On Thursday evening Jesus and His disciples celebrate Passover– what we call the Last Supper because it’s the last meal Jesus will eat — in an upper room of a house. Since 11 of the 12 were northern Jews from the region of Galilee (except for Judas), they calculated days from sunrise to sunrise, making Thursday evening Passover for them. During the Passover meal Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper …

Much of the gospel narratives focus on the last week of Jesus’ life. In the case of the Book of John, Jesus’ Passion Week encompasses chapters 12-20. And as the prophet Daniel predicted, Jesus’ death or “cutting off” would be in the year 30 A.D. (Dan 9).
Christ’s Passion Week begins with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday (what Christians now call Palm Sunday). The crowds hailed Him as the ‘King of Israel’ and the ‘Son of David,’ both of which are messianic titles. Many people also spread their clothes and branches on the ground and they waved palm branches signifying that Jesus was arriving as a king and a liberator. Jesus Himself …

The time had come for the Jewish dreams to come true and for them to turn towards God and believe in the messiahship of Jesus Christ. Jesus, in using the phrase ‘the time is fulfilled’ was making a direct reference to the Jewish tradition of expectation for the Messiah and a new Deliverer. To speak of God’s kingdom arriving now was to summon together the entire messianic narrative and to say that it was about to be fulfilled. As Andrew, one of Jesus’ first disciples will say to his brother after his first meeting with Jesus, “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1: 41 CEV). But Jesus gives the messianic tradition a new twist and develops it beyond what the Jews would have thought was possible by …