It was going to be a long and eventful day, it was “…the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread” Matthew 26:17a, or Passover as it is now commonly referred to by many Christians. A location needed to be found to accommodate thirteen men, but not just any location would do. So the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” Matthew 26:17b.
The Passover meal was not a banquet or a common every day meal, it was a special meal; the most important meal of the year for the Jewish people that was celebrated only once a year. Special arrangements had to be made for this evening meal, special food had to be purchased and cooked for Jesus and His chosen twelve. It would take all day to accomplish this so that at the end of the day, would be everything was ready to receive the hungry men. So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. Matthew 26:19.
Anyone who is familiar with preparing and eating a Thanksgiving meal has a good idea and has experienced many of the similarities with this last Passover meal Jesus and His apostles observed. There are the particular essentials involved with certain types of food to be served, its preparation, the importance of how the table is set and who sits where, and finally, how we feel after usually eating more than we normally do.
As far as we can tell from what we read from the Scriptures, we do not know what transpired between the time the disciples asked Jesus –“Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” Matthew 26:17b, and the time when they reclined to eat the Passover meal. “When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.” Matthew 26:20. The Scriptures do not tell us if Jesus ministered to the masses that were in Jerusalem that day to celebrate the Passover. The Scriptures also do not tell us who actually purchased and cooked the food for the meal. We can probably assume it was the disciples from what Matthew tells us, who was one of the twelve at the Passover meal.
This was not just any Passover meal it was especially significant for Jesus for many reasons. It would be the last Passover meal He would eat with His twelve disciples. What also made this Passover meal significant was Jesus wanted to spend His last hours with his chosen twelve before His arrest, death, and resurrection. He wanted to celebrate this last meal with the twelve men who were at His side in life and ministry for three consecutive years. “I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples…” Matthew 26:18.
The apostle John in his gospel more than any other of the three writers in their gospels starting with chapter thirteen and ending in chapter seventeen tells us in great detail what Jesus said and did during his last meal with His apostles.
An event that John does not include in his gospel which the other three do, is after the Passover meal, moments before Jesus was arrested, Jesus takes the twelve to Gethsemane to pray. “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” Matthew 26:36. Maybe the reason why John did not mention this particular event was that Jesus found John along with his brother James and Peter asleep, three times! 37 “He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (James and John) along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Matthew 26:37-38.
Matthew 26:40, Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?”
Matthew 26:43-45, 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting?
How much more are we than what we realize, like the apostles in our prayer life. How many times has the Lord has spoken to us to pray but we fail by being distracted or allowing our responsibilities or things we want to do to cut short that valuable time to be alone with Jesus. How many times have we sincerely wanted to pray, but like the apostles we fell asleep?
Was eating too much of a heavy meal that night the cause for the disciples to be groggy and for sleeping? Or was it something else that caused them to not be faithful when Jesus asked them to be watchful and pray?
If we cannot be faithful to Jesus in our daily prayer life when we can be alone with Him, we will most likely not be faithful to Him in public and or in other more demanding situations that we experience daily. What is it that causes our hearts to be hardened or resistant and unfaithful in daily prayer?
In a short but song written in 1978 and sung by Keith Green titled, “My Eyes Are Dry”, in the second verse he sings of a spiritual truth and reality that many Christians face in their relationship with Jesus. This reality can be the outcome of difficult circumstances, complacency, the busyness of life and the fatigue it causes or many other reasons. The question we need to ask ourselves is, what are we going to do about being more faithful in our prayer life? What causes our bodies to be weak when our spirit is willing to pray? The fact is, the answer can only be found when we pray and ask Jesus to show us.
Pastor John
My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me
But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood
