The Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper

The fourteenth day of Nisan (March) had come—the day on the evening of which every Israelite was bound to keep the Passover, on pain of being cut off from among the people of God. The Passover was the name given to the lamb which, after the preparation prescribed by the law, was eaten with various rites, in memory of God’s kindness shown to the Hebrew people in freeing them from Egyptian bondage, and especially in remembrance of the miraculous deliverance, by the sign of the lamb’s blood, of the Hebrew firstborn from the angel who destroyed the firstborn of Egypt (Ex 12:17-27). On the following day, in memory of the same event, there began the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, throughout which—as on the Passover itself and its eve—the Israelite, on pain of death, had to keep himself from anything leavened (Ex 12:15). The significance of the Passover was so great, the laws concerning its observance so strict, the rite itself so meaningful and instructive; besides, it was bound up with so many comforting memories of the past and joyful hopes for the future, that from ancient times the celebration of the Passover had become the chief of all Jewish festivals, the soul of the ceremonial law, the mark that distinguished a Jew, the quintessence of his faith, and the symbol of his hope. This alone was reason enough for Jesus Christ to keep the Passover (as indeed He always did) at the time set by the law, with the observance of every rite consecrated by centuries and by the example of the patriarchs and prophets: for one of the chief rules of the Son of Man’s great work during His ministry was to uphold every truly useful institution, never, without plain necessity or grave cause, to leave unfulfilled any one of the laws of Moses, and to strengthen and spread all that could serve as nourishment for faith and good morals, and lead to the correction of heart and life (Mt 3:15).

But besides this, there was one further reason why the Passover of Moses was, one may say, more desired and more sacred for Jesus Christ than for all His other kinsmen after the flesh: the paschal lamb, while serving as a symbol of a past kindness, at the same time, by the design of Providence, served still more as a type of His own person and destiny (Jn 19:36). The slaying of the lamb, and its atoning blood, which once turned aside the destroying angel from the Hebrew firstborn, prefigured the future death on the cross of the true Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the whole world; the joyful departure of the Israelites from Egypt after the keeping of the Passover foretold the gracious deliverance of the human race from the dreadful bondage of sin, death, and the devil, to follow upon the offering of the great sacrifice of the cross at Golgotha. Seen in this light, how sacred and how weighty everything in the Passover must have been for the God-man! In keeping this feast, He might be said, every time, to have kept in advance the memorial of His own coming death. Now, when the hour had come to exchange the type for the very deed—the blood of the paschal lamb for His own blood—the approaching feast of the Passover was closer than ever to Jesus’s heart: and, despite the great obstacles raised by His enemies, He willed to keep it in a manner all His own, in His own divine spirit (Lk 22:15), so that this last paschal supper should serve as the decisive close of the Old Covenant, and the beginning and full expression of the New—a memorial of His devotion to the will of the Heavenly Father and His boundless love for mankind, a symbol of the outward, and the center of the inward, unity of all His followers with Him and with one another (Jn 13:1-4, 17:26).

The chief obstacle to keeping the Passover was Judas. Had he learned beforehand of the place chosen for its celebration, the treacherous disciple would not have scrupled to inform the chief priests of it (Mt 26:16), and they might have surrounded the house with guards and seized those keeping the feast. In that case, the stillness of these most sacred moments would have been broken; the Teacher would not have had time to take leave of His beloved disciples in a manner worthy of Him and unforgettable to them; He would not have had time to fortify them against the coming trials, to pass on to them His last feelings and His own spirit—to nourish them unto eternal life with the imperishable food of His Body and Blood. Yet to drive the betrayer from His company, merely to avoid the danger, was still too hard a thing for Jesus’s heart. The Lover of mankind wished, up to the very last moment, to remain for Judas the same thing He was for the other disciples—friend, teacher, and father. The last supper, so rich in feelings of extraordinary love and goodness, in acts of surpassing meekness and humility, was meant to become for the perishing apostle either a final call to repentance, or a final proof of his impenitence and hardness of heart. And Jesus’s wise love found another means, no less sure, of removing the danger to the paschal supper without driving out the betraying disciple: it bound his malice, as we shall now see, by uncertainty, hiding from him the place of the celebration.

