Jesus' last Wednesday and Thursday as a human on earth

On Wednesday 12 Nisan the higher priests and the religious leaders of the Jewish people met in the courtyard of the house of the High Priest Caiaphas. They decided to go all out to arrest Jesus as soon as possible and to have him killed. That same day they were approached by one of Jesus’ apostles: Judas Iscariot. Knowing that he could make a lot of money by making it possible for the religious leaders to arrest Jesus without getting into trouble with the huge masses of people who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration, he offered to help them if they were willing to pay him for his efforts. The religious leaders promised Judas 30 silver pieces if he would succeed in handing over Jesus to them without causing any trouble.

In the course of Thursday, 13 Nisan, Jesus made the necessary arrangements to celebrate the Passover meal together with His apostles in the evening. For the Jews of those days the day started at the beginning of the evening twilight. This means that the Passover Celebration on the fourteenth of Nisan in the year 33 started on Thursday evening when darkness set in and it ended on Friday evening. The Passover meal, a festive meal, was celebrated on Thursday evening.

In the course of that Thursday Jesus sent Peter and John out to prepare everything for the feast. He told them that they would see a man walking down the street carrying an earthenware vessel filled with water. They were to follow that man and enter the house that he would enter. Then they were to ask the owner of the house if he had a large room for Jesus and His apostles where they could celebrate the Passover feast together. Peter and John did what they had been told to do and were offered a nice upstairs room by the house-owner mentioned. There they prepared everything for the feast.

At the beginning of the feast Jesus told His apostles that for a long time He had been looking forward to this Passover celebration. He also told them that this would be their last Passover feast. The next time they would celebrate the Passover together would in the Kingdom of God. He knew that He would die the following day.

During this last evening meal that Jesus and His apostles had together He washed the feet of each of them and dried them with a linen cloth. As a sign of His love and His humility. As He had once put it Himself: He had not come to be served but to serve.

During the feast Jesus got overwhelmed by very painful emotions at a given moment. He told His friends that one of the men who were eating together with Him would betray Him that evening. When everybody urged Him to tell them who the traitor was Jesus said: the one to whom I am going to give a piece of bread now. He took a piece of bread and gave it to Judas Iscariot, who stood up right away and left the room.

At a later moment, knowing that this would be their last meal together, Jesus took a loaf of bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave them to His disciples with the words: eat this; he who eats this, eats My body.Then He took a cup of wine, blessed it too, and gave all the disciples some wine to drink with the words: drink this wine; the wine means My blood.

As regards the blood, which he symbolically offered His disciples to drink that evening, He also remarked that the shedding of it would mark the beginning of a new covenant. Everyone who was willing to eat His flesh and blood, in the sense of wanting to receive the maximum benefit of Jesus’ physical presence on earth and Jesus’ sacrifice of His earthly body, would get eternal life in God’s Kingdom as an outcome of the new covenant.

This explains Jesus’ words: I truly say to you: I will no longer drink of the product of the vine until the day when I will drink it again for the first time in the Kingdom of God. (Mark 14:25).

When the feast was over they walked to the Mount of Olives together. Jesus knew that He was about to be arrested. He told His apostles that they should be aware of the fact that as a group they would soon fall apart and really lose each other. Peter said to Jesus that he would always stay with Him, no matter what would happen to Him, and that He was prepared to go to prison with Him and to die with Him. Jesus prophesied then that three times during that same night he would deny that He even knew who Jesus was.

Later on that night he comforted the apostles whom He would soon have to leave behind on earth without a “shepherd”. He told them that He intended to do the will of His Father to the very end to make it possible for them to enter the Kingdom of God. His sacrificial death would bring about a new covenant between God and all people who were willing to repent sincerely of their sins. As an outcome of this new covenant the sins of this kind of people could be forgiven them (Jesus Himself had already forgiven the sins of people during His stay on earth). And: forgiveness of sins would offer people the possibility of an eternity of happiness in God’s Kingdom.

In addition Jesus gave His disciples that last night they spent together a great promise: after His return in heaven He would send His followers and everybody who believed in Him a helper: power from God that would make it possible for them to lead such a life that they would be able to enter God’s Kingdom. Jesus called this helper, this power from God, the spirit of truth.

He also told them that the helper that He would send, God’s holy spirit, would make many things clear to them which were still unclear to them that night.

During those last few hours together Jesus told His disciples a lot of new things regarding the theme of love. He said that the bond of love between His Father, He Himself and His followers should be so strong that nothing could break it and they together would be like one body. As regards His approaching death and His own love He said: “No one has greater love than a person who sacrifices his soul for the benefit of his friends.”

He also told them that they should love one another and take good care of each other because the world would hate them and cause them great suffering. Jesus said literally: if they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

Concerning the world He also said: in the world you will experience suffering, but take courage, I have conquered the world.

That night He also prayed to His Father with great fervency. He asked His Father particularly to take good care of His apostles and His followers when He Himself, after His death, would no longer be in a position to do this. (people who want to read the last admonitions which Jesus gave to His apostles just before His arrest, in the Bible itself, can find them in John the chapters 14 up to and including 17)

Later on Jesus separated Himself from His disciples and, knowing that His suffering was about to begin, earnestly prayed to His Father and asked Him for strength. Terrified by the prospect of what was awaiting Him He asked His Father literally: “Father, if you wish, take this cup away from Me. But let not my will, but thy will be done.” Then His Father sent Him an angel from heaven to give the strength to endure His coming trials.

However, the Bible leaves no doubt about it: even after the coming of the angel Jesus suffered terrible degrees of fear and grief. Luke 22:44 says literally: His sweat became like drops of blood that fell to the ground. On the other hand: the verse mentioned begins with the words: but feeling horrible grief He continued with His prayers the more fervently.

Shortly afterwards Jesus and His disciples were overtaken by a group of men who were armed with swords and sticks and had come to arrest Jesus. Judas Iscariot walked up to Jesus and gave Him a kiss. He had told the men: the one whom I will kiss is Jesus; arrest Him.

Then Jesus was led away to the house of the high priest Caiaphas, where the leading priests and the scribes were waiting for Him. Here Jesus was interrogated. After the testimonies of a number of false witness proved little effective the high priest started to speak and he asked Jesus in very plain words to tell the Sanhedrin whether He was the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus answered that He was both the Son of God (which means that He presented Himself as a human who was of the same level as God), and the expected the Messiah and the future King of the Jews. Then the high priest rent his upper garments, appalled about such an unacceptable case of blasphemy (insult against God). After this the Sanhedrin was unanimous: they did not need any more witnesses: everybody had heard how Jesus had spoken words of blasphemy which, in accordance with Jewish law, justified the death penalty. After this Jesus was mocked, spat at and beaten by the people who held Him captive.

Peter had followed the men who had arrested Jesus. In the courtyard he sat down somewhere among the household staff. When one of the maids said that he was a follower of the arrested Jesus he denied this flatly. When after a few moments another maid said the same thing, he denied it again. Then, a little later, quite a number of people present said that they knew for sure that he was a follower of the arrested man. And he denied it again.

A moment later a cock crowed. Peter remembered Jesus’ prophetic words of the evening before: before a cock crows you will deny me three times. When Peter remembered these words spoken by Jesus he started to cry terribly.

When during that night Judas heard that the Sanhedrin had condemned Jesus to death, he felt very sorry. He gave the thirty silver pieces he had received back to the chief priests and the scribes and hanged himself.