Knowing The Word in Luke 22:7-13

The Passover with the Disciples

22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” 9 They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” 10 He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters 11 and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.” 13 And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

Comments

John gives the fullest and longest account of this Passover evening, while Luke the second longest. Luke, along with Matthew and Mark, has the meal on Thursday night while John has it on Friday. Not all the Jews followed the same calendar for the feast days, so that is one explanation as to why John differs from the synoptics. There is an argument to be made, however, that makes both John and the synoptics right in stating that the Passover is both on Thursday and Friday. Perhaps Jesus was following his own calendar that had the Passover meal on Thursday, making a new Passover fit for a New Covenant. The Jews, then, had Passover on Friday, allowing for Jesus to be killed at the same time the lambs are being slaughtered in the temple before the Passover meal begins at sundown. The priests followed their own sacrificial calendar and practices associated with the Old Covenant while Jesus followed his calendar associated with the New Covenant.

Only Luke tells us that Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare the Passover Meal. On the surface, this planning appears last minute. Considering all the people in Jerusalem, it would be like going to the grocery store Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. While people opened their homes to Passover pilgrims, one would not expect to find a room already prepared last minute. The sign for the disciples was the man carrying a water jug. Usually, women carried water in a jug while men carried it in skins. He would be easy to spot, but how would the man know who “The Teacher” is? Jesus must have made a secret plan. But why has Jesus kept his plans secret from his disciples? The obvious answer is he knew Judas had a plan as well, and he did not want Judas to stop this very important evening. He would rather be arrested after dinner outside the city with fewer people around him than in the middle of Jerusalem where some of his supporters might disrupt his arrest.

Application

What might be the significance of Peter and John preparing the meal? After Jesus’s arrest, they become the two most influential disciples of Jesus. The ministries of Peter and John represent two different kinds of church-building discipleship. Peter was the active witness—the first to go to the Gentiles and then onto Rome. John was perceptive witness. Tradition records he was an influential writer and the only apostle not to be martyred. What kind of witness do you consider yourself to be?

Prayer

We pray to you, Lord Jesus, that your Spirit would purify our hearts when we come to your Table to worthily partake of a heavenly feast that you prepared not only for your disciples but for us down through the generation of believers.