Thursday With Jesus
T hursday before Good Friday. The upper room was secured for the Passover meal. Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem. The Passover meal was prepared. There is a sense of heaviness and anticipation, and he talks of betrayal. At sundown, when it was time for the Passover meal, Jesus washed the disciples' feet. The betrayal was announced, and Judas left. The Lord's Supper is initiated: Take, eat, this is my body, this is the cup of the new covenant." Then Jesus embarked on some of His most intimate teachings for the disciples and for us as well. It is a farewell discourse, with a new commandment, that we are to love one another, with a promise of the Holy Spirit, with vine and the branches teaching, with warnings of persecution, and His prayer for the disciples and all future believers. Then they sang a hymn and walked to the Mount of Olives. He then takes Peter, James, and John deeper into the garden and prays three times, "If it be p...