2350. “Take, Eat.”

No. 2350-40:97. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, January 8, 1888, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, March 4, 1894.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” {Mt 26:26}

1. We are all agreed on this one point, that the Lord’s supper is an emblem of the death of Jesus Christ, and of the way by which we receive benefit from him. The bread represents his broken body, and the cup his shed blood; these, separated from each other, portray his death. The way by which we receive this bread and this wine is by eating and drinking, and this represents the way by which we receive the merit and the virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ, by a faith which is like eating, by a trust which is like drinking, by the reception of Christ spiritually into our hearts, even as we naturally receive the bread and the fruit of the vine into our bodies.

2. These two words, then, “Take, eat,” are the practical directions concerning the Lord’s supper, and spiritually understood, they are the gospel of the grace of God. Every disciple of the Lord Jesus may hear a spiritual voice saying to him, concerning Christ, “Take, eat”; and you who fear that you are not his disciples, if you wish to be, if there is a craving in your heart to possess him, if you are beginning to reach out for him, I venture to say to you also, “Take, eat.” This is the way to have Christ, take him, partake of him, and he is yours.

3. You probably remember the extraordinary story of the conversion of Augustine, who, after a life of sin, was struck with compunction of conscience. His sorrow of heart was very great, and he could not find peace until he heard a voice, which may possibly have been that of a child on the other side of the wall, — I cannot tell, — but such a voice he heard, saying over and over again, “ Tolle, lege; tolle, lege; tolle, lege ”; that is, “Take and read; take and read”; and he took the Book, and read it, studied it believingly, and found peace with God. I have prayed that there may be some young Augustine here tonight. It present, his name may be “dis-gusting,” for he is living in sin and iniquity. I pray that he may be troubled in his conscience, and that he may be led to Christ by these words of the text, “Take, eat.” May this command come home to you, and may you catch at it, and put it in practice, and may my Master make a great saint out of some great sinner, even an Augustine, who shall valiantly defend the gospel of God’s grace, though now he sins desperately against almighty love! Oh, that it may be so!

4. With that end in view, I come to my text. We cannot have many divisions to it, can we? There are only two words on which I wish especially to speak, so they shall be the divisions of my subject. First, “take, ” and secondly, “eat.”

5. I. The first word I want you to notice is, “TAKE.”

6. Just as a doctor might write at the beginning of a prescription, “Take such and such things,” so the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “Take.” The word is often translated in our New Testament, “Receive.” Jesus holds out the bread in his hand, and says, “Receive it; let it come into your hand.” “Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it,” and then, holding it out to his disciples, he said, “Take, take, take,” and they took it, and the bread became theirs. This is the way that saints get blessings; they take them. This is the way that sinners also get blessings; by the grace of God, they take them. They do not make them, nor earn them, nor deserve them, but they take them. Jesus Christ says to them, “Take,” and they obey his voice, and take.

7. No one at the table said, “Lord, I dare not take”; but when Jesus said, “Take,” they took. No one said, though perhaps everyone felt, “I am not worthy to take,” but as Jesus said, “Take,” they took. It is always the best plan to accept any good thing that is offered to you. If you are a very poor man, and anyone offers you a shilling, I venture to give you this piece of advice; you take it. Do not stand, and say to him, “My dear sir, I think that indiscriminate charity is wrong; you have never enquired into my character, you do not know whether I really am one of the unemployed.” If there is a shilling held out to you, my friend, you had better take it. If you are very hungry, and there is bread around, you had better eat it if it is given to you. If it is freely presented to you, freely take it. If that were my case, I would ask no questions, not only for conscience sake, but for my necessity’s sake; and I especially would do so when, by the grace of God, the gift is presented to me by the Lord Jesus Christ. If he says, “Take,” I will take. There is nothing freer than a gift, surely, except that perhaps I should be freer to take than I might be to give; for our poor natures are contracted, and we may not always be free in giving; but, surely, even selfishness might make us free in taking. A holy desire for your own good, and your own salvation, might prompt you to say, “Indeed, Lord, if you do freely give, I without question will freely take!”

