Those important last hours:
He washed the disciples’ feet: ‘After Christ had washed the disciples’ feet, He said: “Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” That His people might not be misled by the selfishness which dwells in the natural heart, Christ Himself set the example of humility. He Himself, equal with God, acted as servant to His disciples. He, to whom every knee shall bow, bowed down to wash the feet of those who called Him Lord. He washed the feet of His betrayer. The feet that Jesus had washed went forth to the betrayer’s work.’ From Heaven with Love, page 437.
He instituted the Lord’s Supper: ‘Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages… The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought out as the result of the death of Christ. Till He shall come the second time in power and glory, this ordinance is to be celebrated. It is the means by which His great work for us is to be kept fresh in our minds.’ Desire of Ages, page 652.
How Our Lord explained this service: “The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
'Christ’s words point our hearts forward to His Father’s kingdom: ‘Looking upon the crucified Redeemer, we more fully comprehend the magnitude and meaning of the sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven. The plan of salvation is glorified before us, and the thought of Calvary awakens living and sacred emotions in our hearts…As faith contemplates our Lord’s great sacrifice, the soul assimilates the spiritual life of Christ. That soul will receive spiritual strength from every Communion. The service forms a living connection by which the believer is bound up with Christ, and thus bound up with the Father. In a special sense it forms a connection between dependent human beings and God. The Communion service points to Christ’s second coming. It was designed to keep this hope vivid in the minds of the disciples. Whenever they met together to commemorate His death, they recounted how “He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” In their tribulation they found comfort in the hope of their Lord’s return. Unspeakably precious to them was the thought, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” 1 Corinthians 11:26.’ Counsels for the Church, page 302. Read also Mark 14:22-25.
Jesus’ words of encouragement for the disciples and us: ‘Let not your heart be troubled … I will come again and receive you unto Myself.’ John 14:1-3. ‘I will not leave you comfortless. The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance. Now I have told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass, ye might believe.’ John 14:4-29.
Let us go! ‘Hereafter I will not talk with you much, for the Prince of the world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. [Satan had no toehold in Christ’s life.] Arise, let us go hence!’ John 14:3. Twelve deep voices joined together in a hymn to God. Judas had already gone from them for the last time. And they went out also. It was night for them all. ‘And when they had sung a hymn, they went out unto the Mount of Olives.’ Mark 14:26.
As they walked the moonlit streets, the Lord talked with them, those last important things. He exhorted them to abide in the Vine, the persecutions they themselves could expect, and more about the Holy Spirit, who was even now close to them, but who, in the near future, would be in their hearts to guide them. Jesus told them that He, the Holy Spirit, would be to them a Comforter as He, Jesus, had been. But He gave them warnings that they could not as yet understand, that the hour was coming when they would be scattered and they would leave Jesus alone. He had already warned Peter of the danger he would face before the cock crowed that very next morning. Then He told them that He would rise from the dead, and afterwards He would meet them in Galilee. “Be of good cheer!” But these were words they did not register.
Jesus' prayer for them, and for us centuries later. John 17:20. As they approached the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus stopped. He lifted His eyes to heaven. ‘Father, the hour is come. I have finished the work Thou gavest Me to do. Father, keep through Thine own Name, those whom Thou hast given Me. I pray for them. I pray that they may all be one.’ When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron. Here in this quiet place was a secluded haunt to which Jesus repaired for times of quiet prayer to His Father and ours.
Very shortly, Jesus was to declare, ‘This is your hour, and the power of darkness.’ Luke 22:53.
In the next, very brief, period of time of only a few hours, life-shaping events would happen for both individuals and for a nation. There would be a suicide, Jesus’ followers would flee, sworn enemies would join in friendship against Christ, Mary would have a new son to care for her, a man randomly entering Jerusalem would have his life turned round, a centurion would give a testimony that resounds until our day, a thief would be converted in the minutes before his death, two important men in leadership roles would come out into the open as disciples of Jesus, and the leaders of a nation would shout with dark demonic power, ‘We have no king but Caesar’. These same men will, in the future, see Jesus come as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and where will Caesar be then?
And as our Saviour died, the officiating priests in the Temple saw the heavy curtain rent from top to bottom by unseen hands from heaven. Up on the hill of Calvary, outside the city wall, the pure spotless Lamb of God had given His life for the sins of all the world, for all time. All the symbols of the Old Testament sacrifices met together in the death of the Lamb of God. The New Testament had begun. Darkness fell over Jerusalem in broad daylight, the earth reeled and the ground opened up. ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God!’
As Jesus is revealed in these Lessons, this may be the hour of our decision too. May we see Him anew, Jesus, the Man of Calvary. May we choose aright, to love and serve and honour Him for now and always.