Ugliness and beauty are not color combinations people seek in life. No one seeks to decorate their walls with gold and trash at the same time. But sometimes these arrangements are unavoidable. Your baby spits up on you—so gross, yet they are still so cute as they smile in the moment. Your toddler colors on the walls, yet when they hug you in the moment your heart melts.

Thursday of Holy Week is marked by a combination of ugliness and beauty. It was ugly how Jesus was betrayed by Judas, arrested, and made to stand trial before a Jewish court. But it was beautiful how He agonized over His fate in the Garden of Gethsemane and implemented the Lord’s Supper. Even amidst such ugly behavior, Jesus implemented the new symbolic elements of the new covenant (the bread and the cup) and then proceeded to faithfully accomplish it. Hear what He said about the new covenant meal in the gospel of Mark.

²²And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” ²³And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. ²⁴And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. ²⁵Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” (ESV)

These elements—the bread and the cup—signify Jesus’ death and the reality of the new covenant. Here, in Jesus’ soon death and resurrection, God’s people will find forgiveness of sins, justification, peace with God, and eternal life. In the midst of a great betrayal, great agony, and a great rejection, is a great and everlasting covenant Jesus promises His people.

The author of Hebrews states (9:15), “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” How great is this new covenant! How great are the bread and the cup!

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for establishing the Lord’s Supper that we may be visibly reminded and nourished over and again of the eternal benefits of your sacrificial death and the new covenant. You are the lamb of God, the bread of life, and we trust in you alone for salvation.