8. And I do not suppose that the Master stood holding that piece of bread to Peter for half-an-hour. He said, “Take” and Peter took it. “Take,” he said to John; and John took it. “Take,” he said to Philip; and Philip took it at once. Blessed are those who accept Christ the first time they hear about him. Blessed are all those who accept him at all; but thrice blessed are those who, when he says, “Take,” through his grace, promptly answer, “Indeed, Lord, that I will; and thank you, too, most heartily!” Remember those words that we have so often sung, —

    Life is found alone in Jesus,
       Only there ’tis offered thee —
    Offer’d without price or money,
       ’Tis the gift of God sent free;
          Take salvation,
       Take it now, and happy be.

9. I anticipate that someone will say, “Am I then to have Jesus Christ by only taking him?” Just so. Do you need a Saviour? There he is; take him. Do you desire to be delivered from the power of sin? He can deliver you; take him to do it. Do you desire to lead a holy, godly life? Here is One who can wash you, and enable you to live like this. Take him, he is as free as the air: you have no more to pay for Christ than you have to pay for the next breath that goes into your lungs. Take him in; take him in; that is all that you have to do. If I hear you say, “I can hardly think that I, a poor unworthy sinner, such as I am, and just as I am, may take Christ,” I answer, — That is the gospel which I have to give you, for Jesus said, “Take, eat.”

10. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Well, then, first of all, see how free Christ must be to sinners, because he had a body. Once, he had no body, the blessed Son of God was pure spirit; but he condescended to be born of Mary. I think I see him as an infant cradled in the manger. The Lord of all stooped so low that he nursed on a woman’s breast, and allowed himself to be swaddled like any other babe. The Lord of life and glory has taken human nature; he lives at Nazareth as a child, he grows up as a labouring man, the reputed Son of a carpenter. Working man, your God became a Carpenter for you! Take him. Surely, the very fact that he came among men, and took a body like our own, should encourage us to feel that we may freely take him. His name is Emmanuel, God with us; and if he is God with us, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, if he has come so far to bless us, let us not doubt that we may freely take what he has come to bring.

11. Having taken a body, moreover, remember, next, that in that body he suffered. If I had to tell you that Jesus Christ would die to redeem you, I should perhaps test your faith; but when I have to tell you that he has died, that the work of your redemption is accomplished, that Jesus cried, “It is finished,” before he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, that to the utmost farthing he has paid your debt, and borne your sins in his own body on the tree, this is good news indeed; for it leads me further to say that, if he has done all this, and died, “the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God,” we may freely take him, depend on that. God has presented his Son to be the propitiation for sin; therefore let us hear him say, “Take, take, take,” and let us take what is so freely presented to us.

12. My dear friends, remember also that, since Jesus Christ had a body, and in that body died, the object of that death must be outside of himself. He could not have become a man to gain anything by it. He could not have died for any purpose that had to do with his own glory alone. He was under no necessity to veil the splendours of his Godhead in a mortal body, and in that body to die; so he must have died for other people; therefore, take him, take him. Do you not see that these fruits are not on the tree for the tree itself, but for the passer-by who, being hungry, may lift his hand, and take and eat? Oh, that you might have the sense to see that Christ, for sins not his own, has died to atone, and that, therefore, you may take him, and take him most freely!

13. Besides, Jesus himself gives what we are told to take. Note how this verse runs: “Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat.’ ” What Jesus gives, you may truly take. I may not go and take another man’s goods; but I may take what he gives me. If I were arrested for stealing something, and I could truly say, “This man gave it to me,” I would be no thief, would I? And if Jesus Christ gives you grace, and you take it, you are no thief; in fact, no man ever does lay hold on Christ without a lawful right to do so. If a dog runs into a butcher’s shop, and steals a joint of meat, the butcher may perhaps take it from him, and not let him eat what he has stolen; but there was never a dog of a sinner who came and laid hold on Christ’s mercy, and then Christ took it away from him. Take it, sinner, and you have secured it; if you dare to seize it, God makes the seizing by faith to be a proper thing, for he invites you do it. You can never have any right to Christ except this right, that he freely gives to those who need, according to the riches of his grace. Therefore, hear this word which says, “Take, take, take.” Receive, accept, grasp, appropriate, take.