From early morning the disciples’ thoughts were entirely taken up with the Passover. Seeing no arrangements from the Teacher for its celebration, some of them thought it needful to remind Him of it (Mt 26:17). Although in Jerusalem, as ancient Jewish tradition assures us, every resident was bound to give, if he could, even without payment, a room to out-of-town Jews for keeping the Passover196, still, to avoid any confusion, a prior agreement was necessary—especially for Jesus’s holy company, which was accustomed to lodge in Jerusalem only with certain people known to Him and worthy of the trust, and which could least of all forget this precaution now, when danger threatened on every side.

To the disciples’ question of where He would have them prepare the Passover, the Teacher turned to John and Peter and told them to go into the city. «As soon as you enter,—He said—you will meet a man carrying a jar of water; follow him, go into the house he enters, and say to the master of the house: the Teacher says: My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples. Where, then, is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover?» After that he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. There prepare the Passover for us (Mt 26:18; Lk 22:8-13).

From this instruction it became clear that the Teacher had already thought of the place for keeping the Passover and had chosen it in His own mind, though He had not yet told the disciples; and that now, for some particular reason, He did not wish to reveal the name of the man at whose house the Passover would be kept. For what reason? No doubt, they thought, because of the danger from their enemies, who were watching their every step and were ready at any moment to seize them. But why keep it hidden even from us? Could it be that someone even among ourselves is unfaithful and not to be trusted? This last thought might have led the more perceptive among them to the idea of a betrayer197 from their own circle; but only to the thought, not to a settled conviction of it, which, as we shall see, was utterly foreign to the pure and simple hearts of Jesus’s disciples.

The true reason for all this secrecy could most quickly of all be guessed by Judas, who was its sole cause. His own exclusion—he being the keeper and steward of the common funds—from any part in preparing the Passover, which involved certain expenses, was in itself a plain hint that the Teacher knew of the shameful silver pieces promised him.

On coming into the city, Peter and John found everything just as the Teacher had said: at the Water Gate (by which those coming from the Mount of Olives entered the city) they met a man carrying water in a clay jar; following him, they went into the house where he lived, and repeated their Teacher’s words to the master of the house; whereupon he at once showed them a ready, spacious room, and they set about preparing the Passover (Lk 22:13). They bought a paschal lamb in the Temple court, had a priest slaughter it, or themselves slaughtered198 it, with his blessing, in the appointed place by the Temple; returning home, they roasted it over fire in the lawful manner—that is, whole, without dividing it into pieces, without breaking a single bone (Ex 12:9-10)—observing the other customs as well, and also prepared unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and the other things needed for the feast.

Toward the end of the day Jesus Himself came with the rest of the disciples, coming, as the circumstances lead us to think, in such a way that His arrival was not noticed by the people, still less by His personal enemies. Here, no doubt, the disciples learned who the mysterious master of the house was, in whose home they now found themselves; it would also have been easy to inquire whether he had known beforehand of Jesus Christ’s intention to keep the Passover at his house or not, and consequently whether the above words of their Teacher ought or ought not to be taken as a direct prophecy199. But the evangelists did not think it necessary to hand down to us any information on this subject, leaving it in the same uncertainty and mystery in which it first appeared to Jesus’s own disciples; and they did this, perhaps, partly so as to convey all the more fully the first impression made on them by their Teacher’s enigmatic words, and partly because, at the time they wrote the Gospel, disclosing the name of the master of the house200, who had had the honor of showing hospitality to Jesus Christ at such a time, might have had dangerous consequences for him.

One thing can be said with certainty: the master of the house in which the Passover was kept belonged to the number of Jesus’s admirers. This much is suggested already by the expression «the Teacher says» (Lk 22:11). Besides, the house for the supper had to be chosen as the safest possible, belonging to a faithful and trustworthy man: any other would have considered it his duty to inform the Sanhedrin that the very man now keeping the Passover in his house was there.

With the arrival of the time appointed by law and custom (not before twilight, and not later than the tenth hour — Deut 16:6), Jesus reclined at supper with His twelve disciples. There was no one else present, not only at the supper but in the room itself. Besides the fact that everyone at this time was occupied with keeping the Passover, this last supper, in every respect, was bound to be a secret supper.

