Last Supper, Luke 22:15 Wall Art

Looking down the table

Unlike the famous frescoes where everyone faces the viewer, this painting places us at the end of the table, just behind two disciples whose backs are turned to us. The eye runs up a white runner laid with round loaves, a bowl of greens, a bowl of dark grapes or olives, a tall clay pitcher and simple earthen cups, straight to Jesus. He sits at the head in a white robe with a red stole, eyes lowered, holding a piece of bread.

The disciples crowd in on either side in cloaks of blue, olive, ochre and rust, some turned to each other, one resting his chin on his hand. Across the top: “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you”, followed by Luke 22:15.

Why “with desire I have desired”?

The doubled phrase is a literal rendering of a Hebrew way of speaking that Luke's Greek preserves: repeating a verb adds intensity. A modern paraphrase would be “I have longed with all my heart”. The King James verse ends “before I suffer”, and in the next line Jesus says he will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Luke sets the scene on the day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed. Peter and John have been sent ahead to prepare a large upper room. The Passover recalled the night Israel left Egypt, and in that setting Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and gives it to his disciples, saying “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” He then takes the cup after supper.

Every Christian tradition that celebrates the Eucharist, Mass, Divine Liturgy or Lord's Supper traces it back to this meal. For Catholics, it is also the moment the Church remembers on Holy Thursday, at the Mass of the Lord's Supper that opens the three days before Easter.

A First Communion keepsake

With its warm table and gathered friends, the print is a natural present for a child making First Communion, something to keep in a bedroom long after the white dress or suit has been outgrown. It also suits a Catholic dining room, a parish hall or a family that sets the table together during Holy Week.