Matthew 26:17-19. Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my discip 1 es. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover.
Note their prompt obedience: «the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them.» In this respect, they set an example we shall do well to follow.
Matthew 26:20. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.
This was the memorable night when the Jewish passover was to melt into the Lord's supper, just as the stars of the morning dissolve into the daylight.
Matthew 26:21. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
This saying of our Lord must have startled his disciples; they had all made great professions of affection for him, and for the most part those professions were true; but this sentence must have fallen like a bomb-shell among them: «One of you shall betray me.»
Matthew 26:22. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it?
They did not doubt their Lord's declaration, they knew it must be true; and it produced in them deep emotion: «They were exceeding sorrowful.» It also wrought in them earnest self-examination; they did not any one of them say, «Lord, is it Judas?» Perhaps there was not one of them who could have thought so badly of Judas as to suppose that he would betray his Lord; they had such esteem for him that they had made him their treasurer. It is always wise for us to turn the glass of critical examination upon ourselves; we cannot do any good by suspecting our brethren. Suspicion stings like an adder; but we may do ourselves great service by suspecting and examining ourselves. Self-suspicion is near akin to humility and truthfulness; it was so with all but one of these disciples who began to say to Christ, «Lord, is it I?»
Matthew 26:23-24. And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
So, you see, dear friends, that a man may get very near to Christ, ay, he may even dip his morsel in the same dish with his Lord, and yet he may betray him, even as Judas did. We may be very high in office; we may apparently be very useful; I have no doubt that Judas was exceedingly useful to the twelve and to the Master; and yet, for all that, we may betray him. God grant that we never may! Better far that we perished at our birth than that we should live to be traitors to our Lord.
Matthew 26:25. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.
And if he had not been a hopeless reprobate, this unmasking of him ought to have driven him to repentance. A man may secretly indulge in his heart a wretched design, and, when discovered, he may loathe it; but, alas! there was nothing in Judas which could respond to the grace of God.
Matthew 26:26-28. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Go into any Romish church, and watch the priest's performance at the altar, and see whether there is the least likeness between that mummery and this divinely appointed ordinance. I can hardly imagine two things which are so widely apart. How did the Lord's supper ever grow into the mass? It must have taken long years of moss and ivy and lichen and all kinds of clinging things to overgrow the original, natural column which the Saviour set up, and to turn it into that mingle-mangle of which the Romanists and Ritualists think so much. The only safe rule is to keep close to Scripture in everything; for, if you add a little, somebody will add more; and if you alter one thing, the next person will alter another, and, by-and-by, you will not know what the original was. I have seen a peasant, in Italy, wearing a coat of which I believe neither man nor angel could tell which was the material of which it was originally made, for it had been patched so often; and, in like manner, if we did not know what was the original of the mass, it would be impossible for us now to tell, for it has been so patched and mended that it is not at all like the original. Let us, beloved, keep strictly to the letter of God's Word, and also to the spirit of it, lest we err from the truth as so many others have done.
Matthew 26:29-30. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.
Was it not brave of our dear Lord to join in singing a hymn at such a time as that, and under such circumstances? He knew that he was very soon to die; he was going out to his last dread conflict; yet he went to it singing a Psalm. It was to his Passion that he was going, to Gethsemane's agony and bloody sweat; yet he led the way there with a sacred song upon his lips: «And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.» Now let us turn to Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, at the eleventh chapter. We shall there see how this supper of the Lord had been changed, even in the few years since the death of the Master.
This exposition consisted of readings from Matthew 26:17-30; and 1 Corinthians 11:20-34.