Bible In One Year Day 265 (Matthew 25 - 26, Proverbs 19: 21-24)

  You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog.  Bible in One Year Readings Index 

Day 265:  Sins of Omission 

Agape Bible Study 
Matthew 25 - 26 

Matthew Chapter 25 ~ Eschatological Discourse Continued

Matthew 25:1-13 ~ The Parable of the Ten Virgins

The word used to describe the ten women in the parable is parthenos in the Greek, which means "virgin." It is the same word used for Mary in Matthew 1:23 and in the Greek translation of Isaiah 7:14. This is a parable concerned with the necessity of watchfulness but it is also another "kingdom of heaven" parable.

The virgins are waiting for the bridegroom to take them to the marriage feast. In the Greek text the word for marriage is plural, gamos. It is the Christian tradition that Christ is the Bridegroom of His Church who is His faithful and virginal Bride (see Mt 9:15; Jn 3:29; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:21-33; Rev 21:2, 9 and 22:17).

Question: If the Bridegroom is Christ, who are the virgins in the parable, what do the oil lamps represent, and where is the wedding feast? See Rev 19:5-9.
Answer:

• The virgins are the Bride of Christ, the Christian communities of the Church
• The oil lamps represent God the Holy Spirit
• The wedding banquet is the heavenly wedding banquet of the Lamb and His Bride (Rev 19:7, 9)

The virgins represent the Christian communities waiting for the Bridegroom, who is Jesus, to take them to the wedding feast, which is the heavenly marriage supper of the Lamb.

In the parable, all the virgins have oil lamps which they must keep burning as they await the coming of the Bridegroom. The flames of the oil lamps probably represent the spiritual light of the Holy Spirit giving life to the Church. 

In the parable the bridegroom is delayed in his coming. This delay is similar to the delay of the return of the Master in the parable of the two servants and is a reminder that we do not know when Christ, our Bridegroom, will return.

Question: What is the contrast between the virgins in the parable?
Answer: Five virgins, half the Christian communities, are prudent and watchful. They are the Christian communities or individual Christians who are vigilant in keeping their lives right with God in preparation for the Parousia of the Christ. But only half the virgins/Christian communities are prepared for the coming of the bridegroom "the ill-prepared virgins miss the coming of the bridegroom and cannot enter the wedding feast.

Matthew 25:14-30 ~ The Parable of the Talents

The "man" in the parable is referred to as kyrios, "Lord" ten times in verses 18, 19, 20, 21 (twice), 22, 23 (twice), 24 and 26.

Question: In the parable who is the man and what is his journey? Who are his servants, what do the talents represent and when does the "master" return?
Answer:

• The man is Jesus
• His journey is His Ascension to the Heavenly Kingdom
• His servants are His disciples of every generation
• The talents represent the spiritual gifts God gives every believer
• The Master/Christ will return in the Second Advent which will precede the judgment of His servants

A talent was a very large sum. One commentator has estimated a single talent was worth the wage of a common laborer for fifteen years. God is generous in giving spiritual gifts to His covenant children, and like the man in the parable, He calibrates those spiritual gifts according to the abilities of the disciple/servant. However, He expects those gifts to be used to advance the Kingdom of Heaven on earth "the Church.

Matthew 25:31-46 ~ The Last Judgment

Jesus concludes His homily with a vision of the Last Judgment when the Son of Man judges all the people of every nation on the earth. This is the same vision the prophet Daniel witnessed: As the visions of the night continued, I saw one like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven. When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him. He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed (Dan 7:13-14).

The Church teaches that there will be an individual judgment at the end of each person's life on earth (Heb 9:27; CCC 1021-22). However, at the end of time, Christ will return in glory as He has promised. His return will signal the resurrection of the dead that will be followed by the Last Judgment (CCC 1038, 1040). This is the event St. John describes when he wrote: Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation (Jn 5:28-29; see CCC 1038-41).

Matthew 26:1-1 

Jesus' final homily in Matthew's Gospel ends like the other four with a statement using the verb teleo, "finished." Jesus and His disciples left their vantage point on the Mt. of Olives across from the beautiful Jerusalem Temple that was the symbol of Old Covenant worship. They withdrew to the village of Bethany where Jesus had His last dinner with His friends before the Passover sacrifice the next day and the beginning of His walk to the Cross.

Matthew 26:1-5 ~ The Chief Priests and Elders Conspire Against Jesus

St. Matthew's Gospel is divided into seven sections beginning with the genealogy and infancy narratives (Section I), followed by a series of parings of five narratives and five of Jesus' discourses, and concluding with the Passion and Resurrection (Section VII). Jesus' last discourse in chapter 25 ends like the other five discourses with the verb teleo in a formula statement: When Jesus had finished all these words...

Matthew 26:2 ~ he said to his disciples 2"You know that in two days' time it will be Passover, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." With this statement Jesus reminds His disciples of the purpose of His mission on this last visit to Jerusalem. After His victorious entrance into the city on the 10^th and His success with the crowds of pilgrims and in answering the challenges of the religious authorities, it must have surprised the disciples to again hear a prophecy of His death. Notice that in all these circumstances and unfolding events that Jesus is completely in charge of His destiny.

Question: What day is this? This is Jesus last teaching day in Jerusalem, and according to Jesus' statement in verse 2 it is two days before the Passover sacrifice. 

The chief priests and elders, who were probably the members of the Sanhedrin "the Jewish High Court, met together in the courtyard of the palace of the reigning High Priest, Joseph Caiaphas, to discuss their plan to kill Jesus. Their fear of the crowd's support for Jesus causes them to avoid arresting Jesus during the crowded religious festivities, so they plan to find another way. It is ironic that later this courtyard will be site of another of betrayal during Jesus' trial inside the palace (Mt 26:69-75).

Matthew 26:6-13 ~ Jesus' Dinner with Friends in Bethany and His Third Anointing

Question: Where did this dinner take place?
Answer: In the home of a former leper named Simon.

Simon was probably a man Jesus had healed of leprosy. Lepers could not keep company with healthy people and had to remain isolated from the population (Lev 13:45-46). The guests "reclined" at table, indicating that this was a formal banquet. Reclining at a banquet table was a sign of the privilege of free men. Slaves stood to eat. At this banquet honoring Jesus, He is anointed for a third time by an unnamed woman.

Caravaggio’s “The Taking of Christ”

Matthew 26:14-16 ~ Judas' Betrayal

The Apostle Judas Iscariot was the son of a man named Simon (Jn 6:71; 13:26) and was probably from the Judean village of Kariot (ish means man as in ish Kariot "man of Kariot").

Question: What do we know about Judas' character from the Gospels? See Jn 6:70-71; 12:4-6; 13:26-29 and Mt 26:15.
Answer: Jesus said he had an evil nature. He was the treasurer of Jesus' community but he was a thief and stole from the contributions collected for the poor. His offer to betray Jesus for money reveals his motive and shows that he loved money more than he loved Jesus.

