Jesus' Final Visit to JerusalemSample

The Last Supper

Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and as they were at the table eating, he exclaimed, “I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me. For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!”

The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he could mean, and began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing. Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one, Lord?” The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table. Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, “Who’s he talking about?” So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”

He replied, “It is one of you twelve who is eating from this bowl with me. It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.” And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.

Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, “Rabbi, am I the one?”

And Jesus told him, “You have said it.”

When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.” None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant. Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor. So Judas left at once, going out into the night.

As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once.”

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it, and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

And then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he gave it to them and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. Each of you drink from it.” And they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. I tell you the truth—mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.”

After supper, he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people— an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.”

Then the disciples began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, “In this world, the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you, it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

“You have stayed with me in my time of trial. And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Then they sang a hymn, and accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went out as usual to the Mount of Olives.25

25 It is difficult to determine precisely when Jesus and the disciples left the Upper Room for the Mount of Olives following the Last Supper. Jesus’ words to his disciples in John 14–17 are often thought to have been spoken in the Upper Room, though the precise timing is not explicit in John. What is presented follows the accounts of Matthew and Mark, who both place the departure here before Jesus predicts Peter’s denial.