Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 26:29
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
29. when I drink it new with you ] The reference is to the feast, which is a symbol of the glorified life, cp. Luk 22:30. The new wine signifies the new higher existence (ch. Mat 9:17), which Christ would share with His Saints. The expression may also symbolize the Christian as distinguished from the Jewish dispensation, and be referred specially to the celebration of the Eucharist, in which Christ joins with the faithful in the feast of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 29. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine] These words seem to intimate no more than this: We shall not have another opportunity of eating this bread and drinking this wine together; as in a few hours my crucifixion shall take place.
Until that day when I drink it new with you] That is, I shall no more drink of the produce of the vine with you; but shall drink new wine – wine of a widely different nature from this – a wine which the kingdom of God alone can afford. The term new in Scripture is often taken in this sense. So the NEW heaven, the NEW earth, the NEW covenant, the NEW man – mean a heaven, earth, covenant, man, of a very different nature from the former. It was our Lord’s invariable custom to illustrate heavenly things by those of earth, and to make that which had last been the subject of conversation the means of doing it. Thus he uses wine here, of which they had lately drunk, and on which he had held the preceding discourse, to point out the supreme blessedness of the kingdom of God. But however pleasing and useful wine may be to the body and how helpful soever, as an ordinance of God. It may be to the soul in the holy sacrament; yet the wine of the kingdom, the spiritual enjoyments at the right hand of God, will be infinitely more precious and useful. From what our Lord says here, we learn that the sacrament of his supper is a type and a pledge, to genuine Christians, of the felicity they shall enjoy with Christ in the kingdom of glory.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth,…. From whence it seems natural to conclude, that Christ had drank of the cup in the supper, as well as at the passover; and it is reasonable to believe, that he also ate of the bread; since it appears from what has been observed before, [See comments on Mt 26:26], that none might eat, till he that blessed and brake the bread had tasted of it f: the reason why wine is here called
the fruit of the vine, and not wine, [See comments on Mt 26:27]. The design of this expression is to show, that his stay would be very short: the cup he had just drank of, was the last he should drink with them: he should drink no more wine at the passover; he had kept the last, and which now of right was to cease; nor in the Lord’s supper, for though that was to continue to his second coming, he should be no more present at it corporeally, only spiritually; nor in common conversation, which is not contradicted by Ac 10:41. Since, though the apostles drank with him in his presence, it does not necessarily follow, that he drank with them; and if he did, it was not in a mortal state, nor in the ordinary manner and use of it, but to confirm his resurrection from the dead, nor can it be proved that he drank of the fruit of the vine: the design of the phrase, as before observed, is to signify his speedy departure from his disciples. The allusion is to an usage at the passover, when after the fourth cup, they tasted of nothing else all that night, except water; and so Christ declares, that he would drink no more, not only that night, but never after.
Until the day I drink it new with you, in my Father’s kingdom: Mark says, “in the kingdom of God”, Mr 14:25; and Luke, “until the kingdom of God come”, Lu 22:18; and both the Syriac and Persic versions read it here, “in the kingdom of God”; by which is meant, something distinct from the kingdom of the Son, or of the Messiah, which was already come; and appeared more manifestly after the resurrection of Christ, upon his ascension to heaven, and the effusion of the holy Spirit, and the success of the Gospel, both among Jews and Gentiles; and which will be more glorious in the latter day: and when all the elect of God are gathered in, and have been presented to Christ by himself, he will then deliver up the kingdom to the Father, and God shall be all in all; and then the kingdom of the Father will take place here mentioned, and which is no other than the ultimate glory; so called, because it is of the Father’s preparing and giving, and in which he will reign and dwell, and the saints with him, to all eternity; which must not be understood to the exclusion of Christ, for it is called his kingdom also, Lu 22:30, in this state, Christ will drink new wine, not literally, but spiritually understood; and which designs the joys and glories of heaven, the best wine which is reserved to the last: which is sometimes signified by a feast, of which wine is a principal part; by sitting down as at a table, in the kingdom of heaven, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Mt 8:11, and expressed by “wine”, because of its refreshing and exhilarating nature, in God’s presence is “fulness of joy”; and by “new wine”, because these joys are the most excellent, because they are always new, and never change; they are “pleasures for evermore”: to “drink” hereof, denotes the full enjoyment of them, which Christ, as man and mediator, and his people with him, shall be possessed of; and is different from the superficial “taste of the powers of the world to come”, Heb 6:5, which hypocrites have, and those real prelibations of glory which saints have in this life; there being a difference between drinking and tasting, Mt 27:34, and this will be social; Christ and his true disciples shall be together; and drink this new wine together; or enjoy the same glory and felicity in the highest measure and degree, they are capable of; and which society therein will yield a mutual pleasure to each other, as the words here suggest. The Jews often express the joys of the world to come, by such like figurative phrases: they make mention of, , “the wine of the world to come” g; and of , “a spiritual drink”, in the last days, which is called the world to come h: and so they explain i after this manner, Isa 64:4. “Neither hath the eye seen, O God”, c., , “this is the wine”, which is kept in the grapes from the six days of the creation of which they often speak in their writings k
f Maimon. Chametz Umetzah, c. 8. sect. 10. Piske Toseph. Pesach. art. 328. g Zohar in Lev. fol. 17. 2. h Tzeror Hammor, fol. 3. 4. En Israel, fol. 30. 1. i T. Bab. Berncot, fol. 34. 2, & Sanhed. fol. 99. 1. k Targum in Cant. viii. 2. Zohar in Gen. fol. 81. 4. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 30. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When I drink it new with you ( ‘ ). This language rather implies that Jesus himself partook of the bread and the wine, though it is not distinctly stated. In the Messianic banquet it is not necessary to suppose that Jesus means the language literally, “the fruit of the vine.” Deissmann (Bible Studies, pp. 109f.) gives an instance of used of the vine in a papyrus 230 B.C. The language here employed does not make it obligatory to employ wine rather than pure grape juice if one wishes the other.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
New [] . Another adjective, neon, is employed to denote new wine in the sense of freshly – made (Mt 9:17; Mr 2:22; Luk 5:37, 38, 39). The difference is between newness regarded in point of time or of quality. The young, for instance, who have lately sprung up, are neoi or newteroi (Luk 14:12, 13). The new garment (Luk 5:36) is contrasted as to quality with a worn and threadbare one. Hence kainou. So a new heaven (2Pe 3:13) is kainov, contrasted with that which shows signs of dissolution. The tomb in which the body of Jesus was laid was kainon (Mt 27:60); in which no other body had lain, making it ceremonially unclean; not recently hewn. Trench (” Synonyms “) cites a passage from Polybius, relating a stratagem by which a town was nearly taken, and saying “we are still new [] and young [] in regard of such deceits.” Here kainoi expresses the inexperience of the men; neoi, their youth. Still, the distinction cannot be pressed in all cases. Thus, 1Co 5:7, “Purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new neon lump;” and Col 3:10, “Put on the new [] man,” plainly carry the sense of quality. In our Lord ‘s expression, “drink it new,” the idea of quality is dominant. All the elements of festivity in the heavenly kingdom will be of a new and higher quality. In the New Testament, besides the two cases just cited, neov is applied to wine, to the young, and once to a covenant.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
29. But I tell you. This sentence is put by Matthew and Mark immediately after the Holy Supper, when Christ had given the symbol of his blood in the cup; from which some infer that Luke relates here the same thing which we shall find him repeating shortly afterwards. But this difficulty is easily obviated, because it is of little importance in itself at what precise moment Christ said this. All that the Evangelists intend to state by it is, that the disciples were warned both of their Master’s approaching death, and of the new and heavenly life: for the more nearly the hour of his death approached, there was the greater necessity for them to be confirmed, that they might not altogether fall away. Again, as he intended to place his death before their eyes in the Holy Supper, as in a mirror, it was not without reason that he again declared that he was now leaving the world. But as this intelligence was full of sadness, a consolation is immediately added, that they have no occasion for shrinking from the thought of his death, which will be followed by a better life. As if he had said: “It is true, indeed, that I am now hastening to my death, but it is in order that I may pass from it to a blessed immortality, not to live alone without you in the kingdom of God, but to have you associated with me in the same life.” Thus we see how Christ leads his disciples by the hand to the cross, and thence raises them to. the hope of the resurrection. And as it was necessary that they should be directed to the cross of Christ, that by that ladder they might ascend to heaven; so now, since Christ has died and been received into heaven, we ought to be led from the contemplation of the cross to heaven, that death and the restoration of life may be found to agree.