Question: What is significant about Judas betraying Jesus for the sum the chief priests paid him? See Ex 21:32; Ps 41:10/9; and the irony in Zech 11:12-17. How do these passage relate to Jesus, His mission and His destiny?
Answer: In Psalm 41:10/9 David wrote about betrayal by one he believed was his friend and now Judas has betrayed the son of David. Judas sold Jesus for the price of a slave (Ex 21:32). In Zechariah's allegory of the shepherd, the prophet speaks of the breaking of God's covenant and the wages the "sheep merchants," the chief priests, owed the prophet, which were thirty pieces of silver that God commanded him to throw into the treasury of the Temple. Ironically, the chief priests paid Judas thirty pieces of silver which probably came from the treasury funds. In the passage from Zechariah, God promises to raise up a shepherd who will punish Israel's foolish shepherds (Zech 11:16-17).

Thursday ~ The day of the Passover Sacrifice

The Jewish Talmud is composed of the Mishnah and the Gemarah. The Mishnah is composed of the sacred Oral Tradition of the covenant people not recorded in Scripture and the practice of worship in the Jerusalem Temple. It is the authoritative source of halacha (Jewish law), second only to the Bible itself. The Gemarah is the commentary on the Mishnah (there is a Jerusalem and a Babylonian Gemarah). The section Mishnah: Pesahim records all the ritual requirements for the observance of the Passover sacrifice and the feast of Unleavened Bread. The knowledge recorded in the Mishnah was written down after the destruction of the Temple and was completed in its final editing c. 220 AD. We will be referring to the Mishnah frequently in this part of the lesson.

Matthew 26:17-19 ~ The Preparations for the Passover

St. Mark identifies the day: On the first day of the Unleavened Bread, when they kill the Passover, his disciples said to him, "Where do you desire that going we may prepare that you may eat the Passover?" (Mk 14:12; literal translation IBGE, vol. IV, page 140). The Passover and the week long celebration of Unleavened Bread are listed as two separate feasts in the Old Testament (i.e. Ex 12 -13; Lev 23:4-8; Num 28:16-25) and only Unleavened Bread is listed as the pilgrim feast (Ex 23:14-17; 34:18-23; Dt 16:5-17; 2 Chr 8:13); however, in Jesus time (30 AD) the names of the two feasts were used interchangeably to refer to the entire 8 holy days. Josephus (37-100 AD) records that in his time the term "Passover" came to mean the celebration of both feasts as one festival: As this happened at the time when the feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated, which we call the Passover ... (Antiquities of the Jews 14.2.1). Like Josephus, St. John refers to the two feasts as "Passover" as do Jews today. Actually, modern Jews do not keep the Passover. They keep the feast of Unleavened Bread from the 15^th-21^st because there is no Temple or sacrificial altar where the Passover victims can be offered.

The Gospel of Mark tells us Jesus sent two disciples to prepare the room (Mk 14:13) and St. Luke tells us the two who were sent were Peter and John Zebedee (Lk 22:8).

It was the practice of the residents of Jerusalem to generously open their homes to Jewish pilgrims during the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread and to provide rooms for the sacred meal of the Passover victim, a meal that had to be eaten within the walls of the holy city on the first night after the Passover sacrifice. Sundown the day of the sacrifice was the beginning of the next day, Nisan the 15^th, the beginning of the seven-day pilgrim Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex 23:14-17; 34:18-23; Dt 16:5-17; 2 Chr 8:13).

The owner of the banquet chamber must have already secured the Passover goat-kid or lamb for Jesus, perhaps on the 10^th of Nisan when the Passover lambs and kids were chosen for sacrifice in the first Passover (Ex 12:3). Choosing the Passover lambs and kids on the 10^th of Nisan was a requirement that was no longer observed in the first century AD (Mishnah: Pesahim, 9:5). However, that does not mean that Jesus, who clarified and fulfilled in His ministry the covenant commands and prohibitions, failed to keep this obligation like His contemporaries. It is either an amazing coincidence that His Messianic ride into Jerusalem was on the 10^th of Nisan, the day according to the commands of Exodus 12:3 that the Passover victim was to be selected, or it was the God ordained first step in the plan to fulfill the greater exodus redemption that the first Passover liberation prefigured.

The animal for the Passover sacrifice had to be an unblemished male lamb or goat-kid not younger than eight days and not older than a year (Ex 12:5; Lev 22:27). The animal had to be large enough to feed not less than ten people and not more than twenty (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 6.9.3 [423]). If there were more than twenty people, two groups were formed with a separate Passover victim for the second group, or if the Passover victim was not large enough to feed a designated group, in addition to the Passover sacrifice a festival communion hagigah offering from either the flock or the herd (male or female) was necessary (Lev 3:1-17; 7:11-21). Adding the festival hagigah in addition to the Passover sacrifice allowed for everyone to be adequately fed (Mishnah: Pesahim, 6:3-6:4). The communion hagigah festival peace offerings were the way the people ate together for the entire week long celebration after the morning Tamid service in meals of joyous celebration.

When Peter and John arrived at the house, they discovered that an upper room had already been arranged with the banquet tables and the couches for reclining at the meal

(Mk 14:15a). However, as Jesus told them, Peter and John still needed to make certain necessary preparations (Mt 26:19). They needed to be certain that there was an adequate supply of red wine for the banquet's four ritual communal cups and the additional wine that the guests were to consume during the meal (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:1C). They needed to insure that there were stone vessels filled with enough water for the three ritual hand washings (see Jn 2:6 where there were 6 stone jars each holding 20-30 gallons of water for the ritual washings). They needed to provide the other necessary foods for the women to prepare for the meal, and if it was not already prepared, they needed to set up a roasting pit and spit of pomegranate wood to roast the Passover sacrifice (Mishnah: Pesahim, 7:1B).

In addition to all those arrangements, Peter and John also had to personally inspect the premises to be certain that all leaven, a sign of sin, had been removed from the premises

(Ex 13:7). According to the Law, prior to noontime on the day before the beginning of Unleavened Bread (the day of the Passover sacrifice) it was necessary for the covenant people to do a thorough search of the rooms of their houses in Jerusalem to be certain that all leaven had been removed for the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex 13:6-7; Mishnah: Pesahim, 1:3-1:4). They were also required to begin their fast at noon: On the eve of Passover [meal] from just before the afternoon's daily whole offering, a person should not eat, until it gets dark (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:1A). The "afternoon's daily whole offering" is the afternoon Tamid and the "eve of Passover" refers to the Passover meal eaten on the first night of Unleavened Bread. The Mishnah and the writings of the Rabbis only refer to the entire eight days as "Passover," as does the Gospel of John.

