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We need not look for great things in order to discover great truths. To those who reach after God he will reveal his deepest secrets through things insignificant in themselves, within the routine of common lives. No event occurs more regularly than the daily meal. None, perhaps, gathers around it so many pleasant associations. Its simplest possible form, in Christ's time, consisted in eating bread and drinking a cup of wine. Into this act, one evening, He gathered all the meaning of the ancient sacrifices; all sacred and tender relations between Himself and His followers, and all the prophecies of His perfected kingdom.

I. THE PREPARATION. "They made ready the passover." Note concerning the making ready that —

1. It was deliberate. The room was selected and secured. The hour was appointed. Two of the disciples were chosen to prepare the lamb and to spread the table. The Lord's Supper is not less, but far more, rich in meaning than was the ancient passover. It requires the preparation of mind and heart made by private meditation, and by the gathering together beforehand of disciples for prayer, conference, and instruction.

2. It was exclusive, "I shall eat the passover," Christ said, "with My disciples." No others were invited, because no others were fitted to share in the ceremony which He was to inaugurate.

3. It was familiar. He drew closer to His disciples as the time approached in which He was to teach them how to celebrate His great act for the redemption of the world. Such times must be cherished as the warm, spring hours of spiritual growth.

4. It was solemn. The shadow of the greatest tragedy in the world's history, close at hand, hung over them, as they went through the silent streets to the prepared guest chamber. His manner, His words, His actions, were filled with the consciousness of it.

II. THE BETRAYER POINTED OUT.

1. It leads each true disciple to self-examination.

2. It helps to reveal to Himself She false disciple. Judas knew that he was out of place in that upper chamber. The Lord's table, which symbolizes the most intimate fellowship with Him, is a means of leading selfish men to begin to realize the awful and utter loneliness of sin.

3. It helps us to realize the baseness of a false confession of Christ.

III. THE SUPPER INSTITUTED.

1. A new sacrifice. Oxen, sheep, and doves had for centuries been slain as a sign that through life offered in sacrifice, human life that had been forfeited by sin might be restored. But from that night the broken bread takes the place of all these, and represents to us the body of Christ given as a sacrifice for sinners.

2. A new covenant.

3. A new kingdom, which was begun when first Christ through the Holy Spirit began to rule in one human heart.

(A. E. Dunning.)

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KJV: And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.

WEB: When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles.