What is the true meaning of Jesus’s Last Supper and Passover? Luke 22:7-18 reveals the deep spiritual significance of the Last Supper, how it fulfilled the Passover, and what it means for believers today. Learn why Jesus earnestly desired to celebrate this meal with His disciples before becoming our Passover Lamb and how it foreshadows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven.
Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper, is the clearest depiction many Christians have of Jesus’s final meal with His disciples. While it is regarded as a masterpiece, da Vinci’s painting is historically inaccurate, and the details are misleading. For instance, here are some mistakes:
The painting shows daylight outside the window, but the Last Supper occurred at night.
The painting shows Jesus and the disciples sitting on benches around one long rectangular table, but Jesus and His disciples reclined around a low table on pillows or couches.
The painting shows thirteen Renaissance Italian men in oriental attire within a Florentine palace, but Jesus and the disciples were Jewish men in an upper room in Palestine.
To complicate matters further, Dan Brown authored the best-selling fiction novel The Da Vinci Code, which also became a major Hollywood film. In it, he asserts that Christianity was built on a cover-up. He proposes that the church has conspired for centuries to conceal evidence that Jesus was a mere mortal, married to Mary Magdalene, and had children whose descendants reside in France. Da Vinci allegedly sought to reveal this cover-up, supposedly embedding clues in paintings like The Last Supper. In this artwork, Mary Magdalene is claimed to be the figure beside Jesus, rather than the apostle John.
Amid the confusion generated by both da Vinci and Dan Brown, many of us have our ideas about the Last Supper. I was raised in the Catholic Church, which shaped my understanding of Jesus celebrating the Passover with His disciples. Even if you were raised in a Protestant church, you might misunderstand some details.
We should set aside our preconceived notions and impressions about this meal to focus on the biblical account because it is the only reliable source of information regarding what transpired and why. With that in mind:
Luke 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
Passover was the first of the spring feasts on Nisan 14, or March 30th. The feast of unleavened bread began the next day, Nisan 15, and lasted for one week until Nisan 22, from Friday to Friday. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after Passover. When people prepared for Passover, they also prepared for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Over time, these two feasts began to be viewed as one feast lasting eight days, with the people simply calling it Passover.
Luke 22:8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” Luke 22:9 They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?”
From the previous chapter, we know that Jesus taught in the temple during the day and went to the Mount of Olives at night. But Passover couldn’t be celebrated as an informal picnic on the hillside. There had to be a suitable place for the formal meal. So Jesus sent Peter and John to make the necessary preparations.
These preparations are the focus of the verses. The word “prepare” appears four times in verses 8, 9, 12, and 13. Preparing involved more than merely securing the location. They would have needed to gather the required elements, such as wine, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and, most importantly, a suitable lamb. They would have sacrificed the lamb at the temple, roasted it, set up the room for the meal, and made various side dishes.
Jesus’s Passover Preparation Instructions to Peter and John
Luke 22:10 He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters
Typically, women carried pitchers of water. Consider the Samaritan woman at the well. She was alone because of her promiscuous lifestyle, but generally, women gathered in groups to collect water, which they carried in jars or pitchers. Men often carried water in containers made from animal skins. Therefore, seeing this man carrying a jar of water would have been a distinct sign for the disciples.
Luke 22:11 and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’
Jesus was aware of a plot against Him, so the preparations were made secretly. First, notice that Jesus’s name isn’t mentioned; He is referred to simply as The Teacher. Second, Jesus only informed Peter and John. Until the disciples arrived at the Upper Room, none knew where it would take place. If Judas had known, he could have alerted the authorities and had Jesus arrested sooner.
Jesus knew He would be betrayed and arrested, but He adhered to a divine timeline and could not be arrested before the appointed time. According to that timeline, one of the key tasks He still had to fulfill was celebrating Passover with the disciples.
Luke 22:12 And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.”
The owner or master of the house was more than likely one of Jesus’s disciples because he recognized that when the disciples referred to the Teacher, they meant Jesus. Second, he was willing to offer his room for Jesus’s use.
Luke 22:13 And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
Something makes this more dramatic, which isn’t revealed in the verses, but we recognize it when considering the context. It was a big deal that Jesus could tell the disciples to obtain this empty room hours before Passover was supposed to be celebrated, and here’s why: Passover was one of the three feasts all Jewish men were expected to go to Jerusalem each year to celebrate:
Luke 22:14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him.
