Before the meal begins, Judas has gone to the chief priests and asked 15"What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray Jesus. Jesus gives his meal of grace with the betrayal already in motion, at the same table, with the traitor reclining beside him. Grace is given in full view of the danger.
Jesus says 21"one of you will betray me," and each disciple asks 22"Is it I, Lord?" They turn the question inward, and none is sure enough of his own heart to rule himself out. Every one of them addresses Jesus as Lord. Judas asks the same question with a different word: 25"Is it I, Rabbi?" The difference sits quietly in the text. Jesus replies 25"You have said so." He will give this same answer again, to the high priest (Matthew 26:64) and to Pilate (Matthew 27:11), so that his betrayer, his accuser, and his judge are each left to say what they will say.
Then he breaks bread: 26"Take, eat; this is my body." Every phrase of the meal reaches back into Israel's story. At Sinai, Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of the covenant (Exodus 24:8). Jesus takes that phrase and applies it to himself, with blood now poured out from his own body. When he says it is poured out for many, he reaches to the Servant of Isaiah 53, who bore the sin of many (Isaiah 53:12). At this table, in this sentence, he identifies himself as the one that prophecy described.
The cup looks forward to another one: 29"I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." He says this in the middle of betrayal and an approaching cross, and the promise looks past both toward a meal shared again in a kingdom still to come. The table and everything it costs him end at a feast, and the disciples who sit at it in sorrow will sit at it again in joy.
The meal does not depend on the worthiness of the people at it. Judas is close enough to share the dish. The rest of the Eleven are honest enough to wonder whether they could do the same, and within hours several will flee. The blood of the covenant was poured out for many who would still fail him, and that is what makes it grace. He knew what was in our hearts and gave himself anyway.
Even on that night the meal ends with singing. After the disciples prepared the Passover as Jesus directed (verse 19), they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives (verse 30).
Come to the table this week honestly, as one of the Eleven asking "Is it I, Lord?", and receive what was poured out for you.
Prayer
Father, we come to this table the way the disciples did, unsure of our own hearts and unable to rule out our capacity to fail you. Thank you that Christ's blood was poured out for many, and that his grace was given with full knowledge of every betrayal to come. Hold us to the hope of that future table, where we will drink new with him in your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen.