Today is a high holy day for Christians around the world. It is Holy Thursday, often called Maundy Thursday.
Maundy Thursday is an alternate name for Holy Thursday, the first of the three days of solemn remembrance of the events leading up to and immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus. The English word "Maundy" comes from the Latin mandatum, which means "commandment." As recorded in John's gospel, on his last night before his betrayal and arrest, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and then gave them a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them.
The day is significant because it was this night that Jesus brought his disciples to share with them the last meal they would all have together. So that meal is called the Last Supper and the ritual that Jesus instituted during it is still practiced today as the Lord's Supper, called the Eucharist in Catholicism and Holy Communion in most Protestantism.
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| The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci, restored |
Following is a narrative for this day that I have compiled using the relevant passages from all the gospels, mostly from Matthew and John. Interestingly, in John's account there is no meal shared. Instead, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, overcoming Peter's protest by telling him (essentially), "If you do not let me wash your feet then you can get out." To which Peter replied, "In that case, wash me from head to toe!"
In the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke the meal they share is either the traditional Jewish Passover seder or it encompasses it. John's gospel, though, begins chapter 13 by saying their gathering was before the Feast of Passover. I discussed this with my friend, Rabbi Daniel Jackson, Ph.D., who taught astronomy in Jerusalem, especially as relating to the Jewish calendar. He said there was no contradiction because there were two calendars in use in Judah in the first century, the regular lunar calendar and the priestly calendar. The latter was used to regulate the times of sacrifices at the Temple, which could only be done during daylight hours. Unlike the ordinary calendar, the priestly calendar measured days starting at dawn, not dusk. So, Daniel said, what we think of as a single day could have been carried as two separate days on those respective calendars. (At least, I think I have relayed this accurately.)
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| The Upper Room, site of the Last Supper, today. Its present décor and style are Muslim from the hundreds of years that the city was under Muslim control. |
I begin this narrative, however, not on the Thursday of Jesus' last week in this life, but several days before in John, chapter 11, which tells of Jesus raising to life a man dead and buried for four days, only two miles from Jerusalem. John presents this event as the pivot point of Jesus' time on earth that led the Jewish priestly Sanhedrin, or high council, to conclude that Jesus was too dangerous to let him continue even if he had to be handed over to the Romans for execution.
This, then, is the story of the Last Supper.
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Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb [of Lazarus]. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. AHere is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man to die for the people than that the whole nation perishes.”
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
On the Tuesday before he was crucified, Jesus said to his disciples, "As you know, the Passover is two days away and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." About the same time, the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus covertly and then put him to death. "But we shouldn’t do it on the day of Passover," they said, "or there may be a riot among the people."
Not long afterward, one of the Twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand Jesus over to you?" They offered him thirty silver coins, which they counted out. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to the chief priests.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was the day of Passover, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover meal?"
He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.'” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. While they were eating, he said, "It is hard to believe, but it is true: one of you will betray me."
His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."
Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"
Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
"What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
Jesus said. "The Son of Man will go just as the Scriptures say about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I 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."
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:
" 'I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
"But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee."
Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will."
"Listen to me," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times."
But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.
“If you love me,” Jesus told them, “keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Then Jesus went with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place called Gethsemane.