The protocol for formal meals involved reclining around a central table from which everyone ate. This gives you an idea of how bad the traditional depiction of this meal is, with the disciples sitting along one side of a long table. I don’t think we know the exact hour, but I know it was at night:
Exodus 12:8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Be Encouraged By Jesus’s Sovereignty and Composure
Luke 22:13a they went and found it just as he had told them
The more I read these words, the more they encourage me. First, Jesus’s sovereignty, or His control over the situation down to what the disciples would encounter and what they should do, encouraged me because it mirrors our lives. Jesus is just as aware of our lives, what we will face, and what we should do as He was with the Passover preparations.
Second, Jesus’s composure inspired me. Think about this: He’s just hours away from being crucified, about to suffer unimaginably, yet He is completely calm as He gives Peter and John all the instructions. Luke 22:14 even describes Him reclining at the table. There’s not a hint of anxiousness or worry.
I feel more confident staying calm when I see that the Lord I serve can remain tranquil while approaching human history’s greatest trial and suffering.
Passover’s Comparison with the Triumphal Entry
These verses are similar to Jesus’s triumphal entry when He also outlined the details:
Luke 19:29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’”
Jesus told the disciples exactly what to do and what to expect, as He did with the Passover preparations. I admit I’m being a little speculative when I say this, but I believe this is because of the significance of both events. When Jesus made the triumphal entry, He was entering Jerusalem on the day prophesied almost 500 years earlier in Daniel’s Seventy Weeks to be revealed to the Jews as their long-awaited Messiah and King.
Why Did Jesus Earnestly Desire to Celebrate Passover with the Disciples?
When Jesus celebrated this Passover with the disciples, this was also an incredibly significant event:
Luke 22:15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
I know there have been some impassioned moments with Jesus:
John 11:35 says Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb before raising him.
Mark 3:5 says Jesus looked at the religious leaders with anger when they didn’t want Him to heal the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.
Luke 10:21 says Jesus rejoiced, or the NIV says He was full of joy, at the Father hiding spiritual truths from the proud but revealing them to the humble.
As we just discussed, Jesus remained calm and collected for the most part. However, in this verse, Jesus intensely desires to eat this Passover with the disciples. Maybe it is just me, but because Jesus is God in the flesh, I don’t think of Him “earnestly desiring” anything other than obeying His Father’s will. So, let’s discuss why Jesus earnestly desired to eat this Passover with the disciples.
Jesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Back on Israel’s Deliverance
Exodus 12:30 Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”
Pharaoh resisted the previous nine plagues, but when his son died, it was enough for him to finally release the Israelites, until he changed his mind again and went after them.
Jesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Forward to Jesus Becoming Our Passover Lamb
Jesus and the disciples lived and traveled together for three years or more. I suspect they shared a few thousand meals, but this is the last one. That alone made this meal dramatic.
Second, Jesus has probably celebrated three Passovers with the disciples. But this is the last. Not only is it the last one He would celebrate with them, but it is supposed to be the last one to be celebrated on earth ever again. In a moment, we will discuss the heavenly Passover. Imagine that: there have been 1,500 years of Passovers, but this is the last.
Passover is supposed to come to an end because, within a matter of hours, Jesus would fulfill Passover in the true and greatest sense:
Because of this, Jesus spelled out His sacrificial death to the disciples. In Luke 22:15, He said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” He announced to them that He would suffer. The following verses contain the familiar verses when Jesus said the wine was a picture of His blood that would be shed and the bread a picture of His body that would be broken. The disciples would not have been expecting this. Jesus predicted His death at least three recorded times before this, but the disciples never understood He would die. Consider this verse:
Zechariah 13:7 Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.
This was a prophecy about what would happen to the disciples when Jesus was crucified or the shepherd was struck: the sheep, or disciples, would scatter. Why did that happen? Because they were confused and didn’t expect it. But even though the disciples didn’t understand Jesus’s suffering, Jesus earnestly desired to celebrate this Passover with them so He could explain His suffering and substitutionary death to them.
Jesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
Luke 22:16 For I tell you I will not eat it (Passover) until it (Passover) is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
It is better to understand this as Jesus says He will not eat Passover again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God, which is how it’s worded in many Bibles:
NIV For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God
NASB for I say to you, I shall not eat it again…
Amplified for I say to you, I will not eat it again…
In the ESV, there is an asterisk that it could read: For I tell you I will never eat it again…
Jesus says something similar with the wine:
Luke 22:17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
In Luke 22:16, Jesus said He would not eat with the disciples again until He did so in the kingdom of God, and now He said He would not drink with the disciples again until He did so in the kingdom of God.
The Passover Will Be Fulfilled at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
In Luke 22:16, Jesus said the word “fulfilled.” He is looking forward to this future, heavenly meal with the disciples, and when it occurs, it will fulfill what He said here. It is as though Jesus said, “I will not eat with you again until Passover has been completely fulfilled in the new heaven and earth.” Jesus has referred to this heavenly, or kingdom feast one other time:
Luke 13:29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.”
This is the same meal Jesus spoke of at the Passover with His disciples. We commonly refer to this meal as the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Revelation 19:9a And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
When celebrating Passover with the disciples, Jesus said He would not eat with them again until He ate with them in the kingdom of God, and He was referring to this meal: the marriage supper of the Lamb. So, 2,000 years later, Jesus still has not celebrated a Passover in heaven. He is waiting for His bride, the church, to be gathered to Him. Then this great supper will fulfill what Jesus spoke of at Passover.
Why Draw Attention to Christ as the Lamb?
I find something incredibly fascinating about this. In Revelation 19:9, notice it says the marriage supper of the Lamb versus simply the marriage supper. Why does this marriage meal draw attention to Christ as our Lamb, especially in the Book of Revelation, which is all about Jesus being the Lion of the Tribe of Judah rather than a Lamb?
It is looking back to the Passover that Jesus celebrated with the disciples, which involved sacrificing a lamb that served as a picture or type of Christ, our Passover Lamb. In other words, the last Passover Jesus celebrated with the disciples foreshadowed this heavenly meal. It is called the marriage supper of the Lamb because when it occurs, Christ has been sacrificed for us as our Passover Lamb and now joins us at this true and greater Passover meal that all the earthly Passover meals only served as pictures and types of.
Why Use the Word Marriage?
Revelation 19:9 includes the word marriage. This is the meal between Jesus, the groom, and His bride, the church. Everyone else is a guest. What two people are not invited to a wedding? The bride and the groom. It is their wedding. Everyone else is invited.
So when it says, “Blessed are those who are invited,” it’s not referring to the church. It’s referring to all other believers throughout history, who fall into two groups:
Saints before the Church Age, or those who lived before Pentecost, are all believers throughout the Old Testament and the Gospels.
Saints after the Church Age, or those who came to faith after the Rapture. This would be the great harvest of believers during the Tribulation.
Jesus taught two parables that prefigured the marriage supper of the Lamb, and some individuals were not the bride, but were still invited to the wedding:
In the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:1-14 the wedding was for the Son, and He had a bride, but others were invited to the wedding.
In the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13, the five wise virgins could attend the wedding, but they weren’t the bride.
In other words, in Revelation 19:9, when it says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb,” that’s not us, Church Age believers. We’re there as the Bride of Christ. The invited people are all other believers throughout history.
Aren’t All God’s Words True?
Revelation 19:9b And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
We know all God’s words are true, so why does it say this here? I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s because this could all sound too good to be true. It’s like God says, “Yes, it is true, no matter how good it sounds!” John is so overwhelmed by all this look what he does, but shouldn’t do:
Revelation 19:10a Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.”
This angel probably remembers what happened to the last angel who wanted to receive worship and didn’t want to end up like him.
Christ, Our Passover Lamb, Delivered in a True and Greater Way
When we think of Passover, we think of the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and that’s true, but if you had a son, you would think of an even greater deliverance, and that’s your son’s deliverance from death:
Exodus 12:13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
If the blood of the Passover Lamb covered the doorframe, the angel of death passed over, and the firstborn lived. He was saved from physical death.
