Text Used to Create “The Last Supper” Splice Series

Matthew 26:17-36 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Matthew 26:17)

Mark 14:12-32 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Mark 14:12)

Luke 22:7-40 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Luke 22:7)

John 13:1-18:1 (Greek Text Analysis starting with John 13:1)

 

1 Corinthians 5:7

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.

 

THE SPLICE

Now before the ¹Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Then came the first day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ² On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, Jesus was sending Peter and John out to prepare for the Passover,  and He said to them, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.” Peter and John said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?”  Jesus said to them, ³“Go into Jerusalem and when you have entered the city, a certain man will meet you and  he will be carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples. Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ And the owner of the house himself will show you a large upper room that is furnished and ready; prepare the Passover for us there.” Peter and John did as Jesus had directed them; they left Jesus and came to the city and found everything just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, Jesus went to the upper room with the twelve. When the supper hour had come, He reclined at the table, and with Him, the twelve disciples/the apostles. And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I ⁴suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes, until the day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” During supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, He got up from supper, and laid aside ⁵His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, ⁶“Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” When He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ⁷‘HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.’ From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” After Jesus had said this and while they all were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus became troubled in spirit, and testified and said,  “Truly, truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me—one who is eating with Me.” The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom ⁸one of His disciples whom Jesus loved, John. So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.”  John, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” Being ⁹deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” And He answered, “It is one of the twelve; ¹⁰he who dipped and dips his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him, as it has been determined; but woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” ¹¹And  Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus said to him, “ You have said it yourself.”

 

 

“Picked for a Charoset”

 

1. Passover lamb: to read about the history of The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover, as well as the Passover lamb, see Exodus 12. ↩︎
2. On the first day of Unleavened Bread: See Mark 14:12 and Luke 22:7. There is much discussion about whether or not Jesus died on the cross at the exact moment that the priests were sacrificing the Paschal lambs in the temple. According to Time Reckoning for Christ’s Last Passover (harvestbiblechurch.net), there were two “first days” of Unleavened Bread. If this is true, that there were two different time reckoning systems that people could interpret, there would have been lambs being slaughtered at the temple, when Jesus died on the cross. If you do not agree with Time Reckoning, then the answer is no, there were no lambs being slaughtered in the temple and we are left to wonder why the priests were starting Passover late. There is no way that Jesus had Passover early. He would have followed the law to the letter (Matthew 3:15).  ↩︎
3. Go into Jerusalem: This event is included to show us the divinity of Christ. It is possible that the water-man or the owner of the house believed that Christ is the Messiah or heard Him teach on an occasion or two, but the Bible does not mention these possibilities, nor does it mention that Jesus, Peter, John, or any of the disciples had physically met these people before. See Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-13 to read about this event. ↩︎
4. For more on the sufferings of Christ, please see the Splice on The Crucifixion. ↩︎
5. Garments:  The Greek word used for “garments” in John 13:4 is himation which is an “outer garment such as a cloak or robe”. It is safe to assume that this is the garment that the guards will cast lots for approximately 12 hours later because Jesus does wear His own clothes as He walks to the cross (Matthew 27:31). People did not own multiple cloaks or robes back then unless they were wealthy. See Mark 15:24, Luke 23:34 and John 19:23-24 for the account of the guards casting lots for Jesus’s clothes. ↩︎
6. Never shall You wash my feet!: Some believe this statement of Peter’s was an example of Peter’s pride. I don’t believe this to be true, because then Peter wouldn’t have been so quick to say, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head” in John 13:9. In my opinion, Peter says Feet, Hands and Head because: Feet carry us to where we go (whether walking towards good or towards bad, metaphorically or physically), Hands are the tools we use to do work (whether good or bad, whether metaphorically or physically), and in the Head is where we first decide whether or not to sin, whether to do the Lord’s work or our own. I believe the reason why Peter says “Never shall You wash my feet!” is because he was shocked at Jesus’s positioning: reflecting as a lowly slave, washing feet. Knowing that Jesus was the Messiah, (see Matthew 16:16 and Mark 8:29), Peter was finding feet-washing an unfathomable position for Jesus and he didn’t understand yet that it was an object lesson. Jesus explains to him that he will understand it eventually. See John 13:4-10. ↩︎
7. HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME: Jesus is quoting from Psalm 41:9 “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” ↩︎
8. one of His disciples: This is John due to John 21:20-24. John tells us that the disciple that Jesus loved was himself, John the apostle, the disciple, who is the writer of the book The Gospel According to John (and also I, 2, 3 John and Revelation). There are no credible disputes on the authorship of John for these books. ↩︎
9. deeply grieved: The Greek text says “grieved exceedingly”. The Greek word used for “grieved” in Matthew 26:22 is lupeó and this kind of grief means “to experience an intense, deep grief, or an overwhelming sorrow”. Jesus was called “a man of sorrows” in Isaiah 53:3. See Isaiah 53 for an almost poetical description on the sufferings and sorrows of the Messiah.  ↩︎
10. he who dipped and dips: It is important to understand that at the Passover meal, Jesus would be residing over it and would have given pieces of food to everyone there and everyone would have been dipping in the bowl with Him. ↩︎
11. And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus said to him, “ You have said it yourself.”: It says in John 13:21-30 that Jesus explains who the betrayer will be, and it also explains that no one recognizes that the betrayer is Judas. They don’t even recognize it when (Matthew 26:25), Jesus outright and out loud says, Yes, it’s you, Judas (I’m paraphrasing here). Why? There were several times where the Bible records that the disciples were kept from recognizing truth for God’s purposes. For an example, see John 20:9. It is possible that the other 11 disciples were too wrapped up in their own grief in hearing that one of them was to betray Jesus to pay any attention to what Jesus was saying to Judas, or it was kept from their sight because they might have tried to stop Judas. Peter was fairly quick with that sword in John 18:10, after all. It was for God’s purpose that Judas be the betrayer and actually go through with betraying Jesus. ↩︎