Plotting, Power, and the way to get Ahead

first born sons in the land, except those who had killed a spotless lamb and applied the blood to the doorposts of their houses. They were to eat the lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. We’ll talk more about the huge significance of this on Wednesday. The Jewish Seder as, it’s called, is wonderfully and powerfully symbolic of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus had made prior arrangements for a safe, secure place for the Passover. This was a crucial and intimate time for Jesus to spend with the disciples. John 13-17 all happens at this time when Jesus gives his last instructions. He did not want to be arrested prematurely.

It’s kind of a cloak and dagger arrangement - kind of a dead drop sort of thing. Peter and John were to look for a man carrying a jar of water. Then there is the secret pass code: "The Teacher asks …" Normally women would carry water, so a guy carrying water would have stood out from the crowd. Tradition suggests that the Passover happened at Mark’s house, so the master would have been Mark’s dad and would have known the disciples and Jesus by sight.

The preparations for the Passover would have included setting the table, buying and roasting the Passover lamb, and making the unleavened bread, sauces, and other ceremonial food and drink that were a traditional part of every Passover meal.

When necessary, Jesus controls every detail in secret. Later He will openly give himself over to the evil that swarms around Him. Who really has the power here?

Verses 14 - 23

14 - 16 There are some disagreements over when this meal took place. It could either be on Wednesday evening, which would have been the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or on Thursday, the actual Passover. Whichever day it was, this was Jesus’ last opportunity to impart instructions to His disciples. The gospel of John, as I said, spends whole chapters giving his last words before being arrested and crucified. He begins this time we learn in John by washing the disciple’s feet. And yet while their master demonstrates an attitude of servant hood, they argue about who is greatest.

Jesus says He will not eat the Passover again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. It can read "never eat it again" or "no longer eat it." The Passover is significant for what it represented in the past (the exodus), what it signified for the present (the sacrifice of THE Lamb of God) and what it fulfills in the future-a banquet where we will all gather around Jesus (Revelation 19). The gathering around a table was to signify the freedom the Jews had from Egypt. In Heaven we will gather around celebrating the freedom from the bondage of sin and from a sinful world.

17 - 20 I’ll save the discussion of how all the cups and the meal worked at Passover for Wednesday, but Jesus and His disciples drank 3 cups, then abstained from the fourth, which signified "I will take you as my people and I will be your God." In other words, the celebration would be finished when God "takes" us from this place to be with Him.

The bread represents the body of Jesus Christ and the wine His blood. Jesus allowed His body to be broken so that the power that sin had over us would also be broken. The cup represents the blood that was spilled by Jesus on the cross-a blood sacrifice that not only protects us from death (the judgment of God for all our sins) but