Till that day when I shall drink it new with you. It is plain from these words that he promises to them a glory which they will share with himself. The objection made by some —that meat and drink are not applicable to the kingdom of God—is frivolous; for Christ means nothing more than that his disciples will soon be deprived of his presence, and that he will not henceforth eat with them, until they enjoy together the heavenly life. As he points out their being associated in that life, which needs not the aids of meat and drink, he says that there will then be a new kind of drinking; by which term we are taught that he is speaking allegorically. Accordingly, Luke simply says, until the kingdom of God come. In short, Christ recommends to us the fruit and effect of the redemption which he procured by his death.
The opinion entertained by some—that these words were fulfilled, when Christ ate with his disciples after his resurrection is foreign to his meaning; for, since that was an intermediate condition between the course of a mortal life and the end of a heavenly life, the kingdom of God had not, at that time, been fully revealed; and therefore Christ said to Mary,
Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, (Joh 20:17.)
Besides, the disciples had not yet entered into the kingdom of God, so as to drink new wine with Christ, being partakers of the same glory. And when we read that Christ drank after his resurrection, though he declared that he would not do so until he had assembled his disciples in the kingdom of God, the apparent contradiction is easily removed. For it is not exactly of meat and drink that he speaks, but of the intercourse of the present life. Now we know that Christ did not at that time drink for the purpose of invigorating his body by food, or of holding intercourse with his disciples, but only to prove his resurrection—of which they were still doubtful—and thus to raise their minds on high. Let us therefore rest satisfied with the natural meaning, that our Lord promises to his disciples that, having hitherto lived with them on earth as a mortal man, he will hereafter make them his associates in a blessed and immortal life.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(29) I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine.Literally, product of the vine. It would be better, perhaps, to translate, I shall not drink, as implying the acceptance of what had been ordained by God rather than an act of volition. The words carry us into a region of mystic symbolism. Never afterwards while He tarried upon earth was He to taste of the wine-cup with His disciples. But in the kingdom of God, completed and perfected, He would be with them once again, and then Master and disciples would be alike sharers in that joy in the Holy Ghost, of which winenew winewas the appropriate symbol. The language of Pro. 9:2 and Isa. 25:6, helps us to enter into the meaning of the words. Even the mocking taunt of the multitude on the day of Pentecost, These men are full of new wine (Act. 2:13), may have recalled the mysterious promise to the minds of the Apostles, and enabled them to comprehend that it was through the gift of the Spirit that they were entering, in part at least, even then, into the joy of their Lord.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. I will not drink Of course he is not to drink his own blood. He is not to derive life and salvation from his own atonement.
Drink it new He will never drink it in its sacrificial, but in its eucharistic sense. Hence he does not say that he will drink the blood, but “this fruit of the vine.” It is the life part, not the death part of the symbol of which he speaks. He will not drink the earthly wine even in its joyous character. But he will in the glorious kingdom drink that reality of which this life-symbol is the figure, namely, life, the vita beata, the blessed life. Our Lord could not drink the wine in its sacrificial character, because he had no sins to atone for. He would not now drink it in its joyous character because now was his time of sorrow; and he would indicate to his disciples that his joy was reserved for the day of his glorification.
It is a very coarse and degrading exposition of this text to make our Saviour say, as some do, that he will not drink the wine now, but he will drink real, physical wine in the resurrection body “with his saints during the thousand years” millennial reign. Such a reign of the saints in the resurrection body, with Christ, for a thousand years, on earth, is a fond fancy, unsupported by a just interpretation of Scripture. Our Lord means that he will not drink the symbolical wine; but will wait until he can drink the real wine which this typifies in the heavenly kingdom.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“But I say to you, I will not from now on drink of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingly rule.”
Here we have the fourth aspect of Jesus’ words that is emphasised by Matthew in his summary of the Last Supper. First there was the betrayal, then the broken body, then the poured out blood, and now He guarantees through it the establishment of His Father’s Kingly Rule. All these previous processes are seen as necessary in order that His Father’s Kingly Rule might be established. So He now declares that this wine that He is drinking at the Passover will be the last wine that He will drink before the Kingly Rule of His Father is established and He is able to drink it new with them within that Kingly Rule.
But the question this raises is as to what exactly this means, for it is a heavily debated question. We must ask:
* Is He referring to their entering within His Father’s Kingly Rule immediately after His resurrection as a result of His enthronement, so that, as those who are ‘sitting on twelve thrones’ (representing the Greater David) and overseeing the new Israel, they establish His Father’s Kingly Rule in Jerusalem (Acts 1-8) and then carry forward news of it outwards (Acts 9 onwards), successfully establishing His Kingly Rule over believers elsewhere on earth,
* Or is He referring to the final consummation when all their troubles will be over and they share His glory with Him?
If we see ‘I will not from now on drink of this fruit of the vine, until that day’ as an indication of how quickly that day will come (like a general receiving news from his spies and turning to his officers and saying, ‘the enemy are so close that this will be my last drink until the battle is over’), we will see it as referring to His shortly to be revealed enthronement and subsequent sending out of His disciples to proclaim the Kingly Rule of His Father, the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Mat 28:18-20) when He ‘goes before them into Galilee’ (Mat 26:32). That was probably how the disciples would originally see the words. Alternatively it could be seen as a vow of abstinence in view of the serious nature of what was coming, in which case it might be seen as referring to the final consummation of His Father’s Kingly Rule. But this founders on Peter’s words, taken at their face value in Act 10:41. In our view therefore the first interpretation, that He will ‘eat and drink with them’ after the resurrection in the newly confirmed Kingly Rule of His Father is the correct one.
Excursus. A Consideration in Depth of the Two Alternatives.
The first impression that would come over to the disciples concerning the commonplace idea of drinking wine would be that it indicated that the Kingly Rule of His Father was shortly to be established, for they would at this stage be expecting that Jesus would drink wine again shortly. Indeed Act 10:41 suggests that He did. To alter the above illustration slightly it would have seemed to them (especially in the light of what had been said on the Mount of Olives in chapters 24-25), as being very similar to a general standing before his troops prior to the decisive battle and saying, ‘Fight hard, for before we have another drink together the battle will be won’. Thus there is good reason for thinking that they would see Him as indicating here the soon establishment of His Father’s Kingly Rule (which was in line with their expectations, even if wrongly conceived) through some decisive activity of God.
(There is incidentally no reason why it should suggest that Jesus ceased drinking wine at a particular stage during the meal, for whatever else is meant by ‘from now on, henceforth’, it does not necessarily mean ‘from this very moment’ as is apparent from Mat 26:64. It may simply mean ‘from now on once this meal is over’ as in Mat 26:64 it means ‘from now on once I have been crucified and God then acts’. Thus we cannot build up theories on that basis).
But why else should Jesus emphasise that He will not again drink wine? It cannot simply mean because where He is going there will be no wine for He gives the impression that He does anticipate once again drinking wine with them in the future. ‘I will not — until –.’ Thus some have suggested a High Priestly abstention on the basis of Lev 10:9, or a Nazirite abstention on the basis of Num 6:3. The problem with the former is that watered down wine was probably not meant there, the idea in Leviticus being rather on abstention from heady wine and other intoxicating liquors. The problem with both is that there is no indication as to why He should engage in such an abstention. It is true that the latter case could be supported on the basis of the phrase ‘the fruit of the vine’. For the Nazirite was forbidden to participate in anything connected with the vine. However, ‘fruit of the vine’ is used in other Jewish literature simply to signify wine, which weakens that case. But even more against it is the fact that in Luke this abstention from wine is connected with abstention from the Passover (Luk 22:15-18), something which never indicates dedication, only, if applied strictly, uncleanness (or, of course, in this case absence from earth). What abstention from the Passover certainly does not indicate is dedication. For a Jew to abstain from observing the Passover was considered reprehensible, not holy.
Furthermore there is a strong case in Matthew for suggesting that a reference to the drinking of wine in this present context is to be seen as indicating participation in the cup that points to His death, in His case by His drinking the cup that His Father will give Him to drink, and in their case by their identification with Him in His death as they drink of the cup, for it immediately follows His reference to their drinking wine with precisely that idea in mind. And this is backed up in Luke’s Gospel, for although Luke puts these words concerning abstention from wine (or similar words then to be repeated later) prior to the significant participation in the wine, they are there paralleled with the idea of abstention from eating the Passover, which would suggest that what is being abstained from is Passover wine, which once more brings us back to the significance of the wine in the Lord’s Supper.
In Luke Jesus says that He will not again eat the Passover with them ‘until it is fulfilled in the Kingly Rule of God’, and continues on to say that He will not drink wine until He drinks it ‘within the Kingly Rule of God’ (Luk 22:16-18). What He may thus be seen as by the disciples as emphasising in both cases is that the crisis moment is at hand which will take place within a year (‘I will not again eat of the Passover’), nay even within a much shorter time (not again even drink of the fruit of the vine), which will bring about God’s triumph and victory, after which the Kingly Rule of God will be established.
