The Last Supper, which is one of the artworks done by Leonardo Da Vinci, portrays the scene where Jesus had His last supper with His disciples in the evening of the day before He was crucified. However, people do not know the true meaning of this masterpiece. They often pay attention to the characters on the canvas or the painting techniques. However, the most important part of this artwork is to know on what day the last supper was held, and what meaning the last supper had. The Bible refers to that day as the Passover. The Passover is the will of Jesus who sacrificed Himself for the salvation of all humanity, and it is an important truth that contains the promise of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
The Last Supper Is the Passover
Let’s go back to that day in the Bible. It was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that is, the Passover day—the 14th day of the first month by the sacred calendar (Lev 23:4–5). Jesus commanded His disciples to make preparations for keeping the Passover. The disciples prepared Mark’s upper room in obedience to Jesus’ command. When the evening was approaching, Jesus and His disciples gathered together in that upper room (Mt 26:17–20).
And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer . . .” And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Lk 22:15, 19–20
Jesus said that He eagerly desired to keep the Passover before He suffered, and celebrated the Passover with bread and wine. Saying that the Passover bread is His flesh and the Passover wine, His blood, He explained that the Passover is the New Covenant established through His blood.
The Importance of the Passover of the New Covenant
The Promise of the Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life
Why did Jesus eagerly desire to keep the Passover with His disciples? It was because the Passover of the New Covenant contained the blessing of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Matthew recorded the scene of keeping the Passover as follows.
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Mt 26:27–28
Jesus referred to the Passover wine as His blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. God promised the forgiveness of sins to anyone who keeps the Passover. The Passover also contains the promise of eternal life.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Jn 6:53–54
Those who eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood come to have eternal life. God said that the Passover bread and wine are His flesh and blood (Lk 22:19–20). Therefore, we can receive eternal life when we keep the Passover. Giving eternal life to all people was the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth (Jn 10:10). Jesus’ earnest wish for His disciples to receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through the Passover is contained in the verse, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Jesus’ Last Will
The reason the Passover was called the Last Supper was that Jesus kept it in the evening of the day before He was crucified on the cross. Jesus kept the Passover and proclaimed it as the New Covenant established by His blood (Lk 22:20). Therefore, the New Covenant is also a will that Jesus made before He suffered on the cross.
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. Heb 9:15–17
Jesus called Himself the mediator of the New Covenant, and said, “a will is in force only when somebody has died.” This means that Jesus’ will, the New Covenant, came into force after His death. Jesus established the Passover, the way to eternal life, through His sacrifice on the cross. Remembering the sacrifice of Jesus, the early Church kept the Passover even after Jesus’ ascension. Apostle Paul emphasized that we should keep the Passover because Jesus, who is the reality of the Passover lamb, was sacrificed on the cross.
Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast . . . 1 Co 5:7–8
The History of the Passover After the Age of the Early Church
The Passover bread represents Jesus’ flesh torn on the cross, and the Passover wine represents His blood shed on the cross. In other words, the Passover of the New Covenant is a ceremony to commemorate the death of Christ (1 Co 11:23–26). However, in the second century, the Church of Rome insisted that the Passover, established in commemoration of Jesus’ death, should be held on Sunday when Jesus was resurrected. The Church in Asia Minor, which held the Holy Supper on the 14th day of the first month (the month of Nisan) by the sacred calendar according to the tradition of Jesus and the apostles, promptly opposed the insistence.
The issue of the date of the Holy Supper was raised as a result of a debate between the Eastern Churches and the Western Churches. The two sides could not persuade each other, and the matter was settled at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. It was decided to have the Holy Supper on Sunday when Jesus was resurrected, as the Church of Rome had insisted. Afterward, keeping the Passover of the New Covenant in the evening of the 14th day of the first month by the sacred calendar disappeared without a trace. That is the reason many churches around the world currently keep the Passover on the Resurrection Day and that it is wrongly recorded in the history of Christianity that the debate held from the second to the fourth century between the Eastern Churches and the Western Churches was about the date of the Resurrection Day.
Afterwards, there were attempts to carry out religious reformation in the 16th century, but no religious reformer was able to restore the Passover of the Bible. That is why neither the Roman Catholic Church nor the Protestant churches keeps the Passover which Jesus eagerly desired to keep. Can they receive eternal life? Jesus showed the miracle of feeding five thousand people with bread, but He said that bread was food that spoils (Jn 6:27). It is because only the bread and wine that we take on the Passover day, the 14th day of the first month by the sacred calendar, appointed by Jesus, become the food of life; not any bread and wine taken at any time can become the food of life.
Today, the Passover of the New Covenant is known only as The Last Supper. The Passover is the essence of Christ’s love and sacrifice for the salvation of all humankind, and it is the only way to receive eternal life. The Bible prophesies that the Passover, which had been hidden for ages, will be restored by Second Coming Christ (Isa 25:6–9). It is Christ Ahnsahnghong who has fulfilled the prophecy. According to the teachings of Christ Ahnsahnghong, the Church of God keeps the Passover of the New Covenant, which is testified about in the Bible.