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And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, “Sit ye here, while I shall pray.” And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore, and to be very heavy; And saith unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death . . .” (Mark 14:32–34)

Carl Heinrich Bloch, Christ in Gethsemane. The Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.

The events of the last evening of Jesus’s life, which in our devotional chronology occurred on Thursday, are some of the most significant, both in the narrative leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion and death and in terms of their importance to his atoning work and our regular commemoration and embrace of it. On that night Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with disciples, went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray and prepare for the ordeal that was to come, was actively betrayed by Judas and abandoned by his other disciples, was arrested, and then was taken before the Jewish authorities for a preliminary hearing and harsh abuse, both of which led up to his Roman trial and execution the next day. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the ordinance of the sacrament as a means for us to regularly remember and accept his saving sacrifice. In Gethsemane he took upon himself the crushing weight of our sins, sorrows, sicknesses, and heartaches. After being betrayed, abandoned, denied, misjudged, and abused, Jesus then carried this weight alone on the cross. Elder Holland has called this “the loneliest journey ever made, . . . shouldering alone the burden of our salvation,”[1] and noted that “the hours that lay immediately ahead change[d] the meaning of all human history. . . . The hour of atoning sacrifice had come. God’s own Son, his Only Begotten Son in the flesh, was about to become the Savior of the world.”[2]

In addition, John also preserves some of Jesus’s final words to his disciples, which were both spoken to the Twelve and perhaps some of the other of his original followers but also, by extension, were intended for us. Reading, studying, and solemnly marking these events and teachings can have great meaning for us and our families. Commemorating this night has long been a somber, important practice in many Christian traditions. Holy Thursday is also called “Maundy Thursday” in the Anglican communion and in many English-speaking countries, with Maundy coming from the Latin mandatum, which recalls Jesus’s words after the Last Supper when he said, “A new commandment I give you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, love one another” (John 13:34 KJV; emphasis added). While Latter-day Saints do not officially celebrate Maundy Thursday, the events it commemorates have great meaning for us. In fact, because of the significance of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in our weekly worship and our important understanding of the Gethsemane experience, they are arguably some of the most important things we can recall not just each Easter season but every week of the year. Indeed, Thursday was when the passion of our Lord, narrowly defined, truly began.[3]

Texts: Mark 14:12‒25; John 13:1‒35

While Matthew 26:17–30 and Luke 22:7–38 largely follow Mark in their portrayal of the Last Supper as a Passover meal at the end of which Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, John portrays it simply as the last meal that Jesus shares with his disciples, at which he performs another ritual, the washing of their feet.

Mark

¹²And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, “Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?” ¹³And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, “Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. ¹⁴And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, ‘Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?’ ¹⁵And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.” ¹⁶And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

¹⁷And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. ¹⁸And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me.” ¹⁹And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, “Is it I?” and another said, “Is it I?” ²⁰And he answered and said unto them, “It is one of the twelve, that dippeth with me in the dish. ²¹The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born.”

²²And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, “Take, [eat]: this is my body.” ²³And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. ²⁴And he said unto them, “This is my blood of the [new] testament, which is shed for many. ²⁵Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

John

¹Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. ²And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; ⁴He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. ⁵After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. ⁶Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, “Lord, dost thou wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered and said unto him, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” ⁸Peter saith unto him, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” ⁹Simon Peter saith unto him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” ¹⁰Jesus saith to him, “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.” ¹¹For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, “Ye are not all clean.”

¹²So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, “Know ye what I have done to you? ¹³Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. ¹⁴If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Verily, verily, I say unto you,

The servant is not greater than his lord;

neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

¹⁷ If ye know these things,

happy are ye if ye do them.

¹⁸I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. ¹⁹Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I Am he. ²⁰Verily, verily, I say unto you,

He that receiveth whomsoever I send

receiveth me;

and he that receiveth me

receiveth him that sent me.”

²¹Then Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 22Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. ²³Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. ²⁵He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? ²⁶Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. ²⁷And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. ²⁸Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. ²⁹For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. ³⁰He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.

³¹Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said,

“Now is the Son of man glorified,

and God is glorified in him.

³² If God be glorified in him,

God shall also glorify him in himself,

and shall straightway glorify him.

³³Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto ‘the Jews’, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.

³⁴ A new commandment I give unto you,

‘That ye love one another;

as I have loved you,

that ye also love one another.’

³⁵ By this shall all men know

that ye are my disciples,

if ye have love one to another.”

The Last Supper—A Passover Meal?

Background

The Synoptic Gospels appear to agree that the last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples was a Passover feast, celebrated in a specially arranged room in Jerusalem (Mark 14:12‒16; parallels Matt 26:17‒19; Luke 22:7‒13). The traditional site, situated on a low hill in the south part of the city called “Mount Zion” since the Middle Ages, was originally part of a large Byzantine church complex but is now a Crusader-era upper room called the Cenacle (Latin, cenaculum, meaning “dining place”), although the Syrian Orthodox community favors a site under the Church of St. Mark in the Armenian Quarter of today’s Old City.[4] At the time of Jesus, the thousands of pilgrims who thronged the city for the festival all needed to find accommodations for the festival, especially for the Passover meal that needed to be eaten in Jerusalem. Jesus made arrangements for his company, which included at least the Twelve but perhaps other disciples, including the women who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee (see Mark 15:40‒41; parallels Matt 27:55‒56; Luke 13:49) and, because the Passover was celebrated in family groups, perhaps even children, whose instruction about the first paschal miracle was a standard part of the feast (See Exod 12:26‒27).[5] His specific instructions regarding how two of his disciples sent ahead, whom Luke identifies as Peter and John, would be able to identify the particular large room that the group would use could be taken to indicate his prophetic insight.[6] These instructions, however, could also reflect that he had made prior arrangements with the owner of the house containing the large upper room: the man who would show it to them was carrying a water jar, something usually done by women and apparently a prearranged signal, and was looking to meet them (Mark 14:13).[7]

The Synoptics seem to be explicit that the Last Supper was a Passover meal (Mark 14:14, 14‒16; Matt 26:17, 19; Luke 22: 7‒8, 11‒15), a position maintained by several scholars and one followed by some Latter-day Saint authorities.[8] John, however, maintains that Passover actually began at sunset the next day, following Jesus’s crucifixion (John 13:1; 18:28, 39; 19:31, 42), making the Last Supper not a Passover meal but simply the last meal that Jesus shared with his closet friends.[9] This Johannine timing, which puts Jesus’s death at the same time that paschal lambs are being sacrificed in the temple, might also be supported by Paul when he declared that “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us” (1 Cor 5:7, authors’ translation).[10] At least one later Jewish source supports John’s chronology, claiming “on the eve of Passover, Yeshua was hanged” (b. Sanh. 43a), and this time actually bears more historical verisimilitude, because it was unlikely that Jesus would have been arrested, tried, and executed once the feast day had begun.[11]

Nevertheless, a literary and theological argument can be made for John’s timing given that Gospel’s identification of Jesus as the promised Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36): this chronology has the paschal lambs being sacrificed in the temple between noon and three o’clock in the afternoon before Passover started as Jesus is being crucified and then dies on the cross.[12] In this case the synoptic chronology might be historically correct, yet John has changed it for symbolic reasons. Conversely, some might argue that John’s chronology is correct and that the synoptic evangelists portrayed the Last Supper as a Passover meal to stress Jesus’s use of paschal symbolism in his institution of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. In addition, various arguments attempt to reconcile the Synoptic and Johannine chronology, ranging from the possibility that different calendars were used by the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Judeans and Galileans, and the mainstream Jews and the Dead Sea Scrolls community at Qumran, though none of these are particularly convincing.[13]

Carl Heinrich Bloch, The Last Supper. Artepics/Alamy Stock Photo.

