The day came when the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare the meal. When they asked where, he told them to enter the city, follow a man carrying a jar of water to the house he entered, and ask the owner for the room where Jesus could eat the Passover with his disciples.
Jesus said the owner would show them a large furnished room upstairs. The disciples went and found everything as he had said, and they prepared the Passover.
When the hour came, Jesus sat at the table with the apostles. He told them that he had greatly desired to eat that Passover with them before he suffered. He said that he would not eat it again until it found fulfillment in God’s kingdom.
Jesus took a cup, gave thanks, and told them to divide it among themselves. He would not drink the fruit of the vine again until God’s kingdom came. He then took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them. It was his body given for them, he said, and they were to do this in remembrance of him. After the meal he spoke of the cup as the new covenant in his blood, poured out for them.
Jesus said that the hand of the one who would betray him was with him at the table. The Son of Man would go as determined, but woe to the betrayer. The disciples began asking which of them could do such a thing.
They also argued over which of them was greatest. Jesus told them not to rule as the kings of the nations did. The greatest among them was to be like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. Jesus said that he was among them as one who served.
Jesus asked who was greater, the person sitting at a meal or the one serving. The seated guest was greater, yet Jesus was among them as one who served. The disciples had remained with him through his trials. He granted them a kingdom as the Father had granted him one, so that they could eat and drink at his table and sit on thrones judging Israel’s twelve tribes.
He told Simon that Satan had asked to sift them like wheat, but that he had prayed for Simon’s faith. When Simon returned, he was to strengthen his brothers. Simon said he was ready to go with Jesus to prison and death, but Jesus said that before the rooster crowed, Simon would deny knowing him three times.
Jesus recalled sending the disciples out without purse, bag, or sandals, and they said they had lacked nothing. Now he told them to take a purse and bag, and anyone without a sword was to sell a cloak and buy one. The Scripture saying that he was counted with transgressors had to be fulfilled in him. When the disciples said they had two swords, he said that it was enough.