The Last Supper 

The Last Supper refers to the final meal that Jesus shared with his apostles in the upper room of the Mark home. During this meal, Jesus established the remembrance supper. This is a ceremony that individuals partake in to remember him. Jesus did not provide precise definitions of the meaning of the ceremony. Instead, he took great pains to suggest its meanings.

Jesus and John Mark had a day alone in the hills. During this time, they came to an understanding that Jesus wanted to have one last meal undisturbed with his apostles. However, he feared that if Judas knew their meeting place, he would arrange to capture Jesus.

The following day, Thursday, April 6, 30 CE, all of the apostles and disciples learned about the hasty flight of Lazarus from Bethany. This was the same day that the Jewish rulers made plans to exterminate Jesus and his teachings.

During the afternoon, Philip reminded Jesus about the approaching Passover and asked about his plans for its celebration. The Passover supper was due to be eaten on Friday evening. It was customary to begin preparations for the celebration no later than noon the preceding day. However, Jesus announced that they would celebrate the Passover one day early. Some apostles thought that Jesus knew he would be placed under arrest before the time of the Passover supper on Friday night.

To avoid the crowds passing through the Kidron Valley back and forth between Gethsemane Park and Jerusalem, Jesus and the twelve walked over the western brow of Mount Olivet and paused to look down on Jerusalem in silence as Jesus did not wish to pass through the city until after sunset. Then Jesus told his apostles that he had come to teach them heavenly things before Jerusalem must be destroyed.

When they arrived in the city after dark, only three apostles knew where they were going. The crowds jostled them, but no one recognized them nor knew that the Son of God was passing by on his way to the last mortal rendezvous with his chosen ambassadors of the kingdom.

John Mark followed them all the way into the city. After they had entered the gate, he hurried on another street so that he was waiting to welcome them to his father’s home when they arrived.

After receiving a warm welcome from the father and mother of John Mark, the apostles went immediately to the upper chamber. Jesus lingered behind to talk with the Mark family. It had been understood beforehand that the Master was to celebrate this occasion alone with his twelve apostles. Therefore, no servants were provided to wait upon them.

When the apostles had been shown upstairs, they beheld a large chamber. The bread, wine, water, and herbs were all in readiness on one end of the table. The rest of the long table was surrounded by thirteen reclining couches, just such as would be provided for the celebration of the Passover in a well-to-do Jewish household.

Just inside the door, pitchers of water, basins, and towels had been provided for washing their dusty feet. However, since no servant had been provided to render this service, the apostles began to look at one another as soon as John Mark had left them.

They expected the Master to appear at any moment, but they couldn't decide whether to seat themselves or wait for him and rely on him to assign them their seats. While they pondered, Judas crossed to the seat of honor, to the left of the host, and indicated that he planned to recline there as the preferred guest.

Judas' actions instantly sparked a heated debate among the other apostles. Judas had barely taken the place of honor when John Zebedee claimed the next preferred seat, the one to the host's right. Simon Peter was so enraged by Judas and John's choice positions that he marched clear around the table and took his place on the lowest couch, at the end of the seating order and directly opposite that selected by John Zebedee.

With the highest and lowest positions occupied, the remaining apostles selected locations, some near Judas and others near Peter, until all were found. On these reclining divans, they were situated in the following order: on the right of the Master, John; on the left, Judas, Simon Zelotes, Matthew, James Zebedee, Andrew, the Alpheus twins, Philip, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Simon Peter.

They were still engaged in voicing angry accusations when the Master appeared in the doorway, where he hesitated a moment as a look of disappointment slowly crept over his face. He moved to his seat without saying anything and did not disturb their seating arrangement.

For a moment after the Master had taken his place, everyone remained silent. Jesus looked around at them all and, with a smile that eased the tension, said, "I've been looking forward to eating this Passover meal with you. I wanted to eat with you one last time before I suffer. Knowing that my time has come, I arranged to have this supper with you tonight. Tomorrow is in the hands of the Father, and I've come to do His will. I won't eat with you again until we sit together in the kingdom my Father will give me when I finish my work on this earth."

After they mixed the wine and water, they brought the cup to Jesus. He received it from Thaddeus (James Alpheus) and held it while he gave thanks. When he finished, he said, "Take this cup and share it among yourselves. When you drink from it, remember that I won't drink again with you until we're together in the kingdom to come."

In Jewish custom, the host would wash his hands after the first cup of Passover wine. Later, after the second cup, all guests would wash their hands as well. The apostles knew Jesus didn't observe this ritual hand-washing, so they were curious about what he would do when he got up from the table after the first cup. They watched as he walked silently to where the water pitchers, basins, and towels were placed near the door. They were amazed when he removed his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, and began pouring water into one of the basins.

The apostles had recently refused to wash each other's feet and had been arguing about their positions at the table. They were astonished to see Jesus, their Master, kneel down like a servant to wash Simon Peter's feet. As Jesus knelt, all the apostles stood up in surprise, respect, and utter amazement, even Judas forgot his infamy for a moment and stood up with his fellow apostles.