The order of keeping the Passover at that time, so far as can be judged from a careful comparison of the most ancient Jewish testimonies201, was as follows: the paschal supper opened with a cup of wine, before which the father of the household, or whoever took his place, pronounced a thanksgiving to God, saying: «Blessed is the Lord our God, King of the world, who has created the fruit of the vine!» Having said this, he drank from the cup, as did afterward all the others, each then washing his hands. Then the bitter herbs were eaten, over which the one presiding likewise gave thanks to God. Here one of the younger ones would ask: what does all this mean? And the father of the household, or the eldest of those reclining, would explain the rites of the Passover through the history of the Israelites’ departure from Egypt, at which two psalms were read or sung (Ps 113-114), in which this event is celebrated. After this, a second paschal cup was passed from hand to hand. Again they washed their hands. The one presiding took one of the two unleavened loaves from the table, broke it into two halves, and, laying it on the other loaf, pronounced: «Blessed is our Lord, King of the world, who brings forth bread from the earth!» Then this bread was divided among those reclining. After this, the «Passover» itself, that is, the lamb, was eaten, once thanksgiving to God had been offered over it. After the «Passover» various other dishes were served, making up the paschal supper, in the midst of which came the third common cup, called above all the cup of blessing; following it, four psalms were sung (Ps 114-117), in which is depicted joy in God the Savior. At the close, a fourth cup was drunk. In every cup the wine was mixed with water, since all were bound to drink a little from them, women and children not excepted202.

Yet we shall not venture to assert that the Old Testament Passover, and especially this present, final one, was kept by Jesus Christ in exact accordance, point for point, with the description given above. For, by the instruction of Moses himself, the very institutor of the Passover, it was meant to be kept more simply, with fewer particulars (Ex 12). On the other hand, if there was ever an occasion fitting for the Son of Man to show that He is «Lord even of the sabbath», and of the Passover too (Mt 12:8), it was precisely now, at the abolishing of the Old Covenant and the establishing of the New. This present Passover, destined to serve as that very abolition, and to be the passing-over (the Passover) from the Old Covenant to the New, was for that very reason bound not to resemble other Passovers, and could well have had no small peculiarities of its own. Yet from certain hints and expressions in the Gospels it is clear that the venerable rites of the ancestral feast, in themselves, were not entirely set aside by the Lord even in keeping this present Passover (Lk 22:17-18; Jn 13:26). The evangelists did not turn their direct attention to this, since it was already known to everyone; but instead they described for us, in full detail, what was distinctive and belonging to the New Testament in this supper: the washing of the feet, the institution of the Eucharist, and the rest. Besides this, St. John, as the most loving observer of his divine Teacher and Friend’s last acts, prefaces his account of the farewell supper with a particular, profound indication of the extraordinary state of Jesus’s spirit throughout it, making us look upon Him as the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, who knows perfectly «whence He came and where He goes» (Jn 8:14), and is fully assured that «the Father has given all things into His hands» (Jn 13:3), and who, therefore, in the very darkest and most dangerous moments (as now), acts with all the calm and majesty of the Son of God, and, out of His boundless love for the disciples He was about to leave («having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end» Jn 13:1), is not ashamed, for their instruction, to wash their feet like a servant, and then does everything to encourage, comfort, and guard them against the trials—brief, but dreadful—of the coming separation; though, judging by His humanity, He Himself must have stood in need of comfort (Jn 13:1-4). Indeed, we do not find, in the whole three years of Jesus Christ’s ministry, that He revealed to the disciples so clearly the sense of His own great destiny, His divine dignity, and His oneness with the Father, as at this last secret supper and in His last discourses with them. Despite His most profound humility, by which He would wash the disciples’ feet, and the meek, love-filled speech of a friend parting from those he loves, He appears here filled with the light of His own Godhead, shining in every act and word of His, surrounded by a kind of inexpressibly moving majesty, in which the divine is blended with the human, Tabor is joined with Golgotha. Out of the midst of this blending there will breathe upon the disciples «a still small breath» (1 King 19:12), the only manner in which the Godhead can reveal itself to mortals, and can, from time to time, kindle in their hearts also the flame of pure love and faith. But only at times. Not yet purified of certain weaknesses, they «could not bear» or take in «much» (Jn 16:12). And their inability to grasp the mystery of the cross, which would be disclosed to them afterward, made them, in general, unable to share fully in their Teacher and Lord’s feelings. If only they had known the future as their Teacher knew it! Without doubt they would not have shown themselves as they did at the supper! No dispute over who was greatest would have taken hold of their souls! No sleep would have overcome them in the garden of Gethsemane! But the Teacher deliberately did not disclose the future to them in full detail, and when He did disclose something of it, if they did not grasp the revelation in the whole of its dreadful reality, He did not insist forcefully on their full understanding of it. Thus, not only of the washing, but of nearly all the Lord’s acts and words at this time, one could now say to each of the disciples: «You do not know now, but you will understand after this» (Jn 13:7). To one alone among the disciples belonged the sorrowful privilege of knowing something more than all the rest knew—to the betrayer. From this point of view, then, within the plan of the divine picture, he represents a figure dreadfully significant and singular, set over against the figure of the Son of God. In human form, he was a representative of the realm of darkness, which possesses no small share of secret knowledge, but not one spark or ray of holy love. Amid all the illuminations shining from the divine face of Jesus, Judas’s soul would remain cold and dark as coal. Trusting, it seems, in his success over the wretched betrayer, the spirit of darkness now stretched his absurd hopes so far that, by the testimony of the God-man Himself, he dared to ask the Supreme Ruler of human destinies for leave to «sift» the rest of Christ’s disciples too, «as wheat» (Lk 22:31)—that is, to have access to them with every temptation in his power. Another expression used by the Savior in pointing to this hellish request shows that the spirit of darkness was, in this case, indeed permitted by the Wisdom of God to do to the apostles something like what he had been given leave to do to Job—that is, to place them in circumstances especially difficult and especially dangerous to their faith and virtue. For the Savior says that He prayed that, under this hellish blast, Peter’s faith should not fail, and that he, once risen again from his fall, should strengthen his wavering brothers; but He nowhere shows that the fruit, or even the object, of His prayer was the removal of the blast itself, or the taking away of the very temptations and snares.

