Then Mark heard the booming voice of Simon Peter among those approaching and, knowing now that the expected guests were arriving, ran to tell his mother and his Uncle Barnabas. Jesus was at the head of the group with John on one side and Simon Peter on the other. Reaching the house they took the stairway leading directly to the upper room where the meal had been prepared.
Reluctantly Mark went back to the tree. He would much rather have been with the men, listening to the talk, but Peter had commanded him to watch, and he would not betray the tall fisherman’s trust. Then the thought came that he could accomplish both things by climbing into the tree whose spreading branches were near one of the open windows of the upper room. Scrambling up, he perched himself there just as Jesus and the others came through the door.
III
The traditional Passover meal consisted mainly of the lamb which had been slaughtered in the temple that morning, its fat and entrails burnt upon the altar. It was served along with unleavened bread, thin wine, and the bitter herbs which symbolized the persecutions in Egypt from which the Children of Israel had been delivered by God’s mercy at the request of Moses.
The meal began at the setting of the sun when a trumpet blast from the highest point of the temple announced the Passover. A rather rigid routine was customary, beginning with a benediction which was followed by a cup of wine and then the formal washing of hands by the company. Thirteen different steps were observed in all, ending with the singing of the hallel at midnight in a psalm of thanksgiving.
The low table had already been prepared and the cushions upon which Jesus and the disciples were to recline were in place. In the street outside, the disciples had been wrangling among themselves over who should occupy the place of honor at the right hand of Jesus and the controversy continued into the house. Peter naturally felt that he should be the privileged one because Jesus had designated him at Caesarea-Philippi as the stone upon which He would build His church. John and his brother James were also particularly beloved by Jesus, and felt that it was they who should occupy the places of honor. Judas, as keeper of the purse, always sat close to the Master so that he could receive any instruction which Jesus wished to give him from time to time.
Jesus stopped the argument almost as soon as they entered the room. “The kings of the Gentiles exercise leadership over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors,” He said. “You shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the youngest. And he that is chief, as he who serves. But who is greater, he that sits at meat or he that serves? Is it not he that sits at meat? Yet I am among you as He who serves.
“You have continued with Me in My temptation,” He went on warmly, “and I appoint to you a kingdom as My Father has appointed to Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Subdued now by the rebuke, however gently delivered, the disciples took their places, with John at the place of honor and Judas on the left hand. Peter sat directly across the table from John. Jesus had treated Judas like the others all day and the man of Kerioth was sure that his visit to the high priest had not been noted and that no one knew of his intention to betray the Master.
At the beginning of the meal, Jesus pronounced the benediction and the ritual cup of wine was then passed. After that, when the time came to wash their hands, Jesus took off His robe and, taking up a towel and a basin of water placed at the entrance of the room for that purpose, knelt first before Simon Peter who reclined at the end of the row of cushions surrounding the table on three sides. The tall fisherman was ashamed now because he had argued with James and John over who among them should have the highest place at the feast and protested against Jesus abasing Himself thus.
“Lord,” he asked humbly, “do You wash my feet?”
“You do not know what I do now,” Jesus told him. “But hereafter you shall know.”
“You shall never wash my feet,” Peter still protested, not understanding what Jesus meant by the action or the words.
“If I do not wash you,” Jesus told him quietly, “you have no part of Me.”
Contrite now, Peter knelt before Him. “Do not wash my feet only,” he begged, “but also my hands and my head.”
Jesus shook His head slowly and kneeling, washed Peter’s feet and dried them with a towel. “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet and is every whit clean,” He said. “But you are not all clean.”
Judas felt a sudden stab of fear. Could Jesus have somehow learned of his plan to betray Him?
Jesus said no more. He washed the feet of the other silent disciples, put on His robe again, and then sat down with them. Judas’s fears began to fade.
“You call Me Master and Lord, and you speak well, for so I am,” Jesus said as the meal progressed. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another’s feet, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.
“I do not speak of you all,” He continued. “I know whom I have chosen. But that the Scriptures may be fulfilled, he that eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.”
Judas suddenly pushed away the dish before him. If he could have escaped without betraying himself, he would have done so, but Jesus went on speaking in the same matter-of-fact tone. “Truly I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.”
John was beside Jesus, and Simon Peter beckoned him to ask the Master who it was that would betray Him. When John asked the question, Jesus did not immediately answer but reached out and dipped a piece of bread first in the bitter herbs and then into the savory juices from the meat.
