In a series of articles, we want to look, in short installments, at what our Lord Jesus experienced in His last hours before dying on the cross, how He conducted Himself, and how He suffered and died—because He loved us and, above all, wanted to glorify God, His Father.

The night on which He was betrayed

When the apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the believers in Corinth and presented to them “the Lord’s Supper,” he introduced his remarks with the words: “… that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread …” (1 Corinthians 11:23). It was a memorable night. On that night, our Lord was delivered from one place to another, from one interrogation to the next (or: brought). Various people were active there: Judas, the disciple and traitor; he had betrayed “innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). Matthew writes of the Jewish leaders: “And after tying Him up, they led Him away and handed Him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor” (Matthew 27:2). And of Pilate we read: “Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus flogged, he handed Him over to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26).

Four watches

This night began at about 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, because for the Jews the new day began at 6:00 p.m. in our reckoning. From Mark 13:35, one can gather that the night was divided into four watches:

• evening (approx. 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.)
• midnight until the end of the second watch (approx. 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.)
• rooster crow until the end of the third watch (approx. 12:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.)
• early morning (approx. 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.)

However, in order to follow the sequence of events on this night, it must be taken into account that the few time indications are only approximate (e.g., “it was already about the sixth hour”—Luke 23:44). Clearly, the Spirit of God is not so concerned with conveying a chronological presentation of the events. Rather, through considering what happened, we are to be drawn to the Lord Jesus.

The Passover

Around 6 p.m., the Lord Jesus ate the Passover meal, which He had “eagerly desired” (Luke 22:15), with His disciples. Why had He eagerly desired precisely this Passover meal? The Lord Jesus was very consciously aware that the “typical” events from back then in Egypt (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:6), whose memorial celebration took place annually, would be fulfilled in Him in the immediately following hours (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7). God’s judgment was to strike Him so that it could pass over (= “Passover”) His own. But His sacrificial death would also lay the foundation for God to bless far beyond the scope of the people of Israel.

During the Passover meal, the Lord Jesus exposes Judas, the traitor. Of him we read in John 13:30 that immediately after taking the morsel, he left the upper room and went out into the night.

The Rememberance Meal

After this, the Savior introduced the remembrance meal. He left it to His own, with the emphatic words: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). It is noteworthy that this exhortation of the Lord Jesus is repeated verbatim in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25. Is there not in this a serious appeal to every child of God to respond to this desire of the Savior, to the joy of Him who suffered and died for us so unspeakably?