We shall not be mistaken if we count, among the secret temptations of the disciples at this time, the dispute over precedence that now broke out among them, so out of place and so ill-timed.

After the long journey from their country estate, it was fitting, before such a supper as the paschal one, to sit down, according to Eastern custom, with feet washed. Everything needed for the washing had been prepared beforehand in the upper room: only a servant to wash everyone’s feet was lacking. For mutual love this was a splendid occasion203 to render one another a mutual service. But the disciples, quite contrary to all expectation, and probably not without some temptation from the hellish tempter, responded to this occasion in an entirely different spirit: instead of a spirit of humility and brotherly concord, a spirit of self-exaltation appeared; there were even heard questions of who was greater and better, and who was lesser and worse. Not one of them wished to be lower than another, still less than all; and so the feet of all remained unwashed.

An unbearable chill breathed from such a dispute upon Jesus’s loving heart. He kept silence, waiting for the disciples’ mutual love (not weakened by such contentions) to prevail of itself over their childish love of honor. But when He saw that the disciples, without finishing their dispute, were already ready to sit down at table, He Himself at once rose from the supper204, took off His outer garments, and, girding Himself with a towel (the dispute, no doubt, fell silent at once, in expectation of what would follow), took one of the vessels standing ready for the washings, poured water into the basin, and (to the astonishment of them all) began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel. The first one (Judas?), in confusion, submits involuntarily; the rest silently follow his example; no one dares to stop the Teacher, though all feel that they themselves were the cause of so extraordinary an act, and grieve in their souls that they had given occasion for it by their untimely self-exaltation.

At last the turn came to Simon, son of Jonah. His fiery soul could not bear the thought that Christ, the Son of the living God, would serve him in the place of a slave. «Lord, will You wash my feet?»

«What I am doing» — the Lord answered — «you do not know now, but you will understand after this» (Jn 13:6-7).

The quiet and mysterious weight of these words called for immediate and unconditional obedience. But Peter was accustomed, in his actions, to follow feeling rather than reason. «What is there to understand,—he thought—when it is a question of such an abasement of my Teacher and Lord?»

«You shall never wash my feet» (Jn 13:8). Every motion of the speaker showed that he would keep his word.

At another time, such humility might have earned praise from Him who was Himself meek and humble of heart. But this was no time for a fresh dispute over which was the more humble—the Teacher or the disciple. The veil had to be lifted.

