Session 13
Matthew 26:17-30
Memory Verse: Matthew 26:28
This lesson from Matthew 26:17-30 is set around
the final Passover meal Jesus ate with His disciples just before His death.
The first part (vv. 17-25)
focuses on Jesus’s announcement of His betrayal.
This revelation left the Twelve-or at least eleven of them-in shock, wondering which of them was the betrayer.
In the second part (vv. 26-30)
Jesus used the bread and wine to introduce a new symbolism into the ceremony
that originally commemorated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.
The new element Jesus introduced has become known as “the Lord’s Supper.”
Jesus explained that His body would be broken and His blood would be poured out
not only for these disciples but also for all who would become His followers in the future-
the “many.” All of this would be “for the forgiveness of sins” and to establish the New Covenant.
None of us knows the precise time and date of our death.
We do know, however, that death is a certainty for all.
Consider this scenario:
you know the exact day of your impending death, but no one else knows.
You throw a dinner party for your family and friends, knowing this will be the last meal you will have with them.
What emotions do you think you would experience if this scenario played out in reality? (PSG, p. 114)
This session examines the last supper, which is part of Jesus’s trial and crucifixion.
Summarize this information from Understand the Context (PSG, p. 115) to give an overview of Matthew 26.
“Passover began on Thursday evening at sundown. .
Also on that day, or perhaps a day earlier,
the chief priests met to initiate Jesus’s arrest (26:3-5).
Sometime that afternoon, while Jesus spoke of end times under the olive trees on the Mount of Olives,
Judas the betrayer sold Him out (vv. 14-16).
Sometime on Thursday, Jesus sent John and Peter to prepare for the Passover celebration (see Luke 22:8).
Following the Passover meal, Jesus returned to the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives,
where He spent an agonizing time in prayer as He faced the coming event of the crucifixion (vv. 36-46).”
Today’s session focuses on Jesus’s Passover meal-
His “last supper”-with His disciples.
Through Jesus’s words around that meal,
we’ll get a clear view of our own sins and what Jesus’s death means for our sinfulness.