If ‘eating Passover’ is to be taken even partially literally then this (‘until I drink it new with you’) clearly indicates that Jesus anticipates sharing a Passover with His disciples on earth once more (‘I will not again — until’), and that could well be seen as signifying His participation with them in the following years by His spiritual presence among them, as they look back on the fulfilment of Passover in His death. (It is difficult to see how else He could eat Passover amongst them. After His death a literal Passover would be redundant). That being so it would indicate the soon coming establishment of His Father’s Kingly Rule. If, however, this is to be seen as referring to keeping some kind of heavenly Passover, as a kind of spiritual celebration thought of in terms of the previous physical earthly feast (seen, say, as a celebratory feast along with the Lamb Who was slain – Rev 5:6), with the drinking of the fruit of the vine being a similar spiritual celebration, any length of time is possible, but it does raise the question as to why Jesus laid such an emphasis on a future abstaining from Passover at this stage when the symbolic meaning could not have been apparent. Abstinence from Passover might indicate ‘uncleanness’, or might indicate ‘absence, but it never indicated dedication. Certainly the best interpretation of the idea would be to see it as indicating how quickly the time would pass prior to the coming of the Kingly Rule. So we must ask, was this only with the purpose of indicating urgency? Or was it in order to emphasise ‘the good time coming’ when all will be finally over, when ‘we shall eat the bread of Passover and drink together’? But this last would be to radically change the meaning of both the bread and the wine in context, unless we see it as signifying continuing enjoyment of the benefits of His death, in which case why see it as put off until His coming? For they certainly will sit in His presence enjoying the benefits of His death very shortly when they continually celebrate the Lord’s Table, paralleling what happened after the old covenant had been given (Exo 24:9-11).
It is not enough to say, ‘Oh, this is speaking of the Messianic Banquet’, as though that settled the matter as to its eschatological nature, for Jesus sees the Messianic Banquet in terms of their future evangelistic ministry. He decidedly gives the impression that the Messianic Banquet will be enjoyed by some on earth who are within the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Mat 22:2-13; Luk 14:21-25).
Furthermore, if the phrase is taken in this way it would appear to be emphasising Jesus’ absence. ‘You will not see Me again until –.’ But that is patently untrue for ‘He will go before them into Galilee’ and they will see Him again after His resurrection, and will partake of food with Him (and drink – Act 10:41), and Matthew takes great pains to indicate that He will be very much ‘with them’ (Mat 18:20; Mat 28:20) as they go out proclaiming the Kingly Rule of God. It is difficult to see Jesus as both emphasising His absence and His presence at the same time, and there is indeed a strong emphasis in Matthew on His continuing presence.
But there is also another difficulty with seeing it as referring to a fairly long absence during which they would not have meal fellowship with Him, and that is that if that is its meaning then there is no reference anywhere at the Last Supper to the future task that lies immediately before them, something which seems frankly incredible when Jesus certainly and emphatically brings the imminent coming of His Kingly Rule in power to the attention of the Chief Priests (Mat 26:64 – ‘from now on’) and in Act 1:3-8 tells His disciples not to be taken up with the eschatological future but to concentrate on the establishing of His Kingly Rule throughout the world (see Act 8:12; Act 13:22; Act 19:8; Act 20:25; Act 28:23; Act 28:31).
And we might finally add to these arguments that it is doubtful if it would appear to disciples who would be thrilled with partaking of the bread and wine in future in the consciousness of His presence, that they were not actually ‘eating and drinking with Him’. They would see themselves as very much eating and drinking with Him.
However, we would fail in our duty as commentators if we did not draw attention to both main views taken of these words, both of which have strong support. The first is that Jesus was indicating, in line with some of the above suggestions, how soon, in spite of what was to follow, the Kingly Rule of His Father would begin to be established on earth, that is that the Kingly Rule of His Father would begin to come ‘on earth as it is in Heaven’, commencing from Pentecost onwards. And the other is that it is simply thinking of the consummation with His eye firmly fixed on ‘the end’.
It is true, of course, that Jesus had already to some extent been establishing that Kingly Rule while He was on earth, for those Who followed Him were to be those who ‘did the will of His Father’ (Mat 7:21; Mat 12:50), and the presence of God’s Kingly Rule had been evidenced by the defeat of the forces of evil (Mat 12:28) and the healing of all who sought Jesus (Mat 11:5). It was, however, at that stage local. But now (on the first view) He is speaking of the momentous events that will cause it to flourish and expand in an unprecedented way as a result of His coming enthronement (Mat 28:18; Act 2:36). The Kingly Rule of Heaven will come with power ‘from now on’ – Mat 26:64; while ‘some standing here’ are still alive – Mar 9:1. Power is very much an aspect of the forward movement of the people of God (Act 1:8; Act 4:33; Rom 1:4; Rom 1:16; 1Co 1:17-18; 1Co 1:24 ; 1Co 2:4; etc). For ‘the Kingly Rule of God is not in word but in power’ (1Co 4:20). It will begin first by His breathing on them in the Upper Room and imparting to them the special unction for their own unique tasks (Joh 20:22), and would continue when God Himself descended to earth in wind and fire and took possession of His people so that the Holy Spirit spoke through them (Act 2:1-4) and they proclaimed the wonderful works of God (Act 2:11). This especially would be the fulfilment of God’s promises through the prophets (Act 2:16-21). And from these beginnings it would spread first to Jerusalem, then to Judaea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth (Act 1:8; Act 28:31).
Others, however, as we have seen, see this promise as simply indicating to His disciples the certainty that one day at some time in the immeasurable future they will be with Him within His Kingly Rule, as in Joh 14:1-2. Their view is that Jesus is looking ahead to the consummation and deliberately ignoring all that lies between.
(Many ‘ordinary Christians’ in the modern day like this last idea, for they have a fixation with the idea of ‘being saved so that we will go to Heaven’. But we need to remember that we are not saved so that we will go to Heaven, but that that is simply a wonderful by-product of what Jesus has done. We are saved so that God might be glorified by our transformed lives, see for example Mat 5:16; 1Co 6:11; 2Co 5:17; Eph 5:26-27; Col 1:22; 1Jn 3:2), and so that we might do His will (Mat 6:10; Mat 7:21; Mat 12:50) and so that God might in the end be all in all (1Co 15:28)).
The real problem with this second view is that it gives the impression that the first three Gospel writers suggest that at the Last Supper Jesus totally overlooks the near future for the disciples, and concentrates only on the final triumph, as though what lay between was simply something to be endured, not gloried in. It gives the impression that in their view, according to the first three Gospels, and especially Matthew, Jesus gave no encouragement to His disciples at this time concerning what the near future now held for them, something totally contrary to the impression that we find in the fourth Gospel. Can it really be conceivable that the writers would want or intend to give that impression?
But it may then be asked, why should we see Jesus as here referring to ‘the coming of His Father’s Kingly Rule’ as something that had in mind the events that were soon to follow after the resurrection, rather than as something awaiting the consummation?
* The first reason is because that is the natural significance of Jesus taking a commonplace, everyday event like the drinking of the fruit of the vine, and indicating abstinence from it for a while. The natural thing that would strike His disciples would be that He was indicating that what He was describing would happen shortly ‘before He drank again’. And this is especially so as He does later drink some kind of wine in Mat 27:48 (and that only once His offering of Himself is complete – compare Mat 27:48 with 34 and see Luk 23:43 which indicate His sense of the nearness of His Kingly Rule).
* The second reason is because this would fit in with the whole message that has been on His mind, the declaration that the Gospel was to go out to all the nations (Mat 13:3-52; Mat 24:14), a message which will be reiterated in Mat 28:18-20. He would be saying, ‘this work will shortly be beginning’. And this is especially so as it is certainly the focus of His thinking at His trial, where the message that was clearly foremost in His mind is found in His words to the chief priests and elders, which were, ‘From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power’ (Mat 26:64). It would seem strange if something so clearly on His mind there was not introduced into the selection of His words at the Last Supper recorded by the first three Gospels.
* The third reason is because these words, if they were intended to indicate a long absence, would seem even more strange coming from Someone Who will shortly send them out into the world, while at the same time emphasising that in going out they will be accompanied by His own presence. His purpose in sending them out is in order to disciple all nations, precisely because He has received His Kingly Rule from His Father (Mat 28:18-20). The impression given there is that rather than being aware of His absence, they are to be very much aware of His presence as they go to proclaim His Kingly Rule (see also Mat 18:20, and note Mat 26:32 where after He is risen He will precede them to Galilee. No thought of absence there). And the fact is that there is no other place in the Gospels (outside the parables which are emphasising a particular point) where Jesus gives the impression that they must expect to be without Him. This is even true when He speaks of sending them another Helper (Joh 14:16), for He immediately promises that He also will come to them (Joh 14:18). Indeed they will be aware of being in Him (Joh 14:20. It is true that some parables do refer to His absence, but not in the sense described here as though it was some required necessity. There the purpose is simply in order to indicate the possibility of service. Furthermore, when Paul persecutes the people of God Christ is seen as so near to them that he is persecuting Christ Himself (Act 9:4). None of this sees Him as being emphasised as absent.
