The Last Supper

Table of Contents

- List of Videos

- Introduction

- 1. Biblical Foundation

- 2. Thursday Evening: An Upper Room in Jerusalem

- 3. Preparing the Passover Seder

- 4. Betrayal and Repentance: Preparing Ourselves

- 5. “This Is My Body...” (Mark 14:12): From Seder to Eucharist"

- 6. A Meal That Defines Us

Videos List

1. Introduction (0:54)

2. Mark 14 Passage (1:52)

3. Going To Jerusalem (1:01)

4. The Last Supper Reenactment (3:51)

5. The Passover Seder (1:19)

6. The Premise Of The Seder (1:32)

7. The Last Supper In Your Life (1:28)

Introduction

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Introduction (0:54).

Jesus is believed to have died at the age of 33 after a life of approximately 12,000 days. The Gospel writers devoted most of their work to just 1,100 or so of those days, the last 3 years of his life; and their primary interest was in one particular day— the day he was crucified. They believed this 24-hour period changed the world, and each of the Gospels drives toward it.

Beginning Thursday evening after sunset and lasting on through Friday, Jesus would eat the Last Supper with his disciples; pray in the garden of Gethsemane; be betrayed and deserted by his friends; be convicted of blasphemy by the religious authorities; be tried and sentenced for insurrection by Pontius Pilate; be tortured by Roman soldiers; and undergo crucifixion, death, and burial.

When the apostle Paul summarized the gospel for the Corinthian Christians, he did so with these words: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). The suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ represent the pinnacle of the gospel and the completion of God’s saving work through Jesus.

The aim of this book is to help you better understand the events that occurred during the last twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life, see more clearly the theological significance of Christ’s suffering and death, and reflect upon the meaning of these events for your life. To do this, we will look at the geographical and historical setting of the events of that fateful day; reflect theologically on Jesus’ death; and, ultimately, look to see ourselves in the story, considering how we are like Pilate or Peter, Judas or John.

Our starting point will be Mark’s account of the final hours of Jesus’ life (Most scholars believe his was the first Gospel written.), but we will supplement Mark’s account by looking to the other Gospels.* We will begin with the Last Supper, which took place on Thursday night, and end with Christ’s death on the cross the following afternoon. The final chapter will reflect on the Resurrection.

In addition to this book, I have prepared a video that was shot in and around Jerusalem, in the very places where the events described in this book occurred. The video is ideal for use in Sunday school classes, small groups, Bible studies, and book clubs, or for your own personal use. It includes a segment about ten minutes long for each chapter in the book; a printed leader guide is available as well. Many will be interested in studying the last hours of Jesus’ life during the Lenten season, and Abingdon Press is also publishing a forty-day reflection guide I have prepared for such persons.

Writing this book and creating the videos on location in Jerusalem have deepened my own faith and my sense of love and gratitude for Jesus Christ. I pray that reading this book will have the same effect on you.

Adam Hamilton

*Note that the four Gospels differ in numerous details related to the last twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life. In addition, interpretations of some of these events differ significantly among scholars. I generally follow Mark’s chronology and traditional understandings of these events.

Chapter 1

Biblical Foundation

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Mark 14 Passage (1:52).

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. . . he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

(MARK 14:12, 22-25)

Chapter 2

Thursday Evening: An Upper Room in Jerusalem

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Going To Jerusalem (1:01).

The disciples were confused by his words. The Passover Seder was meant to be a time of joy and celebration, retelling the story of God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt. It hinted at the hope that God would send the Messiah. For this reason the meal had special meaning to the disciples; they were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and that they were in Jerusalem on this Passover so that he could claim his kingdom. Four days earlier the crowds in the city had welcomed him with shouts of “Hosanna!” Why then was he now speaking of his blood being shed? What did it all mean?

Seldom have the apparent fortunes of any historical figure changed as quickly and dramatically as did those of Jesus in the last week of his life. On Sunday he had entered Jerusalem to crowds strewing palm branches before him, convinced he was the promised Messiah. By Thursday evening he was essentially in hiding, as the city’s religious leaders plotted his death with the help of one of the twelve disciples who had been closest to him during his public ministry.

Jesus, of course, knew what was coming. He had foretold all of it, although his disciples never understood. The events of the last twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life would test those closest to him, and they would fail.

Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem after walking with his disciples the approximately seventy-five miles from the area around the Sea of Galilee, where he had spent much of his ministry. He had come to celebrate the Feast of Passover, and he had come to die. He entered the city from the Mount of Olives, riding a donkey on which some of his followers had laid their clothing. Throngs of people hailed him, shouting,

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!

(Matthew 21:9)

In essence they were saying, “Save us now, Jesus. Deliver us.”

Jesus looked around the city and then, as evening approached, went back to Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, to stay the night (Mark 11:11).* The next day he made his way to the Temple. There, in the outer court of the Gentiles where all nations were invited to pray, he watched as people bought and sold goods in what amounted to an open marketplace; and he became visibly angry. “Is it not written,” he said, “ ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? / But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and drove out the merchants (Matthew 21:12), infuriating the religious leaders who controlled the Temple.

Jesus returned to the Temple courts each day that week; and as he taught, he pushed harder on his religious reforms, challenging those same religious leaders again and again. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” he said. “For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth” (Matthew 23:27). He chastised them for their spiritual pride, their hard hearts, and their religion of rules that served only to alienate further those who were lost. He told the people, in effect, “Do what the religious leaders tell you to do, but don’t do as they do; for they are like the blind leading the blind.”

With every charge and challenge, Jesus further angered the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. The tension grew each time he entered the Temple. By Thursday, it was clear the city’s religious leaders were plotting to put him to death.

Chapter 3

Preparing the Passover Seder

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The Last Supper Reenactment (3:51).

So at noon on Thursday he turned to two of his disciples (Luke tells us it was Peter and John [21:8].) and told them to go into town and prepare for the Passover feast, or Seder, which he and his disciples would eat in private.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you, follow him” (Mark 14:13). Carrying water was a woman’s job, so such a man would stand out on Jerusalem’s busy streets. Some believe Jesus was miraculously able to see what was about to happen, while others believe he had arranged for the meal in advance. In any case, Jesus told the disciples, “Wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ” (Mark 14:14).

A house like this, by the way, would have been owned by someone who was wealthy. The person was therefore risking wealth, status, perhaps life itself, in order to host Jesus and his disciples.

Everything went just as Jesus had said. Peter and John made the preparations in the upper room—probably the same room where, on the Day of Pentecost, one hundred twenty disciples would gather and find themselves filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in other tongues. At three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John would have taken a lamb to the Temple for sacrifice, joining tens of thousands of people arriving for that purpose throughout the day. As people sang psalms, the lamb’s throat would be slit; and a priest would catch the blood in a bowl, then pour it at the base of the altar table. Another priest would butcher the lamb. Peter and John would then take the meat and return to the kitchen at the upper room, where the lamb would be basted in oil or wine and roasted for three or four hours. By about seven o’clock that evening, Jesus and the other disciples would have joined Peter and John in the upper room for the meal.

The Passover Seder they shared is a meal commemorating God’s central saving act toward Israel, an event described in Exodus 3–13. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for years when God called Moses to deliver them. Moses demanded that Pharaoh release his people, but the Egyptian monarch refused. God then brought a series of plagues upon the Egyptians, but still Pharaoh would not relent. Finally, God said to Moses that he would perform one last terrible deed in the land; after this the pharaoh would have to let the people go. God would strike down the firstborn in every household and among every flock throughout the land of Egypt.

On that night the Israelites were to sacrifice a lamb to God. They were to mark their doorposts with its blood. As the Angel of Death was to pass through the land, it would pass over the homes marked by the blood of a lamb, thus sparing the firstborn in that home. The lamb was to be cooked and eaten, giving the Israelites one final meal, one last supper in Egypt, before they were delivered.

Death did indeed visit the land in the middle of the night, from the humblest dwelling to Pharaoh’s palace. In the morning, Egypt was awash in mourning. Amid that devastation, Pharaoh finally relented. He ordered the Israelites to leave Egypt. They prepared to flee so quickly that there was no time to leaven their bread dough and allow it to rise. As a result, the bread they took with them was unleavened.

The Israelites’ escape set in motion their epic journey through the wilderness, a forty-year trek that would transform the Israelites into a nation and lead them to the Promised Land. From that day forward, the Israelites annually celebrated the Passover that had accompanied their escape from bondage in Egypt; and the meal would be forever known as the “Feast of Unleavened Bread.” Exodus 12 records how God commanded the Israelites to prepare this meal—to sacrifice and roast the lamb and to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs in memory of their deliverance from slavery to freedom.

