In the same way Jesus also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20)
The Gospels of Matthew and Mark both refer to a single cup of wine during the last supper. But Luke mentions two separate cups of wine. Is this a contradiction? Not at all. It should be remembered that Luke – the only Gentile Gospel writer – is writing for a universal audience comprised of both Jews and Gentiles. As a result, he has dug deeper into the context of the last supper in order to understand the significance of what takes place and so should we.
First of all, this supper is not just any meal, it is the Passover meal which memorializes the events of God’s liberation of His people from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 6:6 -7). The Bible itself doesn’t throw much light on the details of the Passover “seder” (meaning “order” of the observance). In the early third century AD, the Mishnah (a collection of Jewish traditions compiled by rabbinical scholars) tells us that there were to be four cups of wine drunk at prescribed moments during the Passover meal, all of which correspond to four moments of liberation that God will accomplish for His people. In Exodus 6:6 -7 God says “I will . . .” four times.
Luke’s account begins with the cup that goes with the opening benediction of the meal and corresponds to the first “I will” – “I will bring you out.” The Mishnah says that this is not just being brought out of Egypt but also being brought out of the World and its value system. Luke doesn’t mention the second cup which is for “I will deliver” which represents the inauguration of the Messianic age, probably because that Messianic Age had already begun at the birth of Christ. Scholars generally agree that the next cup mentioned by Luke and by Matthew and Mark corresponds to the third cup which is “I will redeem” and points toward the resurrection of the dead. That resurrection is the next stop on Jesus’ salvation agenda which follows with His Passion, Crucifixion, Death, Burial and Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is that cup which we share with Christ when we take the Lord’s Supper – our own identification with Jesus’ death and new life.
But what about the fourth cup? That is where God says, “I will take you to be my people,” and as the Mishnah says, it represents God’s bringing His people into the new world to come at the “end of days” or, in Christian terms, the Second Coming of Christ and the renewal of all things, the New Heaven and Earth where Christ will reign in the midst of His people forever. That is why at the last supper Jesus says, “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And we, too, will drink that fourth cup with Jesus at the marriage supper of the lamb (Revelation 19).
So when we take the Lord’s Supper, let us marvel at how the Word and work of God links so many complex things together from both the Old and New Testament and what an amazing thing it is to be “in Christ” both now and forever.