Ep. 109: Preparations

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MATTHEW 26:17-19, MARK 14:12-16, LUKE 22:7-13, JOHN 13:1

When Judas returned from Jerusalem the Passover was close at hand. It began on the 14th Nisan; that is from the appearance of the first three stars on Wednesday evening (the 13th) and ended with the first three stars on Thursday evening (the 14th). The absence of the traitor so close to the feast possibly wouldn’t have been noticed by the others. Necessary preparations might have to be made, even though they were to be guests in an unknown house. These matters would, of course, be financially organised by Judas. Everyone in Israel was thinking about the Feast. For the previous month, it had been the subject of discussion in the Academies and, for the last two Sabbaths at least, that of teachings in the synagogues.

Everyone was going to Jerusalem, or had those near and dear to them there, or at least watched the festive processions to the metropolis of Judaism. It was a universal gathering in remembrance of the birth of the nation when friends from afar would meet and new friends made; when offerings long due would be brought and long-needed purification obtained and all worship in that grand and glorious Temple, with its grand and awesome ritual.

Let us now follow closely the footsteps of Jesus and his disciples and watch closely. The first preparations for the Feast would commence shortly after the return of the traitor. The evening of the fifth day marked the beginning of the 14th of Nisan when a solemn search was made with a lit candle throughout each house for any leaven that might be hidden or has fallen aside by accident. Such was put by in a safe place and afterwards destroyed with the rest.

It was probably after the early meal and when the eating of leaven had ceased, that Jesus began preparations for the Passover Supper. ‘And the Day of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed.’ The suggestion that in that year the Sanhedrin had postponed the Passover Supper from Thursday evening (the 14th-15th Nisan) to Friday evening (15-16th Nisan), to avoid the Sabbath following on the first day of the feast and that the Passover lamb was therefore in that year eaten on Friday, the evening of the day on which Jesus was crucified, is an assumption void of all support in history or Jewish tradition. Equally untenable is it that Jesus had held the Supper a day in advance of that observed by the rest of the Jewish world since the Passover lamb could not have been offered in the Temple and, therefore, no Passover Supper held, outside of the regular time.

Perhaps the strangest attempt to reconcile the Gospel accounts (in that Matthew, Mark and Luke seem to be at odds with John regarding timings) is that while the rest of Jerusalem, including Jesus and his Apostles, partook of the Passover Supper, the chief priests had been interrupted in, or rather prevented from it by their proceedings against Jesus; that, in fact, they had not touched it when they feared to enter Pilate’s Judgment Hall. Such would have been contrary to one of the plainest commands, ‘the Pascha is not eaten but during the night, nor yet later than the middle of the night.’

Evidently, neither the house where the Passover was to be kept nor its owner was to be named beforehand within Judas’s hearing, to stop him from informing the authorities. That last meal with its institution of the Holy Supper was not to be interrupted, nor their last retreat betrayed, until all had been said and done, even to the last prayer of agony in Gethsemane. We can see the Divine Hand in this.

On their entrance into Jerusalem, they would meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. They were to follow him and, when they reached the house, to deliver to its owner the message that this is to be the place for the Last Supper. The disciples were told to ask for the place in the house where the beasts of burden were unloaded, and shoes and staff, or dusty garments and burdens put down. He who was born in a ‘hostelry’ (Katalyma) was content to ask for his last meal in a Katalyma.

It was a common practice that more than one group partook of the Passover Supper in the same apartment. This was unavoidable, for all partook of it, including women and children, apart from those who were unclean according to the Law. And, though each group might be small, it was not to be so big that each couldn’t share at least a small portion of the Passover lamb. But, while he only asked for his last meal in the Katalyma, Jesus would have a private gathering, to eat the Passover alone with his Apostles.

Not even the wider company of disciples, such as the owner of the house nor yet even Mary, might be present. And ‘the upper room’ was large, furnished and ready. From Jewish authorities, we know that the average dining apartment was around fifteen feet square. All that the disciples would have to ‘make ready’ would be the Passover lamb and perhaps that first Chagigah, or festive sacrifice, which, if the lamb itself would not suffice for Supper, was added to it.

To us at least it seems most likely, that it was the house of Mark’s father (then still alive) - a large one, as we gather from Acts 12:13. For, the most obvious explanation of the introduction by Mark alone of such an incident concerning the young man who was accompanying Christ as he was led away captive, and who, on fleeing from those who would have laid hold on him, left in their hands his inner garment as he had rushed into Gethsemane. This was none other than Mark himself. If so, we can understand it all; how the traitor may have first brought the Temple guards who had come to seize Jesus to the house of Mark’s father where the Supper had been held, and that, finding him gone, they had followed to Gethsemane, for ‘Judas knew the place, for Jesus often came there with his disciples’. And how Mark, startled from his sleep by the appearance of the armed men, would hastily cast about him his loose tunic and run after them; then, after the flight of the disciples, accompany Jesus, but escape intended arrest by leaving his tunic in the hands of his would-be captors.