All the Gospels and two thousand years of Christian tradition agree that the Jewish festival of the Passover, when the Passover victims were slain, took place on the Thursday of Jesus' last week in Jerusalem, the day before His crucifixion on Friday (Jn 19:31). Those of the covenant community who were offering the Passover sacrifice for their family and friends gathered at the Temple with their Passover victims at noon for the afternoon Tamid worship service. The sacrificial ceremony of the Passover lambs and kids began immediately after the body of the afternoon Tamid lamb was placed on the altar fire (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:3).

The Passover Liturgical Service at the Temple

On the day of the Passover sacrifice, it was necessary for the afternoon Tamid lamb to be offered earlier than the normal ninth hour/three o'clock in the afternoon (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:1B). The afternoon Tamid, normally slain at the ninth hour (three in the afternoon) was offered an hour earlier to give enough time for the many Passover victims that were to be sacrificed: So these high priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves), and many of us are twenty in a company (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, 6.9.3 [423]).

The sacrifices of the Passover goat-kids and lambs took place from the ninth hour (three in the afternoon) to the eleventh hour (five in the evening) at which time the Temple services were normally completed (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:8B). The only other change in the liturgical service of the afternoon Tamid during the Passover was in the offering of the incense. The incense was not offered until after the afternoon Tamid lamb was laid on the altar fire in the normal daily liturgy of the afternoon service. However, on Passover the incense was offered at the conclusion of the Passover sacrifices. The offering of the community's prayers in the burning of the incense was always the climax of any worship service.

On the day of the sacrifice, the lamb or goat-kid for the Last Supper was taken to the Temple, probably by Peter and John. It was not necessary for everyone to attend the sacrifice. A relative or even one's slave (if he was a Jew) could present the animal for sacrifice since the Passover sacrifice was not a pilgrim festival (Mishnah: Pesahim, 8:1-8:4). The groups that represented their households assembled at the Temple with their animals at noon. The different groups were divided into three large divisions in fulfillment of Exodus 12:6: And the whole assembly of the congregations of Israel shall slaughter it ... (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:5A-B):

• "whole" = division #1
• "assembly" = division #2
• "congregation" = division #3

After the afternoon Tamid was placed on the altar fire, the first division came forward with their animals into the Court of the Priests. As soon as they entered the courtyard the doors were locked. The priests blew three blasts on the silver trumpets as the signal that the lambs and goat-kids were to be sacrificed. The leader of each group carried a sacrificial knife with which to slit the throat of the animal while a Levite collected its blood in a chalice (a silver shekel from year two of the first Jewish Revolt depicts an engraved image of the sacrificial chalice). The Levite then handed the chalice to a priest who tossed/splashed (zarak) the blood against the base of the altar (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:5-5:6; 2 Chr 30:16). If the size of the Passover victim was not sufficient to feed the numbers of people included in one group, then a free-will festival sacrifice, a male or female animal from the flock or herd, was also sacrificed at the same time and its blood was collected and splashed against the altar (Mishnah: Pesahim, 6:3-6:4)

While the sacrifices were taking place, the Levitical choir sang the Hallel Psalms 113-118, also called the Egyptian psalms. Psalms 113-117 recounts the story of the Exodus liberation, while Psalm 118 gives joyous thanksgiving to God the Savior and speaks of the Messiah as "the stone which the builders rejected" which "has become the cornerstone," the verse Jesus quoted to the chief priests after the Parable of the Tenants (Mt 21:42; Ps 118:22). As the Levitical choir sang the first line of each verse of the Hallel Psalms, the people repeated every opening line but to the other lines the people responded with "Hallelujah," "Praise God, Yahweh!" However, when the Levitical choir came to the 118^th Psalms, the congregation not only repeated the first line but also repeated three additional lines that promised the coming of the Messiah (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:7): We beg you, Yahweh, save us [Hosanna]! We beg you, Yahweh, give us victory! Blessed in the name of Yahweh is he who is coming! (Ps 118:25-26 NJB; emphasis added). The first line of Psalms 118:26 contains the words the crowd shouted on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem, as recorded in Matthew 21:9. This line can also be translated "Blessed is He who is coming in the name of the LORD [Yahweh]!" as Jesus quoted this line in Matthew 23:39, applying the passage prophetically to Himself.

The Egyptian Hallel Psalms were repeated until all the animals of a division had been sacrificed (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:7). After the first division sacrificed its victims, the bodies of the animals were skinned, the entrails were removed and cleansed, the inside fat was removed, and then the fat was put in a bowl where it was salted before being placed on the altar fire (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:10). When all was completed for the first division, the second division entered the Court of the Priests, and the same ritual of sacrifice was repeated. When all the animals (Passover lambs and kids and the communion hagigah offerings) had been sacrificed, the Passover service was concluded by the burning of incense on the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary.

Flavius Josephus wrote that during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero (54-68 AD) at one annual Passover service 256,500 sacrifices were slain. He wrote that at the end of the afternoon the blood from the sacrificial victims splashed against the sacrificial altar reached the ankles of the priests, and the Kidron brook, where the Temple drains emptied out, became a river of blood (Wars of the Jews, 6.9.3 [424]). When the liturgical celebration and sacrifice of the Passover was completed, the skinned body of every Passover lamb or goat-kid and free-will hagigah festival offering was taken by each group back into to city of Jerusalem.

The Night of the Last Supper

After the Temple service, the people returned to where they were staying in Jerusalem. There they roasted the whole body of the Passover sacrifice and in some cases, the hagigah festival offering on a spit of pomegranate wood. They had to be careful in roasting the Passover victim so that no bones were broken. Anyone who carelessly broke a bone of the Passover victim was punished by receiving forty lashes and the sacrifice became invalid (Mishnah: Pesahim, 7:1B, 7:11C; Ex 12:46; Num 9:12). It was also necessary to prepare the other foods which accompanied eating the meat of the sacrifice: the two kinds of bitter herbs, the vinegar or salted water for dipping the herbs, the chopped fruit mixture, and the baked loaves of unleavened bread (Ex 12:8-28; 13:3-10; Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:3). The pilgrim Feast of Unleavened Bread that followed the Passover sacrifice allowed the covenant people to relive the themes of judgment and redemption that the Israelites experienced in the first Passover event and to eat the sacred meal of the Passover as a sign of covenant renewal and continuation. So sacred was this meal that the penalty for deliberately failing to eat the sacrifice of the Passover on the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was excommunication from the covenant people (Num 9:13).

The Law of Moses required that the Passover and the eating of the sacred meal on the first night of Unleavened Bread was to take place in the early spring during the first full moon of the spring equinox (Ex 12:6; Lev 23:5; Num 28:16; Mishnah: Pesahim, 1:1). The Church establishes the date for Easter in the same way "on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox. 

