WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN HOLY WEEK? Part 5

                                                                  THURSDAY (1)                                                                    Mark 14.12-26 Somewhere in this warren of streets Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples

On Thursday, unusually, Jesus did not walk into Jerusalem to teach in the Temple.              I imagine the pilgrims from the north felt a little lost without having their prophet as a focus of attention.  The chief priest must have heaved a sigh of relief, but were still on the lookout for this firebrand preacher.

Meanwhile Jesus stayed in Bethany with the Twelve – including Judas. Iscariot.  They asked about arrangements for the Passover meal.  So Jesus sent send two of his other followers into the city, people whom the Sadducees’ spies had not seen before, to a certain public square with a water supply and told them to follow a man carrying a jar of water.

This was another secret sign.  Carrying water was women’s work.  You can imagine the catcalls and comments which greeted the poor man who had been asked by the householder to do this demeaning task.  “He’s a maid of all work!”  “Had the operation yet?” etc. etc.  The two men followed Jesus instruction, followed the man and said to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”  They were shown a large upper room with everything organised, and they prepared the Passover meal.

(The Passover was a solemn family meal in which Jews year by year remember their escape from slavery in Egypt.  John’s gospel says that this was actually the day before Passover.  I am going with Mark’s account).

The basement chapel of St Mark’s church, traditional site of the Upper Room of the Last Supper

At sunset Jesus and the Twelve arrived, having successfully thrown the chief priests’

informers off the scent.  (Perhaps the two followers of Jesus acted as servants dishing out the meal.  Perhaps they left).  It was while they were eating that Jesus dropped his bombshell.  “Amen, I tell you, one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me.”  They were all shocked.  How could any of them be so careless as to lead the chief priests’ goons to Jesus’ secret hideout?  They could never imagine that one of them would deliberately betray Jesus to his enemies.  Jesus insisted, “It is one of the twelve, someone eating with us.  For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man not to have been born.” 

In the middle of the meal, Jesus took one of the crispy unleavened breads, i.e. a large cracker made without yeast.  He said the prayer of thanks “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”  He broke it and gave it to the Twelve saying, “Take; this is my body.”  (What on earth could he mean?)

Later, perhaps aa the end of the meal he took a goblet of wine, said the prayer of thanks, and said “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.  This is the last time I will drink wine until I drink it afresh in the kingdom of God.”

The Twelve must have sat there stunned.  What did he mean?  Was he going to leave them?  Was his blood going to be used like that of the Passover lamb which got smeared on doorways as a sign of protection?  No one had ever said such strange words before.  No rabbi had implied he was going to die as a sacrifice.  It was quite outside any kind of Jewish frame of reference.  Conversation must have ground to a halt.

So they finished the meal, sang a psalms, probably Psalm 118, and walked out of the city across the Kidron valley.  Judas had slipped out during the meal, but that was all right, they all knew the secret rendezvous where they met up at the end of the day, an olive grove called the garden of Gethsemane.

Don’t miss this evening’s blog of what happened next.