“It is a meal filled with ritual,” says Rabbi Amy Katz, a friend with whom my wife (LaVon) and I have shared the Passover Seder, “from the food you eat to how you eat it to how you sit.” LaVon and I had the joy of joining Rabbi Katz for a wonderful Seder meal that included brisket, chicken, vegetables, and delicious desserts. Interspersed throughout the meal was a discussion of the foods that symbolically retell the story of Israel’s deliverance. We ate bitter herbs—horseradish and parsley, reminders of the bitterness the Israelites had experienced when they were slaves in Egypt. The herbs were dipped in salt water, which represented their tears. We ate the charoset, a pureed apple mixture meant to look like the mortar out of which the Israelites made bricks for Pharaoh’s building projects. An egg reminded us, as it reminds Christians at Easter, of new birth and new life, that Israel experienced a new beginning. The unleavened matzoh reminded us of the haste of the Israelites’ escape. The lamb was a reminder of the lamb slain that original Passover, whose blood marked the doorposts of the Israelites’ homes and ensured that death “passed over.” Finally, we drank four small cups of wine as a reminder of God’s promises that he would redeem the Israelites (See Exodus 6:6-7).

We began at seven o’clock in the evening, and it was close to midnight before we finished. This was undoubtedly similar to the Seder that Jesus and his disciples ate together. These same items—the wine, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs—were all placed on the table in that upper room. In that case, though, the good food, the deep friendships, and the story of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery would have been tempered by the heaviness of Jesus’ heart. He knew, as his disciples did not, that this was the last time he would share this meal with them. Reliving the meal with Rabbi Katz helped me understand, among other things, why the disciples, so full of food and wine at such a late hour, fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane as Jesus prayed and urged them to watch with him.

The meal also prompted me to look even more closely at the Gospel descriptions of the Last Supper. John goes into great detail, providing us with the most complete account of what Jesus said that night. Interestingly, John’s account is unique among the Gospels in seeing the Last Supper as a kind of “pre-Passover” Seder. He has Jesus suffering on the cross at the very time when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed (John 19:14)—a powerful image that helps John make a theological point.

Various efforts have been made to harmonize the two differing timelines, and I will let you explore these on your own. John does not have Jesus telling his disciples to “do this in remembrance of me.” He does not describe the bread and the wine. Instead, he devotes five chapters to describing what Jesus taught and what he prayed that evening during the meal. Chapters through 17 of John contain some of the most loved verses in the Bible and describe Jesus teaching by example, as when he washed the disciples’ feet, showing them that greatness in the kingdom of God is found in serving others.

Chapter 4

Betrayal and Repentance: Preparing Ourselves

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The Passover Seder (1:19).

The Passover is meant to be a festive and celebratory time, filled with joy as participants remember that those who were slaves were now set free, at last becoming one people, the people of God. If indeed the Last Supper began with such a tone, it changed during the course of the evening. Even beyond Jesus’ foreknowledge of events, there was great apprehension in the room. Everyone was conscious of the heightened tension between Jesus and the religious leaders. They all wondered what was going to happen to Jesus—and to them. Would there be repercussions from his actions in the Temple? Might he finally proclaim himself as Messiah?

Jesus cut through the uncertainty with a statement so electric it still echoes across the centuries. “One of you,” he said, looking at them in the sudden stillness of the Seder celebration, “will betray me” (Mark 14:18).

He knew which one it was, but he did not say. “Surely, not I?” the disciples asked (Mark 14:19). “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me” (Mark 14:20), Jesus said, probably referring to the bowl of charoset before them.

The story of the betrayal winds its way through the rest of the Gospel accounts of the final twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life. Before the night was through, Judas would betray Jesus; Peter would deny him; and the disciples would desert him, leaving Jesus utterly alone as he faced trial at the hands of his enemies.

The echoes of Jesus’ prediction and of the acts of betrayal by those closest to him are still discomfiting. In our own age, when church leaders have abused children, embezzled funds, and more, we realize that such betrayals are commonplace. Jesus might well have said, “All of you will betray me”; and with that realization, we must look finally at ourselves.