While the safest position may well be to suspend judgment and appreciate the respective symbolism of the Synoptic Gospels—namely, that the Lord’s Supper incorporates Passover symbolism and symbolized a new covenant that fulfilled it—and the Johannine symbolism, which portrays Christ as the Lamb of God dying even as the paschal lambs were sacrificed the next day, one other, intriguing possibility remains. This is that John’s chronology is correct in regard to the actual timing of Passover but that Jesus chose to celebrate the Passover, or at least a Passover-like meal, early, knowing that he would be dead and buried when the feast actually occurred the next day.[14] First, Mark’s time reference, “On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the paschal lamb” (Mark 14:2; parallel Luke 22:7), presents some ambiguity. First, it is unclear who the antecedent of “when they sacrificed” is unclear. Does it refer generally to when the Jews used to sacrifice the paschal lamb—that is, before the temple’s destruction in AD 70—or does it refer to Jesus’s disciples, in which case the two whom he sent were not only going into the city to secure accommodations for the meal, they would also be taking a lamb to the temple to be slaughtered?[15] Second, the lamb or goat for a family grouping was not slaughtered on the first day of Passover (Nisan 15 in the Jewish calendar), but in the afternoon before the festival began (Nisan 14). One possibility is that Mark and Luke were not being particularly precise with their time references; if their emphasis is on the slaughter of the paschal animal, rather than the start of Passover proper, and if the preparations were completed after the sun set at the beginning of Nisan 14, then they would be agreeing with John that the meal Thursday night was held at the beginning of the day before Passover.[16] Yet even without resorting to this length of interpretation, the statement of Luke in which Jesus declared, “I have most earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15, authors’ translation), could well suggest that Jesus wanted to celebrate aspects of the Passover, with or without an actual lamb as its main course, with his friends before his suffering and death.[17]

Institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper

Interpretation and Application

When Jesus gathered with his disciples in an upper room on the final night of his mortal life, his friends did not know all that lay ahead. Elder Bruce D. Porter (1952‒2016), a member of the Seventy from 1995 to 2016, movingly wrote, “On a Thursday evening in Jerusalem, Jesus met with His disciples in an upper room to observe Passover. The men who joined Him did not know that this meal would someday be called the Last Supper. Had they known this and what it meant, they would have wept. Their Master, however, perfectly understood that the ordeal of Gethsemane and of Golgotha would shortly begin. The darkest hours in the history of the world were imminent.”[18]

Walter Rane, In Remembrance of Me. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Yet before those weightier hours commenced, at that final meal Jesus predicted his being betrayed, or more precisely his “being handed over” (Mark 14:17‒21; parallels Matt 26:20‒25; Luke 22:21‒23), and the institution of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (Mark 14:22‒25; parallels Matt 26:26‒29; Luke 22:14‒20). John provides a significant additional element, that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet (John 13:2‒11), and is joined by Luke in detailing that Jesus taught that the greatest should serve the least (John 13:12‒20; Luke 22:24‒20). John also specifies Judas as the one who would start the process of his being successively handed over (John 13:21‒30) and then records Jesus’s “new commandment” (Latin, mandatum novum) that disciples love one another, an injunction that has come to characterize this night of Holy Week.

Each of the Synoptics carefully records that Jesus blessed and broke bread and then took a cup and blessed the wine it held, sharing each with his disciples and explaining how these elements anticipated how his body would be broken and his blood shed as part of his atoning sacrifice. The earliest source for this ordinance, however, is not Mark but rather Paul. Whereas Mark was probably written in the mid to late AD 60s,[19] Paul probably wrote his first preserved letter to the Corinthians in AD 56 or 57.[20] In it he describes to the Corinthian Christians the origin of the ordinance that he had taught them: “For I received of the Lord that which I handed on to you, how the Lord Jesus, on the night on which he was handed over, took bread and, after he had offered thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body for you. Do this in my memory.” Similarly, after dining, he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in my memory.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:23‒26, authors’ translation).

The relationship between Paul’s early account of the Lord’s Supper and the three Synoptic versions is complex and much discussed among New Testament scholars.[21] Furthermore, recognizing some of the differences between them is often more difficult using the King James Version familiar to Latter-day Saints, because its translation is based upon the Textus Receptus, a version of the Greek New Testament that the Dutch Humanist and textual critic Erasmus (1469‒1536) collated from late Byzantine manuscripts, which frequently harmonized the differences, adding missing words or phrases from the other accounts.[22] However, for the purposes of this discussion, the basic relationship seems to be that Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians and Mark’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper both represent versions of early Christian practice and the primitive passion narrative. Then, in addition to its usual improving and clarifying of Mark’s Greek, Matthew adds at least one important doctrinal point, and Luke, in addition to adding some unique material, appears to draw upon both Mark and Paul, with the latter borrowing possibly explained by the traditional ascription of the Gospel of Luke to a missionary companion of the apostle Paul. Each of these accounts adds important insights into the significance of the Lord’s Supper.

Interestingly, when Paul introduces his account of the origins of the ordinance, he uses different forms of the same verb when he testifies that he had “handed on” (Greek, �貹�����ō�첹; KJV, “delivered”) this ritual that recollected what Jesus did on evening when he “was handed over” (Greek, paredideto; KJV, “was betrayed”). While the primitive passion narrative before Mark and the other evangelists wrote their versions of it no doubt brought Judas’s “betrayal” of Jesus to mind, Paul’s use of the passive verb “was handed over” may be significant. In what New Testament Greek scholars sometimes call “the divine passive,” passive verbs without expressed agents often indicate that God was the ultimate agent or cause of an action.[23] In other words, ultimately it was God who gave his Son to suffer and die for us.

After recalling that Jesus presented the broken and blessed bread, saying, “This is my body for you. Do this in my memory” (1 Cor 11:24, authors’ translation; KJV, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me,” with Textus Receptus additions in italics), he explained that the cup of wine represented “the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor 11:25). In classical Greek the word “covenant” (Greek, �徱���ٳ�ŧ��ŧ; KJV, “testament”) represented a legal document, a last will and final testament that one left for his or her heirs, but in the Septuagint it translated the Hebrew ��ə��îṯ, a binding constitution or covenant between God and his people.[24] Its being a “new” covenant connects Jesus’s sacrifice with the prophecy of Jeremiah that the Lord would make a new covenant to replace the one that they broke, one that would be written in their hearts (Jer 31:31‒33). Paul’s account has Jesus enjoin believers to take the bread and cup “in my memory,” explicitly establishing the commemorative function of the Lord’s Supper.[25] Paul further explains that believers participate in the Lord’s Supper not only in memory of the Lord’s body and blood but also to “proclaim (Greek, katangellete; KJV, “shew”) his death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).[26] In other words, partaking of the sacrament is not only a way to witness to God that we accept Jesus’s sacrifice, it is also a testimony to ourselves and others that we believe in its saving power.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Last Supper. Wikimedia Commons.

The earliest manuscripts of Mark and Matthew have Jesus simply call the wine in the cup “my blood of the covenant,” leaving out the “new” that the KJV following the Textus Receptus inserts. Yet all of the manuscripts add “that is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24; parallel Matt 26:28), connecting the new covenant that Jesus is about to establish with the institution of the Mosaic covenant at Exodus 24:6‒8.[27] Further, Jesus’s blood being poured out “for many” echoes the third passion prediction, when Jesus had predicted that he had come “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45; emphasis added). Matthew makes the salvific purpose of Jesus’s sacrifice even more explicit by adding the unique, but vitally important, qualification: Jesus’s blood is being poured out specifically “for the remission of sins.”[28] Luke’s longer version begins with Jesus sharing an earlier cup with his disciples (Luke 22:17‒18), which was probably part of the preceding meal, explaining that he will not enjoy another such fellowship feast until he comes again. After blessing and distributing the bread representing his body, he then shares another cup of wine, combining the new covenant and commemorative language of Paul.[29] Luke also includes the image of the shedding or pouring of Jesus’s blood from Mark and Matthew, which connects it with both God’s earlier covenant with his people and his own sacrificial death (Luke 22:19‒20). Finally, because Jesus states that he will not drink fruit of the vine again until he drinks it with believers in the kingdom of God (Mark 14:25; parallels Matt 26:29; Luke 22:16), he alludes to the future messianic banquet that symbolizes the eternal fellowship with God at the end of time (see Isa 25:6‒8; Ezek 39:17‒20; Zech 9:15; Doctrine and Covenants 27:4‒14).

Beyond these exegetical insights, a Latter-day Saint reading of the institution of the Lord’s Supper is further shaped by Restoration scripture in which the sacrament prayers not only sanctify the bread and water as emblems of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, they also make partaking of them a manifestation of our willingness to take upon ourselves his name and covenant to remember him and keep his commandments (Moroni 4:3; 5:2; Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79). Still, the frequency of our celebration of the sacrament can lead to its becoming commonplace or routine, requiring more intentional effort on our part. As Elder Holland has taught, “[It] should be taken more seriously than it sometimes is. It should be a powerful, reverent, reflective moment. It should encourage spiritual feelings and impressions. As such it should not be rushed. It is not something to “get over” so that the real purpose of a sacrament meeting can be pursued. This is the real purpose of the meeting. And everything that is said or sung or prayed in those services should be consistent with the grandeur of this sacred ordinance.”[30]

As we often teach our children, imagining the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his original disciples can deepen our experience as we realize that we too are gathering around the table with our Lord as a ward family around his table, seeing the priesthood holders who are administering the sacrament blessing the bread and water in his stead.[31]

The Washing of Feet

Interpretation and Application

J. Kirk Richards, Greatest in the Kingdom. Used by permission.

Given the importance of the institution of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, its absence in John’s account of the Last Supper is striking.[32] John may have omitted it because he had already recorded Jesus’s use of its symbolism in the discourse on the bread of life, where he taught, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me, and I in him . . . whoever eats me will live through me” (John 6:56‒57, authors’ translation). Perhaps it is because this Gospel’s chronology and its imagery of Jesus as the Lamb of God reserved paschal imagery for the day of the crucifixion: “Jesus does not eat the Passover, he is the Passover.”[33] Instead, John includes an account of Jesus’s washing and drying the feet in which Jesus provides a striking example of service, declaring, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. You see, I have given a pattern to you: namely, you should also do just what I have done for you” (John 13:14‒15, authors’ translation). While Luke does not directly recount the foot washing, it does preserve the associated teaching: “Whoever is greatest among you, let him be as the youngest, and whoever is the leader, let him be as the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who reclines at a meal or the one who serves? It is the one who reclines, is it not? Yet I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:26‒27, authors’ translation; see also 12:37).

Generally people washed their own feet upon entering a home, though it was a gesture of hospitality at an event such as a special dinner with the host, if poor, performing it for his guests upon their arrival. Usually, however, foot washing was done by servants, by a wife for her husband, or by disciples for their teacher.[34] Its performance after the dinner, however, was unusual and gives Jesus’s action special attention, perhaps making it a symbol of eschatological hospitality,[35] anticipating Jesus’s welcoming his followers into his kingdom and symbolizing future fellowship as does the Lord’s Supper in the Synoptics. Jesus’s abasement of himself results in a strong reaction from Peter, leading Jesus to declare, “If I do not wash you, you do not have a place with me” (John 13:8, authors’ translation; emphasis added), where “a place” (Greek, meros; KJV, “part”) can refer to a share or inheritance, again suggesting the future place of the disciple in the future kingdom.[36]

In view of this, Peter responds in turn, asking Jesus to wash his hands and head as well, leading Jesus to teach, “Whoever is bathed does not need to wash, except his feet, but is clean all over” (John 13:10, authors’ translation; emphasis added). Because of the difference between the verbs for bathe (Greek, ���dz�ō; KJV, “wash”) and wash (Greek, �Ծ����ō; KJV, also “wash”), traditional commentary has often distinguished between initial baptism, or bathing, and subsequent repentance, or washing,[37] and Latter-day Saints may see allusions to other sacred ordinances.[38] The salvific symbolism of the foot washing is even stronger when Jesus’s actions are seen in connection with his coming saving death. First, his actions, washing his disciples’ feet and drying them with the linen cloth that he had tied around himself, are to some extent parallel to those of Mary of Bethany, who had anointed Jesus’s feet and then dried them with her hair, which Jesus had interpreted as being in anticipation of his death and burial (John 12:3, 7).[39] Second, and perhaps more significantly, when Jesus removed (Greek, �پ��ٳ�ŧ������; KJV, “laid aside”) his outer garments and then put them on again (Greek, elaben; KJV, “taken”), these are the same words Jesus used when he had earlier declared, “Because of this my father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I might take it up again. No one takes it from me, rather I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17‒18, authors’ translation; emphasis added).[40] As Paul later wrote, “[He] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:7‒8 KJV; emphasis added).

In other words, Jesus’s humbling himself and performing the atoning sacrifice brought about the salvation that ordinances—such as the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and the washing of feet—can channel into our lives.[41] This application of Jesus’s love and atonement to the individual believer can be seen in the figure of the Beloved Disciple. As we noted in our discussion of Martha, Lazarus, and Mary in chapter one, this anonymous character has traditionally been associated with the historical figure of the apostle John, the source or original author of the Gospel that bears his name. While John the son of Zebedee is never named in this Gospel, at the Last Supper he is identified for the first time as “the one whom Jesus loved,” resting in Jesus’s embrace (ēn anakeimenos. . . en tō_i ��DZ���ō_i tou Iēsou; KJV, “leaning on Jesus’s bosom) just as Jesus himself is in the bosom of the Father (John 13:23; cf. 1:18). Characters in John, though modeled on real historical figures, can also serve as types. Accordingly, the Beloved Disciple can serve as the ideal disciple, a model to which each of us can aspire as he invites us to rest in the arms of the Lord’s love.[42] Being recipients of such grace, it is incumbent upon us to love and serve each other, sharing the blessings of the gospel and its ordinances with all who will receive them, for Jesus declared, “A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. Even as I have loved you, you, too, should love one another” (John 13:34, authors’ translation).

Texts: John 14:1‒21; 15:1‒17; 17:1‒26

Following John’s account of the Last Supper, the Fourth Gospel features a series of extended discourses that Jesus delivered to his disciples, first in the Upper Room and then, apparently, as they walked from the city through the Qidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane. Often known as the “Farewell Discourses,” although delivered in the first instance to his closest followers, they are written in a way that they apply to disciples in every age. They conclude in John 17:1‒26 with a powerful prayer of Jesus to the Father, known as either the “Intercessory Prayer” or sometimes as the “Great High Priestly Prayer.” As is often the case in John, the words of Jesus are frequently poetic or semi-poetic, which we have tried to indicate by laying out such lines in verse.

John

¹ “Let not your heart be troubled:

ye believe in God,

believe also in me.

²In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. ⁴And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” ⁵Thomas saith unto him, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus saith unto him,

“I Am the way,

the truth,

and the life:

no man cometh unto the Father,

but by me.

⁷ If ye had known me,

ye should have known my Father also:

and from henceforth ye know him,

and have seen him.”

⁸Philip saith unto him, “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” ⁹Jesus saith unto him, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?

he that hath seen me

hath seen the Father;

and how sayest thou then, ‘Shew us the Father?’ ¹⁰Believest thou not

that I am in the Father,

and the Father in me?

the words that I speak unto you

I speak not of myself:

but the Father that dwelleth in me,

he doeth the works.

¹¹ Believe me

that I am in the Father,

and the Father in me:

or else believe me

for the very works’ sake.

¹²Verily, verily, I say unto you,

He that believeth on me,

the works that I do

shall he do also;

and greater works than these shall he do;

because I go unto my Father.

¹³And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

¹⁴ If ye shall ask any thing in my name,

I will do it.

¹ “I Am the true vine,

and my Father is the husbandman.

² Every branch in me that beareth not fruit

he taketh away:

and every branch that beareth fruit,

he purgeth it,

that it may bring forth more fruit.

³Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. ⁴Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

⁵ I Am the vine,

ye are the branches:

He that abideth in me, and I in him,

the same bringeth forth much fruit:

for without me

ye can do nothing.

⁶If a man abide not in me,

he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;

and men gather them,

and cast them into the fire,

and they are burned.

⁷ If ye abide in me,

and my words abide in you,

ye shall ask what ye will,

and it shall be done unto you.

⁸ Herein is my Father glorified,

that ye bear much fruit;

so shall ye be my disciples.

⁹ As the Father hath loved me,

so have I loved you:

continue ye in my love.

¹⁰ If ye keep my commandments,

ye shall abide in my love;

even as I have kept my Father’s commandments,

and abide in his love.

¹¹ These things have I spoken unto you,

that my joy might remain in you,

and that your joy might be full.

¹² This is my commandment,

That ye love one another,

as I have loved you.

¹³ Greater love hath no man than this,

that a man lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴ Ye are my friends,

if ye do whatsoever I command you.

¹⁵ Henceforth I call you not servants;

for the servant knoweth not

what his lord doeth:

but I have called you friends;

for all things that I have heard of my Father

I have made known unto you.

¹⁶ Ye have not chosen me,

but I have chosen you, and ordained you,

that ye should go and bring forth fruit,

and that your fruit should remain:

that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name,

he may give it you.

¹⁷ These things I command you,

that ye love one another.”

¹⁵ If ye love me,

keep my commandments.

¹⁶ And I will pray the Father,

and he shall give you another Comforter,

that he may abide with you for ever;

¹⁷ Even the Spirit of truth;

whom the world cannot receive,

because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:

but ye know him;

for he dwelleth with you,

and shall be in you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you comfortless:

I will come to you.

¹⁹ Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more;

but ye see me:

because I live,

ye shall live also.

²⁰At that day ye shall know

that I am in my Father,

and ye in me,

and I in you.

²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,

he it is that loveth me:

and he that loveth me

shall be loved of my Father,

and I will love him,

and will manifest myself to him.

¹These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said,

“Father, the hour is come;

glorify thy Son,

that thy Son also may glorify thee:

² As thou hast given him power over all flesh,

that he should give eternal life

to as many as thou hast given him.