«If I do not wash you,» the Lord answered, now in a still more solemn voice, «you have no share with Me» (Jn 13:8).

At these mysterious words it was no longer possible not to understand that more was at stake than a merely physical washing. Peter was at once startled out of his self-assurance, and the whole fire of his soul turned to the opposite extreme…

«Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head» (Jn 13:9). Do with me whatever You will; only do not deprive me of a share with You.

«He who is washed (in soul and conscience, through My teaching and spirit, and the blood that will be shed on the cross—such as you are)—the God-man answered, washing Peter’s feet — needs (no more) than to have his feet washed» (Jn 13:10) (by a fresh visitation of the Holy Spirit, of which this present washing serves as a foretaste and symbol, for the complete cleansing from the prejudices and weaknesses that were in Peter: an excessive confidence in his own courage and in his own love for the Teacher).

«And you are clean, the Lord added, turning to the other disciples, but not all of you» (Jn 13:10).

«He knew,—St. John observes—that there was one among them who was the betrayer, and for that reason He said: not all of you are clean» (Jn 13:11).

Despite the weight of such a rebuke concerning uncleanness, and its very indefiniteness, by which it could have fallen on any one of them, none of the disciples dared ask the Teacher what this uncleanness was, or who was unclean. Even the talkative Peter kept silence. By the all-pacifying effect of Jesus’s humble heart, their hearts were brought back to their natural simplicity, and so stilled that they could not even be stirred by curiosity. There remained only, deep within, a feeling of regret that by their own untimely dispute over precedence they had driven their Teacher and Lord to so humbling a service—and in Simon, besides, a feeling that he had dared, even for a moment, to present himself as a man who had no need of washing from the One who alone can cleanse the uncleanness of every man.

Having thus washed the feet of all the disciples, Jesus put His garment back on and reclined again at the supper.

«Do you know, He said to them, what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am» (I truly am that). «If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, you should do also. Truly, truly, I say to you: a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him» (Jn 13:12-16). «The kings of the Gentiles lord it over the nations, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves! For who is greater, the one who reclines at table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines? But I am among you as one who serves» (Lk 22:25-27). «If you know these things» (some of the disciples might, at this point, have shown by some sign that they in no way considered themselves equal to the Teacher), «blessed are you if you do them» (Jn 13:17).

«You, the Lord continued, have stood by Me in all My trials (you have remained constantly faithful, despite the slanders and persecutions of My enemies), and I (as a reward) bequeath to you (to all of you alike), just as My Father has bequeathed to Me, a kingdom (you shall all receive far more than you desire), that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel» (Lk 22:28-30)—the Lord added, wishing to set before the disciples, as plainly as He could, the reward that awaited them.

At so great a promise, the God-man’s gaze fell upon Judas. His generous, bountiful lips involuntarily fell silent.

«I do not speak of all of you, He said with sorrow (though He would gladly have spoken so of all), for I know those whom I have chosen (I know for certain which of you is truly Mine, and which is the betrayer; and so I could have resisted his designs, and driven him out of My company, but I have borne with him, and will bear with him among you to the end), that the Scripture may be fulfilled: he who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me» (Jn 13:18).

I tell you this now (about this matter), «before it takes place, so that when it does take place» (when I am betrayed and crucified), «you may believe that I am He» (the same as before, the Son of the living God) (Jn 13:19).

«Truly, truly, I say to you, the Lord concluded with particular feeling, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me» (Jn 13:20). (The honor of being My apostle, though one of you has traded it for thirty pieces of silver, will always stand above every honor of this world. In your person, as in Mine, God Himself will be received or rejected.)

In silence the disciples took in the words of their Lord and Teacher, which, powerful in themselves, were made still more effective by His unparalleled humility.

What was passing then in the soul of the son of perdition, not yet perished but perishing?.. His feet too had been washed, to him too the lesson of humility had been given; and it was to him above all that the complaints of uncleanness chiefly applied!.. It cannot be that, of the seeds of the word of life falling in such abundance from the hand of the heavenly Sower, not one fell also on his heart: the Savior did not without a particular purpose point so fully to the great rewards awaiting His faithful disciples. Even the betrayer’s own passion—to value everything—might have been touched by the thought of losing something priceless. But the wretched disciple’s heart had already been hardened against good impressions; it was all overgrown with the thorns of the cares «and sorrows» of this age (Mt 13:21). And the devil, who had for so long been preparing the wretched man’s soul to be his instrument and dwelling, no doubt now especially guarded every entrance and exit of it, and snatched away at once every good seed (Mt 13:19), even, so to speak, in the very sowing of it.