When have you been Judas? When have you been Peter or the other disciples? When have you betrayed Jesus or denied or deserted him? The reality is that all of us will at some time betray him—every one of us.

Several weeks ago I was greeting worshipers in the narthex of our church building, and I saw a couple who had not been in attendance for quite a while. I went up to greet them and said, “It’s so good to see you.” The man said to me, “I haven’t been here for some time because I did something that I knew disappointed God, and I just couldn’t bring myself to come back.” That man could be any one of us. All of us will disappoint God. All of us will betray him.

When we commemorate the Last Supper in the act of receiving Communion, we would do well to recall this part of the meal: Jesus’ acknowledgement of the betrayal, the denial, the desertions that would follow. I suspect this is why the church has traditionally called for confession and repentance before we receive the bread and wine. In the Communion liturgies of many churches, there is a confession that speaks of having sinned against the Lord “by thought, word and deed . . . by what we have done, and what we have left undone.”

An entire season of the Christian liturgical year is devoted to the idea of repentance for our acts of betrayal and desertion. Lent, in the early church, was a time when those who had publicly denied Christ in order to avoid persecution repented and were restored, were brought back into fellowship and allowed to receive Holy Communion again.

It is worth considering, as we look at repentance and restoration, that although Jesus knew Judas would betray him, Peter would deny him, and the others would desert him, he still washed their feet (John 13:3-5), then shared the bread and wine with them—bread that represented his body and wine that represented his blood. Despite knowing what they would do, he said to them, “I do not call you servants any longer. . . but I have called you friends” (John 15:15). He did that for all of them, including Judas. Jesus looked past their betrayal, their sins, and their failures and called them his friends. We take comfort in the knowledge that he will do that for us as well.

Chapter 5

“This Is My Body...” (Mark 14:12): From Seder to Eucharist"

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The Premise Of The Seder (1:32).

After announcing his betrayal, Jesus took the matzoh and said a blessing over it. But what he said next left his disciples perplexed. As he broke the matzoh and handed it to his disciples, he said, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). That was not part of the Haggadah, the text that sets out the order of the Passover Seder. It was, rather, a startling and striking object lesson. Jesus regularly spoke in parables, using analogy, simile, and metaphor. In this case, the bread he held stood for his body, which only a few hours later would be lashed with the stripes of a scourge, then pierced with nails as he hung on a Roman cross. As had happened so often, the disciples did not understand the analogy or what was about to happen. Nonetheless, they ate.

Then Jesus took the cup—likely the third of the four cups of wine the disciples would have drunk at the Seder—and again he left them puzzled when he said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). This reference to the cup of redemption was again not part of the Passover Seder, although the disciples would have recognized the phrase “blood of the covenant.” We find it in Exodus 24:8, when, as God enters into a formal relationship with Israel, Moses takes the blood of bulls and sprinkles it on the people, saying, “See the blood of the covenant.” Perhaps the disciples remembered that God had spoken again through Jeremiah:

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

(Jeremiah 31:31-34)

The Israelites had been bound to God, said God through Jeremiah, as a wife is bound to a husband; but they had cheated, turning away from God on many occasions. And so God said, in effect, “I will have to enter into a new covenant with you.” Surely Jesus had these words in mind as he handled the cup; and surely this has become the story not just of the Hebrew people, but of all of us—a story of our brokenness and betrayal and our need for forgiveness.

When Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28), he changed everything. He transformed the Passover Seder, giving to all people instead the Eucharist: Holy Communion. The Israelites had become a covenant people by the blood of animals; the Last Supper was the establishment of the new covenant by the blood of Jesus, not only with the tribes of Israel, but with all humanity. Where the Seder was once the story of God’s liberation of the Israelite slaves, it was from this time forward the story of God’s liberation of all humankind from slavery to sin and death. In that moment, God gave the entire human race new life and a new beginning and made those who choose to follow Jesus into his people, his bride. In this meal and through his death and resurrection, Jesus invited all humankind to become God’s covenant people.

The last twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life is the story of God whose love for his people is so amazing and profound that he would send his Son to lay down his life as the sign and seal of a covenant that would deliver the human race from death. God would, by the Spirit, place his commands on their hearts; and he would forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more.

