Skip to content

"I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

Week 2 of 6 in The Spring Feasts, for Easter · next: The Lord's Supper: Do This in Remembrance of Me

In one sentence: God keeps every promise He makes to His people. In the blood of Jesus He has already brought you out, set you free and redeemed you. The cup Jesus left undrunk at the Last Supper is His pledge that He will take you to Himself, at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Jesus's last meal was a Passover supper, and Passover was the pattern — the type — a meal God gave Israel to keep every year until the thing it pictured arrived, and at that table it arrived. Jesus took the meal's own bread and wine, named them his body and his blood, and called the cup "the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20, WEB). Paul says it flatly: "For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place" (1 Corinthians 5:7, WEB).

Passover also ran to a script: four cups of wine, drunk in a fixed order, each one standing for one of the four promises God made when he brought Israel out of Egypt — I will bring you out, I will free you, I will redeem you, and I will take you to myself for a people (Exodus 6:6-7). On the night he was betrayed, partway through that meal, Jesus stopped drinking. Not just for that night — until the kingdom of God comes.

The cup he is waiting to drink again, new, with us in the kingdom is the fourth cup, and the fourth cup carries God's last promise: he will take us to himself as his own people.

✝️ Mark 14:24-25 (ASV)

24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Verily I say unto you, I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

✝️ Luke 22:17-18 (WEB)

17 He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, "Take this and share it among yourselves, 18 for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until God's Kingdom comes."

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record the vow. None of them says which cup he was holding; the numbering comes from the Passover order of service, weighed in the two sections below.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Types & Prophecy

Type — the feast

Paul calls the festivals "a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's" (Colossians 2:17, WEB), and names the substance that cast the shadow: "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place" (1 Corinthians 5:7, WEB). The lamb killed so that death would pass over Israel's houses (Exodus 12:13) is the picture; the one killed at that same feast is what it pictured. Jesus keeps the meal's shape and puts himself where the lamb had been.

Type — the covenant

Moses ratified the Sinai covenant by sprinkling sacrificial blood over the people: "this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you" (Exodus 24:8, WEB). Jesus applies that sentence to a cup and hands it to the twelve to drink: the covenant Jeremiah promised is written "in their heart" (Jeremiah 31:33, WEB), and the cup offers the life Leviticus says is "in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11, WEB), taken in.

Prophecy

Jeremiah promises a covenant God has not yet made: "Behold, the days come," says Yahweh, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31, WEB) — both houses, named. Calling the cup "the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25) claims that promise is being enacted at that table.

Still outstanding: the wedding

The vow defers a drink to "that day" in the kingdom, and the promise it holds back is Exodus 6:7's fourth, "I will take you to myself for a people." Revelation names the meal that ends the wait, "the wedding supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9). God, who calls a people His own, means to be with them at His table forever, and that table is set for you.

Lessons about Jesus

  • He ties the covenant to a cup of the Passover. The cup he calls "the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20, WEB) falls at the Seder's third, redemption. The fourth is the one he holds back.
  • He binds himself by a vow of abstinence, a recognized formal act in first-century Judaism.
  • He expects to drink it again, with named company and in a named place: "with you in my Father's Kingdom" (Matthew 26:29, WEB). The vow promises a reunion.

Memory verses

✝️ Mark 14:25 (ASV)

25 Verily I say unto you, I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

✝️ 1 Corinthians 11:26 (WEB)

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Be Transformed

  • Think. The bread and cup proclaim a death until he comes, which makes every observance a standing announcement that he will.
  • Attitude. Expectancy at the table. The meal Jesus instituted is one course short by his own choice, and he named the company he intends to finish it with.
  • Do. At the next communion, read Matthew 26:29 before you drink. Thank Jesus by name for the cup He will drink new with you in His Father's kingdom, and tell Him what you are waiting for as well as what you are remembering (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Prayer

Father, you ratified a covenant at Sinai with blood sprinkled over your people, and you kept it. At the table your Son Jesus named a better one in His own blood, and left a cup undrunk until you bring Him back to it. You do not leave promises half-kept. Teach us to eat and drink as people waiting for someone, and keep us at the table until the day He drinks it new with us. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Study outline

Historical context: the four cups of Passover

The Mishnah — the earliest written codification of Jewish oral law, redacted around 200 AD but preserving considerably earlier practice — devotes a chapter, Pesachim 10, to the Seder (Hebrew for "order", the way the Passover meal is run). It opens: "Even the poorest person in Israel may not eat [on the eve of Pesach] until he reclines [at the night's Seder]. And [the communal officers] must give him no fewer than four cups of wine" (10:1, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0). Four cups, at four fixed points:

  1. First cup — with the opening Kiddush (sanctification of the day)
  2. Second cup — after the Maggid, the telling of the Exodus story
  3. Third cup — after Birkat Hamazon, the grace recited after the meal — commonly called the "cup of blessing" or "cup of redemption"
  4. Fourth cup — with the Hallel (Psalms 113-118, sung in two halves, one before the meal and one after)

The structure has a ruled-on pause built into it, at exactly the point where a vow like Jesus's would land if tied to the third cup:

"A third cup would be mixed for [the Seder leader]... Between these [first three] cups, if he wants to drink, he may drink. Between the third and the fourth [cups], he may not drink." (Mishnah Pesachim 10:7, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0)

One cup per promise, in the order Exodus gives them. Scripture itself uses cup-language for redemption in words the Seder sings: "I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh's name" (Psalm 116:13, WEB), part of the Hallel.

The caveat that governs everything built on this. The Mishnah records the four-cup structure about 170 years after the meal in question. No surviving Second Temple-period source enumerates the four cups, so applying the structure to a c. 33 AD Passover rests on the mainstream scholarly assumption that the practice was already fixed by then.

Literary context: what each Gospel actually narrates

How many cups each account narrates

Each account gets read on its own terms before any of them are harmonized, and the earliest written witness to this meal is Paul's, from the mid-50s AD, in a tradition he says he "received from the Lord." The four accounts do not narrate the same number of cups.

Matthew (26:26-29) and Mark (14:22-26) each narrate one cup, given after the bread, and attach the vow to that same cup — the one Jesus has just identified with his blood. Matthew differs from Mark twice over: he adds μεθ' ὑμῶν (meth' hymōn, G5216, "with you"), and where Mark has "the kingdom of God" Matthew has "my Father's kingdom." Both differences point the vow at a named company and a named place.

Luke (22:14-20) narrates two. The first (22:17-18, quoted above) comes before the bread, and carries the vow. The second comes after:

✝️ Luke 22:20 (WEB)

20 Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

So Luke's vow attaches to the first cup, not to the covenant-cup after supper.

Paul (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) confirms Luke's timing for the covenant-cup independently: "in the same way he also took the cup after supper" (1 Cor 11:25, WEB). The Greek is identical in both: μετὰ τὸ δειπνῆσαι (meta to deipnēsai). That is precisely where the Seder's third cup falls, after the grace following the meal.

flowchart LR
    subgraph MMg["Matthew 26:26-29 · Mark 14:22-26"]
      direction LR
      MM1["Bread"] --> MM2["One cup, after the bread<br/>'my blood of the covenant'<br/>THE VOW attaches here"]
    end
    subgraph LKg["Luke 22:14-20"]
      direction LR
      LK1["First cup, before the bread<br/>THE VOW attaches here"] --> LK2["Bread"] --> LK3["Second cup, after supper<br/>'the new covenant in my blood'"]
    end
    subgraph PLg["1 Corinthians 11:23-26"]
      direction LR
      PL1["Bread"] --> PL2["Cup, after supper<br/>'the new covenant in my blood'<br/>(no vow narrated)"]
    end

A textual note on Luke's two cups. Luke 22:19b-20 is missing from Codex Bezae and a handful of Old Latin manuscripts — one of the readings Westcott and Hort called the "Western non-interpolations." The earlier and more broadly attested manuscripts carry the fuller text with both cups, which is what modern translations follow.