³ And this is life eternal,

that they might know thee the only true God,

and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

⁴ I have glorified thee on the earth:

I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

⁵ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self

with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

⁶“I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. ⁷Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. ⁸For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

⁹ I pray for them:

I pray not for the world,

but for them which thou hast given me;

for they are thine.

¹⁰ And all mine are thine,

and thine are mine;

and I am glorified in them.

¹¹ And now I am no more in the world,

but these are in the world,

and I come to thee.

Holy Father, keep through thine own name

those whom thou hast given me,

that they may be one, as we are.

¹² While I was with them in the world,

I kept them in thy name:

those that thou gavest me

I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

¹⁴ I have given them thy word;

and the world hath hated them,

because they are not of the world,

even as I am not of the world.

¹⁵ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world,

but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

¹⁶ They are not of the world,

even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth:

thy word is truth.

¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world,

even so have I also sent them into the world.

¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself,

that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone,

but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

²¹ That they all may be one;

as thou, Father, art in me,

and I in thee,

that they also may be one in us:

that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

²² And the glory which thou gavest me

I have given them;

that they may be one,

even as we are one:

²³ I in them, and thou in me,

that they may be made perfect in one;

and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,

and hast loved them,

as thou hast loved me.

²⁴Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee:

but I have known thee,

and these have known that thou hast sent me.

²⁶ And I have declared unto them thy name,

and will declare it:

that the love wherewith thou hast loved me

may be in them,

and I in them.”

The Farewell Discourses

Map of Jerusalem showing Jesus's movements Thursday evening. Eric D. Huntsman, used by permission.

Interpretation and Application

In the Gospel of John at the conclusion of the Last Supper Jesus delivers several extended discourses to his disciples (John 14:1‒16:33), after which he delivers an intimate prayer to his Father (John 17:1‒26). Except for a few short parallels in Luke to material also found in John earlier during the Last Supper (cf. Luke 22:24‒30, 31‒34 with John 13:12‒20 and 36‒38),[43] the Synoptics contain nothing like Jesus’s final words to his disciples found in John. Sometimes called “The Testament of Jesus” because they contain some, though not all, of the characteristics of the final words of a patriarch, prophet, or apostle before his death (e.g., Gen 47:29‒49:33; Deut 31:1‒33:29; 2 Tim; 2 Pet; 2 Nephi 1:1‒4:11),[44] these discourses also reflect a common feature of the speeches of Jesus in John. This Gospel often depicts the words of Jesus as being stylistically different than those of others, often rendered with what Raymond Brown often referred to as “quasi-poetic solemnity.”[45] While the discourses of Jesus are not strictly poetic in the Greek sense of being characterized by poetic meter, at times they seem to reflect the parallelism of Hebrew poetry and are frequently rhythmic in the sense of consisting of relatively balanced clauses.[46] Although the Aramaic of Jesus may not have actually differed substantially from that spoken by Peter and other Jews of his time and class, this may have been a conscious attempt by the evangelist to convey the sense that Jesus’s “divine speech” was qualitatively different or had a different impact upon his hearers, an effect that we have tried to reproduce by setting our translation in roughly poetic format.

These discourses are intimate instructions and, at times, conversations with his original disciples, who serve as types of believers in all ages, including us. As they now appear in John, they present a chiastic structure, with chapters 14 and 16 focusing on Jesus’s imminent departure and chapter 15 emphasizing his continuous presence with those who continue to dwell in him through the spirit. His departure is necessary, he explains, because “in my Father’s house are many places to live. If not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? Yet if I go and prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also” (John 14:2‒3, authors’ translation; emphasis added). While “places to live” (Greek, monai; KJV, “mansions”) refers to dwellings or places to stay, the term is also connected etymologically to a verb meaning “to dwell” as well as “continue in” or “persist with” (Greek, �����ō; KJV, “abide”).[47] Jesus then explains, “I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,” using one of the “I Am” (Greek, egō eimi) sayings in John that implicitly connects Jesus with the Old Testament Jehovah.[48] When this leads Philip to ask Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus explains that whoever has seen him has seen the Father, reflecting the fact that in his personality, perfections, and teachings, Jesus reveals the nature of God to us.[49]

Although Jesus will soon leave his disciples, the concept of dwelling or continuing in Jesus is woven throughout the Farewell Discourses, particularly in Jesus’s declaration, “I Am the True Vine” (John 15:1‒17). This extended comparison teaches that whoever dwells or persists in Jesus will bear much fruit, but whoever is cut off from him withers and dies (John 15:5‒6). An important way that the Father and the Son can inspire, direct, and be with us even though they are not physically present is through the agency of the Holy Ghost in his role as the Advocate or Helper (Greek, �貹�������ŧ�ٴDz�; KJV, “comforter”). Literally “one called to another’s side as a help or aid,” Jesus explains to his disciples, and through them to us, how in his absence the Holy Ghost will perform those roles that Jesus had done when present, serving as a Helper who teaches (John 14:26); witnesses (John 15:26‒27); convicts or convinces (Greek, elenxei; KJV, “reproves”) us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8‒11); and guides us by bringing all things to our remembrance (John 16:13).[50] Yet, despite his departure, Jesus promises another Intercessor (John 14:16), which Joseph Smith understood referred to Jesus himself as the “Second Comforter,” when he and the Father manifest themselves to those who are true and faithful (John 14:23; cf. Doctrine and Covenants 130:3). In this way, Christ does not leave us as “orphans” (Greek, orphanous; KJV, “comfortless”), but just as a parent provides the basic necessities of earthly life, Jesus will become our covenant Father as we are spiritually begotten as his sons and daughters (John 14:18; Mosiah 5:7; 27:25).

Jesus declared, "I am the true vine" (John 15:1-17); this comparison teaches that whoever dwells in Jesus will bear much fruit. Eric D. Huntsman, used by permission.

In the first section of the Intercessory Prayer that follows the Farewell Discourses, Jesus begins by praying for himself, pleading with the Father to glorify him (John 17:1‒8), which glory can be defined as bringing about the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). Jesus defines this eternal life, saying, “Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3, authors’ translation), which Restoration teaching further describes as the kind of exalted life that God and Christ have, which will be enjoyed in their presence. In the next section, he then prays specifically for his disciples (John 17:9‒19), that they may be one as he and the Father are one and that God will “make them holy” (Greek, hagiason; KJV, “sanctify them”), which means consecrated or set apart to God (literally hagioi or “saints”).[51] Then in the third and final section (John 17:20‒26), Jesus prays for the love and unity of all people, “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21, authors’ translation). While the different words for atonement (Greek, �첹�ٲ���������ŧ, literally “reconciliation”; �󾱱�������ŧ�����Dz�/hilasmos, “expiation”) do not appear in this prayer or anywhere in the Gospels,[52] Jesus’s plea that we might one with God, one with him, and one with each other is the essence of at-one-ment. As he proceeds to Gethsemane and then his lonely road to Golgotha, Jesus does so in his great high priestly role, interceding for his people by offering his own blood (see Heb 8:1‒6; 9:11‒17).[53]

Texts: Mark 14:26–42; Luke 22:39–46

Matthew and Luke largely parallel Mark’s description of Jesus’s experiences in Gethsemane, with Luke making some important changes and additions. Changes include reducing the number of times that Jesus prays and finds his three closest disciples sleeping, which reduces their implicit condemnation, and important additions include recording the appearance of an angel to strengthen him and his “sweating great drops of blood” as a result of his agony, which has led us to include the Lucan passages below.

Mark

²⁶And when they had sung an hymn they went out into the mount of Olives. ²⁷And Jesus saith unto them, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, ‘I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ ²⁸But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.” ²⁹But Peter said unto him, ‘Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.’ ³⁰And Jesus saith unto him, “Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.” ³¹But he spake the more vehemently, “If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise.” Likewise also said they all.

³²And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, “Sit ye here, while I shall pray.” ³³And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; ³⁴And saith unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.”

³⁵And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. ³⁶And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”

³⁷And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, “Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? ³⁸Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”

³⁹And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.

⁴⁰And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him.

⁴¹And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, “Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴²Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.”