Simon Peter looked down at Jesus and said, "Master, are you really going to wash my feet?" Jesus didn't say anything; his actions showed that he intended to wash Peter's feet. After a few moments of awkwardness, Peter said, "Master, you will never wash my feet!" The other apostles nodded in agreement with Peter's refusal to let Jesus humble himself before them.

Jesus said, "Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you won't be a part of what I'm about to do." When Peter heard this, he realized that Jesus' act of service was significant and determined one's connection with the Master's work. Peter agreed to let Jesus wash his feet and impetuously said, "Master, not just my feet, but also my hands and head."

As Jesus prepared to wash Peter's feet, he said, "You are already clean. You just need your feet washed. Everyone here tonight is clean, but not all of you. You should have washed the dust from your feet before you sat down to eat with me. I'm doing this to illustrate a new commandment that I'll give you soon."

Jesus went around the table in silence, washing the feet of all twelve apostles, not even skipping Judas.

The Alpheus twins brought out the bread and wine, along with the bitter herbs and dried fruit paste, for the next course of the Last Supper. The apostles ate in silence for a few minutes, but Jesus' cheerful demeanor soon drew them into conversation, and the meal proceeded as if nothing unusual had happened to disturb the good cheer and social harmony of this exceptional occasion.

After some time had passed during the second course of the meal, Jesus surveyed them and said, "I've already expressed how much I wanted to have this supper with you. Knowing how the evil forces of darkness have conspired to bring about the death of the Son of Man, I decided to have this supper with you in this secret chamber and one day before the Passover, since I won't be with you by this time tomorrow night. I've repeatedly told you that I must return to the Father. Now my time has come, but it wasn't necessary for one of you to betray me into the hands of my enemies."

Upon hearing this, the twelve, who had already been stripped of much of their self-assertiveness and confidence by the foot washing parable and the Master's subsequent discourse, looked at one another in dismay and asked hesitantly, "Is it me?"

After all of them had asked, Jesus said, "While I must go to the Father, it wasn't necessary for one of you to become a traitor to fulfill the Father's will. This is the result of the hidden evil in the heart of someone who didn't love the truth with their whole being. How deceitful is the intellectual pride that precedes spiritual downfall! My friend of many years, who even now eats my bread, is willing to betray me, just as he dips his hand with me in the dish."

When Jesus spoke these words, they all began to ask again, "Is it me?" Judas, who sat on Jesus' left, also asked, "Is it me?" Jesus dipped the bread in the dish of herbs, handed it to Judas, and said, "You have said."

The other apostles didn't hear Jesus speak to Judas. After telling them about these events so that they would know he foresaw them, Jesus leaned over to Judas and said, "Do what you've decided to do quickly."

When Judas heard these words, he got up from the table and quickly left the room, going out into the night to do what he had planned to do. When the other apostles saw Judas leave quickly after Jesus spoke to him, they thought he had gone to get something else for the supper or run some other errand for the Master, as they assumed he still had the money bag.

As they brought Jesus the third cup of wine, the "cup of blessing,” he stood up from the couch and, taking the cup in his hands, blessed it, saying: "Take this cup, all of you, and drink from it. This will be the cup of my remembrance. This is the cup of the blessing of a new era of grace and truth. This will be a symbol to you of the bestowal and ministry of the divine Spirit of Truth. And I will not drink this cup with you again until I drink it anew with you in the Father's eternal kingdom."

The apostles all felt that something extraordinary was happening as they drank of this cup of blessing in deep reverence and perfect silence. The old Passover commemorated the release of their ancestors from a state of racial slavery into individual freedom; now the Master was initiating a new commemorative supper as a symbol of the new era in which the enslaved individual emerges from the bondage of ritualism and selfishness into the spiritual joy of the brotherhood and fellowship of the liberated faith sons of the living God.

When they had finished drinking this new cup of remembrance, the Master took the bread and, after giving thanks, broke it into pieces and instructed them to pass it around, saying: "Take this bread of remembrance and eat it. I have told you that I am the bread of life. And this bread of life is the united life of the Father and the Son in one gift. The word of the Father, as revealed in the Son, is truly the bread of life." After they had partaken of the bread of remembrance, the symbol of the living word of truth incarnated in mortal flesh, they all sat down.

After they meditated for a few moments, Jesus continued speaking: "When you do these things, remember the life I have lived on earth among you and rejoice that I am going to continue to live on earth with you and serve through you. As individuals, do not contend among yourselves as to who will be the greatest. Be all as brethren. And when the kingdom grows to encompass large groups of believers, likewise you should refrain from contending for greatness or seeking preferment between such groups."

They ended this celebration of the old but bloodless Passover in connection with the inauguration of the new supper of remembrance by singing, all together, the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm.

Despite the Master's attempt to create a new sacrament of remembrance, those who followed him in the centuries that followed made sure that his explicit wish was undermined, and his straightforward spiritual symbolism from that final night in the flesh was diminished to specific interpretations and subjected to a nearly mathematical precision of a set formula. Of all Jesus' teachings, none have become more standardized by tradition.

Today, the traditional Catholic Mass is a series of ordered prayers centering on the Eucharist. As he breaks the bread and drinks the wine, the priest will typically recite from Bible verse 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 which states:

“...The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”