So which cup is Jesus declining?

In Matthew and Mark the vow attaches directly to the covenant-cup, and on timing alone — "after supper" in Luke and Paul — that cup corresponds to the Seder's third, the cup of blessing. Paul keeps that cup's name: what the Corinthians share is τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας (to potērion tēs eulogias), "the cup of blessing which we bless" (1 Corinthians 10:16, WEB), which is the name the Seder's third cup carries in the list above. If the third cup is the one in his hand, the next cup in the order of service is the fourth, and it is the one that goes undrunk.

The third-cup reading has independent support. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan, ed. Walton & Keener), reasoning from the closing hymn in the next verse (Matthew 26:30), concludes "the present cup is probably the third one." It works cleanly for Matthew and Mark's single cup. Luke, where the vow sits on the first cup, does not fold into it. The same commentary supplies the cultural category for the vow: a vow of abstinence, of the recognized first-century Jewish kind, with "until the kingdom of God comes" as its stated condition.

The hymn, and the cup left on the table

The popular further step, that Jesus skipped the fourth cup, is built from a silence. "When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (Matthew 26:30, WEB), and no fourth cup is narrated. In the Mishnah the leader finishes the Hallel over the fourth cup once it is mixed (Mishnah Pesachim 10:7), with Psalms 115-118 left for after the meal (10:6), so the hymn could be sung whether or not anyone drank. The ESV Study Bible names Psalm 118 as the last psalm Jesus sang in its note on that psalm, and allows Psalm 136 in its note on Matthew 26:30; the Passover order makes Psalm 118 the likelier. Its "Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh's name!" (Psalm 118:26, WEB) is the greeting Jesus said Jerusalem would give before it saw Him again (Matthew 23:39). On this site's reading that is Israel's welcome at His return, and like the fourth cup it waits on that day.

The argument below does not rest on any of this. It rests on which promise the fourth cup carries, which is stated in Exodus and traced through the rest of Scripture.

Word study: "fruit of the vine," "new," and "covenant"

  • "Fruit of the vine" (γένημα τῆς ἀμπέλου, genēma tēs ampelou, G1081/G288) echoes the Kiddush blessing itself — borei pri hagafen, "who creates the fruit of the vine." Jesus phrases the vow in the meal's own liturgical vocabulary.
  • "New" (καινός, kainos, G2537). The claim usually made here is that καινός means new in kind while νέος (neos, G3501) means new in time. The corpus does not support the split that cleanly: MACULA's Louw-Nida tagging puts some of these verses in a "new in kind" domain (58.71) and others in a time domain (67.115). What the word does carry consistently is the tie between the cup and the covenant — the same adjective gives "new covenant" (kainē diathēkē, καινὴ διαθήκη, Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25) and the "new" drinking in the kingdom (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25). The cup he defers and the covenant he institutes share a word.
  • "Covenant" (διαθήκη, diathēkē, G1242) reaches back to two Old Testament texts at once.

Jeremiah supplies the promise (Jeremiah 31:31, quoted above). Sinai supplies the words. "Blood of the covenant" (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24) is Moses's phrase at the ratification (Exodus 24:8). The echo depends on the shorter reading — SBLGNT has both Matthew 26:28 and Mark 14:24 as τὸ αἷμά μου τῆς διαθήκης, "my blood of the covenant," where the later manuscript tradition behind the KJV and WEB inserts "new" and blurs the link back to Moses.

The cup he hands them: the blood of the new covenant

The memorial's new object, and blood handed over

Passover remembers a rescue already accomplished: "This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh" (Exodus 12:14, WEB). Jesus keeps the memorial form and changes what is being remembered: "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me" (Luke 22:19, WEB), and over the cup, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20, WEB).