Luke

³⁹And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. ⁴⁰And when he was at the place, he said unto them, “Pray that ye enter not into temptation.” ⁴¹And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, ⁴²Saying, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” [⁴³And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.] ⁴⁵And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, ⁴⁶And said unto them, “Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

Jesus in Gethsemane

Interpretation and Application

After sharing such an intimate meal with his friends, Jesus and his disciples sang one or more psalms (Greek ��⳾��ŧ�����Գٱ��; KJV, “when they had sung a hymn”), likely from the “Egyptian Hallel,” which consists of Psalms 113‒18, which are songs of praise for God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Psalms 113‒14 usually being chanted or sung before the meal, they may have sung Psalms 115‒18, which are usually sung after the meal is completed.[54] As they left the city and walked toward the Mount of Olives, Jesus predicted that they all would stumble or be offended by him, Peter even denying that he knew Jesus (Mark 14:27‒31; parallel Matt 26:31‒35; also Luke 22:31‒24 and John 13:36‒38). When Jesus declares, “All of you will fall away” (Mark 14:27, authors’ translation; emphasis added), he uses a word (Greek, ���첹�Ի岹�����ٳ�ŧ������ٳ��; KJV, “shall be offended”) that literally means “caused to stumble” but can also mean to fall away or give up believing.[55] Regarding Peter’s predicted denial, some, understandably hesitant to criticize the chief apostle, have wondered if Jesus was actually giving Peter directions to protect him, noting that the future tense in Greek, as in English, can be used as an imperative. This suggestion, however, does not sustain grammatical scrutiny well. First, only Mark and Matthew even use the future tense for “you yourself will deny me [Greek, ���貹����ŧ��ŧ_i] three times” (Mark 14:30; parallel Matt 26:34), and such a use of a future as a command is rare in New Testament Greek. Although Luke and John use a similar looking form (Luke 22:34; John 13:38), they actually use constructions that require another verb form (heōs ���貹����ŧ��ŧ_i or ������ŧ��ŧ_i, which are what are called aorist subjunctives in temporal clauses).[56] In other words, while we should suspend judgment about the motivations of Peter, refraining from accusing him of cowardice in his actions later that night, the texts nevertheless clearly present the literary character of Peter as one in a series of figures who fail Jesus that night—some falling asleep when he asks them to keep watch and others betraying, abandoning, denying, or otherwise leaving Jesus to face his atoning journey alone.

The Qidron Valley at night evokes the 23rd psalm, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." Eric D. Huntsman, used by permission.

This journey began with a walk through the Qidron Valley, which would have been by moonlight, given that there is always a Passover moon. This deep valley runs north-south at the base of the Mount of Olives. If standing in the valley facing south, one would see the Mount of Olives rising to the left and the Temple Mount towering to the right. The Qidron (KJV, “Kidron”) carried deep theological meaning for Jews, both in the days of the prophets and at the time of Jesus. The word Qidron comes from the Hebrew root qdr, denoting “darkness” and “mourning” (see Mic 3:6; Jer 4:28).[57] This valley served as an ideal place, practically and symbolically, for the destruction of idols in Israel’s preexilic days. For example, when various kings of Judah, including Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah cleansed the temple of idols, they burned them in this valley (1 Kgs 15:13; 2 Kgs 23:4–6; 2 Chr 15:16, 29:16, 30:14). Perhaps as a result, the name for the Qidron Valley in Arabic today is Wadi Nar, or “Valley of Fire.” Jews would also have recalled passages in Joel that identify the Qidron Valley, referred to here as the “Valley of Jehoshaphat,” as the place of final judgment (Joel 3:2, 9–15). This geographical setting adds significant theological meaning to many of Jesus’s activities on the Mount of Olives and in the Qidron Valley (for more detail, see Appendix D: The Mount of Olives in the Hebrew Bible and Its Israelite Legacy in the Gospels). The author of Psalm 23 likely referred to the Qidron Valley when speaking of “the valley of the shadow of death.” On the one hand, it was deeper in antiquity and frequently shady. On the other, and perhaps more significantly, its eastern face was the site of numerous tombs, beginning in the First Temple period and continuing through today, which would have added to the ominous feeling as Jesus walked through it his final night.

The olive crushing (below) and screw presses (above) at the BYU Jerusalem Center. In Gethsemane the weight of our sins, sorrows, nd infirmities bore down on Jesus, crushing Him and literally pressing blood from every pore (see Luke 22:44; Mosiah 3:7; Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-18). Eric D. Huntsman, used by permission.

After this walk, Jesus and his disciples arrived at the place known as the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32; parallels Matt 26:36; Luke 22:39‒40; also, John 18:1). Only Mark and Matthew call it “Gethsemane” (from Aramaic gat šəmānî; literally, the place “of the oil press”), with John noting that it was a garden and Luke only mentioning that Jesus and his disciples went to a certain place on the Mount of Olives. That this location was a designated place of an olive grove—hence its name, “oil press”—suggests it was likely a privately owned plot of land somewhere on the northwest slope of the Mount of Olives because the southwestern slope contained tombs. The word “garden,” ��ŧ��Dz� in Greek, indicates an agricultural space, not necessarily a nicely cultivated flowerbed. As a working garden and the site of oil production, it would have contained expensive equipment. There is, in fact, a cave in this area containing evidence of an ancient oil press near the modern-day altar in the Tomb of the Virgin. While the exact location where Jesus prayed is unknown, Byzantine Christians in late antiquity believed this cave was the place where his disciples waited, and they identified a large rock nearby as the place where Jesus prayed. The church they built to commemorate his experience there was later replaced by a Crusader-era church, and the site is currently occupied by the modern Basilica of the Agony, also known as the Church of All Nations.[58]

Given the importance of what Jesus experienced here, the Gospel accounts are surprisingly brief. John omits any details, simply mentioning that soon after Jesus entered the garden, Judas arrived with an arresting party (John 18:1‒2). Conceivably, John’s omission might have been out of reverence for the sacredness of the experience or because plain and precious parts of his account have been lost (see Doctrine and Covenants 1; 1 Nephi 13:26‒28; Doctrine and Covenants 93:6, 18), but a literary reason might be found in the theological emphasis of this Gospel, which minimizes the suffering of Jesus and focuses on his paschal death on the cross.[59] Mark, followed by Matthew, provides a basic outline of Jesus’s experience in Gethsemane (Mark 14:35‒42; parallel Matt 26:39‒46), describing how he left the main group of his disciples and took Peter, James, and John farther into the garden, where he began “to feel overwhelmed and distressed” (Greek, ekthambeisthai kai adēmonein; KJV, “to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy”). Asking them to stay awake and keep watch, he prayed three times that he may be spared but affirmed that he would submit to his Father’s will (Mark 14:36, 39, 41; see also Heb 4:7‒8).[60] Three times he then returned to find his three closest disciples sleeping, encouraging them to stay awake and pray that they not “come into trial” (Mark 14:38; emphasis added). While the KJV renders coming “into trial” (Greek, eis peirasmon) as entering “into temptation,” the term actually means any kind of test or trial, which can mean tribulations as well as temptations to sin. In addition, given the context, some even suggest that Jesus is encouraging them to pray that they not be brought to a literal trial as he himself will be the next day.[61] Luke, perhaps to minimize the failings of these three, simplifies the account, only recording their falling asleep once (Luke 22:40, 45‒46).

Yet while Luke simplifies the story in terms of the actions of Peter, James, and John, this is the Gospel, at least in the text as it has come down to us, from which we gain the most insight into what Jesus actually experienced in Gethsemane. Like Mark and Matthew, Luke records that Jesus prayed for the cup to pass but expresses a willingness to submit to his Father’s will. The received text used by the translators of the King James Version then reads, “Then an angel appeared unto him from heaven, who strengthened him. And because he was in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like clots of blood as it fell to the ground” (Luke 22:43‒44, authors’ translation; emphasis added). Although some of the oldest, and generally more reliable, Greek manuscripts lack these two verses,[62] some scholars, including Lincoln Blumell, professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, have demonstrated an early scribal hesitancy to portray Jesus as needing help from an angel and being fearful and hesitant to face his fate, possibly explaining why some copyists removed it.[63]

Carl Heinrich Bloch, Christ in Gethsemane. Wikimedia Commons.

In manuscripts that preserve these verses, the appearance of the angel is parallel to the appearance of Moses and Elijah, heavenly messengers who appear earlier at the Transfiguration and speak to Jesus about his coming death in another scene in which Peter, James, and John are also present and are similarly overwhelmed by sleep (Luke 9:28‒32).[64] The expression being “in anguish” (Greek, en agōnia_i; KJV, “in an agony”) comes from a term that originally referred to a contest or struggle, which has led many commentators, ancient and modern, to suggest that Jesus was experiencing the kind of anxiety that an athlete experienced before a competition or a warrior before a conflict,[65] meaning that he was suffering in advance of the ordeal that was coming the next day. Further, opinions have traditionally been divided about the phrase “like clots of blood” (Greek, hōsei thromboi haimatos; KJV, “as it were great drops of blood”). On the one hand, some interpreters have taken it adverbially, referring to how greatly Jesus was struggling, perspiring so much that his sweat seemed like dripping blood. Other have taken it adjectively, describing how his sweat itself looked like or actually was blood.[66]

Restoration scripture and teaching both confirm the reliability of these verses and expand upon their significance. In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin taught, “And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people” (Mosiah 3:7; emphasis added). Additionally, the voice of the Risen Lord to Joseph Smith explained, “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16‒19; emphasis added).