I have five sons. I can’t imagine losing one of them. But with that, I want you to consider the deliverance, or salvation, the earthly Passover Lamb’s blood provided. The son lived, hopefully for many years. But then he died. So, in light of eternity, how great was that deliverance? I want my sons to live long, healthy earthly lives, but even more so, I want them to live in heaven for eternity.
So the deliverance in Egypt was wonderful. But it wasn’t that great. It was always intended to foreshadow Jesus’s death as our Passover Lamb. Consider these two ways Jesus’s deliverance is that much greater:
First, Jesus’s death doesn’t just save firstborn sons. It saves everyone who repents and believes.
Second, Jesus’s death doesn’t just save from physical death. It saves from eternal death and Hell.
But for this deliverance, God the Father had to offer His own Son:
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
If you’ve never repented and believed, God wants to save you from an eternity in hell for an eternity with Him. Let today be the day of your salvation.
Jesus Celebrates Passover: The Spiritual Meaning of His Last Supper (Luke 22:7-18)
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What is the true meaning of Jesus’s Last Supper and Passover? Luke 22:7-18 reveals the deep spiritual significance of the Last Supper, how it fulfilled the Passover, and what it means for believers today. Learn why Jesus earnestly desired to celebrate this meal with His disciples before becoming our Passover Lamb and how it foreshadows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven.
Table of contents
Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper, is the clearest depiction many Christians have of Jesus’s final meal with His disciples. While it is regarded as a masterpiece, da Vinci’s painting is historically inaccurate, and the details are misleading. For instance, here are some mistakes:
To complicate matters further, Dan Brown authored the best-selling fiction novel The Da Vinci Code, which also became a major Hollywood film. In it, he asserts that Christianity was built on a cover-up. He proposes that the church has conspired for centuries to conceal evidence that Jesus was a mere mortal, married to Mary Magdalene, and had children whose descendants reside in France. Da Vinci allegedly sought to reveal this cover-up, supposedly embedding clues in paintings like The Last Supper. In this artwork, Mary Magdalene is claimed to be the figure beside Jesus, rather than the apostle John.
Amid the confusion generated by both da Vinci and Dan Brown, many of us have our ideas about the Last Supper. I was raised in the Catholic Church, which shaped my understanding of Jesus celebrating the Passover with His disciples. Even if you were raised in a Protestant church, you might misunderstand some details.
We should set aside our preconceived notions and impressions about this meal to focus on the biblical account because it is the only reliable source of information regarding what transpired and why. With that in mind:
Passover was the first of the spring feasts on Nisan 14, or March 30th. The feast of unleavened bread began the next day, Nisan 15, and lasted for one week until Nisan 22, from Friday to Friday. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after Passover. When people prepared for Passover, they also prepared for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Over time, these two feasts began to be viewed as one feast lasting eight days, with the people simply calling it Passover.
From the previous chapter, we know that Jesus taught in the temple during the day and went to the Mount of Olives at night. But Passover couldn’t be celebrated as an informal picnic on the hillside. There had to be a suitable place for the formal meal. So Jesus sent Peter and John to make the necessary preparations.
These preparations are the focus of the verses. The word “prepare” appears four times in verses 8, 9, 12, and 13. Preparing involved more than merely securing the location. They would have needed to gather the required elements, such as wine, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and, most importantly, a suitable lamb. They would have sacrificed the lamb at the temple, roasted it, set up the room for the meal, and made various side dishes.
Jesus’s Passover Preparation Instructions to Peter and John
Typically, women carried pitchers of water. Consider the Samaritan woman at the well. She was alone because of her promiscuous lifestyle, but generally, women gathered in groups to collect water, which they carried in jars or pitchers. Men often carried water in containers made from animal skins. Therefore, seeing this man carrying a jar of water would have been a distinct sign for the disciples.
Jesus was aware of a plot against Him, so the preparations were made secretly. First, notice that Jesus’s name isn’t mentioned; He is referred to simply as The Teacher. Second, Jesus only informed Peter and John. Until the disciples arrived at the Upper Room, none knew where it would take place. If Judas had known, he could have alerted the authorities and had Jesus arrested sooner.
Jesus knew He would be betrayed and arrested, but He adhered to a divine timeline and could not be arrested before the appointed time. According to that timeline, one of the key tasks He still had to fulfill was celebrating Passover with the disciples.