“It is he to whom I shall give the sop,” Jesus said in a low tone which only a few of them heard but which was perfectly audible to Judas.
The giving to another of the bread dipped in herbs and the juices of the lamb was an act of humility quite in keeping with Jesus’ early action in washing the disciples’ feet. And as He passed the sop to Judas Iscariot, He said quietly, “That which you do, do quickly.”
His face frozen with fear and shame, Judas took the sop mechanically and put it into his mouth, but the taste of the herbs was like gall and pushing himself away from the table, he rose and plunged from the room into the night.
Because Judas carried the purse and paid for whatever was bought, most of the disciples, assuming that he had gone on some matter in connection with the meal, were not alarmed when he suddenly left the room. The paschal supper was at its height now, but when Jesus spoke again the gravity in His voice stilled their merriment.
“Children, yet a little time will I be with you,” He said soberly. “You shall seek Me but as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come.’ So now I give a new commandment to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.”
“Lord, where are You going?” Simon Peter asked.
“Where I go you cannot follow Me now,” Jesus told him. “But you shall follow Me afterward.”
“Why can I not follow you now?” the tall fisherman insisted. “I will lay down my life for your sake.”
“Will you lay down your life for My sake?” Jesus asked with a note of infinite sadness in His voice. “Truly I say to you, the cock shall not crow until you have denied Me three times.”
IV
From his perch in the sycamore tree, John Mark had watched wide-eyed as Jesus and His disciples took their places at the table. Though he could not hear very much that was being said, he could understand the significance of Jesus’ act in washing the disciples’ feet, for he had heard the Master say more than once that he who would be greatest in the kingdom of God must become the servant of all. Mark had known too, that something was wrong when he had seen the look on Judas’ face as he plunged from the roo
m.
Mark remembered now the rumors in the city that one of Jesus’ own disciples would betray Him, and he could not help wondering if it was Judas. The man of Kerioth was still visible, hurrying along the street and, acting upon an impulse, Mark slipped quickly from the sycamore tree and set out in pursuit.
Earlier one of the sudden black thunderclouds that sometimes drenched Jerusalem at this season, as an aftermath of the winter rains, had swept over the city. Now the sky was clear and the stars were shining. The rain had washed away the filth of the day from the streets, and the city seemed unusually fresh and clean as if it, too, had bathed and put on fresh raiment for the Passover.
Through the narrow, almost deserted streets of the Lower City, Mark followed Judas across the depression of the Tyropean Valley. As the streets began to climb into the more fashionable area of the Upper City, the way grew steeper, but Judas hardly slowed his pace and at times Mark had to trot to keep him in sight. Knowing every part of Jerusalem intimately, for he had lived there all his life, Mark was fairly sure where Judas was going. When the imposing structure of the palace of the high priest loomed up in the darkness ahead, he knew he had done right in following the man of Kerioth. For Judas went boldly to the gate leading into the outer court and knocked upon it for admission.
The city was quiet, for on the Passover night all remained indoors to eat the paschal meal, coming out only a little before midnight to sing the hallel together in thanksgiving once again to the God who had made Israel His own. From the courtyard of the palace, however, there came the sound of voices and when Mark crept close to the gate through which Judas had been admitted, he was able to see that a group of the temple guards were assembled there, along with perhaps two dozen Roman legionnaires.
Being careful not to let himself be seen, Mark worked his way through a section of hedge until he was near enough to hear and see at least part of what was going on. He was able to make out the burly form of Abiathar talking to Judas, and in the light of what he had seen in the upper room and the sudden flight of the man of Kerioth, Mark was almost certain that he knew the trend of the conversation.
His suspicions were confirmed when one sentence came loud and clear enough for him to understand it.
“The Garden of Gethsemane,” Judas was saying. “He will go there after the singing of the hymn.”
Mark remained no longer. He knew Jesus often went to the beautiful garden on the slope of the Mount of Olives when He left the city in the evening, stopping to pray there before going on to Bethany. What more logical place for Him to go tonight after the Passover meal was finished? Knowing Jesus would be accompanied only by the disciples and a few others, Judas had betrayed the garden to Abiathar as the place where he could capture Jesus without stirring up a riot.
The very simplicity of the plan made its success almost inevitable. Only if Mark could get back to his home before Jesus and the others left for the garden was there a chance to save the Master from capture.
Chapter 33
Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come.