14. Jesus Christ, when he said to his disciples, “Take,” was their Master, and Christ’s word was law to the disciples. There was not one of them who could have said, “I will not take,” without being guilty of disobedience. Oh, that some poor soul here tonight would say, “Is there a Saviour? Then I will have him; I will take him.” May the Spirit of infinite love move on your mind to make you say, as by a kind of holy desperation, “I will even take him now. Whether I may or may not, I will take him. Though my sense of sin says, ‘You must not,’ and though the devil says, ‘You dare not,’ yet I will take him. I do believe, I will believe, I must believe, that Jesus died for me; and I will take him to be my Saviour; I will rest myself entirely and only on him.” If you do this, you shall never perish; for to you, and to everyone who is Christ’s disciple, or who will become his disciple, there comes this word of command, “Take, take, take, take, take.” Oh, blessed news, and sweet command, may the Divine Spirit lead you now to obey it, and to take Christ as your Saviour!

15. II. The second point of the sermon is, EAT: “Take, eat.”

16. Eating is such a very simple thing that I do not think I shall try to explain it. Go home to your supper, and you will understand it; every hungry man, indeed, every living man, knows what it is to eat. Well, what is eating?

17. To eat, is the innermost kind of reception. It is taking into your very self the food set before you. Well, now, take Christ, you who are his disciples; take Christ himself, his work, his blood, his righteousness; take them right into you. Say, “This is for me; I take it for myself.” I have no partner in anything I eat; what I have eaten, I have eaten for myself. You cannot eat for your wife or your child; you have to do that for yourself. Now, dear heart, be brave enough to take Christ all for yourself! say, “This dying Saviour is mine, this risen Saviour is mine. I hope that multitudes of others will have him; but, as for myself, I am going to have him.” When I eat, I am doing an action for myself; it must be so. And now, by faith, I take this blessed Son of God, who became man, living, dying, risen, I take him for myself to myself. I beseech you to do that tonight. “It is a selfish action,” you say. Ah, but it is a necessary action! You have personally sinned; and you must personally take Christ. You are personally hungry; and you must personally eat. Who is to condemn you for that? You cannot act unselfishly towards others if you do not yourself eat, because you will not be alive long to be either selfish or unselfish. See to this, then. “Take, eat.” Receive Christ by the innermost kind of reception.

18. Eating is also a very familiar kind of reception. It is a thing that can be as well performed by a working man as by a nobleman; indeed, I think it is often better done by the working man than by the nobleman. How they can eat, some of them! And how simple-hearted people, when they come to Christ, can eat! If you want to see eating, do not bring “my lord and my lady” to the choice dainties of a feast; but invite a lot of poor, hard-working men, I mean, men who have not had sufficient to eat for a month; and there are plenty of that kind around. Set them down to a good joint of meat, and see how they will eat. Eating is a very familiar kind of action; and, therefore, we say, concerning the great salvation of Jesus Christ, “Take, eat”; take him right into you; you can do this as you take your meals, as you hungry, famished ones devour your food, so take in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting him, receiving him into yourself, and saying, “He is, he shall be, altogether mine.”

19. Now, when food is to be eaten, it is not only taken in, but it has to be masticated. It is in the mouth, and it is turned over and over so that the flavour of it is discerned. Now, in this way think much of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his redeeming work. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the truth. If you feel that you cannot believe, think much of what is to be believed, and of him in whom you are to believe. That mastication will be an admirable way of feeding on the heavenly food. Jesus died for sinners, Jesus died for sinners, Jesus died in the room and place and stead of sinners. Masticate that great truth, and turn it over and over; chew that great doctrine with the teeth of your thought, until you get the very marrow and essence of it into your soul.

20. Then there is an inward assimilation that goes on with food. Passing into our innermost parts, it begins to build up our body, until the food that was bread a little while ago becomes flesh and blood. Retain Christ in your thought, in your faith, in your heart, until at last Christ gets to be one with you and nourishes your soul, even as your food builds up your body. “Take, eat.” You know, the whole business of eating is, after all, to get the food into yourself. That is the main point, to get it so into you that it becomes your own, and becomes part of yourself. Now, do that with the blessed Lord Christ and all his wonderful work for sinners. Take it until it gets right into yourself, and becomes part and parcel of yourself, and you live through it. “Take, eat.”

21. I imagine that I hear someone saying, “Oh, but it seems too extraordinary that I, a poor, unworthy one, am to take Christ to be mine, as much as I take a piece of bread to be my food!” Well, listen: he invites you do it; that is warrant enough. If I am the most unworthy one yet outside of hell, if Jesus invites me to trust him, I may trust him. His invitation is sufficient warrant for my doing it. Oh child of God, oh you who desire to be his child, he invites you eat; I beseech you, do not hesitate, but let his invitation be your warrant!

