Inside the Upper Room
In 1955, the still controversial artist Salvador Dali painted The Sacrament of the Last Supper, now housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The painting pictures Jesus with His disciples eating the Passover meal the night before Jesus was crucified. But, as Francis Schaeffer commented (How Should We Then Live?), this is not a painting of the Jesus of history. Rather, in it, Jesus is a mystical, shadowy figure, where the landscape is visible through His body.
Dali is perhaps best known for his surrealist paintings—described by art historian Trewin Copplestone as “Watches draped over withered tree stumps, animated but dismembered figures, dream evocation, unreasonable and often erotic association of objects in irrational scale, near abstract symbols of sexual reference” (Modern Art).
In contrast, the great need today is objective moral truth that can give meaning to life, not some mystical non-rational myth. Dave Grohl, on Foo Fighters’ latest album One by One, sings, “All my life I’ve been searching for something/ Something never comes, never leads to nothing/ Nothing satisfies. . . .”
Grohl expresses the yearning and despair that many have felt since the mid-20th century. In Western society, where the individual has displaced God as its centre, most, particularly the younger generation, no longer believe there is any objective moral truth, says Christian researcher George Barna (in Boiling Point).
Nevertheless, we all still yearn for it or at least lament its absence.
The Jesus of history was a real person. Few deny this for there is more evidence than that of the Bible. He says we can rely on Him and that He is the Truth and the Way leading to life (see John 14:6). So what happened to Him on that last night before He died that is so important to us?
lesson in humility
Jewish families and friends around Palestine congregated in homes on the Thursday night, the eve of Jesus’ death. They gathered as part of the Jewish Passover festival, celebrated on the 14th day of Nisan (in April). The Passover commemorated deliverance from Egyptian slavery at the time of Moses nearly one-and-a-half millenniums before.
The Israelites were to take a year-old male lamb without defect for each household, slay it and put some of the blood on their doorposts. They were then to roast the lamb and eat it that night—with bitter herbs, to remind them of the harsh treatment by the Egyptians—and bread without yeast. That night God brought judgment on Egypt, but spared each home with the blood on the doorposts (Exodus 12). The Passover was one of three festivals Jews were required to attend at Jerusalem, so the city was packed with pilgrims.
The common expectation of Jews about the Messiah was that He would come, liberate them from the hated Romans and set up Himself as King of Israel in Jerusalem. Jesus’ followers expected Him to make His move at this time, and then they would occupy places of honour in His kingdom. They argued about who would have the highest place.
As guests came into a Palestinian home, it was customary for a servant to wash their dusty feet. For Jesus and His disciples there was no servant. And the disciples were too proud to do it. Washing feet was not for would-be rulers.
Then Jesus startled the disciples. He took off His outer garment, wrapped a towel around His waist, and began to wash the disciples’ feet (see John 13). Peter refused to let Jesus wash his feet, but Jesus said that it was nevertheless necessary: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me” (verse 8), He said, which shocked Peter.
“‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’” Jesus said that washing the feet was sufficient.
When Jesus finished washing their feet, He said, “Do you understand what I have done for you? . . . You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example” (verses 12-15).
In this act, says Bible commentator William Barclay, there’s an important lesson: “There is only one kind of greatness, the greatness of service” (The Daily Study Bible). The washing of one another’s feet at the communion service symbolises our humility and willingness to serve each other. What a lesson for those proud disciples—and for us!
ultimate communion
During the meal, 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’” (Matthew 26:26-28).
The “blood of the covenant” is the agreement God made from the beginning, to save sinners through the death of Jesus, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
Jesus concluded the supper with these words: “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” (Matthew 26:29).
The Passover pointed back to the deliverance of the Israelite nation from Egyptian slavery and forward to the greater deliverance from sin by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. So the Lord’s Supper was to be a memorial of that sacrifice and to point forward to great deliverance at the second coming of Jesus, when He will take His followers to His Father’s kingdom. Paul says: “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
In washing their feet and taking the emblems of bread and fruit of the vine, Jesus provides a parable of His ministry. Consider Jesus, the Creator of the universe, laying aside His divinity and taking on human nature.
Born in the poorest of circumstances, He was raised in a difficult neighbourhood. He was rejected by His countrymen, forsaken by His followers when arrested, put through a kangaroo court on false charges, abused, beaten, humiliated then nailed to a cross and left to die. He did so to cleanse us from sin and open heaven for us.
life from death
Jesus was crucified for our sins. Crucifixion was one of the cruelest forms of execution devised. No Roman citizen could be crucified, only slaves and the vilest criminals. It was an agonising death of unimaginable pain that could take days through loss of blood circulation followed by coronary collapse.
“He saved others,” mocked the religious leaders of Jesus on the cross, “but he can’t save himself!” (Matthew 27:42). Jesus suffered their abuse, choosing to die. The religious leaders were right, although they did not realise it, for if He were to save others, then He couldn’t save Himself.
His outstretched arms were an invitation: “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37).
George Harrison, on his posthumous album Brainwashed, sings, “But, oh, Lord, we pay the price with a/ Spin of a wheel—with a roll of a dice/ Ah, yeah, you pay your fare/ And if you don’t know where you’re going/ Any road will take you there.”
It isn’t like that for those who accept and follow Jesus. They know where they’re going, and the road they’re following will take them there. Jesus certainly is the way, the truth and the life.
For a Bible study of this great event, check out the author’s Bible Discovery column.
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