Jesus' Final Visit to JerusalemIsampula

Preparation for the Last Supper

Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. On the first day of the Festival, Jesus’ disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Where do you want us to go to prepare the Passover meal for you?”

So Jesus sent two of them, Peter and John, ahead into Jerusalem with these instructions: “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together. As soon as you go into the city,” he told them, “a certain man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’ At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” So the two disciples did as Jesus told them. They went off into the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.

The Washing of the Disciples’ Feet

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.

When it was evening, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table.

It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”

“No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”

Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”

Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”

Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down, and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their masters. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

“I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, ‘ who eats my food has turned against me.’23 I tell you this beforehand so that when it happens you will believe that I Am the Messiah.24 I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.”

Footnotes:

23 Ps 41:9.

24 Or that the ‘I Am’ has come; or that I am the Lord; Greek reads that I am. See Exod 3:14.