Imagine coming together to arrange the death of Jesus Christ and that death had already been arranged!! Imagine the puny efforts of men and nations contriving to bring to an end the “plan of God” called the “mystery” when the Godhead had already ordered, established, and decreed its eternal existence!! “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break Their bands asunder, and cast away Their cords from us..” Psalms 2: 1-10 “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world….” Proverbs 8:22-36 Man did not determine when Christ was to die, God had already decided!! The plan/hidden mystery/wisdom of God was before anything created and it was always with the Godhead!! In Matthew 26:1-4 Judas and the Sanhedrin might have thought themselves important when they came together to implement their scheme to end the life of Jesus of Nazareth, but they were at least 6000+ man years and back into eternity where time was not, late!! Jesus did not die because some man or group of men decided He would!!
Jesus had “set His face toward Jerusalem,” Luke 9:51. “When the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” “that the glory of God, that the Son might be glorified thereby.” John 11:4 All the prophecies concerning His death, burial, and resurrection must be fulfilled-Jesus went to Jerusalem, to die!! Thomas caught the message when John recorded him saying, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him,” John 11:16, but it seems that some of our brethren missed that day in class. The Stone had been “set at nought.” Acts 4:11
Jesus and His disciples ate the last Passover meal, together. Not all the disciples went to prepare the Passover, only two-Peter and John, Mark 14:13. Luke tells us an unusual way Peter and John could identify the place for the meal, Luke 22:10. As they went into the city, they would find a man carrying a water jar. This would be an unusual sight, for in that area and time, women always carried the water, and still do. They were to follow the man to a house and tell the owner Jesus wanted to eat the Passover, there. In identity, this man is believed to have been John Mark’s father. In the Passover meal the father or chief person of the house opened by uttering two blessings. Then, the first cup of grape juice was drunk. The food was brought in. After the first part of the song of praise (Psalms 113-116) had been sung, the second cup was drunk. The father took bread, spoke the blessing over it, broke it and shared it. Only then was the Passover lamb consumed. After the meal, the head of the family blessed the third cup together with a concluding prayer of thanksgiving. Finally, the second part of the song of praise was sung. As they ate together, suddenly Jesus made a startling announcement: one of them would betray Him! No attempt was seen of Jesus to run (as some of our brethren, preach). Foretelling one of them was a betrayer, the disciples were saddened. They asked the Lord, “Lord is it I?” Judas asked, too. He was the last disciple to ask, Matthew 26:25 Verse 23 tells who this villain was to be. Wonder if Jesus missed any thing He prophesied would come to pass? He prophesied that night, He would die!! Jesus warned Judas for the last time telling him of the judgment he was bringing on himself. It did not seem to phase Judas. Only Matthew tells us the query of Judas to Jesus, “Master, is it I?” Jesus said, “thou art he that speaketh.”
As though His death was just a part of the plan, Jesus, then took the unleavened bread, again, and prayed. He introduced a meal now which was not a part of the Passover. The type now was to give way to the anti-type. “Take eat, this is My body.” The bread was to replace, personify, represent His body. Associated with the Passover, it meant His body would be represented by the unleavened bread He held in His hands. Usually, when eaten at the passover, the bread was dipped into a dish of bitter herbs and eaten. The bitter herbs represented the hard, bitter way, and anguish of the soul experienced by the sinner out of Christ. They were a long way from Egypt, now!! Christ had come!!