* The fourth reason is because Jesus’ emphasis in Acts 1 is on the fact that His disciples are to consider their present responsibility, the establishing of His Kingly Rule (something regularly mentioned in Acts; see Act 8:12; Act 13:22; Act 19:8; Act 20:25; Act 28:23; Act 28:31 and see Rom 14:17; 1Co 4:20), and are therefore not to start thinking of what is to happen in the eschatological future. It is not theirs to look so far ahead. Rather they are to get on with the task in hand of taking His Kingly Rule to the world (Act 1:3; Act 1:6; Act 1:8).
* The fifth reason is because in the light of their joyful awareness of His continual presence with them, and especially during the Lord’s Supper and (for Jewish Christians) during Passover, it is difficult to see how they could avoid seeing themselves as eating and drinking with Him, especially as they have already ‘eaten’ with Him on earth after His resurrection (Luk 24:30; Luk 24:41-43; Joh 21:13; and compare Act 10:41). Indeed, we consider that this is precisely what Jesus means when in vivid language He says, ‘I appoint to you a Kingly Rule, even as My Father appointed to Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingly Rule, and you will sit on thrones overseeing (judging) the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Luk 22:29-30). See Mat 19:28 and our commentary on Luke 22. His Kingly Rule was appointed at His resurrection (Mat 28:18).
* The sixth reason is that treating it simply as referring to a far future Messianic Banquet gives a totally different significance to the drinking of wine than that found at the Lord’s Supper, a significance which is inconsistent with the context.
* The seventh reason is because, in the verses that follow, Matthew may again be seen as following the pattern he has established based on the Passover basics (betrayal, cross, coming Kingly Rule) when he tells us that Jesus subsequently said, ‘all of you will be offended in Me this night (betrayal) — it is written I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered (cross) — after I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee (coming Kingly Rule)’ (Mat 26:31-32). In other words it would seem that in Matthew’s view Jesus is summing up in these words what He has said during the Passover feast, including reference to the soon coming of His Father’s Kingly rule, for Galilee is the very place where, in Matthew, they will learn that Jesus is enthroned and His Father’s Kingly Rule is established (Mat 28:16-20). His Kingly Rule will have come.
* But there is an eighth, and we consider a final clinching reason. And that is because of the way in which Luke paraphrases these words (assuming the words he cites to be parallel with those in Matthew. It is, however, possible that Jesus said them once (Luk 22:18) and then repeated them in a slightly different way (Mat 26:29)). Luke cites these words as, ‘for I say to you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until the Kingly Rule of God shall come (elthe)’. (Luke possibly makes the slight change in order to make all clear to his Gentile readers in the light of the fact that they were not used to apocalyptic ideas). But what does Luke mean by ‘the Kingly Rule of God coming?’ Fortunately he makes that quite clear elsewhere, for there are five other verses in which he speaks of the idea of the Kingly Rule of God as ‘coming’ or ‘drawing near’ or ‘approaching’, and they all indicate the Kingly Rule of God present among them. These are:
* ‘And heal the sick who are in it, and say to them, The Kingly Rule of God is come near (eggiken) to you’ (Luk 10:9).
* ‘Even the dust of your city, which adheres to our feet, we wipe off against you. Notwithstanding be you sure of this, that the Kingly Rule of God is come near (eggiken)’ (Luk 10:11).
* ‘Your kingly rule come (elthatow) ’ (Luk 11:2).
* ‘But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, no doubt the Kingly Rule of God is come upon (ephthasen) you’ (Luk 11:20).
* ‘And being asked by the Pharisees, when the Kingly Rule of God comes (erchetai), He answered them and said, “The Kingly Rule of God does not come with observation, neither will they say, Lo here, or Lo there, for the Kingly Rule of God is within (or ‘among’) you” (Luk 17:20).
It will be noted that in every case of the expression of the idea of ‘the coming of the Kingly Rule of God’ (whichever verb is used) it was seen as present among them or as ‘near’ so that they could come in contact with it for themselves. Furthermore it did not come in openly outward form, but was within or among them in a way evidenced by His power. It is quite clear therefore that in all these cases the idea of the coming of the Kingly Rule of God (or the drawing near of the Kingly Rule of God) is of the presence of the Kingly Rule of God among them, and not (except as a continuation of the process) of the coming of the everlasting Kingly Rule. The only exception in Luke might be, ‘Your Kingly Rule come’. But there the phrase is equivalent to Mat 6:10 where ‘your Kingly Rule come’ parallels ‘your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’, thus indicating that what is in mind is the present situation. The coming of the Kingly Rule there is the same as the establishing of the Father’s will on earth, looked at from a different point of view, and of the hallowing of His name among the nations by His divine activity. The Kingly Rule of God is coming to earth.
On the other hand, in the case where the Kingly Rule of God is spoken of as in the future it is never spoken of as ‘coming’. In that case it is men who come to the Kingly Rule of God, and not the Kingly Rule of God that comes to them. “And they will come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and will sit down in the Kingly Rule of God” (Luk 13:29, compare Mat 8:11).
Similar usage to Luke can also be found in both Matthew and Mark although the only two directly relevant verses (apart from Mat 6:10 mentioned above) are:
o “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingly Rule of God is come upon (ephthasen) you” (Mat 12:28).
o ‘And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, That there are some of those who stand here, who will not taste of death, until they have seen the Kingly Rule of God come (eleluthuian) with power” (Mar 9:1).
In the first case the Kingly Rule of God has already ‘come upon’ them (ephthasen). In the second the Kingly Rule of God will come (eleluthuian) with power within the lifetime of some of those present. In both cases the words have in mind participation now, or definitely in the very near future, in the Kingly Rule of God, and in both cases that Kingly Rule is revealed in terms of power.
Thus our conclusion must be that when Luke speaks of the ‘coming of the Kingly Rule of God’ in one form or another he has in mind its present manifestation. Indeed in the light of his previous words his readers could hardly have seen it in any other way. This being so it would suggest that it is the present Kingly Rule of God among them which is in Jesus’ mind when He speaks of ‘not drinking of the fruit of the vine until the Kingly Rule of God comes’ or of ‘not drinking of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingly Rule’.
All these facts suggest that having announced the rejection of the Scribes and Pharisees in chapter 23, and having announced God’s coming judgment on the priesthood and the Temple, together with its destruction, in chapter 24, and having prepared for the last Judgment in chapter 25, Jesus is now concerned to emphasise the soon-coming establishment of His Kingly Rule in the world as a result of His death and resurrection, an event which is almost upon them.
End of Excursus.
‘Drink of the fruit of the vine.’ That is, joyously and triumphantly in participation with Him in His death. As Matthew will make clear Jesus will in fact drink of some kind of wine on the cross once His agony is mainly over and the battle has been won (Mat 27:48), but the next celebratory drink will be with His Apostles within the new Kingly Rule as they gather at His table to eat and drink with Him (as in Act 2:42, which would include wine; 1Co 10:16 where there is the communion of the body with His body, and a communion with His blood in the drinking of wine; Act 10:41). In these words therefore He proclaims the certainty of His victory, the fruits of which will be enjoyed shortly. They have nothing to fear. The next stage is already certain. Indeed, as we have seen, if Act 1:3-11 tells us anything it is that His Apostles are not to be looking to the eschatological future, but to the conquest of the nations in His Name, (although always in readiness for His coming). That being so, that perspective is surely what He points them to here.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 26:29. But I say unto you Or, moreover, I say, &c. In Luk 22:18 our Lord made the same declaration concerning the passover cup. Hence we gather his meaning, upon the whole, to have been this; that he would not partake of any joy, till he rejoiced with them in the communications of the Holy Spirit, which were to be bestowed plentifully on them as soon as the Gospel dispensation began. See Mar 14:25. The word new, applied to a subject, often signifies in scripture excellence and truth, consequently the substance represented by any emblematical shadow. See Joh 13:34. Dr. Clarke paraphrases the present verse thus: “I will have the Jewish passover commemoration no longer continued; but the things, of which these were figures, shall now be fulfilled and accomplished in the kingdom of the Messiah.” See Whitby.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 26:29 . The certainty and nearness of His death, which had just been expressed in the symbolism of the wine, impel Jesus to add a sorrowful but yet comforting assurance (introducing it with the continuative autem ).
] that I will certainly not drink . According to the synoptic conception of the meal as being the one in connection with the Passover, this presupposes that the cup mentioned at Mat 26:27 f. was the last one of the meal (the fourth), and not the one before the last. For it may be held as certain that, at this feast above all, and considering His present frame of mind, He would take care not to give offence by omitting the fourth Passover-cup; and what reason, it may be asked, would He have had for doing so? The cup in question was the concluding one, during the drinking of which the second portion of the Hallel was sung (Mat 26:30 ).
] from this present occasion , on which I have just drunk of it. To suppose that Jesus Himself did not also partake of the cup (Olshausen, de Wette, Rckert, Weiss) is a gratuitous assumption, incompatible with the ordinary Passover usage. We are to understand the drinking on the part of Jesus as having taken place after the , Mat 26:27 , before He handed the cup to the disciples, and announced to them the symbolical significance that was to be attached to it. Comp. Chrysostom. Matthew does not mention this circumstance, because he did not regard it as forming part of the symbolism here in view. Euthymius Zigabenus correctly observes: , . Comp. on Mat 26:26 .
. . .] is emphatic, and points to the Passover -wine. Mark and Luke are less precise, not having . From this it must not be assumed that Jesus never drank any wine after His resurrection. Act 10:41 ; Ignat. Smyrn . 3. For as used by later Greek writers (likewise the LXX.) in the sense of , see Lobeck, ad Phryn . p. 286. For the reasons for rejecting the reading (Lachmann, Tischendorf), notwithstanding the far greater number of testimonies in its favour, see Fritzsche on Mark , p. 619 f. The use of this term instead of has something solemn about it, containing, as it does, an allusion to the form of thanksgiving for the Passover wine: “benedictus sit, qui creavit fructum vitis .” Comp. Lightfoot on Mat 26:27 .
] novum , different in respect of quality; “novitatem dicit plane singularem,” Bengel; not recens , . This conception of the new Passover wine, which is to be the product of the coming aeon and of the glorified , is connected with the idea of the renewal of the world in view of the Messianic kingdom. Luk 22:16 , comp. Mat 26:30 . To understand the new celebration of the Passover in the perfected kingdom only in a figurative sense, corresponding somewhat to the feasts of the patriarchs, alluded to at Mat 8:11 (“vos aliquando mecum in coelo summa laetitia et felicitate perfruemini,” Kuinoel, Neander), would, in presence of such a characteristic allusion to the Passover, be as arbitrary on the one hand as the referring of the expression (Chrysostom, Euthymius Zigabenus, Mnster, Clarius) to the period subsequent to the resurrection of Jesus (Act 10:41 ) would be erroneous on the other, and that on account of the and the words . . . ., which can only be intended to designate the kingdom of Messiah . It is wrong to take , as Kuinoel and Fritzsche have done, in the sense of iterum , for it is a characteristic predicate of the wine that it is here in question; besides, had it been otherwise, we should have had anew : , Thuc. iii. 92. 5, or the ordinary of the New Testament.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1401
THE LORDS SUPPER
Mat 26:29. I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers kingdom.
THE great object for commemoration, under the Jewish dispensation, was, the redemption of that people out of Egypt: and that which ought to occupy our minds is, the infinitely greater redemption which has been vouchsafed to us, from all the miseries of death and hell, through the mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The one was typical of the other, both in the means and in the end. The deliverance of the Jewish first-born from the sword of the destroying angel was effected by the blood of the Paschal lamb sprinkled on the doors and lintels of their houses; and that which we experience is through the blood of Gods only dear Son, shed for us, and sprinkled on us. In remembrance of the former, the Passover was instituted, and the people ate the Paschal lamb: in remembrance of the latter, the Lords Supper was instituted; and we receive the consecrated bread and wine as memorials of the body and blood of Christ. The latter of these ordinances supersedes the former; and will itself continue to the end of time in remembrance of our Redeemers death. To enter fully into the passage before us, we must notice the Lords Supper,
I.
As instituted by Christ
It was instituted at the close of the Paschal Feast, and with a special reference to the circumstances with which that ordinance was administered. But, without entering into minute particulars, which we have only on the authority of Jewish Rabbins, and which are more curious than useful, we may observe, that this Supper was instituted,
1.
As a commemorative sign
[Our blessed Lord was just about to suffer and to die for the sins of men. In order, therefore, that this mystery might never be forgotten, he brake the bread, in token of his body given for men; and poured out the wine, in token of his blood shed for them; and expressly commanded, that in all future ages this ceremony should be observed in remembrance of him [Note: ver. 19.]. It was to be a shewing forth of his death till he should come again at the end of the world, to take all his redeemed people to himself [Note: 1Co 11:26.]. The one great end for which he died was also in this way to be made known to all succeeding generations. The redemption of mankind was the subject of a covenant entered into between the Father and the Son; the Son engaging to make his soul an offering for sin; and the Father engaging, that, when this should be effected, his Son should see a seed who should prolong their days; and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands; yea, he should see of the travail of his soul, and should be satisfied [Note: Isa 53:10-11.]. By the shedding of Christs blood this covenant was ratified; and the cup which was administered in remembrance of it, was to be to all mankind a memorial, that, on the Redeemers part, every thing was effected for the salvation of men, and that all who would embrace the covenant so ratified should assuredly be saved. The cup was the New Testament in his blood; or, in other words, it represented the new covenant which that blood had both ratified and sealed.]
2.
As an instructive emblem
[The killing of the Paschal lamb was not sufficient: the people must feed upon it, in the manner which God himself had prescribed. So neither is it sufficient that by the breaking of the bread, and the pouring out of the wine, we commemorate the death of Christ. Were the ordinance merely commemorative, that would have answered the end: but it is intended emblematically to shew forth the way in which we are to obtain an interest in the Redeemers death. We must apply it, every one of us, to ourselves: we must feed upon it; and by so doing declare our affiance in it: we must shew, that, as our bodies are nourished by bread and wine, so we hope to have our souls nourished by means of union and communion with our blessed and adorable Redeemer. Hence the command given to every one, to eat the bread, and to drink the cup. And a more instructive ordinance cannot be conceived; since it shews, that it is by an actual fellowship with Christ in his death, and by that alone, that we can ever become partakers of the benefits which it has procured for us.]
But my text leads me to notice the Lords Supper more particularly,
II.
As still honoured with his peculiar presence
When our blessed Lord said that he would no more drink of the fruit of the vine, till he should drink it new with his Disciples in the kingdom of God, he intimated, that there was to be at least some period when he would again hold communion with them in that blessed ordinance. In his life-time he did not: for, on the very day after he had instituted it, he was put to death. Nor did he at any time during the forty days of his continuance on earth, after his resurrection. For, though it is true that he ate and drank with his Disciples after he was risen from the dead [Note: Act 10:41.], yet he never again partook of the Passover, or of the Lords Supper; but merely ate and drank, in order to shew that he was not a Spirit only, but that he possessed a body that was capable of performing all the proper functions of the body. Nevertheless, he had, and ever will have, communion with his people in that ordinance; for he has said, Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them: and again; Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.
His kingdom, properly speaking, is now come
[The Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, continually represent the Christian dispensation as the establishment of the Messiahs kingdom upon earth. This kingdom is called the kingdom of God; and it is that which the Father establishes, through the agency of the Holy Ghost. And this is the kingdom spoken of in my text: for, when Christ had accomplished the redemption of the world by his death and resurrection, then was all that had been typified in the redemption from Egypt, all that had been prefigured in the Paschal feast, and all that was shadowed forth in the Supper of the Lord, fulfilled [Note: Luk 22:16; Luk 22:18.]: and, consequently, the time was come for the renewed manifestations of his presence in this sacred ordinance. True, indeed, corporeally he appears amongst us no more: but spiritually he does; and, according to his promise, he comes to us and makes his abode with us [Note: Joh 14:21; Joh 14:23.], and sups with us [Note: Rev 3:20.].]
Now, therefore, does he execute what he gave us reason to expect
[He truly, though spiritually, feasts with us, when we are assembled around the table of the Lord. It was not only because of the command that the ordinance should be observed, but on account of the blessing which they obtained in the administration of it, that the first Christians observed it every day [Note: Act 2:42; Act 2:46.], and for ages continued the observance of it on the Sabbath-day [Note: Act 20:7.]. And, though I am not aware of any express promise of a more than ordinary manifestation of the Saviours presence in that sacred ordinance, yet I believe that he does seal it with a peculiar blessing; and I will venture to appeal to the experience of many before me, whether he does not then more particularly draw nigh to those who there draw nigh to him [Note: Jam 4:8.]; and whether he has not again and again, in a more abundant measure, made himself known to them in the breaking of bread [Note: Luk 24:35.]? I think that of spiritual worshippers, there are few who will not attest the truth of these remarks.]