While Christianity has more broadly understood that the significance of Gethsemane lay in Jesus’s resolution to go forward on his journey to the cross and his sacrificial death, these passages serve as the foundation of the Latter-day Saint understanding that Jesus’s atoning suffering for sin began in that garden as well. Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915‒85), a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1972 to 1985, wrote, “Two thousand years ago, outside Jerusalem’s walls, there was a pleasant garden spot, Gethsemane by name, where Jesus and his intimate friends were wont to retire for pondering and prayer. . . . this holy ground is where the Sinless Son of the Everlasting Father took upon himself the sins of all men on condition of repentance. We do not know, we cannot tell, no mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane.”[67]

Harry Anderson, Jesus Praying in Gethsemane (Christ in Gethsemane). Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Furthermore, Alma the Younger, building upon Isaiah’s prophecy that God’s Suffering Servant would bear our infirmities and sorrows (Isa 53:3‒5), taught that Christ would also take upon himself the pains, sicknesses and infirmities of his people (Alma 7:11‒12). Accordingly, Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926‒2004), a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1981 to 2004, observed, “The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement.”[68] Connecting this experience with the fact that one of the important things that the atonement does is overcome our fallen state, Elder McConkie and Andrew Skinner, Brigham Young University professor of ancient scripture and former dean of Religious Education, have also both suggested that the angel who strengthened Jesus on this occasion was in fact Michael, whom Restoration teaching associates with Adam, “who foremost fell that mortal man might be.”[69]

As Robert Millet, emeritus professor of ancient scripture and former dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University, has explained, faith communities often tend to “emphasize most strongly those doctrinal distinctives that make them who they are.”[70] As a result, Latter-day Saints have sometimes emphasized Gethsemane over Golgotha,[71] seeing Jesus’s suffering in the garden as playing a greater role in his atonement than his death on the cross. Nevertheless, the teaching of leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have regularly taught the importance of both.[72] For instance, President Jean B. Bingham, seventeenth general president of the Relief Society since 2017, testified, “In the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross of Calvary, He felt all of our pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities.”[73] Perhaps a way of understanding the connection between the two pivotal nexus points of Jesus’s atoning work is to compare them to the Old Testament sacrificial model whereupon a worshipper placed his hands upon the sacrificial victim at the door of the tabernacle or temple courts. The victim was then led to the north side of the altar, where it was sacrificed, its blood poured out, and all or part of it burned upon the altar, from which its smoke ascended to heaven (see, for example, Lev 1:4‒9). By this model, Jesus’s experience in Gethsemane represented the placement of our sins, sicknesses, pains, and sorrows, the crushing weight of which pressed blood and sweat from every pore. His arrest and being taken to the Jewish leaders and then Pilate were steps along the way as he, the sacrificial victim, was led to the cross, where he suffered and died. Arising from the tomb, he then rose triumphant to heaven.[74]

Hermann Clementz, Christ Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Texts: Mark 14:43–72; John 18:2–27

Matthew and Luke parallel Mark’s version of these events, with Luke shortening the account at times to lessen the failings of the disciples, even of Judas, and depicting a more compassionate Jesus, adding, for instance, that Jesus healed the ear of the high priest’s servant (see Luke 22:51). John adds considerable details, adding to the usual assumption that the source of or authority behind this Gospel, the Beloved Disciple, was in fact present at many of these events.

Mark

⁴³And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. ⁴⁴And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, “Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely.” ⁴⁵And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, “Master, master;” and kissed him. ⁴⁶And they laid their hands on him, and took him. ⁴⁷And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. ⁴⁸And Jesus answered and said unto them, “Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? ⁴⁹I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.”

⁵⁰And they all forsook him, and fled. ⁵¹And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: ⁵²And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

⁵³And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. ⁵⁴And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.

⁵⁵And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. ⁵⁶For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. ⁵⁷And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, ⁵⁸“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’” ⁵⁹But neither so did their witness agree together. ⁶⁰And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, “Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?” ⁶¹But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” ⁶²And Jesus said, “I Am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” ⁶³Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, “What need we any further witnesses? ⁶⁴Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?” And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. ⁶⁵And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, “Prophesy:” and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.

⁶⁶And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest: ⁶⁷And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, “And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.” ⁶⁸But he denied, saying, “I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest.” And he went out into the porch; [and the cock crew]. ⁶⁹And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, “This is one of them.” ⁷⁰And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, “Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto.” ⁷¹But he began to curse and to swear, saying, “I know not this man of whom ye speak.” ⁷²And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, “Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.” And when he thought thereon, he wept.

John

²And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. ³Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.

⁴Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, “Whom seek ye?” ⁵They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus saith unto them, “I am he”. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. ⁶As soon then as he had said unto them, “I Am he,” they went backward, and fell to the ground. ⁷Then asked he them again, “Whom seek ye?” And they said,” Jesus of Nazareth.” ⁸Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:” ⁹That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, “Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.” ¹⁰Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. ¹¹Then said Jesus unto Peter, “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”

¹²Then the band and the captain and officers of “the Jews” took Jesus, and bound him, ¹³And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. ¹⁴Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to “the Jews”, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

¹⁵And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple: that disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the palace of the high priest. ¹⁶But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. ¹⁷Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, “Art not thou also one of this man’s disciples?” He saith, “I am not.” ¹⁸And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself.

¹⁹The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine. ²⁰Jesus answered him, “I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither ‘the Jews’ always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. ²¹Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said.” ²²And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, “Answerest thou the high priest so?” ²³Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?” ²⁴Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.

²⁵And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, “Art not thou also one of his disciples?” He denied it, and said, “I am not.” ²⁶One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, “Did not I see thee in the garden with him?” ²⁷Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.

Jesus in the Hands of the Jewish Authorities

Interpretation and Application

Anthony van Dyck, The Capture of Christ. Heritage Image Partnership LTD/Alamy stock photo.

No sooner had Jesus completed the ordeal in Gethsemane then Judas arrived with a band of armed men from the Jerusalem leadership to arrest Jesus (Mark 14:43‒46; parallels Matt 26:47‒50; Luke 22:47‒48). Because John uses a term for “contingent” (Greek, speiran; KJV, “band”) that often refers to a Roman military formation, some have proposed that the arresting party consisted of a mixed group of Roman soldiers and Jewish police. More likely, the party was made up of bodyguards and other retainers, or servants who had been armed (Greek, ����ŧ����ٲ���; KJV, “officers”), of members of the Sanhedrin.[75] In the Synoptic accounts, Judas identifies Jesus with a kiss. Luke has Jesus respond by asking Judas, “Are you handing the Son of Man over with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48), seemingly supporting the standard view that this sign was the traitorous inversion of what was usually a token of respect and devotion from a disciple to a master. In Mark and Matthew, however, Judas’s role is primarily of helping the Jewish authorities know where and how they can apprehend Jesus without causing the uproar that they feared would ensue by arresting him during the day in a public place such as the temple courtyards.[76]

As always, John’s account portrays Jesus as fully in control: he identifies himself rather than allowing Judas to do it (John 18:2‒7). When he asks them whom they are looking for, two times they say, “Jesus, the man of Nazareth,” to which he responds, “I am he.” As the usual English rendering of the phrase egō eimi, this expression can be rendered either “I am he” or “I Am,” with the latter frequently being used in John to render the Hebrew divine name YHWH, or Jehovah. By this period, the divine name was said aloud only by the high priest on the Day of Atonement.[77] If Jesus in fact uttered it, the scandal might explain the reaction of the Jewish force sent to arrest him: each time they fall backward upon the ground, and interestingly, later Jewish sources report that falling to the ground was the appropriate response when hearing the divine name (see m. Yoma 6:2). Alternately, the evangelist was painting a picture of the power of Jesus’s divine voice, the mere sound of which drove them backward.[78] Still in control, he then intervenes for his disciples (John 18:9), directing that they be allowed to go their way so that he might not lose any of them to the kind of trial and execution that he was about to undergo.

