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Two days before the Passover Feast, the chief
priests and scribes were planning how they might take Jesus privately
and put Him to death. They decided not to do it during the feast days,
because there could be an uproar of the people. (Mark 14:1,2 and Luke
22:1,2) Six days before the Passover, Jesus
and His disciples were invited to a dinner party in Bethany (see John
12:1-8, Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9), at the home of a Pharisee
who is identified as Simon the leper in Matthew 26:6 and Luke 7:36.
One of Jesus' disciples, Judas Iscariot, was also present, and he is
called Simon's son in John 12:4. Another guest at the table was
Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
During dinner, Lazarus' sister Mary came
in with a box of very costly ointment. She knelt down and began to
wash Jesus' feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she
opened the box and put some of the ointment on His feet. (Luke
7:37,38) Mark 14:3 records that she also anointed His head with some
of the precious ointment.
When Judas saw what Mary was doing, he
became very indignant and said, "Why is this ointment being wasted?
It could have been sold for a great deal of money and given to the
poor." (John 12:4-6) Some of the others at-the table joined in and
said the same thing.
Jesus sharply rebuked Judas for what he
said and told him that Mary had done this in preparation for His death
which was soon to take place. (John 12:7,8 and Matthew 26:10-13)
After being rebuked by Jesus in his own
house and in front of their guests, Judas went to the Pharisees and
arranged to betray the Lord for a certain sum of money, and from that
time on, he looked for an opportunity to betray Him when He was apart
from the crowds. (see Mark 14:10,11, Matthew 26:14-16 and Luke 22:4-6)
Jesus highly commended Mary of Bethany for
paying attention to His words, and, because she anointed His body that
day, He said she will be remembered every time and in every place
where the Gospel would be proclaimed. (Matthew 26:13)
When some of the people heard Jesus was in
Bethany, they looked in at the dinner table to see Him, and they also
wanted to see Lazarus. (John 12:9)
Meanwhile, when the chief priests heard about the interest people had
in Lazarus, they made plans to kill him as well as Jesus, because many
people had believed Jesus was the Messiah when they saw Him raise
Lazarus from the dead. (John 12:10,11)
When Jesus and the 12 returned to
Jerusalem, they found a room where they could eat the Passover meal
together. (Mark 14:12-16; Matthew 26:17-19; Luke 22:7-13) On their
way, they were arguing about which of them would be the greatest in
the Kingdom. The mother of James and John asked Jesus if her sons
might have special honor in the Kingdom, and Jesus told her that
decision was in the hands of His Father. (Matthew 20:20-23) And in
Mark 10:35-37, James and John also asked Jesus if they could have a
special place in glory. Jesus told them that in the Kingdom, they will
all sit on thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke
22:29,30)
When the other disciples heard James and John ask if
they could have a special place in the Kingdom, they were very
displeased with them. (Mark 10:41)
When they arrived at the house where they would celebrate the
Passover, no servant was at the door to wash their feet, so they left
their sandals outside, went in with dirty feet and reclined
Roman-style at the table. Suddenly, Jesus got up, removed His outer
garment and wrapped a towel around His waist. Then He poured water
into a basin, knelt down and began to wash their feet. (John 13:5)
Peter had been watching with great
interest, and when the Lord got to him, he drew his feet under him and
said, "Lord ... you shall never my feet!" Jesus replied, "If
I don't wash your feet, Peter you cannot have fellowship with Me."
Then Peter said, "Lord, if that's the
case, don't just wash my feet, but wash me all over!" (by washing
their feet, Jesus was teaching them the importance of having their
known sins confessed in order to have fellowship with Him) He said not
all of them were clean, because He knew that Judas was an unbeliever
and also that he would betray Him. (John 13:10,11)
After Jesus sat down again, He said,
"One of you is going to betray Me, and it would have been better for
that man if he had never been born." (compare John 13:21; Matthew
26:21-24; Luke 22:21,22; and Mark 14:18-21)
On the way to the house, they had been
arguing about which of them was the greatest, and now they're looking
around the table wondering which of. them is the worst. (Matthew
26:22; Mark 14:19; Luke 22:23; and John 13:22)
At the table, John was seated next to
Jesus, and Peter motioned to him to ask the Lord who the traitor was.
Jesus told him it was the one to whom He would give the special morsel
of food, called the 'sop'. (John 13:26) When Judas accepted the sop,
Satan entered into Him. (John 13:27a and Luke 22:3) (NOTE: when Judas
received the sop and Satan entered into him, it was at that moment
when Satan became the 'unseen visitor' at the table)
Jesus commanded Judas, "What you are
about to do, do quickly!" (John 13:27b)
Judas immediately went out into the night, and Satan went with him.
(Matthew 26:14; Mark 14:10,11; and John 13:30)
Judas immediately went to the chief
priests, and they gave him 30 pieces of silver. Then he looked for an
opportunity to betray Jesus to them. (Matthew 26:15,16)
Judas knew that Jesus often went into the
Garden of Gethsemene to pray, and that very night, Judas brought a
multitude of men with swords and staves from the chief priests and
elders of the people. He had told them ahead of time that he would
identify Jesus by greeting Him with a kiss. After he did that, they
bound Jesus and took Him to Annas and then to Caiaphas, the high
priest. (Matthew 26:47-57; Mark 14:53; and John 18:1-14)
After several illegal trials by the Jewish
council, Jesus was taken to Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate found
Jesus to be innocent of the charges against Him, and he wanted to
release Jesus, but he gave in to the crowd who demanded that Jesus be
crucified, and Pilate washed his hands of the situation. (Matthew
17:1,2; Mark 15:1-15; Luke 23:1-25; and John 18-29-19:1-16)
Jesus was crucified, and three days later
He arose from the dead. He appeared in His resurrection body to the
eleven disciples who were gathered together in an upper room in
Jerusalem and showed them the hole in His side and the nail prints in
His hands.
Jesus knew they would fall apart before
the Day of Pentecost, so He breathed on them and said, "!Receive the
Holy Spirit." The enduement of the Holy Spirit coming upon them would
sustain them for 50 days until the Holy Spirit would actually indwell
them permanently throughout the Church Age. (John 20:22)
Because Satan was not present when Jesus
taught the eleven about the Church Age, he assigned a special demon to
follow the apostle Paul so he could learn about the mysteries of the
Church Age as they are found in the New Testament epistles written by
Paul. Paul tells us about it in 2 Corinthians 12:7: "To keep me
from becoming arrogant because knowledge about the mysteries has been
revealed to me, I have been given a thorn in the flesh . . . the
messenger of Satan . . . to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above
measure."
In Ephesians 5:30-32 we see that the
building of the 'body of Christ' in this age is a great mystery
concerning Christ and the Church. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul tells us
he was made a minister in order to proclaim the mystery that was
hidden throughout all the past ages, which is:
CHRIST IN YOU ...THE HOPE OF GLORY
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