The Jewish Passover, the Last Supper, and the New Testament Sacrifice How are they connected? Part 3

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                                                                                                                                                Continued from Part 2

Questions 1 & 2, have the same answer. Most Protestant commentators will say that Jesus refused the wine, on the way to Calvary, because it contained myrrh, a pain killer, and He wanted to suffer the maximum. While this could be a secondary consideration, it would be very minor one. The main reason Jesus refused to drink the wine on the way to Calvary, is because he wanted to wait till just before he died. It is for this same reason that Christ omitted the 4th Cup at the Last Supper.

Why did Christ not want to drink the wine until He was on the cross? Remember that Jesus had omitted the 4th Cup (the Cup of Consummation) at the Last supper, and therefore the Last Supper was not yet finished. The Last Supper ended, with Jesus on the cross, when He received and drank the wine (John 19:30). This was the 4th Cup. This means that Jesus’ entire passion was part of the Last Supper. Why did Jesus wait till just before He died to finish the Last Supper?

Remember that on the previous Thursday night, at the Last Supper (the first Catholic Mass), Christ had instituted the Holy Eucharist. By making His drinking of the Cup of Consummation His very last action before he died, Christ intimately connected His real bloody sacrifice on the cross - with His real un-bloody sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist. This means that Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary on Friday, and his Last Supper Eucharistic Sacrifice on Thursday night, are one and the same. It is Christ’s institution of the Eucharistic Sacrifice at the Last Supper which transforms His execution on Calvary into a Sacrifice, for as St. Paul says, Christ our, Pascal Lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).

With the above explanation we have now answered questions 3 & 4.

Now question for question 5: “When did Christ’s sacrifice begin? It began at the Last Supper when He instituted the Holy Eucharist. When did it end? It didn’t! Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary continues eternally (Hebrews 8: 1-3). This point needs a little explanation.

Christ is now in eternity, and is outside of time. As such, He sees all of human history at once, as if it were a huge mural on a wall, so His Sacrifice on Calvary is always present to Him. In other words, as an eternal Being, Jesus stands outside of time, and therefore all of history is simultaneously present to Him.

In regards to question 6 - What does the “It” refer to? From John 19:30 we read: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl of sour wine stood there; so they put a sponge full of the wine on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit”.

The “it” refers to two simultaneous events, it signifies the conclusion of the Last Supper, and the conclusion of the Last Supper signifies the transformation of the Old Testament Passover sacrifice into the New Testament Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

To be continued in Part 4