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Again conflicting with John, the first three Gospels report that Jesus next went to the Temple. Outraged at the sight of merchants and money changers doing such a brisk business there, he chases them out, furiously overturning their tables and driving the traders out with a whip. These traders sold animals for the ritual sacrifices and exchanged the various coins of pilgrims for locally minted money. Their stalls were placed in the Temple’s outer Court of the Gentiles and must have had the chaotic feel of a Middle Eastern bazaar. The actual sacrifice of these animals was performed within the Temple. In another discrepancy, John places this “cleansing of the temple” at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry instead of during the last week of his life. This violent assault on the lucrative Temple merchants would have alienated the Temple authorities, who were doing a healthy cash business, and, coming so soon after Jesus’ provocative triumphal entry into the city, probably challenged Roman authority, setting in motion the events leading to Jesus’ arrest.

BIBLICAL VOICES

Now before the festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him and during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13:1-7)

What was the Last Supper?

In Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper, the disciples are depicted seated at a long, high table on either side of Jesus. What Leonardo didn’t know was that Jesus and the disciples would have eaten, as was the custom of the day, while they reclined on couches or mats around a low table. There is some question as to whether Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples was the actual Passover meal. There were apparently no women present, as would have been customary for the Passover meal commemorating the salvation of Israel’s firstborn in Egypt before the Exodus. And there is no specific mention of the traditional Passover lamb or customary herbs used in this most sacred of Jewish meals. While the first three Gospels state that it is a Passover meal, John makes it seem that it wasn’t. As the men eat, Jesus tells them he will be betrayed by one of them and says he will not eat the Passover meal again until the Kingdom of God comes. In Mark and Matthew, Jesus breaks bread, saying, “Take, eat, this is my body.” Then he takes a cup of wine and blesses it, saying, “Drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” These are words that divided early Christians and still divide Christians over the nature of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist, or communion, commemorating this event. Luke reverses the order of bread and wine and adds a second sharing of wine, and the John account of the Last Supper makes no mention of the bread and wine.

Following the meal, Jesus and the remaining disciples—Judas has slipped away to carry out his betrayal—cross the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives and a place called Gethsemane, a name meaning “oil press” or “oil vat.” In this garden, Jesus confronts his impending death. Deeply troubled, Jesus asks God to relieve him of the burden he faces. In Mark, Jesus calls on God as Abba, an informal Aramaic form of “Father” akin to “Papa” or “Daddy,” and asks, “Remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Although Jesus asks the disciples to stay awake, they fall asleep, underscoring their humanity