What is the true meaning of Jesus’s Last Supper and Passover? Luke 22:7-18 reveals the deep spiritual significance of the Last Supper, how it fulfilled the Passover, and what it means for believers today. Learn why Jesus earnestly desired to celebrate this meal with His disciples before becoming our Passover Lamb and how it foreshadows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven.

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Table of contentsJesus’s Passover Preparation Instructions to Peter and JohnBe Encouraged By Jesus’s Sovereignty and ComposurePassover's Comparison with the Triumphal EntryWhy Did Jesus Earnestly Desire to Celebrate Passover with the Disciples?Jesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Back on Israel’s DeliveranceJesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Forward to Jesus Becoming Our Passover LambJesus Earnestly Desired to Celebrate Passover Because It Looked Forward to the Marriage Supper of the LambThe Passover Will Be Fulfilled at the Marriage Supper of the LambWhy Draw Attention to Christ as the Lamb?Why Use the Word Marriage ?Aren’t All God’s Words True?Christ, Our Passover Lamb, Delivered in a True and Greater Way

Leonardo da Vinci's painting, The Last Supper, is the clearest depiction many Christians have of Jesus's final meal with His disciples. While it is regarded as a masterpiece, da Vinci's painting is historically inaccurate, and the details are misleading. For instance, here are some mistakes:

The painting shows daylight outside the window, but the Last Supper occurred at night. 

The painting shows Jesus and the disciples sitting on benches around one long rectangular table, but Jesus and His disciples reclined around a low table on pillows or couches. 

The painting shows thirteen Renaissance Italian men in oriental attire within a Florentine palace, but Jesus and the disciples were Jewish men in an upper room in Palestine. 

To complicate matters further, Dan Brown authored the best-selling fiction novel The Da Vinci Code, which also became a major Hollywood film. In it, he asserts that Christianity was built on a cover-up. He proposes that the church has conspired for centuries to conceal evidence that Jesus was a mere mortal, married to Mary Magdalene, and had children whose descendants reside in France. Da Vinci allegedly sought to reveal this cover-up, supposedly embedding clues in paintings like The Last Supper. In this artwork, Mary Magdalene is claimed to be the figure beside Jesus, rather than the apostle John. 

Amid the confusion generated by both da Vinci and Dan Brown, many of us have our ideas about the Last Supper. I was raised in the Catholic Church, which shaped my understanding of Jesus celebrating the Passover with His disciples. Even if you were raised in a Protestant church, you might misunderstand some details.

We should set aside our preconceived notions and impressions about this meal to focus on the biblical account because it is the only reliable source of information regarding what transpired and why. With that in mind:

Luke 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

Passover was the first of the spring feasts on Nisan 14, or March 30th. The feast of unleavened bread began the next day, Nisan 15, and lasted for one week until Nisan 22, from Friday to Friday. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after Passover. When people prepared for Passover, they also prepared for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Over time, these two feasts began to be viewed as one feast lasting eight days, with the people simply calling it Passover.

Luke 22:8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” Luke 22:9 They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?”

From the previous chapter, we know that Jesus taught in the temple during the day and went to the Mount of Olives at night.