Passover Feast

PASSOVER FEAST 
Ever since Jesus had become the main attraction at the feast of tabernacles and proclaimed himself as the fountain of living water many of the Jews believed that he was the One - the Christ - the Rock from which flowed the water of life for Israel. From that time on and right up to the feast of Passover the healings and miracles and wisdom words of Jesus became more and more awe-inspiring - and just weeks before Passover Jesus worked the miracle of miracles - raising a man called Lazarus from the dead. So, the chief rulers of the Jews had a problem on their hands - what were they going to do with Jesus? they thought he might even decide to rule over Jerusalem and keep on bringing the Scriptures to life, working miracles like feeding hungry multitudes and raising people from the dead. They knew the people wanted this and these rulers were getting desperate. 
John 11:47 The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Nation of Israel including all that had been dispersed abroad.

Some days before Passover began Jesus came down from the mount of olives with his disciples to Bethany to attend a banquet to celebrate that miracle resurrection of Lazarus - and Jerusalem was a hive of activity. We read now from John 12:1 

John 12:1 Six days before the Passover ceremonies began, Jesus arrived in Bethany where Lazarus was—the man he had brought back to life, and a banquet was prepared to honour Jesus. Martha served, and Lazarus sat at the table with him. Then Mary took a jar of costly perfume made from spikenard, and anointed Jesus’ feet with it and wiped them with her hair… 9. Many of the Jews heard that Jesus was in Bethany (a half hour walk from Jerusalem) and they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus—the man who had come back to life again. Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus too, for it was because of him that many of the Jewish leaders had deserted and believed in Jesus as their Messiah.

After that banquet Jesus arranged for his disciples to have a donkey ready for him to ride into Jerusalem on the day that we call Palm Sunday, the beginning of Passover week, and crowds of Jews from all over the empire we're gathering for the feast. They stood on the roadside in their thousands as he rode into Jerusalem, and they welcomed him as their prophet, the miracle worker, and they proclaimed him as the king of the Jews shouting ‘hosanna’ and casting palm leaves on the ground before him. 

Later that day Jesus went to the temple and into the court of the gentiles, a large outer area where there were tables set up for the money changers to sell birds and and animals for the people to offer sacrifices on the altar. These money changers were charging extortionate prices for their sacrificial birds and animals especially to those who were coming from other areas of the Middle East and Asia, and Jesus became indignant at this. He threw over the tables of the money changers and rebuked them for turning his Father's house - The House of prayer - into a den of thieves.
At this show of power many in the crowd that stood about watching and listening to him expected a further show of power from Jesus - surely this was the time for him to start his Kingdom. But they would be disappointed, because Jesus was not going to start an earthly Kingdom - Jesus was on a path to the establishing of his heavenly Kingdom with a far greater demonstration of such great power that the whole cosmos would be shaken by it. 
After that encounter Jesus took the twelve aside, and he said he wanted to share the Passover meal with them that evening - that was the Thursday of Passover week. he told two of them to make preparations in an upper room for the event and for the others to go off and spend some time in prayer while he would go off and pray by himself. He arranged for them to meet him back here at the fountain in the square.

The Passover meal was not just a meal but a series of meals interspersed with pauses for reflection and readings from the scriptures in remembrance of the event of Moses bringing the nation of Israel out of their slavery from Egypt after one of the meals where they ate roasted lamb and bitter herbs Jesus stood up and went over to one of the huge bathing bowls and he took off his outer robe and wrapped a large towel around himself and he called the disciples to come over to him. He told them he wanted to wash their feet and so they walked hesitatingly towards him. He began to wash their feet and when he came to Peter to wash his feet Peter protested and said ‘no master you will not wash my feet’ but Jesus reproved Peter. 
Jesus had just told them that those that would have authority in his Kingdom would have to become servants not lord their authority over people like the Gentiles did, and now he was saying to Peter ‘if you think I have authority with you then you let me be your servant and you will let me serve you by washing your feet, otherwise you're saying you don't recognise my authority and you don't want to be part of what I'm doing.’ 
Peter stood humbly in front of Jesus and said ‘please Lord wash my feet but not just my feet but my hands in my head as well’ Jesus had to explain to Peter that it was just his feet in the bowl and nothing else. He told Peter that he was clean inside and out except for his feet just as were all the others except for one of them. He the sat them down and asked for the bread and wine to be served, and he said, ‘One of you will betray me’.

They were all overwhelmed and distressed by what he said so they began to ask him one by one ‘is it me master?’ But John knew the depth of love that he himself had for Jesus and he didn't even question his own heart, so he simply asked Jesus ‘who is it Lord?’ and Jesus said ‘the one who dips his bread with me into the soup’ and at that very moment Judas had his bread in the soup along with the bread in the hand of Jesus. 
Jesus let the moment of emotion and confusion pass and then Judas, feeling safe, said ‘Is it me Lord?’ Jesus replied to Judas ‘you said it’ and then he handed his bread to Judas and said to him ‘go and do what you have to do.’ Judas got up and grabbed the money bag and strode out and the other disciples supposed that he had received instructions from the master concerning feeding the poor.

Jesus turned to the other disciples and took a large piece of bread from the bowl and they watched him as he broken it into twelve pieces, keeping one in piece his hand and handing the rest around to the remaining eleven.  ‘This is my body’ he said over the bread that he had in his hand. ‘This has been broken into pieces but when we eat it it becomes one piece again because we are one, and whenever you and those who come after you do this in the times to come you will join yourselves to one another and to me and I will be there with you. You will know my presence among you because unless you know you have my life in you, you will not know what life really is.’ 
He took a cup of the ceremonial wine and drank from it - he then passed it around for them all to drink and after they had finished it he said to them ‘This is my blood-  just as my body will be torn to pieces for you so too will my blood be spilled for you - this is a sign of my life and of the new promise from God to give you and all of humanity - our life to share, not just a life of rules and regulations but our very divine life, and whenever people do this in the future I want them to remember that I died for them and that I will come back again at the end of time for them in the full power and glory of my Kingdom’.

The feast had come to an end, and he stood and then they all stood and moved close together, drinking in the beauty and wonder the moment that they had shared with him and knowing that they would be coming together to share this moment together without him and yet with him time and time again. He asked them to come with him to a garden near the olive Grove, where he said he wanted them to pray with him and he spoke to them again. 
“In a few hours the temple leaders will arrest me, and I will be put on trial. After my arrest you will all become terrified and desert me, but it will fulfill the Scripture which says that when the shepherd is struck the sheep will run in all directions.” 
Peter protested, “Even if everyone else deserts you I will never run”. (Matthew 26:34)
Those empty words of Peter’s resulted in his denying the Lord three times. James and the others joined in with their empty protests and indeed they ran in all directions. 
Jesus then spoke his words of total and loving commitment to them and to all of us. 
John 13:34 ‘I am giving a new commandment to you now—love each other just as much as I love you. Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
When we can believe in the totally committed love of Jesus for us and we can accept our imperfect selves as being loved with so much compassion, we can then allow that love and compassion to flow out from us into the imperfect lives of the people in our personal world.