Eager to defend his master, Peter drew a sword and cut off the ear of one of the retainers, whom John identifies as a servant named Malchus (Mark 14:47‒49; parallels Matt 26:51‒56a; Luke 22:49‒53; also John 18:10‒12). Only Luke, whose portrait of Jesus is always compassionate, notes that Jesus immediately healed the man. Yet as soon as the band took Jesus and bound him, his disciples lost heart and fled, their abandonment of Jesus serving as only a slightly more passive equivalent to Judas’s more active “betrayal” (Mark 14:50‒52; parallel Matt 26:56b). The detail in Mark of a young man who slipped out of the light linen shirt (Greek, sindona; KJV, “linen cloth”) to escape capture himself is telling. Whereas Jesus’s disciples had earlier given up everything to follow Jesus, this young man, perhaps serving as a type for all his followers, now gives up everything he has, even the clothes on his body, to abandon Jesus.[79]

Carl Heinrich Bloch, The Denial of Peter. The Picture Art Collection/Alamy stock photo.

After his arrest, Jesus was led from Gethsemane and taken before the Jerusalem authorities, though the Gospel accounts differ somewhat in the details and sequence of events while he is in their hands.[80] Mark and Matthew, for instance, have Jesus taken directly to the home of the current high priest, whom Matthew identifies as Caiaphas, while John recounts that Jesus was first taken before Annas, a former high priest who also happened to be Caiaphas’s father-in-law. Only after this initial interrogation is Jesus then taken to Caiaphas. In all three he is questioned and abused through the night (Mark 14:53, 60‒65; parallels Matt 26:57, 59‒61; John 18:12‒14, 19‒24). Luke, on the other hand, has him taken and held at the sitting high priest’s house, where he is mocked and abused, but apparently just held for the night with no interrogation or hearing happening until the next morning (Luke 22:54, 63‒65, 67‒71). In addition to difficulties in harmonizing the four different accounts, there are also historical challenges to understand the legalities of the proceedings, especially since late nineteenth-century writers of lives of Christ tended to focus on the supposed “illegalities of the Jewish trial of Jesus,” judging the schematic Gospel treatments by the standards of the Mishnah, a compendium of Jewish tradition dating much later, to AD 200. Instead, what the texts provide us is only an overview of what appears to have been some kind of preliminary hearing or arraignment in which the Jewish leadership attempted to settle on a plan with how to deal with Jesus the next day.[81]

What the Gospel accounts do agree on is how they vividly portray how the Jewish authorities misunderstand, fear, wrongly judge, and mistreat Jesus after Judas “hands him over” to them, setting the stage for them to then hand Jesus over to Pilate and the Romans the next day. Attempts to find a case against him focus at first on charges that he threatened to destroy the temple, but they cannot find two corroborating witnesses whose testimonies agree. Only when Caiaphas directly asks Jesus, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61; parallels Matt 26:62; Luke 22:67) does Jesus give them cause, affirming and quoting from both Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13‒14, declaring, “I am, and you will see ‘the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, coming with the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:62, authors’ translation). Charging Jesus with blasphemy, a religious crime worthy of death, they then spit at him and beat him (Mark 14:65; parallels Matt 26:67; Luke 22:63‒65),[82] and we assume that he was kept in humiliating confinement the rest of the night.

In all four Gospels, the story of Jesus’s hearing before the Jewish authorities and his abuse at their hands is interwoven with the account of Peter denying three times that he either knew Jesus or was one of his followers (Mark 15:54, 66‒72; parallels Matt 26:58, 69‒75; Luke 22:54‒62; also John 18:15‒18, 25‒27). Again, differences in the details of the four accounts make harmonizing them difficult, but given Peter’s earlier powerful testimony that Jesus was the Christ (Mark 8:29; parallels Matt 16:16‒17; Luke 9:20; and in a different context John 6:69), his threefold denial here is striking, although significantly he never denies his testimony, gained earlier by revelation, that Jesus is the Christ.[83] When the rooster crows, the wrenching realization of what Peter has done is made all the more poignant in Luke’s account, where Jesus, who is being led by at that very moment, turns and looks at Peter (Luke 22:61). This incident has given its name to the traditional site of Caiaphas’s palace on Mount Zion on the southern end of the Upper City of Jerusalem, which is commemorated by the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, or “St. Peter of the Cock Crow.”[84] Although we do not know, and should not judge, the motivations of the historical figure of Peter, the actions of his character as portrayed in all four Gospels nonetheless fit the pattern of Jesus being handed over, abandoned, mistreated, and denied. In addition to experiencing the effects of our sins, pains, and sorrows in Gethsemane, that night he also experienced disloyalty, false judgment, arrest, and rejection, enabling him to understand and succor any wife betrayed by a husband, any child abused by a parent, or any friend rejected by another.[85]

Celebrating Maundy Thursday in the Christian Tradition

Foot washing on Maundy Thursday. Shutterstock.

Traditionally the Thursday of Holy Week is called Maundy Thursday, Holy Thursday, or Covenant Thursday. As we have noted above, maundy comes from the Latin mandatum, where we get co-mandment, as found in John 13:34 during the Last Supper, when Jesus told his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you: Love one another” (authors’ translation). This is one of the busiest liturgical days of the year for both Western and Eastern Christians with the roots of these modern services dating to at least the fourth century. Egeria describes how Christians in Jerusalem, after prayers and services earlier at the Holy Sepulchre complex, were dismissed and sent to the Mount of Olives, “because the greatest labor awaits us today, this very night.” Much of the evening and the early hours of the morning were spent at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Mount of Olives, and Gethsemane praying and reading about Jesus’s travail and arrest at Gethsemane.[86] Some of these traditions have continued until today in Jerusalem, where a service is held in the Cenacle, the traditional site of the Last Supper on Mount Zion; a vigil is held in the Basilica of the Agony at Gethsemane; and a candle-lit procession proceeds from there to the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu to commemorate Jesus’s arrest, transfer to the house of Caiaphas, Peter’s denial, and Jesus’s “trial” and imprisonment there.

Monreale, Christ Washes Apostles' Feet. Wikimedia Commons.

The most important of the Thursday services is the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. This service marks the beginning of the Triduum Paschale, the period of three days from the evening service on Thursday to the evening service on Easter Sunday. The emphasis of Maundy Thursday is the events of the Last Supper, particularly on the institution of the sacrament and the washing of feet. From late antiquity to the present, many Christians have engaged in a ritual tradition of foot washing of members of the congregation, including, and perhaps especially, the poor. Bishops, Popes, emperors, and kings washed the feet of the poor, provided them a meal, and gave them money and clothing.[87]

Given that the Last Supper was held during Passover season, participating in a Passover Seder has become more common on Holy Thursday among Christians. Some Christians will either perform their own form of Seder, or, if Holy Week happens to coincide with the week of Passover, they might participate in a Seder event with local Jewish friends. Not only does Jesus appear to have participated in a Passover meal on Thursday, at least to the usual understanding of the Synoptic presentation of the Last Supper, but Jewish tradition in antiquity places the Exodus from Egypt starting on Thursday, the fifteenth day of Nisan.[88] Thus, the Thursday of Holy Week provides many ideas for observance for congregants and families.

Suggestions for Latter-day Saints

Because the Last Supper featured the institution of the Lord’s Supper, which we celebrate in our sacrament meetings every week, and Jesus’s experience in Gethsemane was the beginning of his all-important work of atonement, commemorating these episodes can be deeply meaningful. After reading the account of the Last Supper, for instance, families can discuss the symbolism of the bread and the water today, reflect on the blessing of partaking of the sacrament each week, and perhaps sing a favorite sacrament hymn. After reading Luke’s account of Jesus’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, they can then read important passages from Restoration scripture, especially Alma 7:11–13 and Doctrine and Covenants 19:15–20, and share their testimonies of Christ’s Atonement with each other. This could be followed by singing “Reverently and Meekly Now” (Hymns, no. 185), in which Jesus speaks of ransoming us “with my blood that dripped like rain / sweat in agony of pain,” or “In Memory of the Crucified” (Hymns, no. 190), whose second verse recounts how “Our Savior in Gethsemane / shrank not to drink the bitter cup.”

Frans Schwartz, Agony in the Garden. Wikimedia Commons.

While celebrating their own Passover at home or with local congregations has become increasingly popular both within and outside the Church, we discourage too literal of a celebration if it is not done with care. First, many of the details of the current celebration of the Passover—the Seder—in Rabbinic Judaism date to periods considerably after the New Testament. While some central elements, such as eating bitter herbs and unleavened bread and a basic recounting of the Exodus story, would have been part of the celebration in the Second Temple period, other items such as specific blessings, songs, and the number of cups of wine (or grape juice) developed later. Also, eating lamb ceased after the destruction of the temple when the paschal sacrifice could no longer be performed.[89] Second, if not done carefully and respectfully, overly Christianizing a Seder could unintentionally be an act of cultural appropriation that could be offensive to some of our Jewish friends. One option might be to have a normal dinner that also features some traditional Passover items, at which parents could explain, “Tonight our Jewish friends are eating these items because of what they represent,” without actually reenacting a full Seder. If families have small children, they might enjoy watching a movie such as “Prince of Egypt” and then talking about the Lord’s miraculous deliverance of Israel. Those with older children or even just adults at home might enjoy the classic The Ten Commandments. Because the Gospels disagree on whether the Last Supper was actually a Passover meal, another option might be to have a Mediterranean-style meal drawing upon a resource such as The Food and Feasts of Jesus (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) and use that as an opportunity to focus solely on the Last Supper itself.