The blood changes hands as the covenant changes location. Moses threw the blood at the people — the verb at Exodus 24:8 is זָרַק (zāraq, H2236), "toss, throw," which WEB renders "sprinkled." Jesus puts the blood in their hands and tells them to drink. Blood is the one substance Israel was barred from consuming, and the ban carries its own reason: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life" (Leviticus 17:11, WEB), with being "cut off from among his people" as the penalty for eating it (Leviticus 17:10, WEB). So a cup identified as covenant blood and handed over to be drunk offers the life that atones, on the inside. Paul's word for what happens at that cup is κοινωνία (koinōnia, G2842) — the cup of blessing is "a sharing of the blood of Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:16, WEB). The Lord's Supper: Do This in Remembrance of Me follows that memorial into the church's life.

"Eat my flesh, drink my blood": the Capernaum echo

Jesus had said as much at the Passover season before this one, in the Capernaum synagogue (John 6:4, 59): "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him" (John 6:56, WEB) — a saying his own disciples called hard (John 6:60); Bread of Life works through that discourse. Many readers take John 6 of faith in Christ rather than of the sacrament. Either reading describes the same thing: a life received by taking Christ in, where Sinai's blood stayed on the outside.

Four promises, and the blood that secures three

The promises the Seder's cups carry are then the promises the New Testament says that blood secures:

  1. "I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians" — "who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love" (Colossians 1:13, WEB).
  2. "I will rid you out of their bondage" — "Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness" (Romans 6:18, WEB).
  3. "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm" — "In him we have our redemption through his blood" (Ephesians 1:7, WEB); "you were redeemed... with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19, WEB). This is the cup he hands them.
  4. "I will take you to myself for a people" — the promise no New Testament writer reports as kept. Its counterpart in Paul's chain of what God has done is the last verb, "whom he justified, those he also glorified" (Romans 8:30, WEB), and the same letters have believers still "waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body" (Romans 8:23, WEB), glory arriving when "Christ, our life, is revealed" (Colossians 3:4, WEB).
flowchart LR
    C1["Cup 1<br/>Kiddush"] --> P1["'I will bring you out'<br/>(Exodus 6:6)"] --> N1["Delivered out of the power<br/>of darkness (Colossians 1:13)"]
    C2["Cup 2<br/>after the Maggid"] --> P2["'I will rid you out<br/>of their bondage'"] --> N2["Made free from sin<br/>(Romans 6:18)"]
    C3["Cup 3, after the meal<br/>the cup of blessing<br/>THE CUP HE HANDS THEM"] --> P3["'I will redeem you with<br/>an outstretched arm'"] --> N3["Redemption through his blood<br/>(Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19)"]
    C4["Cup 4<br/>with the Hallel<br/>THE CUP HE DEFERS"] --> P4["'I will take you to<br/>myself for a people'"] --> N4["No New Testament writer<br/>reports it kept<br/>(Romans 8:23; Revelation 21:3)"]

Three are secured by the blood He names at the table; the fourth waits, and so does the cup that carries it. This shows that God redeems at a price. The atonement Jesus made in His own blood is the outstretched arm of Exodus 6:6. If you belong to Him, you have already been brought out, freed and redeemed.

Two limits on the alignment

The four-cup-to-four-promise correspondence is Jewish tradition, and setting Colossians, Romans, Ephesians and 1 Peter beside those promises is a step this study takes — no New Testament writer lines them up. And Jeremiah's new covenant is made "with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31, WEB); its national terms are not exhausted by the church's communion cup, though Hebrews already calls Christ "the mediator of a new covenant" whose death redeems "the transgressions that were under the first covenant" (Hebrews 9:15, WEB).