The supper, interrupted at its very beginning, went on. Rite followed rite. Amid the general sorrowful mood, all this was now done, perhaps, more quickly than usual. The paschal lamb itself visibly lost its importance in the presence of the true Lamb of God, who was already prepared to bear the sins of the whole world. Despite the sacred custom, which had become almost an unchanging law, that all should drink from the sacred cups handed round at the supper according to tradition, the Teacher did not drink from a single one, even when the so-called cup of blessing appeared (the most sacred of all). He only blessed it, as was customary, and, without drinking from it Himself, gave it to the disciples, saying: «Take this and divide it among yourselves; for … I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes» (Lk 22:17-18).

No one’s eyes shone with joy; but on the God-man’s face there was visible even a certain trouble, all the more noticeable in that His most holy soul so rarely departed from its usual otherworldly composure, even in the most extraordinary circumstances. Now it suffered grievously from the betrayer’s presence. The sight of cold treachery and hypocritical friendship was all the more unbearable in that it kept His heart from opening itself fully before His beloved disciples, from uttering to them His final commandment of love and His final word of hope.

«Jesus was troubled in spirit» (Jn 13:21)! The disciples, noticing this, naturally expected something out of the ordinary. «Truly, truly, I say to you, the Lord said, as though explaining the state of His soul, that one of you will betray Me» (Jn 13:21). At these words, as plain as they were striking, deep sorrow took hold of them all (the supper, if it had not already fully ended, had now to be interrupted for a time). Each looked at another, involuntarily imagining that so great a betrayer could not help but reveal, in his own face, the darkness of his soul (Jn 13:22). But the betrayer looked at each of them more boldly than any, and himself sought out the betrayer with his eyes. «Who, then, could it be who will do this?» they asked one another, and every gaze turned of itself to the Teacher, who alone could say who this dreadful man was. Some still wished to think that he could not be within their own small circle of friends, but rather among the other seventy disciples. «One of the Twelve, the one who dips his hand with Me in the dish (of the four, then, or six, sitting nearest), he will betray Me» (Mt 26:23), the Lord answered. «The Son of Man indeed goes 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!» (Mt 26:24). Such words could not set the disciples at ease. At the thought that the betrayer was so near, and that so dreadful a fate awaited him, each of them began to distrust himself. «Is it I, Rabbi? Is it I?» was heard from every one of them. The Lord kept silence: the childlike simplicity and sincerity of them all made up, for His heart, for the hardness of the one. So as not to remain, alone among all those questioning, in silence, and so betray himself, this wretched man too dared to open his lips, and was not ashamed to ask, like the rest: «Rabbi, is it I?..» «You have said it,» Jesus answered, deeply wounded by the betrayer’s shameless hypocrisy (Mt 26:25). Yet this answer was spoken so quietly and gently that, it seems, no one heard it—or at least understood it—save Judas, as appears from what follows. The betrayer bore the rebuke in silence, avoiding the greater shame of being exposed before them all. And the other disciples did not press their questioning further, seeing the Teacher’s unwillingness to point out the betrayer directly.

Peter alone could not be at ease. The thought that the betrayer of whom the Teacher spoke might be sitting beside him—and a still darker thought: might the Teacher not mean himself, might he himself not later fall into some dreadful temptation (ah! he had already once had the misfortune to earn the name of Satan — Mt 16:23)—gave him no peace. To uncover the secret, he resorted, on this occasion, to a particular means—the very one so effective before the powerful of this earth for obtaining favors more or less deserved, but which, in Jesus’s holy company, could serve no purpose but so innocent a one as Peter’s—to discover the betrayer. The God-man especially loved and singled out one disciple, who now reclined close against His breast. It was to him that Simon turned, and made a sign that he should ask (privately) Jesus who this was of whom He spoke. That disciple (as he himself describes the occasion), leaning back upon Jesus’s breast, at once asked Him: who is the betrayer? No one heard or noticed the question except Peter, and probably Judas himself, who, being guilty, suspected everyone and was on his guard. «It is he, Jesus answered (quietly), to whom I will give this piece of bread, when I have dipped it» (Jn 13:26); and having dipped the piece in the dish, He gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. There was nothing insulting to Judas in this act: at the end of the supper it was customary to take and eat a piece from what remained of the Passover, and to receive such a piece from the hand of the head of the supper was to be singled out above the rest. And so this friendly offer of food was, for the perishing apostle, a final call to repentance.

