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Desiring, as He always did, to observe those religious rites which He thought befitting the faith in which He had been brought up, Jesus, the Master of all religious faith., planned to celebrate the paschal supper, as it was called, which was the customary supper that was eaten as part of the Festival of the Passover. It was the first day of the feast of the unleavened bread, which means bread that has no yeast in it; unleavened bread was always used in the observance of this religious ceremony.
Then Jesus sent two of His Disciples, Peter and John, out into the city, and told them that they would meet a man carrying a pitcher.
"Follow him," Jesus instructed, "and whatever house he goes in, you go in and say to the man who lives there, that the Master wishes to use his guest chamber to eat the Passover with His Disciples. And he will show you a large upper room all finished and prepared. There make ready for our supper. And if he makes any objection, say that you are doing it for the Lord.
Peter and John did as Jesus told them to do. They found the man, followed him, and secured the guest room. All the preparations were made, and when evening came they all walked there together, to partake of the meal.
After their walk through the dusty streets, their feet were dirty. As was the custom in those times, they took off their sandals at the door of the room, and entered barefoot. Some of the Disciples squabbled with one another about where they should sit at the long table, and Jesus was troubled to see them thus occupy themselves with petty jealousies.
Suddenly the Disciples noticed that Jesus had removed His upper garments, and had taken a towel and a basin of water. Kneeling at the feet of the first Disciple, the Master began to bathe His followers feet-a custom which the others had forgotten, and which there was no servant there to do.
The Disciples were shocked to see their Master lower Himself to wash and dry their feet, but they were unable to say anything and permitted Him to do as He wished, until Jesus came to Simon Peter, who objected, saying:
"Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
As he spoke, Peter drew his feet away to keep Jesus from washing them.
"What I do you may not know now," Jesus said gently, "but you will know later." But Peter persisted in his refusal .
"You shall never wash my feet," he said.
Jesus, kneeling before Peter and looking at him with His kindly eyes, reminded the Disciple that he should always do as the Master wished, saying:
"If you do not let me wash your feet, you will be taking yourself away from me.""
At these words, Peter gave in, adding that Jesus might wash not only his feet, if that were His wish, but his hands and head also.
"No," said Jesus, "for only your feet need washing now. Otherwise you are clean, every whit, but not all of you who are here. Jesus had already washed the feet of Judas, and by His last words He could only have meant that not all of the twelve were clean in every respect. Judas was stained with dishonor, and Jesus knew it, though Judas did not know that the Master knew.
What did the statement Jesus made to Peter signify? In the eastern countries in those days, there were public bath houses and if a person went there and bathed then they were clean but the sandals they wore did not protect their feet from getting dusty and dirty again on their way home so they would need to wash their feet again when they returned home even though they were clean every place else. That Peter was already washed clean from his sins is what Jesus was telling him but he needed to have his feet washed, (all of them did) which signifies that even though we are clean through the blood of Jesus, we commit sins every day and we need to ask forgiveness for those sins. However, we are still saved. The sins we do not ask forgiveness for after we are saved, will keep us from fellowship with Jesus and will cost us rewards in heaven.
After that, they sat around the table, and ate, While they ate, Jesus talked to them, saying:
"Verily I say unto you, that one of you who now eats with me, shall betray me.."
At these words, the Disciples looked at one another in horror. Could it be that they had heard the Master correctly? One of them betray Him? Sadly they shook their heads, and they began to ask Him, each in turn:
"Lord, is it I? Is it I?"
Jesus did not answer any of them. Perhaps He wished to give Judas a chance to repent, even then, when he might be forgiven. But Peter could not wait. Behind the back of Jesus, Peter made a sign to John, who sat on the Master's right, to ask who the traitor was. John, so close to Jesus that he could whisper to Him, asked softly:
"Lord, who is it?"
To this question Jesus made a low reply which could be heard only by John. Evidently Jesus told John that He would indicate the guilty one by a sign. For, in accordance with the custom then, when everyone dipped his bit of bread into the common bowl to soak it with gravy and pick up a little meat with it, Jesus dipped a piece and handed it to Judas, who accepted and ate it. In doing this little act, Jesus was merely observing the courtesy of offering some food to His neighbor at the table. But it was clear that John took it to be a sign that Judas was the betrayer.
"The Son of Man goes away, indeed," Jesus then said, "as it is written that He must go. But woe unto the man who has betrayed Him. It were better for that man that he should never have been born!"
Up to this moment, Judas had remained sullenly silent. Filled with a sense of his own, guilt, he had not asked if the traitor were he. He had permitted the others to ask. Now, perhaps suddenly realizing that he had in some way shown that he was the guilty one, Judas stiffly asked, without the loving affection that had been in the voices of the others:
"Master, is it I?"
Still again Jesus made answer in a low tone, so low that only Judas could hear it. Fixing his eyes on those of Judas, who dropped his eyelids, Jesus said:
"You have spoken."
Probably Peter and John were the only ones of the other Disciples who knew from the actions of Jesus who the guilty one really was.
"What you have to do," Jesus then went on, in a voice that all could hear "go and do quickly."
At this, Judas rose from the table and went out into the night. The others merely supposed that he was going to make some preparations for the morrow, since he was the treasurer and would be the one to secure any supplies they would need for the further celebration of the Passover the next day.
In this last supper with His Disciples, Jesus observed the
religious custom of giving thanks for the food, blessing it, breaking
the bread, and giving it to the others. But as He passed out the
bread, Jesus added something new to the ritual. He established
for the first time the religious rite of the Eucharist, or communion
with Him by partaking of His spiritual body and gaining spiritual
strength from it, as well as by partaking of the physical food
to give the physical body new energy.
"Take this bread," Jesus said, "and eat it, for
this bread is my body, given to you in remembrance of me."
Then Jesus took the cup and, having given thanks and blessed it,
gave it to them, saying:
"Drink this, for it is the new testament in my blood,
which is to be shed for you, and which will give you spiritual
strength to believe in me and to remind you later of what I am
about to do and have done for you."
And all then present ate the bread and drank the wine.
