Last Supper by Ugolino da Siena

Wednesday of Holy Week

Tonight, at sundown, Passover begins in Judaism. It is not always on a Wednesday, it changes every year. But, this year, the fact that it begins at Sundown on a Wednesday provides us with an interesting starting point.

All four canonical gospels agree that Jesus went to Jerusalem for the last week of his life, for Passover. In the synoptic gospels (MT, MK, LK) Jesus has his Last Supper with his disciples and friends on Thursday. (Which is why Christians refer to Thursday this week as “Holy Thursday.”) It has always been closely associated with the Seder Meal, which is the most important meal of the year in Judaism. It commemorates the Exodus event, in which a people who were oppressed (the Israelites) are sent a messiah to liberate them from their oppressors (Egypt) and lead them to a life of freedom in the land that God had promised to Abraham, so many years before. The meal is the “Meal of Unleavened Bread,” which is bread that has not had a chance to rise and so it is flat. The whole week of Passover is known as the week of Unleavened Bread. Because the Israelites were in such a hurry to leave Egypt that they did not have time to wait for the bread to rise.

According to the synoptics, After Jesus ate (what we have traditionally accepted as) the Seder meal, he went out to pray, and then by sundown the next day, he will be dead; crucified by the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate. One day later, after the sun set on Saturday, Jesus’ followers claim that he rose from the dead.

Most people hear the narrative a little differently. It is common in churches around the world to say that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after he died. But, in the synoptics it is only one. In order to get the “three days” that most people are familiar with you have to read the narrative in John. In the Gospel of John, Jesus died today, Wednesday, which was called the Day of Preparation. It was the day before the Seder Meal when people were having their lambs sacrificed in the Jerusalem Temple so that they could prepare the meat for the meal the next day. John makes a point of letting us know that Jesus dies on the cross at the same time that the lambs are being sacrificed in the Jerusalem Temple; because it is in John’s gospel that Jesus is “The Lamb of God.” So, after Jesus dies, he is placed in the tomb and he will lie there for three days, to rise from the dead after sundown Saturday.

One of the things that we learn is that all the canonical gospels are different, and all of them tell an important story. Each author tells it his own way and each way is valuable.