But in Iscariot’s soul the very opposite came to pass. He took the piece and forced himself to eat it. Following the bread, as John, who was watching Judas closely at this moment, observes, «Satan entered into him» (Jn 13:27) at once. The mask of meekness and friendship melted entirely away before the fire of accusation blazing up in his heart: the betrayer’s look grew dark and dreadful. Jesus’s holy company had already become unbearable for a man with the devil in his heart: a secret force was drawing him out…

The Searcher of Hearts saw everything happening in the soul of the son of perdition—how the last drop of good was draining away, how the devil had seized the very foundation of his spiritual life: and Jesus no longer wished to force Himself to bear the betrayer’s presence fruitlessly any longer. «What you are going to do, do quickly,» He said to him, who was already, in any case, ready to go out (Jn 13:27). By this he was given a plausible pretext to leave the supper (already finished, in any case) alone, without rousing the disciples’ suspicion. But at the same time, these mysterious words seem to have held something more: by them the invisible bonds of grace were finally severed, which had still held the perishing apostle within the holy circle of Jesus’s company, and had kept Satan from dragging him down to hell. Meanwhile, this gentle half-rebuke, to one now abandoned by grace, probably seemed a harsh reproach. «I will not delay in my own business,» he thought, and went out.

«Now it was night,» St. John observes, «when he went out» (Jn 13:30)—that is, by Palestinian reckoning, not earlier than the ninth hour of the evening, and therefore after the close of the paschal supper.

Since the betrayer saw that the Teacher knew of his betrayal, and might suppose that the disciples too would learn of it and take every measure to save the Teacher and themselves—the question naturally arises: how, then, did he still hope for the success of his betrayal? Could he suppose, for instance, that Jesus would quietly await him in the garden of Gethsemane, and not immediately hide Himself in some more secret place? Why, to avoid this inconvenience, did they not hasten to surround with a guard the house where the supper was held, and where Jesus still went on conversing with the disciples for a long while afterward? To answer these questions, one must remember that the chief priests wanted to take Jesus entirely without the people present; for this they needed «an hour and a dominion of darkness» (Lk 22:53)—a deep and silent one; and just now no one was yet asleep, and at the slightest noise hundreds of thousands of people could come running. On the other hand, despite all the Teacher’s hints of betrayal, Judas might have thought that his scheme was known to Him only in general, without particulars—above all, without the fact that this betrayal was planned for the very night of the Passover; and so he could feel sure that the place chosen for the night’s lodging (Gethsemane) would not be changed for another. Besides, to better conceal the hour of the betrayal, the crafty lover of money had perhaps thought up beforehand some errand for which, with the Teacher’s knowledge, he was to go out immediately after the Passover was finished, without waiting for the closing singing of the psalms. This explains the Lord’s words: «what you must do, (what you need to do) do quickly» (Jn 13:27)—words which, without this supposition, so to speak, carry only half their sense—the moral half—and lack the other, the historical half, which would connect them with the events preceding them.

The disciples could not fail to notice how premature Judas’s departure was, but after the Teacher’s words to him, no one (not excluding, perhaps, John himself) thought to interpret this departure in a bad light. Some thought Judas had been sent to buy something for the coming (eight-day) feast; others, that he had been told to give alms to the poor on account of the feast (Jn 13:28-29). Neither supposition was entirely natural. To make purchases in the middle of the paschal evening, and so late, would have been difficult. Nor was it easy to find the poor at so sacred a time for everyone. But the disciples were readier to believe any guess whatever than to rest on the dreadful thought that Judas Iscariot—after the paschal supper, after the Teacher had washed his feet—had gone straight to Caiaphas for his silver and a band of soldiers!..

