The Last Supper and Gethsemane
Note: Like much of the stories of Holy Week are meant for a true artist, I am only a cartoonist. So my my prayer is that what I share in words and cartoons conveys the truths of these amazing days up to and through Easter morning.
THE LAST SUPPER
While midweek was the calm before the storm.
Thursday is when the momentum of the Holy week quickened, as all the pieces of the entire Easter message found their place.
In the evening, a room is prepared for Jesus to share the Passover Seder with his disciples. During this particular Passover meal, Jesus did something dramatic:
He took the bread and said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Note: A few disciples were worried about the CARBS.
He then took the cup (the third cup of the Passover, known as the cup of redemption) and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
This is why we call it the Last Supper — it was the final Passover meal Jesus would eat before His crucifixion, and it became the foundation for what Christians now call Communion or the Lord’s Supper.
The disciples were still somewhat oblivious to what was about to happen, and I believe all of us would be, too. There were only quiet words and strong emotions shared between Jesus and his closest friends on this night.
* This was also the meal where Judas left to betray Jesus.
SIDE NOTE: I wonder… What if Jesus passed out those WAFER/JUICE Communion combo-cups for the Last Supper? ?? Ok, I guess that I am the only one.
THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
… was the next setting in which Jesus prayed and prepared for his arrest and what would happen in the coming hours.
None of this was a surprise to Jesus, as it all was part of God's plan to save the world. Jesus prays, his disciples sleep, and Judas betrays our Lord.
Jesus continues to agonize while in prayer over what is to come, but He concludes with a servant’s Heart dedicated to the Father, with the words, "not my will but yours be done." This shows to me Jesus as fully man (with emotions, pain, and dread), but fully God in tune with the Father.
THE ARREST OF JESUS
While Jesus knew his arrest was imminent, it was a shock and emotional devastation for his ‘sleepy’ disciples, who just the Palm Sunday before were in their minds soon to be the ‘presidential/king cabinet of sorts’ for Jesus, soon to be King of the Jews.
Ironically, as the mob approaches to arrest Jesus, they become spooked like house-cats hopped up on Red Bull and fall all over themselves like a Jewish set of dominoes.
SO PETER LEAPS INTO ACTION
… ironically to ‘SAVE THE SAVIOR’ by chopping off the ear of one of those arresting Jesus. But Jesus heals the severed ear and then does a quick ‘sound-check’ with the words. " Can you hear me now? Good. "
Of course, as we know 2000ish years later, Verizon plagiarizes Jesus words into the ‘Can you hear me now? campaign.
Soon after, the disciples scatter in fear, and Jesus is brought before the Jewish leaders for a graveyard shift kangaroo-court session..
THERE WILL BE NO JUSTICE TONIGHT
As the verdict had been decided well before Jesus’s arrest. The hatred of Jesus by the Jewish leaders of the day inspired this after-hours travesty of justice. As Justice was not the purpose of this gathering, but instead they would settle for no less than the death of Jesus to appease their own jealousy and hatred.
The testimonies against Jesus were a parade of false testimonials and tellers of tall tales, all brought forward as witnesses for the state.
These lies were used to fuel the high drama in this late-night / early-morning mock court. One priest cried out in outrage as part of this hateful mob scene stage show.
What a horrible, dark early Friday morning this had become, BUT… I am reminded that this was all a part of God’s Plan to save mankind.
It is Friday, but Sunday is coming.
Thank you, God, this horrible day was just one piece in your great plan for salvation. Yes, Jesus would be crucified, but then resurrected on that first Easter morning for our sins.
May God speak to us like never before this Holy Week, blessed with the realization of the price Jesus paid so that we could be in Heaven with Him.
Jeff (Thankful and in awe) Larson
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