Jesus fully supported the authority of the priesthood in fulfilling the rites and rituals of the Sinai Covenant, which certainly included appointing the dates of the designated feast days. That week, teaching at the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus addressed the issue of the authority of the Temple hierarchy: Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you..." (Mt 23:1-3; emphasis added). Jesus would not have told the people to obey the hierarchy of the Church one day and then do the exact opposite by celebrating the Passover on day other than that designated according to the liturgical calendar on the next day. The hierarchy of the Church determined the day for the Passover sacrifice and sacred meal as prescribed by the Law of the covenant according to the lunar calendar. The eating of this sacrificial meal in the middle of Nisan in 30 AD, at the time of the full moon, was the last legitimate sacrificial meal of the Old Covenant. It was a sacred meal that was transformed and fulfilled in the first Eucharistic sacrifice of the New Covenant people of God. It was absolutely necessary for the faithful remnant of Jews who became the restored Israel of the New Covenant to participate in this last Old Covenant ritual meal in order to be able to comprehend its transformation and fulfillment as a true sacrificial meal in the offering of Christ the Lamb of God in the Eucharistic banquet.

Sundown began the next Jewish day, Nisan the 15^th, and it signaled the beginning of the celebration of the pilgrim feast of Unleavened Bread. The meal began after sundown, and it had to be completed before midnight (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:1A; 10:9). That night, by the light of the full moon, those invited to eat the sacred meal with Jesus made their way to an upper room in the oldest section of the city known as the City of David, on Mt. Zion. Only ritually pure covenant members were permitted to take part in this ritual meal. The sacred meal was reserved only for those in covenant with Yahweh who were circumcised (if male) and ritually clean, a condition that reflected the spiritual purity of the covenant member's circumcised heart (Ex 12:43-51). The requirements for this pilgrim feast included:

• Attendance at the sacred meal of the Passover victim on the first night of the feast of Unleavened Bread.
• The eating of bread without leaven during the seven-day holy week.
• The observances of the required Sacred Assembly during the morning Tamid service on the 15^th and the 21^st of Nisan and the other daily Tamid services to which covenant members brought communion hagigah festival sacrifices to be eaten in communal meals in Jerusalem during the week.

The liturgical service of the Passover sacrifice on the 14^th of Nisan was not a pilgrim feast; therefore, it was not necessary to be present at the sacrifice of the Passover victims; however, it was absolutely necessary to be present that night for the sacred meal. The food served during the sacred meal at sundown on Nisan the 15^th included:

• Two kinds of bitter herbs and salt water or vinegar: representing the gift of life and the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt that caused tears and suffering.
• Haroset/Charoseth (a mixture of chopped apple or chopped figs with red wine): representing the red clay of Egypt and the sweetness of God's redemption.
• Unleavened bread: the bread they made in haste when they escaped from Egypt.
• Four communal cups of red wine (and additional red wine for individual cups): the four cups stood for the four ways God promised to redeem Israel. The red wine also represented the blood of the sacrificial victim that became the sign of their redemption on the doorways of their houses from the threshold to the lintel to the door posts, forming a cross.
• The roasted whole body of the sacrificial lamb or kid (no bones broken) and the optional hagigah sacrifice: the Passover victim represented the sacrificed animal that died in the place of the firstborn of Israel.

Four communal cups of red wine, each mixed with a little water, were consumed during the meal. Each cup represented the blood of the victim and one of the four ways God promised to redeem His people from slavery in Egypt from Exodus 6:6-8 (NJB): So say to the Israelites, "I am Yahweh...

1. I shall free your from the forced labor of the Egyptians "Cup of Sanctification
2. I shall rescue you from their slavery "Cup of Forgiveness
3. I shall redeem you with outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment "Cup of Blessing/Redemption
4. I shall take you as my people and I shall be your God" "Cup of Acceptance

The Cup of Sanctification and the ritual prayers began the meal, and the Cup of Acceptance closed the meal and sealed the people's commitment to the covenant for another year when the host uttered the words "It is finished." Jesus was the host of the sacred meal. He came to the meal dressed in the seamless garment of a priest, signifying the liturgical nature of the meal (Jn 19:23-24). St. John's Gospel tells us He reclined at the table with His guests. The Fathers of the Church identify St. John Zebedee as the "beloved disciple" who shared Jesus' couch, reclining against Jesus' chest (Jn 13:23).

The pouring of the Cup of Sanctification to which a little water was added was followed by the Kiddush, the Prayer of Sanctification. Holding the Cup of Sanctification in His right hand as he elevated the cup in front of those assembled, Jesus recited the ancient prayer, blessing the wine and also saying a blessing according to the day of the week. The prayer opened with the words: Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who hast created the fruit of the vine ... The opening prayer was followed by the blessing of the day, and then the prayer was concluded with the words: Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who hast sustained us and enabled us to reach this season. Ritual prayers were to accompany every part of the meal. Concluding the prayer, Jesus passed the communal cup, and everyone present at the meal drank from the Cup of Sanctification which, like the events of the first Passover, sanctified and set Israel apart in holiness from all other peoples of the earth.

Normally, the drinking of the first communal cup was followed by the first of three ritual hand washings, but this was the first of several changes Jesus made in the order of the meal. Instead, He took water from the stone vessels that contained the ritually blessed water and He washed the disciple's feet in a symbolic act to inaugurate the Apostles' mission as the chief servants of the Kingdom (Jn 13:3-16).

After the first ritual hand washing, perhaps when Jesus washed His Apostles' feet, the servants then brought in the food. Each food item had symbolic meaning, allowing the covenant people to relive the first Passover experience. The Mishnah records Rabbi Gamaliel's instructions on the foods served in the ancient Passover: Whoever has not referred to these three matters connected to the Passover has not fulfilled his obligation, and these are they: Passover [victim], unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. Passover because the Omnipresent passed over the houses of our forefathers in Egypt. Unleavened bread "because our forefathers were redeemed in Egypt. Bitter herbs "because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our forefathers in Egypt. In every generation a person is duty-bond to regard himself as if he personally has gone forth from Egypt, since it is said, "And you shall tell your son in that day saying, It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt' (Ex. 13:8). 'Therefore we are duty-bound to thank, praise, glorify, honor, exalt, extol, and bless him who did for our forefathers and for us all these miracles. He brought us forth from slavery to freedom, anguish to joy, mourning to festival, darkness to great light, subjugation to redemption, so we should say before him, Hallelujah" (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:5).

In addition to these foods, there was also the hagigah festival peace offering that was included if it had been determined that the Passover sacrifice was not enough to feed a large group attending the meal (Mishnah: Pesahim, 6:3-4).

After the food was placed on the table in front of the host, the order of the meal called for the first dipping of the bitter herb in the vinegar or salted water (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:3). The green herb was intended to remind them that God's creation and all that it contained was good (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31), but the dipping of the bitter herb in salted water represented the destructive power of sin and the tears shed by all who suffered in bondage to in Egypt. Jesus prayed over the herbs, dipped the first bitter herb (usually lettuce), ate and then passed the herbs and the salted water around the table to those assembled to dip and eat, reflecting on both man's blessings and the curse of sin.

