participants place one drop of wine on their plates.
The symbolic foods on the Seder platter are tasted by everyone, with the leader explaining the symbolism of each. Then they all drink from the second cup, called the Cup of Instruction.
At this point, the Seder platter is removed, and dinner is served. It’s traditionally a large feast and takes a long time. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, their narratives pick up after the meal. These are the important events Christians know as communion.
After the meal, the youngest person at the gathering searches for the Afikomen, and brings it to the leader, who breaks it into small pieces and passes them to everyone.
Imagine that we’re in the upper room with Jesus and his disciples. As Jesus breaks that middle matzo, the Afikomen, and passes it around, Luke 22:19 tells us:
“Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’”
Jesus’ disciples had been attending Passover Seders their entire lives and knew the order of the service by heart. As Jewish males, each of them could have led the Seder service. But they had never heard anything like this. This was brand new, and it surprised and confused them. Jesus was saying that the Afikomen had always represented his body, which was about to be broken and hidden in a tomb, offered for their redemption.
Then Jesus poured the third cup of wine, called the Cup of Redemption. In a traditional Seder, the father would recite a blessing something like:
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe. You feed the entire world with Your goodness, grace, loving kindness, and compassion. You give bread to all flesh, for Your mercy is forever.”
But at this point, Matthew 26:28 records Jesus giving thanks and saying instead:
“This is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Luke 22:20 records it a little differently:
“This cup is the New Covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.”
What Jesus just said was completely new, not part of the Seder service the disciples were familiar with, and now they were really confused. Jesus just told them that the Cup of Redemption had always represented his blood, which he was about to offer for the forgiveness of humanity’s sin. The disciples couldn’t understand that yet.
So, what is the cup of the new covenant? All the disciples recognized that Jesus was referring to Jeremiah 31:31-34, now repeated in Hebrews 8:8-12.
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors 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. “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘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.”
The Seder service was developed hundreds of years before anyone could have understood the pictures of Christ that God placed there. God gave us a living parable that shows us the cross, Jesus’ death and resurrection, and our redemption.
This Seder shocked the disciples. It would take weeks for them to fully make sense of it. They had expected Jesus to establish the kingdom of God on earth any day. Instead, Jesus explained that the Afikomen represented his body, and the Cup of Redemption represented his blood, and he was about to offer himself for our eternal redemption.
Not right away, but over the days and weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, the picture Jesus was giving them would eventually resonate with the disciples. This was a new covenant Passover. Jesus’ death would seal the new covenant, and he would lead the new Israel out of their slavery to sin. Immediately after the Seder, Jesus and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives. He referred to this Cup of Redemption again, when he prayed:
“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Luke 22:42
Over the next 24 hours, Jesus was arrested, tried, flogged, crucified, and buried.