Passion Week Day # 5

Day 5 Thursday. Day of Preparation and Passover in the Evening.

Today (and perhaps on Wednesday evening) preparation is made for the Passover. Judas may have also utilized this time to meet with the priests for his betrayal (Matt.26:1-5; 14-16; 17-19). The Passover is celebrated on Thursday evening (which is Friday by Jewish reckoning) in an upper room. Tradition has it that it was owned by Mark's parents. At the end of the Jewish feast, Jesus institutes the Last Supper (Matt. 14:12-26; Lk. 22:17-23). The Last Supper is followed by the Upper Room Discourse (Jn. 13-17). Sometime in the evening, after the Passover, Jesus and His disciples leave the Upper Room and go to Gethsemane, a place near the Mt. of Olives where it was a custom for Jesus to Pray (Matt. 26:36-460). While in the Garden, Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested by the temple guards (Jn. 18:2-12). The Trials begin. Before dawn Jesus is tried twice before Annas and then Caiaphas. Everything about these trials is illegal.