The first dipping was followed by the temporary removal of the trays of food (to heighten the excitement). Then Jesus would have poured out of the second cup of wine mixed with a little water. The second cup was called the Cup of Forgiveness. Jesus, in His role as the host, poured out the second cup, but it was not passed. Instead, He placed the cup on the table as He turned to the one who had the honor of asking the host, who was usually the father of an extended family, the ritual questions. This member of the assembly was usually a young son of the household or a young man selected from among the assembled covenant members in accordance with God's command in Exodus 13:8 ~ On this day you shall explain to your son, This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' The questions and related statements are found in the Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:4II:

1. How different is this night from all other nights? For on all other nights we eat leavened or unleavened bread, but on this night all the bread is unleavened.
2. For on all other nights we eat diverse vegetables, but on this night only bitter herbs.
3. For on all other nights we eat meat which is roasted, stewed, or boiled. But this night all the meat is roasted.
4. For on all other nights we dip our food one time, but on this night, two times.

In response to the questions Jesus, as the host, began the story with the call of Abraham and his descendants into covenant with Yahweh and the events that led the children of Israel to migrate to Egypt during a famine when Joseph son of Jacob-Israel was Vizier of Egypt. Then He told how the Israelites were later enslaved by the Egyptians and cried out to the God for their ancestors for deliverance. The telling of the story of Israel's redemption was in obedience to the three commands to recite the story every year at Passover and the command to not just remember but to relive the Passover experience (Ex 10:2; 12:26-27, 13:8). Jesus told how Moses was sent by God to redeem the people and the ten plagues that were God's judgment on the false gods of Egypt (Ex 12:12). Then He told how the first Passover victims were sacrificed, how the blood was poured into the thresholds of the doorways of the houses, and how, with a hyssop branch, the blood was smeared on the doorposts and the lintel of the houses (Ex 12:22-23). It was not a coincidence in that first Passover that the sign of the blood extended from the threshold to the lintel and from doorpost to doorpost, foreshadowing the sign of the Cross.

Following Jesus' homily on the history of Israel and the people's redemption and liberation from Egyptian slavery the food was returned to the table, and Jesus explained the symbolic significance of the roasted Passover victim, the two kinds of bitter herbs, the unleavened bread, and the chopped fruit mixture in fulfilling the obligation to relive the first Passover redemption. The roasted lamb or kid was the Passover victim who died in atonement for the firstborn sons of Israel, the second bitter herb signified the bitter suffering of the people in slavery to the Egyptians, the salt water symbolized the tears the Israelites shed, and the sweet chopped red apple or figs mixed with red cinnamon and red wine symbolized the red clay used to make the bricks for Pharaoh's buildings while its sweet taste symbolized the sweetness of knowing that God had heard His people's prayers and redemption was coming.

Then Jesus led the assembly in singing the first two Egyptian Hallel Psalms, Psalms 113:1-9 and 114:1-8. After singing the last line of Psalms 114:8: A flint into a spring of water ... those assembled again shouted, "Hallelujah!" (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:6), to which Jesus, as the host, replied with a prayer similar to the prayer found in Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:6 ~ So, Lord, our God, and God of our fathers, bring us in peace to other appointed times and festivals, rejoicing in the rejoicing in your city and joyful in your Temple worship, where we may eat of the animal sacrifices and Passover offerings ... Blessed are you, Lord who has redeemed us and redeemed our forefathers from Egypt.

According to the traditional order of the ritual meal, it was now time for the host to lift up the Cup of Forgiveness, say a blessing over it, and pass the communal cup. However, St. Luke records that Jesus said something profound immediately after the blessing and before He passed the second communal cup. The Gospel of Luke identifies two of the four communal cups of wine which were consumed in the sacred meal of the Passover. St. Luke is the only Gospel writer to mention two cups: a cup passed prior to Jesus taking up the unleavened bread over which He said the words of consecration (Lk 22:17), and the third cup, the Cup of Blessing, which was the Eucharistic cup of Jesus' precious blood (Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 15:10-16).

It was probably the Cup of Forgiveness that St. Luke mentions as the communal cup passed prior to the lifting up of the unleavened bread that was offered to become Jesus' precious Body: And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, "Take this, and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes" (Lk 22:17-18). It is significant that Jesus swore that He would not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God is established. This vow is similar to His vow not eat the sacred meal of the Passover again until the New Covenant Passover was fulfilled in the Kingdom of God (Lk 22:14-16). His words "again" or "from now on" suggests that He drank from the Cup of Forgiveness, as did all the others assembled in the room, even Judas.

Everyone present sang the last line of Psalms 114 and then everyone drank from the Cup of Forgiveness. It was now time for the second ritual hand washing in preparation for taking up and eating the unleavened bread. The unleavened bread symbolized the people's covenant holiness and the absence of sin within the community of those who ate this meal under of the atoning sacrifice of the Passover victim. As was the custom, Jesus would have taken up the basket holding the individually wrapped rounds of unleavened bread and prayed over it. Some Rabbis say there were three separate rounds of unleavened bread with each round wrapped separately in its own cloth, stacked one on top of the other and placed in one basket with the middle bread broken in two pieces, while other Rabbis say there were only two wrapped rounds of bread. For Christians, the three separately wrapped rounds of unleavened bread together in one basket symbolize the mystery of the Trinity, a truth not yet revealed to the Old Covenant people of God. The torn middle round of unleavened bread is identified by Christians as the sinless Son of God whose flesh was torn for the sins of man.

Taking up a round loaf of unleavened bread and holding it in His hands, Jesus broke it into two pieces, thanking God in prayer for both the grain from which the bread was made and for the command to eat it. Next, taking up a piece of the broken unleavened bread, Jesus dipped it into the haroset; folding the fruit mixture with the second bitter herb between the two sides of the bread. This "second dipping" (the first dipping was the herb in the salted water) was called the "sop." The first sop was given to the person the host wished to honor that night. The Gospel of John records that the first sop was given to Judas who was probably sitting on Jesus' left at the place traditionally reserved for one to be honored: So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him (Jn 13:26). Jesus reached out to Judas one final time but Judas rejected Christ, and John's Gospel records that he left the gathering (Jn 13:30).

The communal dish of the bitter herb and the haroset fruit mixture was then passed around the table with additional rounds of the unleavened bread. After everyone had dipped the sop, the hagigah peace offering was brought to the table and was eaten (if the festival peace offering had been made at the time of the Passover sacrifice). Finally the roasted flesh of Passover victim, roasted like a sacrifice, was passed and eaten by those assembled. Jesus would have pronounced a blessing over both the hagigah peace offering and the Passover victim. The meat of the Passover victim had to be carefully roasted and then the meat separated without breaking any of the bones (Ex 12:46). To break a bone of the victim was a grave offense punishable by forty lashes (Mishnah: Pesahim, 7:11C). The meat of the Passover sacrifice had to be the last food consumed; no other food was to be eaten after the flesh of the sacrifice (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:9). But once again Jesus changed the order of the sacred meal.