But we shall not have a just view of the Lords Supper, unless we contemplate it,
III.
As realized and completed in the eternal world
Then will the whole mystery of redemption be complete; and then will the kingdom of the Messiah, which is now established upon earth, be delivered up to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all [Note: 1Co 15:24; 1Co 15:28.].
Then shall we spiritually renew this feast
[Of that time our Saviour spake, when he said, I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel [Note: Luk 22:29-30.]. There we read, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are sitting at the table, with all the myriads of the redeemed [Note: Mat 8:11.]; and there is Lazarus leaning on his bosom [Note: Luk 16:23.], exactly as John leaned on the bosom of the Lord Jesus at the Paschal feast, when this Supper was instituted [Note: Joh 13:23; Joh 13:25; Joh 21:20.]. There shall all the redeemed of the Lord be in due time assembled; and there will the great work of redemption occupy all their minds, precisely as it does when we surround the table of the Lord. There, at this moment, they are singing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth [Note: Rev 5:9-10.]. This, by its reference to the redemption of the world, may well be called The Song of Moses and of the Lamb [Note: Rev 15:3.]: and to all eternity will this wine be new to those who drink it; the wonders of redeeming love being more and more unfolded to every admiring and adoring soul.]
And will the Lord Jesus Christ partake of it with us?
[Yes, he will: The very Lamb of God himself, who is in the midst of the throne, will feed us, and lead us unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes [Note: Rev 7:17.]. Did he break the bread, and administer the cup to his Disciples when on earth? So will he at the feast in heaven: as he himself has said, He will gird himself, and make us sit down to meat, and himself come forth and serve us [Note: Luk 12:37.]. It is indeed but little that we know of the heavenly world: but this, at all events, we may say: He will appear there as a Lamb that has been slain [Note: Rev 5:6.]; and under this character will he be the light, the joy, the glory of all the hosts of heaven [Note: Rev 21:23.], administering to all, and glorified in all [Note: 2Th 1:10.].]
Upon this subject I would ground the following advice:
1.
Get just views of this ordinance
[Respecting those who profane it, as a mere qualification for civil offices, I say nothing. I leave them to God and their own consciences. They may be well assured I can say nothing in their favour: nor do I think that it is a light account which they have to give to Him who appointed the ordinance for other ends, which, alas! they altogether overlook. But there are two mistakes which I would endeavour to rectify; the one is, that the ordinance, as an act, recommends us to God; and the other is, that no one should venture to observe the ordinance till he has made attainments of the highest order in religion: the one of these errors leads to the indulgence of self-righteous hopes; the other operates to the production of slavish fears. Respecting the sanctity of the ordinance, I would not say a word that should diminish the apprehension of it in the mind of any human being. But we should remember what it is, and for what end it was appointed. It is precisely what the Paschal feast was: and as every child of Abraham partook of that, so should every one who truly believes in Christ partake of this. And, in fact, the whole body of Christians did, for many ages, observe it. No one felt himself at liberty to neglect it: nor would any man have been accounted a Christian, indeed, if he had neglected it. This then shews, that none who desire to serve and honour God should abstain from it. They should come to it, to express their gratitude to the Lord Jesus for what he has done for them, and to obtain fresh supplies of grace and peace at his hands. Yet no one should think that the performance of this duty has any such charm in it, as to recommend him to God, and to conciliate the Divine favour. It is Christ alone that can save us: and, whether we seek him in this or any other ordinance, it is He alone that can reconcile us to God. It is not the act of praying, or the act of communicating at his table, that can form any legitimate ground of hope: it is on Christ, as apprehended by faith, that we must rely; and it is only so far as we exercise a simple faith on him, that we can justly hope for acceptance with our God. Let the ordinance, then, be viewed aright. It is a memorial of the death of Christ, and a medium of communion with Christ, whose body and blood we feed upon in the sacred elements, and by whom we are strengthened for all holy obedience. Let the ordinance be observed in this way, and we shall find it a good preparative for heaven, yea, and an earnest and foretaste of heaven itself.]
2.
Seek to realize the great truths declared in it
[Here you behold Christ giving himself for you. In the bread broken, and the wine poured forth, you behold his agonies even unto death, even those agonies which have expiated your guilt, and obtained the remission of your sins. O let the sight fill you with holy joy and gratitude; and let it encourage your access to God, even though you had a thousand times greater guilt upon you than ever was contracted by any child of man! The death of Christ was a propitiation for the sins of the whole world: and if every sinner in the universe would look to him, it would suffice to conciliate the Divine favour in his behalf, and to save them all, without exception. In a full confidence of this, take the sacred elements within your lips, and expect from God all those blessings which his dear Son has purchased for you ]
3.
Look forward to the feast prepared for you in heaven
[Soon, very soon, shall you be called to the supper of the Lamb in heaven, and there see the Redeemer and his redeemed all feasting together in endless bliss. May we not well say, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of our God [Note: Luk 14:15.]? Anticipate, then, this blessed day. Watch and wait for your summons hence: survey the glories that shall then encompass you on every side: and let it be your one endeavour now to get the wedding garment, that shall qualify you to be acceptable guests at that table. Remember, that Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us [Note: 1Co 5:7.]. Remember that even in this world it is your privilege to keep the feast from day to day. And be assured, that the more constantly and entirely you feed on Christ below, the better shall you be prepared for the nearest intercourse with him above, and the fullest possible communication of all his blessings to your souls.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
Ver. 29. I will not drink henceforth. ] So he takes his farewell of his disciples: alluding, likely, to that custom among them of drinking no mote till the next day after they had drunk each his part of the parting cup, Poculum .
Drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom ] Understand it either of the kingdom of grace (Peter saith that he and others did eat and drink with Christ after he rose from the dead, Act 10:41 ; we also feast with him daily by faith, at his table especially, where he is both feast maker and feast master), or of his kingdom of glory, frequently and fitly set forth by the similitude of a sumptuous supper, Mat 8:11 ; Luk 14:7-11 , &c., such as to which all other feasts are but hunger.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
29. ] This declaration I believe to be distinct from that in Luk 22:18 . That was spoken over the first cup this over one of the following. In addition to what has been said on Luke, we may observe, (1) that our Lord still calls the sacramental cup . ., although by Himself pronounced to be his blood: (2) that these words carry on the meaning and continuance of this eucharistic ordinance, even into the new heavens and new earth. As Thiersch excellently says, in his Lectures on Catholicism and Protestantism, ii. 276 (cited by Stier, vi. 160), “The Lord’s Supper points not only to the past, but to the future also. It has not only a commemorative, but also a prophetic meaning. In it we have not only to shew forth the Lord’s death, until He come , but we have also to think of the time when He shall come to celebrate his holy Supper with His own, new, in his Kingdom of Glory. Every celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a foretaste and prophetic anticipation of the great Marriage Supper which is prepared for the Church at the second appearing of Christ. This import of the Sacrament is declared in the words of the Lord, . . . These words ought never to be omitted in any liturgical form of administering the Communion.”
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 26:29 contains an express statement of the fact implied in the preceding actions, iz. , that death is near. It is the last time I shall drink paschal ( . ., etc.) wine with you. I am to die at this passover. The second half of the sentence is not to be taken prosaically. It is the thought of meeting again, brought in to brighten the gloom of the leave-taking (“so tritt zu dem Lebewohl ein Gedanke an das Wiedersehen,” Holtz., H.C.). To disentangle figure from fact in this poetic utterance about the new wine is impossible. Hence such comments as those of Bengal and Meyer, to the effect that points to a new kind of wine (“novitatem dicit plane singularem,” Beng.), serve no purpose. They turn poetry into prose, and pathos into bathos.
The remarkable transaction narrated in Mat 26:26-29 was an acted parable proclaiming at once the fact and the epoch-making significance of the approaching passion. It sets in a striking light the personality of a Jesus; His originality, His tenderness, His mastery of the situation, His consciousness of being through His life and His death the inaugurator of a new era. Was Judas present? Who can tell? Lk.’s narrative seems to imply that he was. Mt. and Mk. give no sign. They cannot have regarded his absence as of vital importance.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Matthew
THE NEW PASSOVER
‘UNTIL THAT DAY’
Mat 26:29
This remarkable saying of our Lord’s is recorded in all of the accounts of the institution of the Lord’s Supper. The thought embodied in it ought to be present in the minds of all who partake of that rite. It converts what is primarily a memorial into a prophecy. It bids us hope as well as, and because we, remember. The light behind us is cast forward on to the dimness before. So the Apostle Paul, in his solitary reference to the Communion-which, indeed, is an entirely incidental one, and evoked simply by the corruptions in the Corinthian Church, emphasises this prophetic and onward-looking aspect of the backward-looking rite when he says, ‘Ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.’