22. Jesus Christ condescends to compare himself to bread; but what is the good of bread except for it to be eaten? Why is it made into bread, unless it should be eaten? Why does it stand in rows in the bakery? To be looked at? What! Hungry men in the streets, and bread there as an ornament to be looked at? No, the very making of bread means food for men; and when the Lord Jesus Christ compares himself to bread, he intends that he has put himself into such a shape and form, in the covenant of grace, that he intends us to receive him. Bread that does not get eaten, what can become of it? The manna in the wilderness that was not eaten, but stored up, bred worms, and stank. Our Lord Jesus Christ is of no use unless sinners are saved by him. A Saviour who saves no one! Why he is like a man who opens a shop, and never sells any goods; or a doctor who comes to a town, and never has any patients! Christ must save sinners, he wants sinners, he longs to save sinners. Come and take him, then. Come and eat of that bread, which misses its purpose, and design, and end, if it is not eaten. Christ as bread, yet not eaten, becomes Christ dishonoured.

23. “Take, eat.” Well, what does this mean — this eating? I will tell you. When two men, in the East, took a piece of bread, and broke it, and one ate one piece, and the other another piece, it meant friendship. I go into an Arab’s tent, and I cannot tell what kind of a fellow he may be. He may kill me in the night, and rob me; but if he hands me a piece of bread, and I eat with him, he will not harm me. The rights of hospitality have secured my safety, there is friendship between him and me. Now, see, God takes a great delight in Jesus Christ; will you not also take delight in him? Then, you see, you have broken bread together, for you delight in the same Person. God trusts his honour with Christ; will you trust your soul with Christ? Then you have broken bread with God. “Take, eat,” says Jesus, and the moment that you have done it, there is the friendship, indeed, there is the covenant established between you and the great Father. I know that God loves Jesus Christ better than I do; but I think that I can almost say that he does not more truly love him than I do. Oh, what a Christ he is to my soul! And God loves him, too, so he and I are agreed about one thing; we are agreed about a precious Saviour, and there is a place where we shake hands, and we are friends for ever. Over the sacrifice of Christ is our covenant made. The moment that you have eaten of Christ by faith, there is an eternal friendship established between you and your God.

24. Again, when Jesus says, “Take, eat,” his words show us that he is to become the true nourishment of our soul. Souls have to be nourished by the truth of God, that is their spiritual food; and the Lord Jesus Christ, when we think of him, meditate on him, believe in him, and receive him, becomes the food of our heart, the sustenance of our spirit. Do think much of him then; do trust him much; do meditate on him much; for by this you shall grow strong in the Lord, and be built up so as to attain to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus. This is what is meant by the text, “Take, eat.”

25. This also pictures the wonderful union that there is between Christ and his people. What a man has fed on, becomes indissolubly joined to himself. You cannot take away from him what he ate yesterday, it has become a part of himself. I have heard of a priest, who took away the New Testament from a little Irish boy. The boy said, “There are ten of the chapters you cannot take away.” “Why?” asked the priest. “Because I have learned them by heart.” And so, when you receive Christ into your heart, he cannot be taken away from you. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? There is such a union between Christ and the believer that there cannot be a separation between them without the destruction of Christ, and the man, too. They are so interwoven, intertwined, and intermingled, that there is no possibility of separating them. So, the Saviour says to you, who are his disciples, and to you who wish to be, “Take, eat.” Just as you will see us, presently, at the communion table, take the bread, and eat it, so take Christ, and feed on him, for he commands you to do so. “Take, eat.” Dear hearts, there is nothing said about earning it, nothing said about buying it, nothing said about being prepared for it; come then, take the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is yours.

26. “Oh!” one says, “I will trust Christ, I will take him now.” You young men and young women here tonight, the first Sabbath of my return after my rest, it would be a very happy night for me if you would dare to take Christ. When I was in distress of soul, it seemed to me as if I must not take Christ. Years ago, when I was a boy of fifteen, that used to be my trouble. I dared not think that Christ died for me, and I was afraid to trust him with my soul. It gradually dawned on me that, if I dared to do it, I might do it; and that, if I did do it, it would be done, and never would be undone, that if I seized the opportunity of Jesus Christ passing by, and touched the hem of his garment, though it would be an awful piece of presumption as it seemed, yet it would be a holy and hallowed presumption, and Christ would not be angry with me for it. And I know that, when I first believed, I seemed as if I was a thief, and had stolen a cure; but then the Lord Jesus never took it away from me. I ventured, I risked, I dared to say, “I do believe that he can save me, and that he has saved me.” I rested myself on him, and then I found peace. Do so tonight. Jesus said, “He who believes in me has everlasting life.” He has it now, and it is everlasting, he shall never lose it. He who believes in Jesus Christ is not condemned, notwithstanding all his past guilt and sin. “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Now I have given you the whole gospel; that is how the Master put it, and I have left out no clause of it. “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” “If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.”