Matthew 26:20-25 ~ Jesus Announces His Betrayer

That they ate the sacred meal of the Passover victim before Jesus gave them His Body and Blood is confirmed in all the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper:

• And while they were eating, he said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me" (Mt 26:21).
• And while they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them ... (Mk 14:22).
• When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer..." (Lk 22:14-15).
• So he dipped the morsel* and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot (Jn 13:26b).

*the morsel referred to in this verse is the second dipping of bitter herb wrapped in a piece of unleavened bread with the mixed fruit, the "sop" that was given first to the most honored guest during the ritual meal.

Question: Why didn't the disciples know who would betray Jesus after Jesus told them it was one who dipped the sop in John 13:26?
Answer: Since they all had just eaten the bread dipped in the haroset, probably several times, they didn't know which of them He was referring to.

Once again we have confirmation that Jesus is in control of His own destiny. He knows He will be betrayed and He knows His betrayer. It is tragic that Judas, even faced with the accusation of his treachery, does not turn back from the course he has set for himself. His exit from the lighted room of the assembly to go into the outer darkness of the night is an image of his departure from the light of Christ into the darkness of sin and death.

Matthew 26:26-30 ~ The Offering of the Body and Blood of Christ

26 While they were eating ... As they were finishing eating the meat of the Passover sacrifice, Jesus surprised them by taking up some of the unleavened bread. According to the ritual of the meal, after eating the Passover victim no other food was to be consumed. They were to wash their hands a third time and drink the third cup, the Cup of Blessing (Redemption) with the after-meal blessing. Then those assembled were to complete the singing of the Hallel psalms with the drinking of the fourth communal cup, the Cup of Acceptance. Between the communal cups of wine, the people may drink from their individual cups, but between the third and fourth communal cups no other wine may be consumed (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:7 III-IV). The meal had to be concluded by midnight and the bones of the animal burned (Mishnah: Pesahim,10:9).

To their surprise, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body." 27 Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink for it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins." The words "which will be shed" are literally in the Greek text "is being poured out" in the present participle and identify Jesus as the sacrificial victim. The liturgical command "poured out" is the instruction in the blood ritual for a sin sacrifice in the book of Leviticus (IBHE vol I, Lev 4:7b, 18, 25, 30b). The instruction for the blood ritual in the Hebrew text of Leviticus for the blood of other sacrifices is that they are either splashed (whole burnt offering and communion/peace offering) against God's sacrificial altar or in some rituals will be sprinkled towards the veil of the Holy of Holies or smeared on the horns of the sacrificial altar or the incense altar in certain rituals of sacrifice (see IBHE, vol. I; Lev 1:5, 11; 2:8; 4:7a, 18a, 30a; also see Ex 24:6 and 8 on the altar and the people). Jesus’ actions not only fulfilled His promise in the Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6:22-59) that those who eat His flesh and drink His blood will have eternal life because His flesh is true food and His blood true drink, but His dress in the seamless garment of a priest and His ritual words that repeat the words of the covenant ratification ceremony at Mt. Sinai and the blood ritual for a sins sacrifice in Leviticus signify that the Last Supper is a liturgical ceremony in which a new covenant is being formed and a sin sacrifice is being offered.

Literally offering Himself (Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity) in what Jesus has announced is a New Covenant sacred meal that night in the Upper Room, Jesus was beginning His journey to the altar of the Cross and was the fulfillment of the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah: Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall make a new covenant with the House of Israel (and the House of Judah), but not like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, even though I was their Master, Yahweh declares. No, this is the covenant I shall make with the House of Israel when those days have come, Yahweh declares. Within them I shall plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be their God and they will be my people. There will be further need for everyone to teach neighbor or brother, saying, "Learn to know Yahweh!" No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, Yahweh declares, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sin to mind (Jer 31:31-34 NJB).

Just as Jesus announced that this is my blood of the covenant (Mt 26:28), in Exodus 24:8 Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you" Sts. Luke and Paul and some MSS of Matthew even include the words "new covenant" in the offering of Jesus' blood (Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), and Jesus words which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins identify His sacrifice as a sin offering, as prophesied in Isaiah 53:12: Therefore, I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many and win pardon for their offenses. His promise is that through His flesh and blood one is spiritually united to His very life and the promise of eternal life (Jn 6:54-55). Those present would have understood that in some way that the sacred meal had been transformed forever into something much more profound than eating the flesh of a sacrificial animal in memory of a past historical event that recalled God's redemption and Israel's thankfulness.

His words at the Last Supper and His statements in the Bread of Life discourse are, however, shocking to an Old Covenant Jew. There was a covenant prohibition against eating raw meat (flesh) or consuming blood (Gen 9:3-4; Lev 3:17; 7:26; 17:10-12, 14; 19:26; Dt 12:16, 23; 15:23). The penalty for breaking this covenant prohibition was excommunication from the covenant community (Lev 7:27). However, Jesus is speaking of His glorified flesh and blood not His human flesh and blood. It is blood that is the vehicle of atonement for sins: Since the life of a living body is in its blood, I have made you put it on the altar, so that atonement may thereby be made for ;your own lives, because it is the blood, as the seat of life, that makes atonement (Lev 17:11). Under the old Law the sacrifice of the animal was a symbolic act in which the animal's life was a substitute for the life of the offerer. In the offerer's confession over the body of the animal just prior to its death, the offerer acknowledged he deserved God's divine judgment for his sins (sin and reparation sacrifice).

St. Paul identifies this cup Jesus offered as His Precious Blood as the Cup of Blessing: Is the Cup of Blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? (1 Cor 10:16). The Jews also called the third cup the Cup of Redemption "a fitting name for the cup of Jesus' Precious Blood that becomes the cup of our redemption and salvation. The Cup of Blessing becomes the cup of Psalms 116:13: I will raise up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. St. Luke records that Jesus calls the cup of His Blood the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you (Lk 22:20). Jesus' walk to the Cross began that night in the Upper Room as He held the holy offering of His Body and Blood for the sins of mankind in His own hands.

