The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 534

Vers. 17-30.-711e last Supper. I. THE PREPARATION. 1. The question of the discipleB. It was now the first day of Unleavened Bread," when the Passover must be killed" (Luke xxii. 7; Mark xii. 12); a.ppnrently, therefore, the fourteenth of Nisan, -which seems to have been sometimes regarded as the beginning of the feast (see Josephus,' Wars of the Jews,' v. 3.1), though the fifteenth wa~ legally the first day. It is possible, therefore, that the disciples may have come to our Lord at the beginning, of the fourteenth, according to the Jewish reckoning, that is, after sunset on the evening of the thirteenth ; and thus the last Supper may have taken place a day before the legal time for the Passover. This is, perhaps, the most probable explanation of the apparent differences between St. John and the first three evangelists. The disciples asked the Lord where he would have the Passover prepared; they may have thought that he would keep it at Bethany, which was reckoned within the limits of Jerusalem for the purposes of the feast. 2. The Lord's directwns. He sent Peter and John to Jerusalem, giving them a sign whereby to find the house which he had chosen. They were to say to the good man of the house, "The Master saith, My time is at hand; I keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples." '!'here was a mysterious power in the Lord's message; the house was freely lent now, as the ass had been lent on the previous Sunday. There was a mysterious meaning in the words, "The Master saitb, M_y- time is at hand "-a meaning into which neither the disciples nor the householder could enter. Possibly, also, those words may imply that the Lord would keep the Passover before the appointed day, for his time was at hand-the time when he must aepart unto the Father. II. TEE CONVERSATION AT TEE SUPPER, 1. The Lora's prO'[!hecy of the betrayal. "When the even was come, he sat down with the twelve." The Lord showed bis holy lowliness; the twelve showed the workings of human pride even at that solemn Ii.our. Re washed the disciples' feet; but among them there was a strife, which of them should be accounted the greatest. Strange that these petty jealousies could have found room in apostles' hearts at snch a time, in such a presence, after such warnings of the coming cross. Pride is one of our deadliest spiritual enemies; it has wrought sad evil in the Christian Church. We feel its power in our own hearts ; we must crush it down if we would follow Christ. He taught them the blessedness of humility by word and by example; and then, as if to humble them still further, he told them the sad truth, "One of you shall betray me." It. may be th&t the words were spoken, not only in sorrow, but also in love; it may be that even now the Lord would have called Judas to repentance, as he would have gathered the hard-hearted Jews unto himself, but they would not; and now Judas would not. He had yielded himself to the tempter; Satan had entered into him (Luke xxii. 3), and there was hope no longer. The Lord's holy soul was filled with the deepest sorrow; this awful treachery wounded his holy human heart with the acutest pangs; in the mysterious union of the human and Divine he know its dreadful issues. 2. The questions of the disciples. The Lord's sorrow communicated itself to the disciples; they were exceeding sorry. Sorrow has a humbling effect. The disciples felt now the influence of the Lord's holy sorrow. They did not answer, like St. Peter afterwards, with passionate assertions of tleir faithfulness; but they whispered ench one, even Peter, it seems, with treru bling anxiety and self-distrust, "Lord, is it I?" Not, let us observe, "Is it this man or that man?" but, "Is it I 'I" The .Lord did not answer at first with that distinct intimation which he gave shortly afterwards to St. John (John xiii. 26). He said in gener-al terms that the traitor was one of those nearest to him..->ne who sat at the same meal, was using the same dish. Perhaps it was said in tenderness; he would even now, it it were possible, win that guilty soul to a sense of sin, to sorrow and repentance. Therefore he continued, in tones of deeper awfulness, to speak of the impending treachery. "The Son of man goeth;" so it was written in the Scriptures; so it wa.i determined in the eternal purpose of God. Bnt God's foreknowledge is not inconsistent with the free-will of man. The man does what must be, for it was foreordained; yet his will is not forced. The will of man is sacred, it is free; we feel the truth of this in our hearts, though we cannot see through the veil of awful mystery which hangs around. "Woe unto that man I" It is an utterance of sorrow, as in eh. xxiv. 19, not an imprecation. "Woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed I" It was through J uuas; he had sold himself to Satan. Christ saw that evil figure  640 THE GOSrEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [cu. XXVI, 1-75,