Paul reminds us in his first epistle to the Corinthians that Jesus said, “Do this . . . in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). The Last Supper was meant to be repeated in commemoration of the new covenant, just as the Passover Seder was meant to commemorate the central sign of God’s saving act in the Hebrew Bible. This meal, this new Passover, the Eucharist or Holy Communion, would be a perpetual reminder of God’s love, his grace, and the sacrifice of his Son. It would be the meal by which we as Christians would remember our story. By means of it, our lives would be reshaped.

If we understand Holy Communion to be analogous to the Passover Seder, we would do well to tap into Jewish insight about this ancient ritual meal. Knowing what it means to the Jewish people and how it affects their lives will help us see how Jesus looked at the Seder and the effect he intended Holy Communion to have on us.

“[The Passover Seder] is the time when we remember, as recorded in the Book of Exodus, how we cried out to God when we were slaves and how God heard our cry and took us out of Egypt,” says Rabbi Katz. “That’s a big story. It’s also the defining story of how we were born as a people. The purpose of the Seder is to make this story accessible to everyone at the table in any way we can. They’ve got to get it, because it is our most important story."

The promise of the Seder, she tells us, is reflected in a line that is traditionally sung during the evening. It comes from the Mishnah; and it says that in every generation, people should see themselves as if they were slaves in Egypt. “You start out as a slave,” she adds; “and at the end of the night you are free.”

In what way is the Christian Eucharist meant to help Christians recall our own slavery and deliverance?

Chapter 6

A Meal That Defines Us

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The Last Supper In Your Life (1:28).

In transforming the Passover into the Eucharist, I believe Jesus was expecting this meal to define who we are. Through it, we remember that someone saved us; that our freedom came at the cost of a person; that God, walking in human flesh, suffered and died for us. This is the story we remember. It is a big story, and we have to get it if we are going to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We must see ourselves there at that supper and at that cross, knowing it was for each of us that Jesus died. Every time we take the bread and wine, we remember; and it reshapes us. It reminds us where we came from, and it defines who we are and who we will be. It is the remembrance, for Christians, of our birth as a people. We come into that meal remembering that we were slaves to sin and death, living for ourselves and on our own. We leave that meal free, knowing our Savior, choosing to follow him, accepting his grace and mercy in our lives. It is a celebratory event, filled with joy because it represents our salvation. We call it “Eucharist” from the Greek word for thanksgiving. It is a profound and holy meal, filled with good news. That is how it is meant to affect us.

What memories define you? Are there events or words that play over and over inside your head? Is it the abuse you suffered as a child? words spoken by a parent, teacher, or friend? a slight or put-down that still cuts you to the quick? a hurt you cannot let go? a habit, activity, or addiction that controls you?

Those things are not meant to define you. There is something else, a larger story, that defines you. For the Jewish people, that larger story, passed on anew each year, is the memory of the Passover, summed up in the words, “We once were slaves, but now we’re free.” For you and me as Christians, our defining story is accompanied by a meal and some important words: “On the night when he was betrayed [Jesus] took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Bishop Melito of Sardis, in one of the oldest Christian sermons recorded outside the New Testament, noted that the Passover celebration was meant not only to remind the Israelites of God’s saving work through Moses but also to point them toward what he would do for the entire world 1,200 years later in Jesus Christ. In the same way, we believe Holy Communion takes us back to the cross to remind us what God has done to save us; but it also points us ahead to the day when we will eat this meal in the kingdom of heaven. Paul expressed the same thought when he said we are to eat this meal as a way of proclaiming Christ’s death until he comes again (1 Corinthians 11:26).

There is one more thing to remember as we reflect upon the Last Supper: As Jesus approached his death, he found it comforting to be with his friends. In Luke, we read that Jesus said to his disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you” (Luke 22:15). In John’s account, Jesus told the disciples of his love for them and called them not servants or pupils, but friends (John 15:15). In the hours before Jesus would be arrested, tried, and held for crucifixion, he was with twelve men who were his companions and intimates, men with whom he had prayed, worshiped, and shared life. When he went to pray, knowing he would die, he asked those who were closest to him to pray with him.

Remember, these close companions were not perfect. They had let him down and would do so again. One would even betray him. Still, they were the best friends he had; and they were with him as he approached his darkest hour.

