The Last Supper

179:2.1For a few mo­ments af­ter the Mas­ter had gone to his place, not a word was spo­ken. Je­sus looked them all over and, re­liev­ing the ten­sion with a smile, said: “I have greatly de­sired to eat this Pass­over with you. I wanted to eat with you once more be­fore I suf­fered, and re­al­iz­ing that my hour has come, I ar­ranged to have this sup­per with you tonight, for, as con­cerns the mor­row, we are all in the hands of the Fa­ther, whose will I have come to ex­e­cute. I shall not again eat with you un­til you sit down with me in the king­dom which my Fa­ther will give me when I have fin­ished that for which he sent me into this world.”

179:2.2Af­ter the wine and the wa­ter had been mixed, they brought the cup to Je­sus, who, when he had re­ceived it from the hand of Thad­deus, held it while he of­fered thanks. And when he had fin­ished of­fer­ing thanks, he said: “Take this cup and di­vide it among your­selves and, when you par­take of it, re­al­ize that I shall not again drink with you the fruit of the vine since this is our last sup­per. When we sit down again in this man­ner, it will be in the king­dom to come.”

179:2.3Je­sus be­gan thus to talk to his apos­tles be­cause he knew that his hour had come. He un­der­stood that the time had come when he was to re­turn to the Fa­ther, and that his work on earth was al­most fin­ished. The Mas­ter knew he had re­vealed the Fa­ther’s love on earth and had shown forth his mercy to man­kind, and that he had com­pleted that for which he came into the world, even to the re­ceiv­ing of all power and au­thor­ity in heaven and on earth. Like­wise, he knew Ju­das Is­car­iot had fully made up his mind to de­liver him that night into the hands of his en­e­mies. He fully re­al­ized that this traitorous be­trayal was the work of Ju­das, but that it also pleased Lu­cifer, Sa­tan, and Cali­gas­tia the prince of dark­ness. But he feared none of those who sought his spir­i­tual over­throw any more than he feared those who sought to ac­com­plish his phys­i­cal death. The Mas­ter had but one anx­i­ety, and that was for the safety and sal­va­tion of his cho­sen fol­low­ers. And so, with the full knowl­edge that the Fa­ther had put all things un­der his au­thor­ity, the Mas­ter now pre­pared to en­act the para­ble of broth­erly love.