Week 27 · Day 6: God's Covenants
This Cup Is the New Covenant
Jesus names the covenant Jeremiah promised at his last supper.
What the labels mean
- Scripture explicitly says
- This states what the biblical text itself says, in the passage being read.
- Direct quotation or allusion
- One part of Scripture quotes or clearly alludes to another. The citing reference is named so you can check it.
- Canonical theme
- A connection across the whole Bible. The passages develop the same theme; one is not quoting the other.
- Interpretive conclusion
- A conclusion drawn from the text. The reasoning is given so you can weigh it against the passage.
- Application
- A step, prayer or question for the reader. Not a claim about what the passage states.
Today’s verse
Loading Luke 22:20…
Luke 22:20
Today’s focus
The truth of the day
Jesus uses the exact phrase Jeremiah used, new covenant, at the meal the night before his death, and ties it directly to his blood poured out. He identifies himself as the one through whom Jeremiah's promise arrives.
The Sinai covenant was sealed with blood sprinkled on the people, and Jesus's covenant is sealed with his own blood, given for them rather than taken from an animal. The pattern from Exodus 24 is deliberately echoed and deliberately surpassed.
Today’s reminder
Scripture explicitly says- Jesus applies Jeremiah's new covenant language to himself directly.
- His blood, not an animal's, seals this covenant.
- The covenant is enacted at a meal Jesus asks his disciples to keep repeating.
Deeper insight
What the passage says in its own setting
The Passover setting matters: Jesus reinterprets an existing covenant meal, one that already commemorated deliverance by blood on the doorposts in Exodus 12, and folds a new meaning into it rather than inventing an unrelated ritual. The bread and cup carry forward Passover's pattern of remembrance while pointing to a different, final deliverance.
Paul's account of this same meal in 1 Corinthians 11:25 uses nearly identical wording, showing how early and consistently the church preserved Jesus's own words at the table. The phrase new covenant in my blood becomes the church's ongoing description of what happens whenever it shares the Lord's Supper.
Christ connection
Where this leads to Jesus
Canonical themeThis is the hinge of the whole week: Jeremiah's promised new covenant and the Sinai pattern of blood both meet in this one meal, in Christ's own body and blood.
Reflection
ApplicationWhat difference does it make to you that the covenant promised centuries earlier by Jeremiah was enacted at an actual meal with actual people?
Today’s action
ApplicationThe next time you take communion, read Jeremiah 31:31-34 first and let the two passages inform each other.
Today’s prayer
ApplicationLord Jesus, You took the covenant promised through Jeremiah and sealed it with Your own blood at a table with friends. I receive that covenant now, and thank You for it. Amen.
Another layer