The Passover Approaches

Title Ideas:Jesus eats the last meal with his disciples before he is killed. Jesus gives new meaning for the Passover feast.Jesus washes his disciples’ feet like a slave/servant.

When Jesus and his disciples came to Jerusalem, he reminded [said to] them, “Two days from now, we [Jews] will celebrate the Passover feast. But then soldiers will arrest me, beat me and kill [crucify] me on a wooden cross!”

While Jesus was talking to his disciples, [in another place] religious leaders were gathered at the high priest’s [Caiaphas’] house. They were discussing together ways in which to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

They wanted to kill Jesus secretly, because they were afraid of the common people who believed Jesus was their Messiah. They agreed, ““We do not want the people to riot [revolt/ become angry], so we will arrest Jesus when no crowd is [no common people are] with him!””

Judas [from] Iscariot was one of Jesus’’ disciples. Judas loved money, so he went to see the chief priests and said, ““I will help you arrest Jesus, if you will pay me money!””

Judas asked, ““How much money will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?”” The chief priests replied, ““We will pay you thirty silver coins!” And they paid Judas the money.[30 silver coins was the cost for buying a valuable slave, or the money a person might be paid working for a year.]

So, each day, Judas was seeking a time and a place to betray Jesus to the chief priests.

Soon started a seven-day feast [called Unleavened Bread or Passover]. The disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where shall we go prepare our evening meal [Passover feast]?”

Jesus said to two disciples [Peter and John], “Go into Jerusalem [the city]! There you will meet a man carrying a pot of water! Follow that man to his house!”

When the disciples came into Jerusalem, they saw the man and followed him.

The disciples said to the man, “Our teacher [master] told us to ask you, ‘Where is the room in which my disciples and I shall eat together our evening meal [Passover feast]?”

The man led the two disciples up stairs to a big [upper] room, and said to them, “I have cleaned [swept] this room and made it ready for your [Passover] meal!”

So the two disciples [Peter and John] prepared the meal for Jesus and his [other] disciples.

After sunset, Jesus and the other disciples arrived, came up the stairs to the room, and sat [reclined] to eat [take] the meal [Passover feast].

While they were serving the meal, Jesus rose from the table. He removed his outer clothes [coat] and wrapped a towel around his waist [like a servant would do]

He next poured water into a basin and started washing his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had wrapped around his waist.

When Jesus came to wash Peter’s feet, Peter said, “Lord [Sir]! You must never wash my dirty feet [as a slave does]!”But Jesus replied, “If I do not wash [your feet], then you cannot [any longer] be my disciple.”

Then Peter replied, “Lord, if it is like that, then wash my hands and my head also!”Jesus said, “A person who has taken a bath [recently] only needs to wash his feet [which have gotten dirty walking the dusty roads.]”!”

When Jesus had finished washing the disciples’ feet, he put back on his outer clothes [coat] and sat down at his place [at the table].Then, he said to them, “I want you to understand what I have just done for you!”

“What I have done is an example for you all. I am your Master and Lord, yet nevertheless I made myself like a humble slave by washing your feet. In the same way, you also should wash each other’s feet.

“Every slave [servant] has [is under] a master, and every messenger represents someone more important than he. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed [satisfied] if you do them [like an obedient servant]!”

During the meal, Jesus said: “One of you who are seated here is going to betray me!”The disciples look at each other, wondering what Jesus’ words meant.Jesus then said, “It is the one to whom I am going to give this bread portion [piece].

He gave the bread piece to Judas [Iscariot]. As soon as Judas took the bread, he rose [from table], and went out into the dark night. The other disciples did not know why Judas had left the room. Only Jesus understood [what Judas was going to do].

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread. He thanked God for it, broke it into several pieces, and distributed these to his disciples.Then he ordered them, “This is [representing] my body! Take some and eat it, you all!” [They all did that.]

Next, Jesus held a cup filled with wine. He thanked God for it, and passed it to his disciples. They all drank a little swallow from it.

Then, he said to them, “This is [representing] my blood which will soon flow from by body when I shall die. Because of my death, God is going to make a covenant with everyone who believes in me, and will forgive their sins.”