If the owner of the house had provided all that was needed for the supper, Peter and John would find there the wine for the four cups, the cakes of unleavened bread and probably also the bitter herbs, which were to be dipped once in saltwater, or vinegar, and another time in a mixture called Charoseth (a compound made of nuts, raisins, apples and almonds). The wine was the ordinary red wine of the country; it was mixed with water, generally in the proportion of one part to two of water. The quantity for each of the four cups is stated by one authority as five-sixteenths of a log, which may be roughly computed at half a tumbler, mixed of course with water.

All things being ready in the furnished upper room, it would only remain for Peter and John to see to the Passover lamb and anything else required for the Supper, possibly also to what was to be offered as Chagigah, or festive sacrifice, and afterwards eaten at the Supper. If the latter were to be brought, the disciples would, of course, have to attend earlier in the Temple. The cost of the lamb, which had to be provided, was very small.

And now it would be time for the ordinary evening service and sacrifice. Ordinarily, this began at about 2.30 p.m., the daily evening sacrifice being actually offered up about an hour later. But on this occasion, the service was an hour earlier on account of the feast. As at about 1:30 p.m. of our time, Peter and John climbed the Temple Mount to obtain their lamb. In all that crowd, how few were sympathetic to them, how many enemies there were! The Temple Courts were thronged to the utmost by worshippers from all countries and from all parts of the land. The Priests’ Court was filled with white-robed priests and Levites - for on that day all the twenty-four courses were on duty and all their services would be called for, although only the course for that week would that afternoon engage in the ordinary service, which preceded that of the feast. Almost mechanically they would witness the various parts of the ceremony.

There must have been a particular meaning to them, a mournful significance, in the language of Psalm 81, as the Levites chanted it that afternoon in three sections, broken three times by the threefold blast from the silver trumpets of the priests. Before the incense was burnt for the evening sacrifice, or yet the lamps in the golden candlestick were trimmed for the night, the Passover lambs were slain. The worshippers were admitted in three divisions within the Court of the Priests. When the first company had entered, the massive Nicanor Gates - which led from the Court of the Women to that of Israel - and the other side-gates into the Court of the Priests, were closed. A threefold blast from the priests’ trumpets indicated that the lambs were being slain. This each Israelite did for himself.

We can be fairly sure that Peter and John would be in the first of the three companies into which the offerors were divided; for they must have been anxious to be gone, and to meet the Master and their brethren in that ‘Upper Room.’

Peter and John had slain the lamb. In two rows the officiating priest stood, up to the great altar of burnt offering. As one caught up the blood from the dying lamb in a golden bowl. He handed it to his colleague, receiving in return an empty bowl; and so, the blood was passed on to the great altar, where it was poured out at the base of it. While this was going on, the Hallel was being chanted by the Levites. We remember that only the first line of every Psalm was repeated by the worshippers; while they responded to every other line with a Halleluyah until Psalm 118 was reached, when, besides the first, these three lines were also repeated; Save now, I beseech Thee, Lord; O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity; Blessed be he that cometh in the Name of the Lord.

As Peter and John repeated them on that afternoon, the words must have sounded deeply significant. But their minds must also have reverted to that triumphal entry into the city a few days before when Israel had greeted with these words the advent of their King. The sacrifice now rested on the shoulders of Peter and John, flayed, cleansed and the parts which were to be burnt on the altar removed and prepared for burning.

The second company of offerors could not have proceeded far in the service, when the Apostles, bearing their lamb, were wending their way back to the home of Mark, there to make final preparations for the ‘Supper.’ The lamb would be roasted on a pomegranate spit that passed right through it, special care being taken that, in roasting, the lamb did not touch the oven. Everything else, also, would be made ready: the Chagigah for supper (if such was used); the unleavened cakes, the bitter herbs, the dish with vinegar and that with Charoseth would be placed on a table which could be carried in and moved at will; finally, the festive lamps would be prepared. It was probably as the sun was beginning to decline on the horizon that Jesus and the other ten disciples descended once more over the Mount of Olives into the Holy City.

It was the last day which the Lord could enjoy free and unhindered, in the Holy City until his Resurrection. Once more, in the approaching night of his betrayal, would he look upon it in the pale light of the full moon. He was going forward to accomplish his death in Jerusalem; to fulfil type and prophecy and to offer himself up as the true Passover Lamb, ‘the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world.’ Edersheim paints the scene:

‘They who followed him were busy with many thoughts. They knew that terrible events awaited them and they had only shortly before been told that these glorious Temple buildings, to which they had directed the attention of their Master, were to become desolate, not one stone being left upon the other. Among them, revolving his dark plans, and goaded on by the great Enemy, moved the betrayer. And now they were within the city. Its Temple, its royal bridge, its splendid palaces, its busy marts, its streets filled with festive pilgrims, were well known to them, as they made their way to the house where the guest chamber had been prepared. Meanwhile, the crowd came down from the Temple Mount, each bearing on his shoulders the sacrificial lamb, to make ready for the Passover Supper.’

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)