We call the gift of this Sacrament that our Lord gave us on the last night of His life the Eucharist, a word derived from the Greek words eucharistein and eucharistia, meaning an expression of "thanks" or "thanksgiving" and comes from Jesus' words of thanks to the Father as He prayed over the bread and the wine that became His Body and Blood. The Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of the glorified Christ, who is really and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine. It is in this way that He offers Himself in the sacrifice of the Mass to be received by His faithful covenant people who come to His altar in a state of grace to receive the spiritual food of Holy Communion. The word "Eucharist" is used for all three aspects of Christ's one mystery:

1. The Real Presence: Christ in His abiding Parousia (presence) in His Church on the earth today.
2. The sacrifice of the Mass: Christ in His continuing action as our High Priest who continues to communicate to His Church the graces He merited on Calvary.
3. Holy Communion: Christ uniting Himself in fellowship with the believer and nourishing his soul in preparation for eternal life.

Question: What vow does Jesus take that makes drinking the fourth communal cup of the meal impossible?
Answer: He vows not to drink wine again until His Kingdom is established.

They do not drink the Cup of Acceptance that concludes the meal; and therefore Jesus does not make the official announcement ending the meal and sealing the covenant for another year - "It is finished" instead they sing the last of the Hallel Psalms (Ps 118) and leave the city to cross the Kidron Valley to go to the Mt. of Olives. It was not later than midnight.

Matthew 26:31-35 ~ The Prophecy of Peter's Denial of the Christ

Jesus prophesies that the Apostles will all face an ordeal. What they experience will be a crisis of faith that includes a crisis of expectation of what they understand of Jesus' mission. They all believe that Jesus is the Messiah "they have all risked their lives following Him to Jerusalem but they still cannot reconcile how the Son of God who has come to restore and redeem His people will allow Himself to be taken by mere men.

Jesus' Sacrifice and the Daily Liturgy of the Tamid Sacrifice in the Temple

The communal sacrifice of the Tamid was the most important ritual sacrifice of the Sinai Covenant. It was a single sacrifice of two yearling lambs, one offered in a morning liturgical worship service and the second in an afternoon liturgical worship service; each lamb offered together with unleavened bread and red wine (Ex 29:38-42; Num 28:3-9).¹⁾ It was the compulsory communal daily sacrifice for the atonement and sanctification of the covenant people. However, Jewish philosopher and theologian Philo of Alexandria (d. 50 AD) wrote that the daily Tamid sacrifice was not only offered for the covenant people but on behalf of all mankind (The Special Laws I, 35 [168]).

When St. John identified Jesus in His perfect humanity and divinity as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" to the Jewish crowd on the banks of the Jordan River, he was not identifying Jesus with the annual Passover sacrifice of lambs and kids (Ex 12:5) but instead with the daily offering of the two unblemished male lambs of the Tamid sacrifice. According to rabbinic teaching, this single sacrifice of two lambs was to last so long as the Sinai Covenant endured and when it ended in the coming of the Messianic era only the "Thanksgiving" (Toda in Hebrew; Eucharistia in the Greek) communion sacrifice of peace would continue (Joseph Ratsinger [Pope Benedict XVI], Feast of Faith, page 58; Baruch Levine, JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus, page 43).

Friday, Nisan the 15^th (c. midnight)

Matthew 26:36-46 ~ Jesus' Agony in the Garden

Under the light of the full moon, Jesus and the Apostles made their way out of the city of Jerusalem and across the Kidron Valley to the Mt. of Olives. Sts. Matthew and Mark (14:32) identify the site as Gethsemane which means "oil press," suggesting the presence of olive trees, while Luke only writes that Jesus and the disciples withdrew to the Mt. of Olives. St. John includes the information that Jesus and the disciples crossed the Kidron Valley to a garden where Jesus often met with His disciples (Jn 18:1-2). There, Jesus began to pray to the Father concerning the covenant ordeal He was to face. St. Luke records that an angel was sent from heaven to comfort Jesus because He was in such agony and that He prayed so fervently that His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground (Lk 22:43-44). A covenant ordeal is when a servant of God is faced with the choice between obedience to the will of God that involves some sort of sacrifice and one's own very strong desires.

Matthew 26:27-56 ~ The Betrayal and Arrest

Question: Who are the members of the crowd in verse 55? See Jn 18:3, 19
Answer: Judas is accompanied by Roman soldiers led by an officer and guards from the chief priests and Pharisees.

The Gospel of John includes the information that a cohort of Roman soldiers accompanied the guards of the chief priests, who are probably Levitical guards that serve in the Temple. A cohort is a detachment of several hundred Roman soldiers. The chief priests were fearful of attempting to arrest during the festivities with crowds of people surrounding Him. While arresting Jesus after midnight on the Mt. of Olives lessens the threat of interference, the chief priests are not taking any changes that His followers or that sympatric pilgrims might be present who could try to prevent His arrest. Perhaps Judas has also reported to the chief priests that some of Jesus' men are armed (Lk 22:38).

The Gospel of John records that when Jesus asked those in charge "Whom do you seek" and they answered "Jesus of Nazareth" that Jesus used the Divine Name in responding "I AM" (Jn 18:4-6). The power of unleashing the Divine Name "I AM" (see Ex 3:14) caused them to turn away and fall to the ground (Jn 18:4-6). Jesus' claim to divinity inherent in "the Name" is substantiated by Jesus' demonstration of power over the laws of nature in calming the storm, walking on the sea, in raising the dead and in knocking His enemies off their feet by the power of His utterance.

Question: What was the name of the High Priest's servant and who cut off his ear? See Jn 18:10.
Answer: Malchus was Caiaphas' servant/slave and St. Peter cut off his ear in his attempt to protect Jesus.

Question: How did Peter happen to have a sword and what was the purpose? See Lk 22:35-39; 51-52. What does Jesus say to Peter in John 18:11?
Answer: Jesus encouraged him to take it with him before they left for the Mt. of Olives. Jesus was going to offer one more miracle before His arrest to bring those coming to arrest Him to believed in Him, the healing of the severed ear of the High Priest's servant "one last testimony of the power of the Messiah. Jesus says to Peter, "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?", referring to His cup of suffering.

Imagine Peter's shock. Jesus refuses to protect Himself, and He will also not allow Peter to protect Him.

Jesus reassures His Apostles, saying "But all this has come to pass that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled" (verse 56), repeating what He states in verse 54. In their shock and confusion at the turn of events, all the disciples run away.

The Trial at the Palace of the High Priest

The Gospel of John records that the guards first took Jesus to the house of the former high priest, Annas (Jn 18:13); see the chart the Rules of Judea in the 1^st century AD). A high priest was supposed to serve for life, but the Romans decided it was unwise to put so much power and influence into the hands of one man for a long period of time. The Roman governor of Syria, Sulpicius Quirinius, deposed the reigning high priest Joazar in 6 AD and installed Annas (Ananus), son of Seth.²⁾ Annas ruled until 15 AD when he was deposed by Valerius Gratus. However, Annas may have managed to hold the reigns of power through his five sons and son-in-law Joseph Caiaphas, all who succeeded him in the high priestly office. St. Luke dates the beginning of St. John the Baptist's ministry to "during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas" in John 3:2.³⁾

Jesus was probably taken to Annas first because he was curious about Jesus and also to give Caiaphas more time to gather the members of the council to convene a clandestine Court of the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas also needed time to find witnesses to testify against Jesus. According to the Law, a man could only be sentenced to death on the testimony of two or more witnesses (Num 35:30; Dt 17:6; 19:15). The penalty for giving false evidence was death (Dt 19:16-21). Annas questioned Jesus before sending Him bound to Caiaphas (Jn 18:19-24).

