Go back in time, you heard stories as a small child about a man who would come and free you, a man who would be king and friend. Jump to the future, someone tells you it is he, the promised one, the one your parents and grandparents and great grandparents talked about. They point him out in a crowd, that’s him. The crowd shifts and before you know it you are standing face to face with this physically unassuming man. Yet you look into his eyes and see an unearthly strength, you see care and compassion for those who have only known hate and rejection, and a depth as immeasurable as the night sky. He invites you to join him, “Come Follow Me,“ he says.
Not without warning though, the road he travels is not for the faint of heart, he goes on, there are no 5-star hotels, no fancy restaurants not even a roof for his head. What is expected of you if you choose to follow him, noting short of complete abandonment of everything else, career, family, reputation, personal agendas, etc. His agenda is now your agenda. And for three years you are with him 24/7, you experience the care and compassion you saw in his eyes, you see him breakthrough cultural and gender bigotry, you see him lash out false religion wherever it rears its ugly head, you sit around camp fires with him and simply enjoys his company. You watched as he performed miracles and healings beyond what anyone ever dreamed possible. Then with the power that comes from your intimate connection with him you perform miracles and healings. Along the way he talks to you in riddles sometimes he explains them, other time he doesn’t. He talks about massive buildings being torn down and rebuilt in only three days…He talks a lot about his Father who appears to be the source of his everything.
Finally it comes to this, this man, this friend, Jesus is sharing his last meal with you and his other closest friends. The night, this night, his last on earth is like no other, Imagine a cosmic going away party, your best friend, a relative, the one person in your life who you couldn’t imagine living without, is living the next day. It’s only natural that he would spend his last hours with those closest to him...