John 16:32
In the traditional ceremony of the Passover, near the end of the meal the youngest always asked the meaning of the celebration. This was the time for the oldest present to retell the story of how God had led the Children of Israel up out of bondage in Egypt. When the time came tonight, however, Jesus took a wine cup and filled it. “Take this and divide it among yourselves,” He directed the eleven disciples who remained about the table. “For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come.”
While the cup was being passed from one to another, He also took bread and, breaking it into pieces on the plate, gave it to them to eat.
“This is My body which is given for you,” He told them. “This do in remembrance of Me. The cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you.”
The disciples were troubled, for Jesus had never carried out this ceremony before and they did not understand its real meaning.
“Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus counseled them. “You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Where I go you know, and the way you know.”
“Lord,” Thomas protested, “we do not know where You will go, so how can we know the way?”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus said simply. “No man comes to the Father but by Me. If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also, and from henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.”
“Lord, show us the Father,” Philip begged, “and it will suffice us.”
“Have I been so long a time with you and yet you have not known Me, Philip?” Jesus asked sadly. “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How then can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? The words I speak to you I speak not of Myself, but the Father who dwells within Me, He does the works.”
Jesus rose from the table, for the Passover was ended now and there remained only to sing the hallel as the final act of the ceremony. But before going out, He stopped to pray. “I pray not for the world,” He said looking up to the heavens, “but for them which You have given Me, for they are Yours. Now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. These that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
“Now I come to You and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep them from evil. Sanctify them through Your truth.
“Neither pray I for these alone,” He continued, “but for them also who will believe on Me through their word. That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. That they also may be one in Us that the world may believe that You sent Me. O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith You have loved Me may be in them and I in them.”
As He finished speaking the prayer, the sound of voices singing the hymn floated through the windows from the city outside. Jesus led His disciples out and there they joined their own voices in the hymn of praise. Only when it was finished, did He turn His steps toward the Garden of Gethsemane.
II
The Lady Claudia Procula, wife of Pontius Pilate, stood on the balcony outside her bedroom high up in the fortress of Antonia. Another Passover season was almost gone and she was thankful. Now with the ritual feast drawing to a close in the last moments before midnight and tomorrow, a day of quiet, it did not seem likely that there would be trouble in Jerusalem.
The scrape of a sandal told Procula that her husband had come out on the balcony. Lately Pilate had been moody as the months dragged on with no indication when the Emperor Tiberius in Rome would send him from Judea to a new and more responsible post. Pilate had been drinking more than usual too, but tonight she noted happily that he appeared to be almost sober. When he came up to the marble balustrade surrounding the balcony, Procula put out her hand and laced her fingers with his in the darkness.
“It’s almost over,” she said. “I came out here to listen to the people sing.”
“It is better for them to sing than to shout against Rome,” Pilate agreed.
“There’s been little shouting this time. At least I haven’t heard it.”
Pilate l
aughed. “The Jews were too busy shouting against each other. The Galilean we saw on the road from Jericho has Caiaphas and his Priestly Council thoroughly upset.”
“Why? He was only a Teacher.”
“The Nazarene has courage, even if He lacks judgment,” Pilate said. “He denounced the scribes and Pharisees in the temple.”
“Has the high priest been to you about Him?”
Pilate shook his head. “Caiaphas has to get rid of the fellow, but he’s afraid of Him. People cheer the Nazarene on because He attacks the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests. They might riot if Caiaphas arrested Him, so He is trying to destroy Him without any public notice. He doesn’t want my soldiers in the temple again.”
“You did handle that rather ruthlessly.”
“I am the governor of Judea, my dear. And I am supposed to be ruthless—with rebellion.” He chuckled. “I’ll admit I went a little further than usual that time just to teach Caiaphas a lesson. He’s too ambitious to suit me, and I wouldn’t put it above him to foment some sort of a disturbance occasionally just to keep the people from looking too closely at how he operates the temple and its revenues.’’
“What about the Galileans?”
“They rebelled, so they would have been executed anyway,” Pilate said. “But I think I may choose to be lenient with that fellow Barabbas. The people expect me to release a prisoner to them tomorrow; it’s an old custom here. From what we’ve been able to drag out of Barabbas, the whole thing was started to create a safe opportunity for theft. If I let him go, the people will be impressed with Roman justice, but Caiaphas will still remember I didn’t hesitate to act swiftly when the occasion demanded.”
Procula did not speak for a moment and Pilate said, “Are you troubled, my dear?”
“I was thinking in a way I would hate to leave all this.”
The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ Page 38