Matthew 26:57-68 ~ Jesus' Trial before the Sanhedrin (Law Court)

The Great Sanhedrin was the highest judiciary and administrative authority of the covenant people (there were also local councils). It was composed of the reigning high priest, senior chief priests, and the elders of the covenant people. St. Mark identifies Joseph of Arimathea as a member of the council (Mk 15:43). According to Acts of Apostles, both Pharisees and Sadducees sat on the council (Acts 23:6). The Sanhedrin's function and composition is described in the Jewish Talmud in Mishnah: Sanhedrin. According to the Mishnah the council met in announced sessions within the Temple in the Chamber of Hewn Stones, one of the south-western chambers in the Court of the Priests (Mishnah: Sanhedrin, 11:2). There the seventy-one members were led by the reigning high priest who served as the court's president.⁴⁾ For this trial, the court did not meet in the Temple but at secrecy at night in the privacy of Caiaphas' palace.

High Priest Joseph Caiaphas challenges Jesus concerning the testimony against Him, but Jesus remains silent "a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7 ~ Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb let to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.

Exasperated, the High Priest commands Jesus to answer in the name of God: 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, "I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God." Obedient to the command of the anointed high priest, 64 Jesus said to him in reply, "You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power' and coming on the clouds of heaven'" (emphasis added). Jesus only answers when put under an oath before God.

Question: What two significant passages from Psalms and the book of Daniel does Jesus quote to the high priest? Hint: the Psalms passage is the same Jesus quoted to the chief priests in Matthew 22:44 from the Septuagint when He asked them "Whose son is the Messiah?" The second passage is where Jesus takes His favorite title for Himself and it is the Scripture passage that identifies the divine Messiah as one who looks like a man.
Answer:

• Psalms 110:1 ~ The LORD says to you, my lord: "Take your throne at my right hand, while I make your enemies your footstool."
• Daniel 7:13-14 ~ As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven. When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, he received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him.

The two quotations seal His fate. He has clearly identified Himself as the Messiah in Daniel's vision of the divine Messiah in Daniel 7:13-14, and He has already corrected the priests in their interpretation of Psalms 110:1, telling them it is a reference not to David's son but to the Messiah who is above David "David's "Lord" (Mt 22:45).

Matthew 26:65-67 ~ Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You have now heard the blasphemy; 66 what is your opinion?" They said in reply, "He deserves to die!" 67 Then they spat in his face and struck him, while some slapped him, 68 saying, "Prophesy for us, Messiah: who is it that struck you?"

According to the Law, He who blasphemes is liable only when he will have fully pronounced the divine Name; if the blasphemy was proved then the judges stand on their feet and tear their clothing, and never sew them back up (Mishnah: Sanhedrin, 7:5E). Jesus did not technically blaspheme, but claiming to be the Messiah and "making himself equal to God" (Jn 5:18) is enough for Caiaphas who immediately tore his robes (also see Mk 14:63). The tearing of the judges' robes and the prohibition against repairing the garment symbolized that the offender had broken with the covenant in such a way that his membership in the covenant family could never be restored.⁵⁾

Knowing that the witnesses have failed to provide enough to condemn Jesus, Caiaphas says to the council, "He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You have now heard the blasphemy; what is your opinion?" In other words, the members of the council are now the witnesses against Jesus. Addressing the court Caiaphas asks what is their opinion and the members of the council condemn Jesus to death. They said in reply, "He deserves to die!" 67 Then they spat in his face and struck him, while some slapped him, 68 saying, "Prophesy for us, Messiah: who is it that struck you?"

Question: Everything about Jesus' trial was illegal. How many irregularities can you site?
Answer:

Jesus' Illegal Trial by the Jewish Sanhedrin
Illegality	Scripture
There was a clandestine meeting of the high court.	Mt 26:57; Mk 14:53; Lk 22:66
It was not an impartial court; the verdict against Jesus was already decided.	Mt 26:3-4, 59; Mk 14:1, 55; Lk 22:1-2; Jn 11:49-50; 18:13
False witnesses were called to testify against Jesus, but their testimony did not agree. The council violated the commandment against bearing false witness in the Ten Commandments.	Mt 26:60-61; Mk 14:56-59; Ex 20:16; Lev 19:12; Dt 5:20; 19:16-18
No witnesses were called to support Jesus.
The charge of threatening the Temple was brought against Jesus and then the charge was changed to blasphemy.	Mt 26:61, 65; Mk 14:63-64; Jn 19:7
Jesus was charged with blasphemy, but technically He was not guilty of the charge of blaspheming God's name under the prohibition and the case cited in the Torah. Instead they found Him guilty of claiming to be equal to God.	Lev 24:11-16 Lk 5:21-24
Michal E. Hunt © copyright 2012

+++

A Daily Defense

DAY 265 Natural Disasters

CHALLENGE: “Why would a good God  allow natural disasters? It doesn’t seem to be because of original sin, because our telescopes and probes show that floods and quakes have occurred on other planets and moons.”

DEFENSE:Destructive events in nature are morally neutral in themselves.

A flood is just a wave of water passing over dry land. An earthquake is a shaking of the ground, typically caused by the motion of tectonic plates. Other “natural disasters”—volcanic eruptions, heat waves, cold waves, storms, and so on—fit the same pattern. They are changes in an environment caused by natural, physical forces.

We think of them as destructive disasters because of the impact they have on humans and other life-forms. However, considered in themselves they are morally neutral. If a flood, quake, or volcanic eruption occurs on a lifeless planet or moon then there is no harm. Such events are only physical evils when they impact life. Otherwise, they just involve natural forces moving matter around.

Even from the viewpoint of life, they are not always bad. For example, the elements necessary for life are released when stars collapse into white dwarfs or explode as supernovas. Sometimes an event is good for some life-forms and bad for others. The cataclysm that killed the dinosaurs made the rise of mammals and man possible. If an earthquake causes a fox’s den to collapse, killing the fox, it allows all the rabbits the fox would have eaten to live.

God allows such events to occur because of the way the universe is presently configured. The Catechism says:

With infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world “in a state of journeying” towards its ultimate perfection. In God’s plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection (CCC 310).

In some cases, the suffering caused by such events may have beneficial effects that give it purpose (see Day 7). Other times, it may have no apparent purpose, but God can still make it up to us when we innocently suffer the effects of a natural disaster (see Day 38).

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist