Judas Iscariot.—Two days before the Passover an unexpected opportunity was presented to His enemies when one of His own followers, one indeed of the Twelve, Judas Iscariot, went to the high priest with an offer to betray Jesus into their hands, probably by pointing out where He could be arrested quietly. Innumerable explanations have been suggested for this treachery; its ultimate root was probably disappointed personal ambition working on an imperfect allegiance, fastening on Jesus as the cause of the disap pointment and passing through disloyalty and dislike to hatred. And, "hates any man the thing he would not kill?" The Last Supper.—Even for Judas there remained still an opportunity "to see one instant and be saved." For he was present at the Last Supper, when Jesus manifested to His fol lowers that "He loved them to the end." We shall probably do wisely if we follow here the tradition preserved in the fourth Gospel rather than that which appears to underlie the Synoptic Gospels. The latter certainly seems to imply that it was the Passover meal of which Jesus and His disciples partook; John clearly understands that it took place on the night before the Pass over, and that Jesus went to death on the following day, at the time when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed; this would further account for the absence from the Synoptic reports of nearly all the features characteristic of the Passover meal. The Last Supper then corresponded probably to the weekly "Sanctifi cation of the Sabbath" when the common meal had a specially religious character, and just before the Sabbath began the head of the household pronounced a solemn benediction over a cup of wine. No doubt Jesus had been in the habit of observing this weekly ceremony with His disciples. If on this occasion He anti cipated it by 24 hours, and introduced it by saying "Much have I desired to eat this (coming) Passover with you" intimating that that would not be so, this occasion would at once be charged with special significance and solemnity.
There are several variations in the reports of what Jesus said at the Last Supper as given by the three Evangelists (with whose record we must take into account that given by Paul in i Corin thians). Luke's account as found in the common text appears to
have been assimilated to Paul's; but when the true text is re stored it varies more from Paul's than either of the others. The probable meaning of the words spoken by Jesus may perhaps best be given in a paraphrase. He took a loaf and blessed and broke it and said, "This represents Me as I give Myself in sacrifice to be the spiritual nourishment of men" : and He took a cup and gave thanks and gave to them saying, "This represents Me as I give Myself in sacrifice to seal the new covenant." The central pur pose of the rite would appear to be that there might be brought vividly to the consciousness of His followers the real Presence of their Master when He had passed from their sight, such a Pres ence as carried with it the continuation of all the aspects of His ministry which had entered into their experience while He was visibly with them. The command, "Do this to bring Me to remem brance," which is found only in Paul, may be an authentic word of Jesus or it may be an inference from the experience of the Church; "He was known of them in the breaking of bread." From the upper room Jesus and His disciples went through the darkness to Gethsemane, outside the city, "where was a garden." There, withdrawn from His followers and even from the inner circle of closest friends, Jesus went through the agony of a human soul facing shame, suffering and death. Escape was still possible. The prayer rose to His lips that He might be spared the necessity of drinking "this cup," only to be cancelled in the next moment with "Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wiliest." He returned to His companions to find them sleeping. Then came the lights, the clamour of voices, the crowd of chief priests and temple officers and Judas leading the way to betray His Master with a kiss. Jesus was seized and led away a prisoner. As to His dis ciples "they forsook him and fled, all of them."