The Teacher looked upon the betrayer’s departure quite differently. With his going, the whole realm of darkness, which had for so long intruded into the very purest, God-lit circle of Jesus’s disciples, was cast out. Now, around the parting Teacher and Friend, there remained only those who could, without fear, be called «little children» (Jn 13:33), for, having been born of Him in spirit, they were united to Him even more closely than an infant to its mother. Jesus’s heart, until then constrained by the betrayer’s presence, expanded; His gaze grew bright. To His unhindered thought there appeared at once the whole past and the whole future—the end of the Old Covenant together with the end of His own earthly course, and the beginning of the new Church of grace together with a new manner of His own being, exalted, according to His humanity, through the cross above all things and all men. Seen in this light, the cross itself—as the chief instrument for overthrowing the kingdom of darkness, as the foundation of the Church and of the New, eternal Covenant, as the center of all Providence’s past and future workings, as the antidote and remedy against the fruits of that dreadful tree of the knowledge of good and evil—appeared radiant with divine glory, and the whole sacred rite of Golgotha, which had in a sense already begun with the betrayer’s going out, lost its gloom and took on the aspect of a universal triumph for Him who was to become its High Priest.

«Now the Son of Man is glorified, He suddenly cried out, as though in the midst of some vision, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him at once» (Jn 13:31-32).

The disciples listened in silence to these words of divine rapture, expecting, no doubt, some instructive discourse to follow them. But this was a step toward something else, something higher. The time had come to speak now not with words, but with deeds; the last hour of the Old Covenant had struck, and the New had to begin, not with a lamb from the flock, but with His own body and blood. Meanwhile the God-man’s face shone with a light not of this world. He takes the bread lying before Him, blesses it, breaks it into pieces, according to the number of the disciples, and distributes it to them.

Already from this act of blessing it was clear that this was not being done according to the custom of the paschal supper (the so-called blessed bread had already been consumed), but for another reason, and for another purpose.

«Take, the Lord said, explaining what He was doing, take, eat: this is My Body… broken for you» (1 Cor 11:24) «for the forgiveness of sins» (Mt 26:28).

The disciples in silence partook of the Teacher and Lord’s Body, given to them under the form of bread, believing with their whole soul that if it was broken, it was for nothing else but the sins of mankind, and for no other purpose but their forgiveness. The question once raised by the questioners of Capernaum — «how can this man give us His flesh to eat?» (Jn 6:52)—was now far from their minds: for they had heard, at that very time, from the Teacher, that the flesh of the Son of Man is «true food» (Jn 6:55), and that, nonetheless, His words about it then—and still more, this present act—must be understood as «spirit and life» (Jn 6:63); and so they were to be taken not in the crude, Capernaite sense, but in the higher, purest sense.

The disciples were still sinking deeper into the depth of this new mystery of love, which was feeding them with His own Body, when there followed a new wonder of that same love.

The Lord took the cup of wine, blessed it, just as He had blessed the bread before, with a particular, new blessing (showing thereby its own purpose, wholly distinct from the paschal cups), and, giving it to the disciples, said: «Drink from it, all of you205! This is My blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins» (Mt 26:27-28).

The disciples, having received the cup, communed, with the same silence as before, of the Blood of their Teacher and Lord; for from His discourses long before, they already knew that «the blood of the Son of Man is truly drink» (Jn 6:55), the only thing able to quench the eternal thirst of the human soul. How it was possible to eat the Body and drink the Blood of the Lord, when it still stood before them in its former form—this question, which now so troubles many, in all likelihood never entered their minds at all; for they knew, from countless experiences, that the Body of their Teacher and Lord, though in every way like a human body, nonetheless possessed many supernatural qualities, and so, for instance, could heal the most incurable sicknesses by a single touch.

«Do this, the Lord said, concluding the sacred rite, do this in remembrance of Me» (Lk 22:19).

This charge, on account of the particular weight and moving power of what was entrusted, so lodged itself in the disciples’ memory, and through them spread so quickly through the whole primitive Christian Church, that, as we see from the book of Acts, the celebration of the Eucharist in memory of the beloved Savior was the first and chief act of every Christian gathering. And the Apostle Paul, though he was not one of the Twelve and was not present at the Last Supper, in one of his epistles, no doubt by inspiration from above, already sets forth a detailed teaching on the mysterious Body and Blood of the Lord, and firmly and clearly presupposes the existence of this sacrament until the day of the Lord’s future coming.