The earliest Christians gathered for worship in the Temple courts and met in smaller groups in one another’s homes, as Jesus had met with his small group. Many modern churches emphasize small groups because, like Jesus, each of us needs close friends who will join us on this journey, who will challenge us, help us, and support us in our faith. This was important for Jesus, and it is important for all of us.

If you knew you had one more day to live, that it was time for your last supper, who would be sitting around your table? No doubt your family members would be there. LaVon and my daughters would be there for me, as would my parents, if they could. The others in that room would be from my small group. They are the people with whom I meet every week to pray and to study the Scriptures. They have encouraged and blessed me again and again over the years. We have visited each other in the hospital. We have prayed for one another through difficult times. We have done life together, and as a result these people have become some of my closest companions.

I am wondering if you have spiritual friends like that, people who will pray you through tough times, people you can talk to about the faith, people you can confess to and who can confess to you—people who carry one another to Jesus.

Jesus needed friends like that. You need them too. I am reminded of a man in the congregation I serve who found such friends in our evening men’s study. His cancer returned after being in remission for two-and-a-half years. During the last year- and-a-half of his life, when he could no longer attend that small group, these guys carried him. They prayed for, encouraged, blessed, and loved him to the end. At his funeral they all were there, a band of brothers who had done life together.

When a woman in our congregation was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer, her small group began praying for and encouraging her. When she began to lose her hair during treatment, one of the men came to the group one night with his head shaved. He told her, “I’m not going to have any hair until yours comes back.” It was his way of saying, “We’re walking through this together because I am your brother in Christ.” They both celebrated when her hair grew back.

Friendships like that do not just happen. You have to cultivate them. Your local church likely has a small-group ministry. If not, invite some of your acquaintances, neighbors, or friends to join you in starting such a group. Gather weekly for prayer, study, and mutual encouragement. Jesus needed a group like this; and if he did, how much more do we need such a group?

At the Last Supper, Jesus sat with his disciples, a band of misfits and ragamuffins. There were fishermen, a tax collector who was a Roman collaborator, a Zealot who wanted to kill the Romans, a mix of brash and bashful men, most of whom (like most people in the first century) could not read and write. One would betray him, one would deny him, all would desert him; but they were still his friends. In breaking bread with them, he taught them one last time. He showed them his love. In the Gospel of John we read that he washed their feet. He gave them a meal by which they would remember him for the rest of their lives. And from that time to the present, every time Jesus’ disciples have shared this meal of bread and wine, it has bound them together as his followers and reminded them that he is never far away.

1 From “On the Passover,” by Melito of Sardis; see The Crossroads Initiative, http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/817/On_the_Passover_Melito_of_ Sardis.html. (March 1, 2006)

*This is true only in the Gospel of Mark (11:11). In Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, Jesus enters the Temple area right away and beings to overturn the moneychangers' tables.

Credits & Copyright

Author Profile:

Adam Hamilton - Rev. Adam Hamilton is the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. He grew up in the Kansas City area, attending Shawnee Mission schools before graduating from Blue Valley High School. He earned a B.A. degree in Pastoral Ministry from Oral Roberts University and a Master of Divinity Degree from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

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Abingdon Press - Abingdon Press is an imprint of The United Methodist Publishing House, in operation since 1789. In the early 1920s, Abingdon began publishing a wide array of high-caliber academic, professional, inspirational, and life-affirming religious literature to enrich church communities across the globe. Now beginning its ninth decade, Abingdon Press has a commitment to providing the best, most effective religious publications available.

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The Last Supper

by Adam Hamilton

"24 Hours That Changed The World: The Last Supper" is the 1st of 7 Vooks in this series, which chronicles the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life. Throughout this series, Adam Hamilton guides readers through the important principles one should reflect on through Jesus’ journey. This Vook focuses on Jesus’ last supper and the influential events that took place at this famous dinner with Jesus and his disciples.

Filmmaker Credits

Abingdon Press

Text and video copyright © 2010 United Methodist Publishing Compilation copyright © 2010 Vook, Inc. Vook® is a registered trademark of Vook, Inc.

Table of Contents

List of Videos

Introduction

1. Biblical Foundation

2. Thursday Evening: An Upper Room in Jerusalem

3. Preparing the Passover Seder

4. Betrayal and Repentance: Preparing Ourselves

5. “This Is My Body...” (Mark 14:12): From Seder to Eucharist"

6. A Meal That Defines Us