The fourth promise: "I will take you to me for a people"

Exodus 6:7: a promise of acquisition, reused by Jeremiah and Jesus

The fourth promise is the one the vow leaves hanging:

✝️ Exodus 6:7 (WEB)

7 I will take you to myself for a people. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

The verb is one of acquisition. Hebrew לָקַח (lāqaḥ, H3947), "take," with לִי (lî) — "to myself." The first three promises already cover the rescue from Egypt; this one is acquisition: God takes Israel to Himself as His own. God wants His people for Himself. Paul's name for it is adoption, and you are still waiting for it (Romans 8:23).

That promise's formula is the one Jeremiah reuses for the new covenant Jesus names at the cup: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33, WEB). The covenant instituted at the third cup is described in the language of the fourth.

And Jesus says the fourth promise back, in that room, that night. A few verses into the same evening's discourse:

✝️ John 14:3 (WEB)

3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.

The Greek echo between Exodus and John 14:3

The Greek is παραλήμψομαι ὑμᾶς πρὸς ἐμαυτόν (paralēmpsomai hymas pros emauton). The Septuagint renders Exodus 6:7's fourth promise λήψομαι ἐμαυτῷ ὑμᾶς λαὸν ἐμοὶ — "I will take you to myself for a people." Both are a future of λαμβάνω, both take ὑμᾶς as object, and both carry the reflexive ἐμαυτ-, "to myself."

Translations split on παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō, G3880) — ESV has "take you to myself," WEB, ASV and KJV "receive" — but it is the same verb whichever English word a translator picks.

παραλαμβάνω is a compound of λαμβάνω rather than the identical verb, and John gives no citation formula, so this is an echo rather than a quotation. But the shared reflexive makes it more than a generic overlap — of all the ways to say "I will come back for you," Jesus uses the construction the fourth promise uses, on the night of the meal built around it.

The Bride of Christ follows the betrothal sequence John 14:1-3 moves through, and Joseph's taking of Mary with the same verb (Matthew 1:20, 24).

Reading John 14:3: rapture, second coming, or death

Where that leads depends on how you read John 14:3. On the dispensational reading this site generally takes, John 14:3 is the promise of the rapture: Christ returns for his own and takes them to himself, before the events that follow. On that reading the fourth cup answers directly to it — the promise drunk last in the Seder is the promise kept last in redemption's order, and the meal Jesus interrupted resumes when he comes for his people. Others read John 14:3 of the second coming generally, or of the believer's reception at death. The verse does not settle between them, and this study does not need it to: on any of those readings, "I will take you to myself" is still future, still unfulfilled, and still the fourth promise's own language.

From covenant formula to wedding

The move from covenant formula to marriage is Scripture's own. Hosea takes the fourth promise's wording and makes it betrothal, then closes with the formula itself:

✝️ Hosea 2:19-20 (WEB)

19 I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion. 20 I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.

Four verses later: "I will tell those who were not my people, 'You are my people;' and they will say, 'You are My God!'" (Hosea 2:23, WEB). The same acquisition Exodus 6:7 promises, said as a marriage. Jesus then teaches the kingdom as a wedding feast twice in the chapters immediately preceding this meal (Matthew 22:2; 25:10), so the image is his own before it is Revelation's.

Scripture's last picture of that taking is a wedding:

✝️ Revelation 19:9 (WEB)

9 He said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.'" He said to me, "These are true words of God."

A wedding supper is a meal, and it completes the covenant formula the fourth promise began — "they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God" (Revelation 21:3, WEB). The cup Jesus declined is a cup of acquisition, and the day he named for drinking it is the day he collects what the cup promised. This shows that God binds Himself to His people as a bridegroom to his bride, so you can wait for Jesus as one already promised to Him.

Theological principle

Jesus leaves the meal's final movement unfinished, vowing to abstain until "the kingdom of God comes" (Luke) — "until that day when I drink it new" (Mark, Matthew). The Supper looks back to a covenant ratified and a redemption paid in His blood, and forward to a shared table where God keeps His last promise — a people taken to Himself. God is faithful to the whole of His word. The three promises He has kept in Jesus are your warrant that He will keep the fourth.

Both Testaments teach that table: God's feast for all peoples on His mountain (Isaiah 25:6), the many who will come from east and west to sit down with Abraham (Matthew 8:11), and the wedding supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

A popular devotional reading has the vow completed when Jesus receives sour wine on the cross (John 19:28-30) just before "It is finished." It rests on devotional rather than scholarly sources, and the text draws no such conclusion — the vow's stated condition is the kingdom's arrival, which the cross does not meet.

Application

  • Culturally bound: the number and liturgical placement of the Seder's cups is Jewish festal custom. The New Testament legislates none of it for believers observing the Lord's Supper. What it does teach about that meal (remembrance, proclamation, one body, and coming in a worthy manner) is in The Lord's Supper.
  • Transcultural: Jesus's meal points forward, deliberately, to something not yet arrived. That already/not-yet shape runs through the New Testament's whole picture of the kingdom and is taught directly elsewhere (Isaiah 25, Matthew 8:11, Luke 14:15-24, Revelation 19).

Discussion questions

  1. The text in its context. Matthew and Mark attach "I will not drink again" to the covenant-cup; Luke attaches it to an earlier cup. What changes about the statement depending on which Gospel you are in, and what holds across all of them?
  2. The hymn. Psalm 118:26's "Blessed is he who comes" is the greeting Jesus said Jerusalem would give Him (Matthew 23:39). How does that line belong with a cup He would not drink until the kingdom?
  3. The language. "Blood of the covenant" (Mark 14:24) is Moses' phrase at Sinai (Exodus 24:8), where the blood was thrown over the people. What changes when Jesus hands it to them in a cup?
  4. Christ. Read Exodus 6:6-7, Jeremiah 31:33, and Revelation 21:3 in sequence. What does the recurring formula, "my people", "their God", trace across Scripture, and where does the Last Supper sit on that line?
  5. The hard part. Jesus says "I will take you to myself" (John 14:3) on the night of a meal whose fourth cup carries "I will take you to me for a people." On which reading of John 14:3, rapture, second coming or death, does that promise land for you, and why?
  6. Be transformed. Where do you see the Supper's forward-looking dimension, "until he comes", reflected, or missing, in how communion is practiced and talked about today?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path

The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.

Group study · 40 minutes

"I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-20

The point God keeps every promise He makes to His people. In the blood of Jesus He has already brought you out, set you free and redeemed you. The cup Jesus left undrunk at the Last Supper is His pledge that He will take you to Himself, at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

0–5min

Ask: what comes to mind when you hear "I Will Not Drink Again"? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

5–12minRead it aloud BSB

Matthew 26:26-29 26While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.” 27Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

Mark 14:22-26 22While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it; this is My body.” 23Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.” 26And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Luke 22:14-20 14When the hour had come, Jesus reclined at the table with His apostles. 15And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering. 16For I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. 18For I tell you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19And He took the 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.” 20In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.

12–25minLook closer
What does it say?
What did it mean to them?
What does it mean for us?
Page 1 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

"I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

The study in brief
  1. Historical context: the four cups of Passover. The Mishnah's Seder order, and the promise of Exodus 6:6-7 each cup carries.
  2. Literary context: what each Gospel actually narrates. One cup in Matthew and Mark, two in Luke, and the textual question behind Luke's second; then which cup Jesus declines, and the hymn sung before they left.
  3. Word study. "Fruit of the vine," "new" and "covenant" in the Greek.
  4. The cup he hands them. Exodus 24, John 6, and the three promises the blood of the new covenant secures, with two limits on that alignment.
  5. The fourth promise. Exodus 6:7's "take you to myself," its echo in Jeremiah 31 and John 14:3, and the move from covenant formula to wedding.
  6. Theological principle and Application. What the unfinished meal teaches. What the Lord's Supper means for the church today is studied in The Lord's Supper.
Notes
Page 2 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

"I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

Step 1 · Historical context: the four cups of Passover
12–17minStep 2 · Literary context: what each Gospel actually narrates

1The hymn. Psalm 118:26's "Blessed is he who comes" is the greeting Jesus said Jerusalem would give Him (Matthew 23:39). How does that line belong with a cup He would not drink until the kingdom?

17–21minStep 3 · Word study

2The language. "Blood of the covenant" (Mark 14:24) is Moses' phrase at Sinai (Exodus 24:8), where the blood was thrown over the people. What changes when Jesus hands it to them in a cup?

Step 4 · The cup he hands them
21–30minStep 5 · The fourth promise

3Christ. Read Exodus 6:6-7, Jeremiah 31:33, and Revelation 21:3 in sequence. What does the recurring formula, "my people", "their God", trace across Scripture, and where does the Last Supper sit on that line?

4The hard part. Jesus says "I will take you to myself" (John 14:3) on the night of a meal whose fourth cup carries "I will take you to me for a people." On which reading of John 14:3, rapture, second coming or death, does that promise land for you, and why?

Step 6 · Theological principle
30–35minTalk it over

5The text in its context. Matthew and Mark attach "I will not drink again" to the covenant-cup; Luke attaches it to an earlier cup. What changes about the statement depending on which Gospel you are in, and what holds across all of them?

Page 3 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

"I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

35–40minBe transformed

6Be transformed. Where do you see the Supper's forward-looking dimension, "until he comes", reflected, or missing, in how communion is practiced and talked about today?

  • Think. The bread and cup proclaim a death until he comes, which makes every observance a standing announcement that he will.
  • Attitude. Expectancy at the table. The meal Jesus instituted is one course short by his own choice, and he named the company he intends to finish it with.
  • Do. At the next communion, read Matthew 26:29 before you drink. Thank Jesus by name for the cup He will drink new with you in His Father's kingdom, and tell Him what you are waiting for as well as what you are remembering (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Memory verse

Verily I say unto you, I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

Mark 14:25 (ASV)
Pray together

Father, you ratified a covenant at Sinai with blood sprinkled over your people, and you kept it. At the table your Son Jesus named a better one in His own blood, and left a cup undrunk until you bring Him back to it. You do not leave promises half-kept. Teach us to eat and drink as people waiting for someone, and keep us at the table until the day He drinks it new with us. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Notes
The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/last-supper-four-cups/
Page 4 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
Group study · step by step

"I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-20

Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear "I Will Not Drink Again"? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

Read it aloud Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-20

Step 1Historical context: the four cups of Passover — The Mishnah's Seder order, and the promise of Exodus 6:6-7 each cup carries.
Step 2Literary context: what each Gospel actually narrates — One cup in Matthew and Mark, two in Luke, and the textual question behind Luke's second; then which cup Jesus declines, and the hymn sung before they left.Key verses: Luke 22:20

1The hymn. Psalm 118:26's "Blessed is he who comes" is the greeting Jesus said Jerusalem would give Him (Matthew 23:39). How does that line belong with a cup He would not drink until the kingdom?

Step 3Word study — "Fruit of the vine," "new" and "covenant" in the Greek.

2The language. "Blood of the covenant" (Mark 14:24) is Moses' phrase at Sinai (Exodus 24:8), where the blood was thrown over the people. What changes when Jesus hands it to them in a cup?

Step 4The cup he hands them — Exodus 24, John 6, and the three promises the blood of the new covenant secures, with two limits on that alignment.
Step 5The fourth promise — Exodus 6:7's "take you to myself," its echo in Jeremiah 31 and John 14:3, and the move from covenant formula to wedding.

3Christ. Read Exodus 6:6-7, Jeremiah 31:33, and Revelation 21:3 in sequence. What does the recurring formula, "my people", "their God", trace across Scripture, and where does the Last Supper sit on that line?

4The hard part. Jesus says "I will take you to myself" (John 14:3) on the night of a meal whose fourth cup carries "I will take you to me for a people." On which reading of John 14:3, rapture, second coming or death, does that promise land for you, and why?

Step 6Theological principle — and Application. What the unfinished meal teaches. What the Lord's Supper means for the church today is studied in The Lord's Supper.
Talk it over

5The text in its context. Matthew and Mark attach "I will not drink again" to the covenant-cup; Luke attaches it to an earlier cup. What changes about the statement depending on which Gospel you are in, and what holds across all of them?

Be transformed

6Be transformed. Where do you see the Supper's forward-looking dimension, "until he comes", reflected, or missing, in how communion is practiced and talked about today?

  • Think. The bread and cup proclaim a death until he comes, which makes every observance a standing announcement that he will.
  • Attitude. Expectancy at the table. The meal Jesus instituted is one course short by his own choice, and he named the company he intends to finish it with.
  • Do. At the next communion, read Matthew 26:29 before you drink. Thank Jesus by name for the cup He will drink new with you in His Father's kingdom, and tell Him what you are waiting for as well as what you are remembering (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Page 1 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

"I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

The point God keeps every promise He makes to His people. In the blood of Jesus He has already brought you out, set you free and redeemed you. The cup Jesus left undrunk at the Last Supper is His pledge that He will take you to Himself, at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/last-supper-four-cups/
Page 2 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

  • Mishnah, Pesachim 10 — the primary source for the Seder's four-cup structure and the rule against drinking between the third and fourth cups. Quoted above from the Sefaria Community Translation (CC0), via sefaria.org / the Sefaria-Export data.

    On licensing: the Hebrew (Torat Emet edition) is Public Domain, and several English translations are open — this one CC0, Kulp's Mishnah Yomit CC-BY — though Sefaria's default English display (William Davidson Edition) is CC-BY-NC. - The Exodus 6:6-7 four-promises correspondence was cross-checked against several independent Jewish and Messianic background sources (Chabad.org, TorahResource, Jewish Awareness Ministries) for convergence. - ESV Study Bible (Crossway), notes on Psalm 118 (the last psalm Jesus sang) and Matthew 26:30 (the Hallel, or perhaps Psalm 136); the Hallel division is Mishnah Pesachim 10:6-7 above. - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan, ed. John H. Walton & Craig S. Keener), notes at Matthew 26:27-30 and Mark 14:22-26 — reaches the "probably the third cup" reading independently, and is the source for the Exodus 24:8 echo and the vow-of-abstinence category used above. Recommended for the fuller verse-by-verse background. - Original-language data (γένημα τῆς ἀμπέλου, καινός, διαθήκη, ποτήριον, εὐχαριστήσας, παραλαμβάνω, κοινωνία, לָקַח, זָרַק) and the Louw-Nida domain codes cited in the word study come from this project's own bible-text.db — MACULA Greek (SBLGNT) and MACULA Hebrew (WLC). The Exodus 6:7 Septuagint text is Brenton's edition (ebible-grcbrent), public domain. - On the Luke 22:19b-20 variant: consult a critical apparatus (UBS5/NA28) directly for the manuscript evidence; the standard treatments of the "Western non-interpolations" cover this passage specifically. - Translations used. Scripture is quoted from the WEB (World English Bible, public domain) throughout, with one exception: Mark 14:24-25 is quoted from the ASV. WEB follows the later manuscript tradition at Mark 14:24 and reads "my blood of the new covenant," which obscures the Exodus 24:8 echo the word study above depends on; ASV follows the shorter reading that SBLGNT carries. Every quotation on this page was checked verbatim against this project's own bible-text.db rather than quoted from memory.