CXVII.
PREPARATION FOR PASSOVER.
DISCIPLES CONTEND FOR PRECEDENCE.
(Bethany to Jerusalem. Thursday afternoon and, after sunset, beginning
of Friday.)
aMATT. XXVI. 17-20; bMARK
XIV. 12-17; cLUKE XXII. 7-18, 24-30.
c7 And the day of unleavened
bread came, on which the passover must be sacrificed. [See p.
57. Leaven was to the Jew a symbol of corruption and impurity, because
it causes bread to become stale. The feast of unleavened bread began properly
on the fifteenth of Nisan, and lasted seven days, but this was the fourteenth
Nisan, the day on which the paschal lamb was slain. However, it was common
to blend the slaying of the passover, the passover feast and the feast
of the unleavened bread, and to look upon all three as one great festival,
and to use the names passover and unleavened bread interchangeably to describe
the entire eight days. This appears from the writings of Josephus, who
sometimes reckons the feast as beginning on the fifteenth (Ant. iii. 10.
5), and again as beginning on the fourteenth (Wars v. 3. 1). He also sometimes
reckons the feast as lasting seven days (Ant. iii. 10. 5), and again he
reckons it as lasting eight days (Ant. iii. 15. 1). The Rabbinists say
that all the leaven was carefully removed from the houses on the evening
before the fourteenth Nisan. To the present day leaven is removed from
the houses of the Jews on the night between the thirteenth and fourteenth.
Hence the day could be very fittingly called "the first day of unleavened
bread."] b12 And
a17 Now bon the first day of unleavened bread, when
they sacrificed the passover, his {athe} disciples came to Jesus
[as the head of the household], saying, {bsay} unto
him, Where wilt thou that we go and make ready afor thee to
eat {bthat thou mayest eat} the passover? [It [644] required
considerable preparation. The lamb must be slain in the temple, roasted,
and unleavened loaves, wine, and bitter herbs, etc., must be provided (Ex.
xii. 8), and a room for the feast must be secured.]
13 And he sendeth {csent} Peter and John, btwo of
his disciples, csaying, God and make ready for us the passover,
that we may eat. 9 And they said unto him, Where
wilt thou that we make ready? 10 And
he said {bsaith} unto them, Go into the city, and cBehold,
when ye are entered into the city, there shall meet you a man bearing a
pitcher of water; follow him into the house whereinto he goeth.
b14 and wheresoever he shall enter in, say to {c11
And ye shall say unto} the master of the house, {aGo
into the city to such a man, and say unto him,} cThe Teacher
saith unto thee, aMy time is at hand; I keep the passover at
thy house with my disciples. cWhere is the {bmy}
guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? [It
was customary for the residents of Jerusalem to open their houses for guests
during this feast, and therefore Jesus might have presumed on the hospitality
of almost anyone; but the probability is that the man to whom he sent this
message was an acquaintance and a friend. It is not improbable that Jesus
let Peter and John thus find the place that Judas might not know its whereabouts
in time to bring the officers of the Sanhedrin so as to interrupt the feasts
which meant so much to him and to his church.]
15 And he will himself show you a large upper room furnished and
ready: and there make ready for us.
16 And the disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he
had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.
a19 And the disciples did as Jesus appointed them; and they
made ready the passover. b17
And a20 Now when even was
come, {bwhen it was evening} he cometh with the twelve [The
law required that the paschal lamb should be slain "between the evenings."
The Jews reckoned the two evenings as from three o'clock to sunset, and
from sunset to nine o'clock, which was the end of the first watch. But
[645] Josephus tells us that the lambs were
killed from the ninth to the eleventh hours, or between the hours of three
and five. It would take some time to dress the lamb and to roast it, so
that it must have been about sundown or shortly afterward when Jesus and
his disciples sat down to the feast.]
c14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the apostles
with him. 15 And ahe was sitting
at meat with the twelve disciples; 21
and che said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this
passover with you before I suffer: 16
for I say unto you, I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom
of God. [Jesus had desired to keep with his disciples this last type
which stood so close to the thing typified. It was a feast commemorating
a great deliverance from death through the sacrifice of a lamb, and the
real sacrifice and deliverance of which it was typical were about to be
fulfilled in the unfolding of the kingdom of God.]
17 And he received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this,
and divide it among yourselves: 18 for
I say unto you, I shall not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine,
until the kingdom of God shall come. [Luke brings out the parallelism
between the passover and the Lord's supper. Each consisted in eating followed
by drinking, and the closeness of the parallel is emphasized by the use
of almost the same words with regard to the cup. The passover was typical
of the Lord's suffering before the event, and the Lord's supper
is typical of the same thing after the event.]
24 And there arose also a contention among them, which of them was accounted
to be greatest. 25 And he said unto them,
The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them; and they that have authority
over them are called Benefactors. 26
But ye shall not be so: but he that is the greater among
you, let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth
serve. 27 For which is greater, he that
sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but
I am in the midst of you as he that serveth. [In sending to secure
the room in which [646] the paschal supper was
being eaten, Jesus had said, "My time is at hand." Such expressions were
falsely construed by the apostles. They thought that Jesus was about to
set up his kingdom, and began at once to contend for the chief places.
Jesus rebukes this false ambition in much the same manner as he had previously.
See pp. 430, 557,
558.] 28 But ye are they that
have continued with me in my temptations;
29 and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me,
30 that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and ye shall sit
on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [The word "temptations"
is here used to mean trials (Jas. i. 2, 3). For the rest of the passage
compare the remarks on pp. 548,
549. The words concerning eating and drinking at the Lord's table refer
to the ancient custom of thus bestowing honor and distinction (II. Sam.
ix. 7; xix. 28), and indicate that the apostles, being about to participate
in the Lord's condemnation and suffering, should in the end share his exaltation
and its attendant joys.]
[FFG 644-647]