27. “Take, eat; take, eat; take, eat.” I should like to say those words so that you people up in the top gallery there would hear them in twenty years’ time, if you are alive; so that, as you remember these lamps, and these tiers of people, you might still seem to hear a voice crying, perhaps, from my grave, “Take, eat.” But do not wait twenty years, “Take, eat”; do it tonight. May God help you all to do it, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Expositions By C. H. Spurgeon {Ps 147 Mt 26:6-30}

1. Praise the LORD:

This Psalm begins and ends with Hallelujah. So may this service, and so may our lives, begin and conclude with Hallelujah!

1, 2. For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful. The LORD builds up Jerusalem:

Oh, that the Lord would do so here tonight!

2. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.

We want that blessing, too. Oh, that some outcasts might be gathered together! It shall make our hearts cry “Hallelujah!” indeed, if there is a building up of the church and an ingathering of the outcasts.

3. He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.

As we read that, we may well say again, “Hallelujah!”

4. He counts the number of the stars: he calls them all by their names.

And the Hallelujah is not louder because of that fact than it is for the other truth. What a condescending God: “He heals the broken in heart.” How infinite is his mind: “He counts the number of the stars.”

5, 6. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. The LORD lifts up the meek:

How wonderful it is that the Lord should use the greatness of his power and the infinity of his understanding for the lifting up of those whom men often despise, “the meek!”

6-11. He casts the wicked down to the ground. Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise on the harp to our God: who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the mountains. He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. He does not delight in the strength of the horse: he does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy.

Other kings tell of their cavalry and infantry, they boast of their regiments of horsemen and foot soldiers, but our great God finds his delight in those who fear him and even in the feebler kind of these: “those who hope in his mercy.” These are the courtiers of Jehovah. These are the forces of our God, through whom he will win great victories.

12-16. Praise the LORD, oh Jerusalem; praise your God, oh Zion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you. He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest of the wheat. He sends out his commandment on earth: his word runs very swiftly.

Our King’s warrant runs everywhere, all over the world. He has universal power in nature, in providence, and in grace: “His word runs very swiftly.”

16. He gives snow like wool: he scatters the hoar-frost like ashes.

The Hebrews saw God in all the phenomena of nature; let us do the same. Let us attribute every snowflake to the divine hand, and every breath of frost to the divine mouth.

17, 18. He throws out his hail like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them:

It is just as easy for him to send warm weather as to give us the chill of winter.

18. He causes his wind to blow, and the waters to flow.

His own soft south wind comes, and the fetters of frost dissolve, and the waters flow. It is the Lord who does it all. He is not far from anyone of us; therefore let us not forget him.

19. He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his judgments to Israel.

The rest of the world can only see him in nature, but his own people see him in revelation, in the movements of his Holy Spirit.

20. He has not dealt like this with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise the LORD.

Therefore, you who are favoured with his special displays of love, take up the joyful song even if others do not. Hallelujah! “Praise the Lord.”

Now let us read in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 26.

6, 7. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat eating.

This is not the woman who anointed Christ’s feet with ointment, but another of the holy women who ministered to him. I believe this was Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who came to Jesus, “having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat eating.”

8, 9. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, “For what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.”

When you do the best you can do, from the purest motives, and your Lord accepts your service, do not expect that your brethren will approve all your actions. If you do, you will be greatly disappointed. There was never a more beautiful proof of love for Christ than this anointing at Bethany, yet the disciples found fault with it. Since they could not object to the thing itself, they objected that there might have been another thing done that would have been better. There is a great deal of that kind of wisdom in the world which can always teach you how you might have done a thing better, but if you wait until you learn that wisdom, you will never do anything for your Lord. If this devoted and enthusiastic woman had waited for the advice of these prudent people, she would neither have sold the ointment, nor poured it out. She did well to take counsel with her own loving heart, and then to pour the precious oil on that dear head which was so soon to be crowned with thorns. So she showed that there was at least one heart in the world that thought nothing was too good for her Lord, and that the best of the best ought to be given to him. May she have many imitators in every age until Jesus comes again!

10. When Jesus understood it, he said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman?

She had been very happy in the act, probably it was the happiest hour in all her life when she gave this costly gift to the Lord she loved so well. But a cloud passed over her bright face as the whispered complaints reached her ear. She was evidently a tender-hearted soul, so the Saviour said to the disciples, “Why do you trouble the woman?”

10. For she has done a good work on me.

We cannot do what this woman did; but we can perform good works for others for Christ’s sake; and he will accept them as though they were done for himself.

11-13. For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have me. For in that she has poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Truly I say to you, ‘Wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, what this woman has done, shall be told as a memorial to her.’ ”

She probably did not know all that her action meant when she anointed her Lord for his burial. We often do much more than we think we do. The consequences of the simplest action done for Christ may be much greater than we suppose. This woman is preparing Christ’s body for his approaching burial. She little dreams that it is so, but so it is. Go my sister, and do what God tells you; and it shall be seen that you have done far more than you know. Obey the holy impulse within your spirit, my brother; and you may do ten thousand times more than you have ever imagined to be possible. This woman’s outburst of affection, this simple-hearted act of love for Christ himself, is one of those things which are to live as long as the gospel lives. The aroma of this loving deed is to last as long as the world itself endures.

14, 15. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, and said to them, “What will you give me, and I will deliver him to you?”

Out of twelve disciples, one was a Judas Iscariot. Do not marvel, therefore, if, among your friends and relatives, you have one who turns against you, and betrays you to your enemies.

15. And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

The price of a slave, so they were fulfilling the ancient prophecy: “So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.”

16. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

The traitor sold his Master for thirty pieces of dirty silver; yet many have sold Jesus for a less price than Judas received: a smile or a sneer has been sufficient to induce them to betray their Lord.

17, 18. Now on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, “Where do you wish that we prepare for you to eat the passover?” And he said, “Go into the city to such a man, and say to him, ‘The Master says, "My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples."’ ”

How truly royal was Jesus of Nazareth even in his humility! He had only to send two of his disciples “into the city to such a man,” and the guest-room, furnished and prepared, was at once placed at his disposal. He did not take the room by arbitrary force, as an earthly monarch might have done; but he obtained it by the more divine compulsion of almighty love. Jesus knew something about this man that you and I do not know, so he said to his disciples: “Just go and say to him, ‘The Master says, "My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples."’ ” Was he not himself a disciple? I cannot say; but this I do know, that the Lord Jesus has a certain number who are willing to help his cause, even though as yet they hardly call themselves his disciples. I should think, however, that after this man had once had the Master and his disciples in his house, there must have been a blessing left behind, and he would want to become one of that goodly company. It is good, dear friend, that you are willing to have the prayer meeting in your house, it is good that you will stand up on the side of truth, even if you have no share in it as yet, for maybe, — and I hope the “maybe” will become a certainty, — you will yet be one of Christ’s disciples.

19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made the passover ready.

They went to this man, delivered Christ’s message, and he showed them a large upper room, furnished and prepared. If Christ’s disciples always loyally did as Jesus appointed them, they would always prosper on his errands. There are many more people in the world ready to yield to Christ than some of us think. The person sitting or standing by your side is quite unknown to you; but, if you will speak to him about the Saviour, he will probably respond to your word. At any rate, try him, and see if it is not so. Whether standing or sitting, there must be someone here not yet a disciple, who only needs for you to speak a kind word, and the deciding work will be done.

20, 21. Now when the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they ate, he said, “Truly I say to you, that one of you shall betray me.”

“One of you” — and his eyes would glance around the table as he said it, — “one of you shall betray me.”

22. And they were extremely sorrowful, and every one of them began to say to him Lord, “Is it I?”

No one said, “Lord, is it Judas?” Perhaps not one of the eleven thought that Judas was base enough to betray the Lord who had given him an honourable place among his disciples. It is certainly a sign of grace that “every one” of the disciples asked their Lord the question, “Is it I?”