Now, it seems to me that those of us who so strongly hold that the Communion is primarily a simple memorial service, with no mysterious or magical efficacy of any sort about it, do rather ignore in our ordinary thoughts the other aspect which is brought out in my text; and that comparative ignoring seems to me to be but a part of a very lamentable and general tendency of this day, whereby the prospect of a future life has become somewhat dimmed and does not fill the place either in ordinary Christian thinking, or as a motive for Christian service which the proportion of faith, and the relative importance of the present and the future suggest that it ought to fill. The Christianity of this day has so much to do with the present life, and the thought of the Gospel as a power in the present has been so emphasised, in legitimate reaction from the opposite exaggeration, that there is great need, as I believe, to preach to Christian people the wisdom of making more prominent in their faith their immortal hope. I wish, then, to turn now to this aspect of the rite which we regard as a memorial, and try to emphasise its forward-looking attitude, and the large blessed truths that emerge if we consider that.
I. First, let me say just a word about the twin aspect of the Communion as a memorial prophecy, or prophetic remembrance.
So, looking back we must look forward, and partaking of the symbol, we must reach out to the time when the symbol shall be antiquated, the reality having come. The Passover of Israel did not more truly point onwards to the true Lamb of Sacrifice, and to the true Passover that was slain for us, and to its own elevation into the Lord’s Supper of the Christian Church, than the Lord’s Supper of the Christian Church points onwards to the ‘marriage supper of the Lamb,’ and its own cessation.
But then, again, let me remind you that this prophetic aspect is inherent in the memorial aspect of the Communion, because what we remember necessarily demands the coming of what we hope. That is to say, if Jesus Christ be what the Lord’s Supper says that He is, and if He has done what that broken bread and poured out wine proclaim, according to His own utterance, that He has done, then clearly that death which was for the life of the world, that death which was the seal of a covenant, that body broken for the remission of sins, that wine partaken of as a reception into ourselves of the very life-blood of Jesus Christ, do all demand something far nobler and more perfect than the broken, incomplete obedience and loyalties and communions which Christian men here exercise and possess.
If He died, as the rite says that He did, and if dying He left such a commentary upon His act as that ordinance affords, then He cannot have done with the world; then the powers that were set in motion by His death cannot pause nor cease their action until they have reached their appropriate culmination in effecting all that it was in them to effect. If, leaving His people, He said to them, ‘Never forget My death for you, My broken body, and My shed blood,’ He therein said that the time will come, must come, when all the powers of the Cross shall be incorporated in humanity, and when the parted shall be reunited. The Communion would stand as the expression of Christ’s mistaken estimate of His own importance, if there were not beyond the grave the perfecting of it, and the full appropriation and joyful possession of all which the death that it signifies brought to mankind.
Therefore, dear brethren, it seems to me that the best way by which Christians can deepen their confidence and brighten their hope in the perfect reunion and blessedness of the heavens, is to increase the firmness of their faith in, and the depth of their apprehension of, the sacrifice of the Cross. If the Cross demands the Crown, then our surest way to realise as certain our own possession of that Crown is to cling very close to that Cross. The more we look backwards to it the more will it fling its light into all the dark places that are in front of us, and flush the heavens up to the seventh and beyond, with the glories that stream from it. Hold fast by the Cross, and the more fully, believingly, joyously, unfalteringly, we recognise in it the foundation of our salvation, the more gladly, clearly, operatively, shall we cherish the hope that ‘the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings,’ and that the imperfect symbolical communion of earth will grow and greaten into complete and real union in eternal bliss.
Let me urge, then, this, that, as a matter of fact, a faith in eternal glory goes with and fluctuates in the same degree and manner as does the faith in the past sacrifice that Christ has made. He, and He alone, as I believe, turns nebulae into solidity, and makes of the more or less tremulous anticipation of a more or less dim and distant future, a calm, still certainty. We know that He will come because, and in proportion as, we believe that He has come. Keep these two things, then, always together, the memory and the hope. They stand like two great piers, one on either side of a narrow, dark glen, and suspended from them is stretched the bridge, along which the happy pilgrims may travel and enter into rest.
II. And now, let us turn for a moment to the lovely vision of that future which is suggested by our text.
There is one other way, as it seems to me, by which we can in any measure body forth to ourselves that unknown condition of things, and that is to fall back upon our present experiences in another fashion, and negative all of them which involve pain and limitation and incompleteness. There shall be no night-no sorrow-no tears-no sighing, and the like. These negatives of the strong and stinging griefs and limitations of the present are perhaps our second-best way of coming to some prophetic vision of that great future.
Remembering, then, that we are dealing with pure metaphor, and that the exact translation of the metaphor into reality is not yet possible for us, let us take one or two very plain thoughts out of this great saying-’Until I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.’
Then, we have to think of the completion of the Christian life beyond, which is also the completion of the results of Christ’s death on the Cross, as being, according to the very frequent metaphor both of the Old and the New Testament, a prolonged festival. I do not need to speak of the details of the thoughts that thence emerge. Let me sum them up as briefly as may be. They include the satisfaction of every desire and the nourishment of all strength, and food for every faculty. When we think of the hungry hearts that all men carry, and how true it is that even the wisest and the holiest of us are ‘spending our money for that which is not bread, and our labour for that which satisfieth not’; when we think of how the choicest foods that life can provide, even for the noblest hunger of noble hearts, are too often to us but as a feeding on ashes that will leave grit between the teeth and a foul taste upon the palate, surely it is blessed to think that we may, after all life’s disappointments, cherish the hope of a perfect fruition, and that yonder, if not here, it will be fully true that ‘God never sends mouths but He sends meat to feed them.’ That is not so in this world, for we all carry hungers which impel us forward to nobler living, and which it would not be good for us to have satisfied here. But, unless the whole universe is a godless chaos, there must be somewhere a state in which a man shall have all that he wants, and shall want only what he ought.
The emblem of a feast suggests also society. The solitary travellers who have been toiling and moiling through the desert all the day long, snatching up a hasty mouthful as they march, and lonely many a time, come together at last, and sit together there joyous and united. Deep down in our hearts some of us have gashes that always bleed. We know losses and loneliness, and we can feel, I hope, how blessed is the thought that all the wanderers shall sit there together, and rejoice in each other’s communion, ‘and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’
But besides satisfaction and society the figure suggests repose. That rest is not indolence, for we have to carry other metaphors with us in order to come to the full significance of this one, and the festal imagery is not all that we have to take into account; for we read, ‘I grant unto you a kingdom, and ye shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,’ as well as ‘ye shall eat and drink with Me at My table in My kingdom.’ So repose, which is consistent and coexistent with the intensest activity, is the great hope that comes out of these metaphors. But for many of us-I suppose for all of us elderly people-who are about weary of work and worry, there is no deeper hope than the hope of rest. ‘I have had labour enough for one,’ says one of our poets. And I think there is something in most of our hearts that echoes that and rejoices to hear that, after the long march, ‘ye shall sit with Me at My table.’
But besides satisfaction, society, and rest, the figure suggests gladness. Wine is the emblem of the joyous side of a feast, just as bread is the emblem of the necessary nourishment. And it is new wine; joy raised to a higher power, transformed and glorified; and yet the old emotion in a new form. As for that gladness, ‘eye hath not seen, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him.’ Only all we weary, heavy-laden, saddened, anxious, disappointed, tormented people may hope for these festal joys, if we are Christ’s. The feast will last when all the troubles and the cares which helped us to it are dead and buried and forgotten.
These four things, brethren-satisfaction, society, rest, new gladness-are proclaimed and prophesied to each of us, if we will, by this memorial rite.
Again, there comes from this aspect of the Communion the thought that the blessed condition of the Christian soul hereafter is a feast on a sacrifice. We must distinguish between the sense in which our Lord drinks with us, and the sense in which we alone partake of that feast of which He provides the viands. But just as in the symbolic ordinance of the Communion the very essence of it is that what was offered as sacrifice is now incorporated into the participant’s spiritual being, and becomes part of himself, and the life of his life, so, in the future, all the blessedness of the clustered and constellated joys of that life, which is one eternal festival, shall arise from the reception into perfected spirits with ever-growing greatness and blessedness of the Christ that died and ever lives for them. That heavenly glory, to its highest pinnacle of aspiration, to its most rapt completeness of gladness, is all the consequence of Christ’s death on the Cross. That death, which we commemorate, is the procuring cause of man’s entrance into bliss, and that death is the subject of the continual, grateful remembrance of the saints in the seventh heaven of their glory. Life yonder, as all true life here, consists in taking into ourselves the life of Jesus Christ, and the law for heaven is the same as the law for earth, ‘He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.’
