Matthew 26:17 – 25

Jesus Celebrates Passover with His Disciples (1)

17 Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”

18 And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”

19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

20 When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve.

21 Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”

22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”

23 He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me.

24 The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

25 Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?”

He said to him, “You have said it.”

Matthew comes back to the time of verse 6, the Feast of unleavened bread closely coincides with the Passover. (Exodus 12:6) The entire 8 days beginning with the Passover on the 14th day of the Jewish calendar first month became known as the Feast of unleavened bread.

The disciples, knowing their master would not eat the Passover in a public place with the Jews wanted to know what instructions he had for their preparation for the Passover.

Exodus 12:16 and Leviticus 23:6 – 7 tell of the preparations the disciples needed to make for Jesus and the disciples to observe the Passover.

Jesus send his disciples into Jerusalem to a certain address to tell the owner He and his disciples would need to use his upstairs room to celebrate the Passover.

He said “My time is at hand” meaning the time of his crucifixion was near.

The disciples did as instructed and followed the directions recorded in Exodus 12:5 – 9. They prepared the lamb and obtained the necessary supply of unleavened bread for their group.

The gospels do not give the events in strict chronological order. The order of the events are listed here in chronological order:

1. Luke 22:14 – 18

2. Luke 22:21 – 23

3. John 13:23 – 30

4. Luke 22:19 – 20

To understand the exact order of the events read these verses in order, do not read any verses not listed or omit any of the listed verses.

Beginning with Matthew 26:20, the event began near the end of the day.

Jesus had the divine knowledge of God and was well aware of Judas' intentions.

When Jesus announces that one of them would betray Him, the entire group was very sad, it was sincere sorrow on the part of all except the guilty one who could not have any sorrow at that time and be planning to do what Jesus announced.

All of the apostles wanted to know who it was who would betray him, but he didn't answer them all. According to John 13:22 – 26 John was reclining against the chest of Jesus and Peter motioned for him to as Jesus who it was. When Jesus told John, none of the others heard the answer so the act of dipping the bread in the dish would be the sign to the other apostles as to who the betrayer was.

Jesus knew he would be betrayed by one of his close followers. Psalm 41:9 prophesied that a friend who would eat his bread would betray him. But even with this decree, Judas was still responsible for the evil action he was committing and would be held accountable for it. According to John 6:70 and John 12:6, Judas was already an evil individual and God was not changing his character to use him as the betrayer of Jesus. He could have been saved just as those on the day of Pentecost were, had he repented and asked forgiveness for the betrayal. Being a divine being, Jesus knew what Judas intentions and actions would be through to the end.

Judas asked it it were him who would betray Jesus, he himself knew, but thought it would appear to conspicuous if he didn't ask and his guilt would be obvious to all those there.