23, 24. And he answered and said, “He who dips his hand with mine in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goes as it is written concerning him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

We learn from our Lord’s words that divine decrees do not deprive a sinful action of its guilt: “The Son of man goes as it is written concerning him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed!” The criminality of Judas was just as great as though there had been no “determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” even as it was with those to whom Peter spoke so boldly on the day of Pentecost, when he charged them with the murder of Jesus.

20. Then Judas, who betrayed him, answered and said, “Master, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said.”

What a chill that answer must have cast over the little band around the table, especially when Judas rose, and started off, to carry out his dreadful purpose of staining his soul with the blood of his Lord!

26-29. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke 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 all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, ‘I will not drink henceforth from this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’ ”

So Jesus took the great Nazarite vow never to drink from the fruit of the vine until he should drink it new with his disciples in his Father’s kingdom. Oh Lord, you have pledged us in this cup, and you will return before long, and then what festivals we will hold with you, what joy we shall have in you for ever and ever!

30. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Was it not truly brave of our dear Lord to sing under such circumstances? He was going out to his last dread conflict, to Gethsemane, and Gabbatha, and Golgotha; yet he went with a song on his lips.

The door opens, they go downstairs, they are in the open air, that night of the full moon, and they wend their way to the Mount of Olives. Then came that desperate struggle in which the great Captain of our salvation wrestled even to a bloody sweat, and prevailed.

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Gospel, Received by Faith — The Prodigal’s Welcome” 548}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Church, Ordinances, The Lord’s Supper — Christ’s Dying Love” 942}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Church, Ordinances, The Lord’s Supper — The Feast And The Guests” 944}
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Gospel, Received by Faith
548 — The Prodigal’s Welcome <8.8.8.6., or L.M.>
1 The wanderer no more will roam,
   The lost one to the fold hath come,
   The prodigal is welcomed home;
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
2 Though clothed with shame, by sin defiled,
   The Father hath embraced his child;
   And I am pardon’d, reconciled,
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
3 It is the Father’s joy to bless,
   His love provides for me a dress —
   A robe of spotless righteousness,
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
4 Now shall my famish’d soul be fed,
   A feast of love for me is spread,
   I feed upon the children’s bread,
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
5 Yea, in the fulness of his grace,
   He put me in the children’s place,
   Where I amy gaze upon his face,
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
6 I cannot half his love express,
   Yet, Lord! with joy my lips confess,
   This blessed portion I possess,
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
7 It is thy precious name I bear,
   It is thy spotless robe I wear,
   Therefore, the Father’s love I share,
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
8 And when I in thy likeness shine,
   The glory and the praise be thine,
   That everlasting joy is mine,
      Oh Lamb of God, in thee!
                     Mary Jane Deck, 1847.

Church, Ordinances, The Lord’s Supper
942 — Christ’s Dying Love
1 How condescending and how kind,
      Was God’s eternal Son!
   Our misery reach’d his heavenly mind,
      And pity brought him down.
2 When justice, by our sins provoked,
      Drew forth its dreadful sword,
   He gave his soul up to the stroke
      Without a murmuring word.
3 He sunk beneath our heavy woes,
      To raise us to his throne;
   There’s ne’er a gift his hand bestows,
      But cost his heart a groan.
4 This was compassion like a God,
      That when the saviour knew
   The price of pardon was his blood,
      His pity ne’er withdrew.
5 Now though he reigns exalted high,
      His love is still as great;
   Well he remembers Calvary,
      Nor lets his saints forget.
6 Here let our hearts begin to melt,
      While we his death record,
   And, with our joy for pardon’d guilt
      Mourn that we pierced the Lord.
                     Isaac Watts, 1709.

Church, Ordinances, The Lord’s Supper
944 — The Feast And The Guests
1 How sweet and sacred* is the place,
      With Christ within the doors,
   While everlasting love displays
      The choicest of her stores.
2 While all our hearts and all our songs
      Join to admire the feast,
   Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
      “Lord, why was I a guest?
3 “Why was I made to hear thy voice,
      And enter while there’s room;
   When thousands make a wretched choice,
      And rather starve than come?”
4 ‘Twas the same love that spread the feast,
      That sweetly forced us in;
   Else we had still refused to taste,
      And perish’d in our sin.
5 Pity the nations, oh our God!
      Constrain the earth to come;
   Send thy victorious Word abroad,
      And bring the strangers home.
6 We long to see thy churches full,
      That all the chosen race
   May with one voice, and heart, and soul,
      Sing thy redeeming grace.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.