The Lord’s Supper
Luke 22:14-30
International Sunday School Lesson
March 24, 2013
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough
Almost immediately their concern went from outrage over the betrayal of Jesus to a dispute in verse 24 about who among them was the greatest! Can you believe it? Christ just said that He was about to suffer and one of them would be the one to betray Him.
Rather than dealing with their concern for Him, Christ has to teach them and us that it isn’t to be about us. Visit here often enough and you will see me repeat the idea of trying to make sure that we are making it about Him and not about us. And the next theme is that we have a responsibility for each other.
Just last week, though studying Daniel, I reference the things that Christ was stressing in Matthew 24. In this chapter in talking about the signs of the end He kept going and going. He made sure we knew what happened first also. He mentions the servant in charge of his fellow servants in Matthew 24:36-51. He hasn’t finished this discussion when we see Him relate The Parable of the Bags of Gold. Jesus really is telling you that He entrusted His wealth to us and we like the servants in the parable will have to answer what we have done with that wealth and He concludes this discussion by showing us this in Matthew 25:31-46:
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.
“Then the King will say to those His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirst and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me noting to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Oh yeah, we have a duty that is expected of us to be like servants. We must make sure as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:5 that “what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”
As we draw more and more close to Easter let’s use it as a catalyst to keep our eyes on Jesus just as if we were in that room when He said that He was about to suffer and that we might bring glory to Him by making sure that our brothers and sisters both present and future are having their needs met before considering our own.
For Discussion:
1. Discuss some of the things that you have heard from the new pope Francis that sound encouraging along these themes.
2. Discuss how your church may be putting itself ahead of those they have a responsibility for.
3. Discuss how our communion or whatever your place of worship calls it resembles or does not resemble the Last Supper.
4. Discuss Jesus’ example as a servant.
5. Read the examples from prophecy in Isaiah whose theme is the suffering servant.
6. Read 2 Corinthians 4.
7. Read the parallel accounts of the Last Supper.
3-31-13: The Lord Lives aka The Lord Has Risen Indeed! Luke 24:13-21, 28-35
4-7-13: The Lord Appears Luke 24:36-53
4-14-13: The Lord Sends the Spirit aka The Holy Spirit Comes Acts 2:1-16 or Acts 2:1-13
4-21-13: The Lord Will Return aka Living with Hope 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
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