The owner or master of the house was more than likely one of Jesus’s disciples because he recognized that when the disciples referred to the Teacher, they meant Jesus. Second, he was willing to offer his room for Jesus’s use.
Something makes this more dramatic, which isn’t revealed in the verses, but we recognize it when considering the context. It was a big deal that Jesus could tell the disciples to obtain this empty room hours before Passover was supposed to be celebrated, and here’s why: Passover was one of the three feasts all Jewish men were expected to go to Jerusalem each year to celebrate:
I read that in Jesus’s day, there were around 80,000 to 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem, but during Passover, that number increased to around 3 million people. Jews had to get a room early, or they wouldn’t find a room. So, because the disciples found everything just as Jesus said they would, two possibilities exist: the details had been arranged beforehand, or the preparations were supernatural.
The protocol for formal meals involved reclining around a central table from which everyone ate. This gives you an idea of how bad the traditional depiction of this meal is, with the disciples sitting along one side of a long table. I don’t think we know the exact hour, but I know it was at night:
Be Encouraged By Jesus’s Sovereignty and Composure
The more I read these words, the more they encourage me. First, Jesus’s sovereignty, or His control over the situation down to what the disciples would encounter and what they should do, encouraged me because it mirrors our lives. Jesus is just as aware of our lives, what we will face, and what we should do as He was with the Passover preparations.
Second, Jesus’s composure inspired me. Think about this: He’s just hours away from being crucified, about to suffer unimaginably, yet He is completely calm as He gives Peter and John all the instructions. Luke 22:14 even describes Him reclining at the table. There’s not a hint of anxiousness or worry.
I feel more confident staying calm when I see that the Lord I serve can remain tranquil while approaching human history’s greatest trial and suffering.
Passover’s Comparison with the Triumphal Entry
These verses are similar to Jesus’s triumphal entry when He also outlined the details:
Jesus told the disciples exactly what to do and what to expect, as He did with the Passover preparations. I admit I’m being a little speculative when I say this, but I believe this is because of the significance of both events. When Jesus made the triumphal entry, He was entering Jerusalem on the day prophesied almost 500 years earlier in Daniel’s Seventy Weeks to be revealed to the Jews as their long-awaited Messiah and King.
Why Did Jesus Earnestly Desire to Celebrate Passover with the Disciples?
When Jesus celebrated this Passover with the disciples, this was also an incredibly significant event:
I know there have been some impassioned moments with Jesus:
As we just discussed, Jesus remained calm and collected for the most part. However, in this verse, Jesus intensely desires to eat this Passover with the disciples. Maybe it is just me, but because Jesus is God in the flesh, I don’t think of Him “earnestly desiring” anything other than obeying His Father’s will. So, let’s discuss why Jesus earnestly desired to eat this Passover with the disciples.
Jesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Back on Israel’s Deliverance
Passover celebrated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The Israelites put the blood around their doors, but the Egyptians refused to do so:
Pharaoh resisted the previous nine plagues, but when his son died, it was enough for him to finally release the Israelites, until he changed his mind again and went after them.
Jesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Forward to Jesus Becoming Our Passover Lamb
Jesus and the disciples lived and traveled together for three years or more. I suspect they shared a few thousand meals, but this is the last one. That alone made this meal dramatic.
Second, Jesus has probably celebrated three Passovers with the disciples. But this is the last. Not only is it the last one He would celebrate with them, but it is supposed to be the last one to be celebrated on earth ever again. In a moment, we will discuss the heavenly Passover. Imagine that: there have been 1,500 years of Passovers, but this is the last.
Passover is supposed to come to an end because, within a matter of hours, Jesus would fulfill Passover in the true and greatest sense:
Because of this, Jesus spelled out His sacrificial death to the disciples. In Luke 22:15, He said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” He announced to them that He would suffer. The following verses contain the familiar verses when Jesus said the wine was a picture of His blood that would be shed and the bread a picture of His body that would be broken. The disciples would not have been expecting this. Jesus predicted His death at least three recorded times before this, but the disciples never understood He would die. Consider this verse:
This was a prophecy about what would happen to the disciples when Jesus was crucified or the shepherd was struck: the sheep, or disciples, would scatter. Why did that happen? Because they were confused and didn’t expect it. But even though the disciples didn’t understand Jesus’s suffering, Jesus earnestly desired to celebrate this Passover with them so He could explain His suffering and substitutionary death to them.
Jesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
It is better to understand this as Jesus says He will not eat Passover again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God, which is how it’s worded in many Bibles:
In the ESV, there is an asterisk that it could read: For I tell you I will never eat it again…
Jesus says something similar with the wine:
In Luke 22:16, Jesus said He would not eat with the disciples again until He did so in the kingdom of God, and now He said He would not drink with the disciples again until He did so in the kingdom of God.
The Passover Will Be Fulfilled at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
In Luke 22:16, Jesus said the word “fulfilled.” He is looking forward to this future, heavenly meal with the disciples, and when it occurs, it will fulfill what He said here. It is as though Jesus said, “I will not eat with you again until Passover has been completely fulfilled in the new heaven and earth.” Jesus has referred to this heavenly, or kingdom feast one other time:
This is the same meal Jesus spoke of at the Passover with His disciples. We commonly refer to this meal as the marriage supper of the Lamb.
When celebrating Passover with the disciples, Jesus said He would not eat with them again until He ate with them in the kingdom of God, and He was referring to this meal: the marriage supper of the Lamb. So, 2,000 years later, Jesus still has not celebrated a Passover in heaven. He is waiting for His bride, the church, to be gathered to Him. Then this great supper will fulfill what Jesus spoke of at Passover.
Why Draw Attention to Christ as the Lamb?
I find something incredibly fascinating about this. In Revelation 19:9, notice it says the marriage supper of the Lamb versus simply the marriage supper. Why does this marriage meal draw attention to Christ as our Lamb, especially in the Book of Revelation, which is all about Jesus being the Lion of the Tribe of Judah rather than a Lamb?
It is looking back to the Passover that Jesus celebrated with the disciples, which involved sacrificing a lamb that served as a picture or type of Christ, our Passover Lamb. In other words, the last Passover Jesus celebrated with the disciples foreshadowed this heavenly meal. It is called the marriage supper of the Lamb because when it occurs, Christ has been sacrificed for us as our Passover Lamb and now joins us at this true and greater Passover meal that all the earthly Passover meals only served as pictures and types of.
Why Use the Word Marriage?
Revelation 19:9 includes the word marriage. This is the meal between Jesus, the groom, and His bride, the church. Everyone else is a guest. What two people are not invited to a wedding? The bride and the groom. It is their wedding. Everyone else is invited.
So when it says, “Blessed are those who are invited,” it’s not referring to the church. It’s referring to all other believers throughout history, who fall into two groups:
Jesus taught two parables that prefigured the marriage supper of the Lamb, and some individuals were not the bride, but were still invited to the wedding:
In other words, in Revelation 19:9, when it says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb,” that’s not us, Church Age believers. We’re there as the Bride of Christ. The invited people are all other believers throughout history.
Aren’t All God’s Words True?
We know all God’s words are true, so why does it say this here? I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s because this could all sound too good to be true. It’s like God says, “Yes, it is true, no matter how good it sounds!” John is so overwhelmed by all this look what he does, but shouldn’t do:
This angel probably remembers what happened to the last angel who wanted to receive worship and didn’t want to end up like him.
Christ, Our Passover Lamb, Delivered in a True and Greater Way
When we think of Passover, we think of the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and that’s true, but if you had a son, you would think of an even greater deliverance, and that’s your son’s deliverance from death:
If the blood of the Passover Lamb covered the doorframe, the angel of death passed over, and the firstborn lived. He was saved from physical death.
I have five sons. I can’t imagine losing one of them. But with that, I want you to consider the deliverance, or salvation, the earthly Passover Lamb’s blood provided. The son lived, hopefully for many years. But then he died. So, in light of eternity, how great was that deliverance? I want my sons to live long, healthy earthly lives, but even more so, I want them to live in heaven for eternity.
So the deliverance in Egypt was wonderful. But it wasn’t that great. It was always intended to foreshadow Jesus’s death as our Passover Lamb. Consider these two ways Jesus’s deliverance is that much greater:
But for this deliverance, God the Father had to offer His own Son:
If you’ve never repented and believed, God wants to save you from an eternity in hell for an eternity with Him. Let today be the day of your salvation.
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