Lastly, the conception of the future for Christian souls arising from this aspect of the Lord’s Supper is that it is not only a feast, and a feast on a sacrifice, but that it is a feast with the King.
‘With you I will drink it.’ Brethren, we pass beyond metaphor when we gather up and condense all the vague brightness and glories of that perfect future into this one rapturous, overwhelming, all-embracing thought: ‘So shall we ever be with the Lord.’ I could almost wish that Christian people had no other thought of that future than this, for surely in its grand simplicity, in its ineffable depth, there lie the germs of every blessedness. How poor all the material emblems are of which sensuous imaginations make so much, when compared with that hope! As the good old hymn has it, which to me says more, in its bold simplicity, than all the sentimental enlargements of Scriptural metaphors which some people admire so much-
‘It is enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
not = by no means. Greek. ou me. App-105. This might have been soon verified, had the nation repented at the proclamation of Peter (Act 3:19-26). But now it is postponed.
this fruit of the vine. Figure of speech Periphrasis. App-6.
Father’s. App-98and App-112.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
29.] This declaration I believe to be distinct from that in Luk 22:18. That was spoken over the first cup-this over one of the following. In addition to what has been said on Luke, we may observe, (1) that our Lord still calls the sacramental cup . ., although by Himself pronounced to be his blood: (2) that these words carry on the meaning and continuance of this eucharistic ordinance, even into the new heavens and new earth. As Thiersch excellently says, in his Lectures on Catholicism and Protestantism, ii. 276 (cited by Stier, vi. 160), The Lords Supper points not only to the past, but to the future also. It has not only a commemorative, but also a prophetic meaning. In it we have not only to shew forth the Lords death, until He come, but we have also to think of the time when He shall come to celebrate his holy Supper with His own, new, in his Kingdom of Glory. Every celebration of the Lords Supper is a foretaste and prophetic anticipation of the great Marriage Supper which is prepared for the Church at the second appearing of Christ. This import of the Sacrament is declared in the words of the Lord, … These words ought never to be omitted in any liturgical form of administering the Communion.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 26:29. , I say) Concerning the order of these words, and those that immediately precede them: cf. Luk 22:15-17, etc.[1136]- , from henceforth) A phrase suitable to taking leave.- , of the produce of the vine) A periphrasis for wine, somewhat different from the common language of the inhabitants of earth, and therefore the more suitable to the meaning of the Saviour who was about to leave the earth.- and occur in the LXX., also promiscuously, when wine and the vine are spoken of.- …, until that day, etc.) Which had been foretold: see Luk 22:16; Luk 22:18; Luk 22:30. Hence St Paul (1Co 11:26) draws the inference that as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye show forth the Lords death till He come.-, it) referring to the produce of the vine, i.e. wine, evidently of heaven.-, new) sc. in the full consummation of the New Testament. This new is placed above the new spoken of in Mat 26:28. See the Prelude to this in Joh 21:12.[1137] The Jewish Passover was superseded by the Lords Supper, this will be again succeeded by further things of a heavenly nature. Elsewhere, in ch. Mat 9:17, instead of , we find , , new wine [where denotes newness of vintage, not novelty of kind]; but in this passage evidently implies a newness in nature, not in age.[1138]- , in My Fathers kingdom) see 1Co 15:24; Luk 22:16; Luk 22:30. Thomas Gataker considers new () wine to be the same as , different (cf. Mar 16:17, with Act 2:4),[1139] so as to denote wine of a kind entirely different from that which the Lord was then taking with His disciples.
[1136] If you compare the order of the events narrated, as contained in Luke, with that which we have in Matthew and Mark, our Lord seems to have combined the promise of eating in the kingdom of God (Luk 22:16) with the lamb of the Passover supper; and the promise of the drinking anew in the kingdom of God with the cup of His (the Lords) Supper (Mat 26:29; Luk 22:18), and, therefore, to have closely joined to one another these mysteries [i.e. the symbolical institutions, the Passover and the Lords Supper].-Harm., p. 509.
[1137] Our Lords dining with them after the resurrection is a prelude to their hereafter eating and drinking at His table in His kingdom, Luk 22:30.-ED.
[1138] , new, is opposed to that which has existed long and been in use, ex. Gr. , Mat 9:16. But , recent, is opposed to that which was originated some time back, as , Luk 5:39. is in Mat 26:29, applied to , because He refers to another wine than that then poured out-a wine not recent but different. See Tittm. Syn.-ED.
[1139] For the of Mark answers to the of Acts.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
kingdom
(See Scofield “Mat 3:2”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
I will: Psa 4:7, Psa 104:15, Isa 24:9-11, Mar 14:25, Luk 22:15-18
until: Mat 18:20, Mat 28:20, Psa 40:3, Son 5:1, Isa 53:11, Zep 3:17, Zec 9:17, Luk 15:5, Luk 15:6, Luk 15:23-25, Luk 15:32, Joh 15:11, Joh 16:22, Joh 17:13, Act 10:41, Heb 12:2, Rev 5:8-10, Rev 14:3
with: Mat 13:43, Mat 16:28, Mat 25:34, Isa 25:6, Luk 12:32, Luk 22:18, Luk 22:29, Luk 22:30, Rev 7:17
Reciprocal: Num 6:20 – and after Num 15:5 – General Deu 32:14 – blood Isa 55:1 – buy wine Mat 6:9 – Our Joh 17:24 – I will Eph 2:6 – sit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:29
The passages cited at verse 20 show that when Jesus spoke the words of this verse they were kill in the passover feast, and hence he said them before verses 26-28 of the present chapter. Therefore, when the fruit of the vine was served in the institution of the Lord’s supper he did not partake. That would be appropriate, for that supper was to celebrate the death of Christ (1Co 11:26), and a man would not be expected to memorialize his own death. Until I drink it new in my Father’s kingdom. Yes, Jesus does partake of the cup, but it is in a spiritual sense only. When disciples are eating and drinking of the Lord’s supper he is present in spirit even as he promised that he would be (Mat 18:20).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 26:29. I shall not drink henceforth. He is done with earthly rites, and at this sad moment points them to a future reunion at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The ordinance now receives its prophetic meaning (comp. 1Co 11:26 till He come), directing believers to the perfect vision and fruition of that time, through the foretaste which this sacrament is designed to give. It is a tame interpretation which finds here only a declaration that the Jewish Passover is superseded by the Lords Supper.
Drink it with you new, on some peculiar and exalted festal occasion.
My Fathers kingdom. Not to be weakened into in the Christian dispensation. It points to the victory of the Church, not to its conflicts; and the continued celebration of the Lords Supper is an expression of assured victory on the part of His militant Church.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 26:29. But I well not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, &c. He had made the same declaration concerning the passover-cup, Luk 22:18; and therefore, it is probable, his meaning upon the whole was, that he would neither partake of the passover nor of the sacrament, till he had the satisfaction to see the things signified by these institutions fulfilled in the gospel dispensation, which therefore was nigh at hand. Or we may interpret the words in a more general sense, thus: that he would not partake of any joy till he rejoiced with them in the communications of the Holy Spirit, which were to be bestowed plentifully on them as soon as the gospel dispensation began. Others, however, understand the words thus: I will taste no more wine till I drink wine of quite another kind in the glorious kingdom of my Father; and of this you also shall partake with me.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
As the first Passover looked forward to deliverance and settlement in the Promised Land, so the Lord’s Supper looked forward to deliverance and settlement in the promised kingdom. Disciples are to observe the Lord’s Supper only until He returns (1Co 11:26). Then we will enjoy the messianic banquet together (Isa 25:6; cf. Mat 8:11). Probably Jesus spoke these words after drinking the third cup of the Passover ritual.
"The four cups were meant to correspond to the fourfold promise of Exo 6:6-7. The third cup, the ’cup of blessing’ used by Jesus in the words of institution, is thus associated with redemption (Exo 6:6); but the fourth cup corresponds to the promise ’I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God’ (Exo 6:7; . . .). Thus Jesus is simultaneously pledging that he will drink the ’bitter cup’ immediately ahead of him and vowing not to drink the cup of consummation, the cup that promises the divine presence, till the kingdom in all its fullness has been ushered in. Then he will drink the cup with his people." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 539.]
By referring to drinking the wine anew (Gr. kainon, i.e., new in a qualitatively different way) Jesus meant that He and the disciples anticipated suffering and death, but in the future they would experience the joy of the messianic banquet and kingdom. [Note: Plummer, p. 365.]
This verse shows that Jesus’ death was very near. [Note: M’Neile, p. 383.] It also reveals that God has a definite eschatological program. [Note: Allen, p. 277.] Jesus wanted His disciples to labor for Him in the present age joyfully anticipating reunion with Him in the kingdom. [Note: Toussaint, Behold the . . ., p. 303.]