Other episodes of Thursday evening can also provide valuable teaching opportunities. For instance, after reading how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and commanded that they love one another, we can discuss ways that we can serve and love each other, perhaps singing “Love One Another” (Hymns, no. 308) together. Reading some or all of the Farewell Discourses (John 14‒17) and putting ourselves in the place of the original disciples can be a powerful way of hearing Jesus speak directly to us. Also, reading Elder Holland’s April 2009 conference address, “None Were with Him,” can lead to a discussion about how the betrayal, abandonment, false judgment, denial, and abuse of Jesus Christ were all part of his “descending below all things” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:8), increasing our confidence that our Savior understands when we suffer similar rejection.

In addition to great art of the masters of the past, many Latter-day Saint artists have produced stirring depictions of the events of Thursday night (see the list, certainly not complete, in appendix H). In addition to singing together some or all of the hymns we have suggested, there is also inspiring music that we can listen to over the course of Maundy Thursday. For instance, movements 9‒38 of Bach’s great St. Matthew Passion dramatize the events of this fateful night, and Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives depicts Christ’s triumph as being the moment in Gethsemane when Jesus accepts his fate and agrees to drink the bitter cup, leading to the heavenly host singing “Hallelujah” in the final movement of the work.

Marking the Thursday of Holy Week

Although taking time to mark the events of Jesus’s experiences on the last Thursday of his mortal life has particular meaning during the Easter Season, the sacrament that he instituted that night ensures that we can recall these vital events, and those of Good Friday, every week. As Elder Holland has taught, “With a crust of bread, always broken, blessed, and offered first, we remember his bruised body and broken heart, his physical suffering on the cross . . . With a small cup of water we remember the shedding of Christ’s blood and the depth of his spiritual suffering, anguish which began in the Garden of Gethsemane.”[90]

With the sacrament each week we thus commemorate Gethsemane and Golgotha, which, interwoven and dependent upon one another, constituted the infinite and eternal sacrifice for our salvation. By doing this on the Lord’s Day, the first day of each week, we also proclaim the Empty Tomb and the Ascension, which comprise the Risen Lord’s final triumph and foreshadow our own potential exaltation. §

For Further Reading

James Tissot, Maltreatments in the House of Caiaphas. Wikimedia Commons.

Ball, Terry B. “Gethsemane.” In From the Last Supper through the Resurrection: The Savior’s Final Hours, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment, 138–64. Vol. 3 of The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003.

Borg and Crossan. The Last Week, 109–36.

Blumell, Lincoln H. “Luke 22:43–44: An Anti-Docetic Interpolation or an Apologetic Omission?” TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 19 (2014): 1–35.

Brown. The Death of the Messiah, 110–660.

Hilton, John, III, and Joshua P. Barringer. “The Use of ‘Gethsemane’ by Church Leaders: 1859–2018.” BYU Studies 58, no. 4 (2019): 49–76.

Holzapfel. A Lively Hope, 31‒53, 89‒100, 115‒19, 130‒46.

Huntsman, Eric D. “The Accounts of Peter’s Denial: Understanding the Texts and Motifs.” In The Ministry of Peter, the Chief Apostle, edited by Frank F. Judd Jr., Eric D. Huntsman, and Shon D. Hopkin, 127–49. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014.

—�Ĕ�Ĕ. God So Loved the World, 49–70.

Levine. Entering the Passion, 109–40.

Pike, Dana M. “Before the Jewish Authorities.” In Holzapfel and Wayment, From the Last Supper through the Resurrection, 210‒68.

Seely, David Rolph. “The Last Supper according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.” In Holzapfel and Wayment, From the Last Supper through the Resurrection, 59–107.

Smith. The Gospel according to Mark, 726–74.

Welch, John W. “Miracles, Maleficium, and Maiestas in the Trial of Jesus.” In Jesus and Archaeology, edited by James H. Charlesworth, 349–83. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006.

Notes

[1] Holland, “None Were with Him,” 86.

[2] Jeffrey R. Holland, “This Do in Remembrance of Me,” Ensign, November 1995, 67.

[3] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 49.

[4] Jerome �ѳܰ�����-��※��DzԲԴǰ�, The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 74, 115‒18.

[5] Maurice Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark’s Gospel, Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 102 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 227‒28, and Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 730‒31, who in addition to other evidence notes that the women at the tomb Easter morning were reminded that Jesus had told them that he would go before them to Galilee (Mark 16:7), direction that Jesus delivered at the Last Supper itself (Mark 14:28).

[6] Witherington, Gospel of Mark, 370; Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 729.

[7] Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark’s Gospel, 227; France, Gospel of Mark, 564‒65; Witherington, Gospel of Mark, 370‒71.

[8] Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, trans. Norman Perrin (London: SCM Press, 1966; repr. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990), 41‒62; I. Howard Marshall, Last Supper and Lord’s Supper (Exeter, UK: Paternoster Press, 1980; repr. Vancouver, CA: Regent College Publishing, 2006), 59‒62; also the positions summarized by David Rolph Seely, “The Last Supper according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke,” From the Last Supper through the Resurrection: The Savior’s Final Hours, ed. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 67‒70. For Latter-day Saint authorities, who for this issue were reliant upon the biblical scholarship available to them, see Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 618, and Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965), 1:800.

[9] See Witherington, John’s Wisdom, 231‒32, actually sees the Johannine Last Supper as not necessarily his “last” meal but rather one of his final meals from earlier in the week.

[10] Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 405–7, 871‒74.

[11] Marshall, Last Supper and Lord’s Supper, 62‒71; Seely, “The Last Supper,” 70‒72; Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 50‒51.

[12] Brown, Gospel according to John, 61‒63, 917‒18, 651‒53; and Death of the Messiah, 1371‒73; Huntsman, “The Lamb of God: Unique Aspects of the Passion Narrative in John,” Behold the Lamb of God: The Fourth Annual BYU Religious Education Easter Conference, ed. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Frank F. Judd, Jr., and Thomas A. Wayment (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2008), 52‒54, and “Gospel of John,” 316‒17; Michaels, Gospel of John, 107‒109, 941‒43.

[13] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 1361‒69; Marshall, Last Supper and Lord’s Supper, 71‒74; Seely, “The Last Supper,” 72‒74.

[14] Thiselton, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 873; France, Gospel of Mark, 560; Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 52; Jackson Abhau, “Taking Away the Sin of the World: Egō Eimi and the Day of Atonement in John,” Studia Antiqua 19 (2020): 49‒50.

[15] Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark’s Gospel, 222‒23; France, Gospel of Mark, 564.

[16] France, Gospel of Mark, 560.

[17] Witherington, Gospel of Mark, 371, suggests that Jesus’s group sacrificed their own lamb outside of the temple because they could not have done it there on any day besides that prescribed by law. However, Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark’s Gospel, 223‒26, notes that in the Second Temple period so many lambs needed to be slaughtered that it was deemed permissible to start the process the day before, on Nisan 13. In reality, the menu for the Last Supper is not detailed other than its use of bread and wine, which were common at every important dinner.

[18] Bruce D. Porter, “Beautiful Mornings,” Ensign, May 2013, 107.

[19] Brown, Introduction to the New Testament, 127, 158‒64; France, Gospel of Mark, 38–41; Eric D. Huntsman, “The Petrine ��ŧ���ⲵ���� and the Gospel according to Mark,” in The Ministry of Peter, the Chief Apostle, ed. Frank F. Judd Jr., Eric D. Huntsman, and Shon D. Hopkin (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014), 170‒75.

[20] Brown, Introduction to the New Testament, 585–89; Garwood P. Anderson, Paul’s New Perspective: Charting a Soteriological Journey (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2016), 182–87; Stanley E. Porter, The Apostle Paul: His Life, Thought, and Letters (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), 156–78.

[21] In addition to commentaries on the individual passages, important foundational, detailed, and over-arching discussions of the issue include Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, 96‒105, 138‒203; Marshall, Last Supper and Lord’s Supper, 30‒56, and his tables 2 and 3, 180‒83; and Thiselton, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 875–78.

[22] See Metzger, Textual Commentary, 54, 95, 147‒50, 496; Omanson, Textual Guide, 46, 96, 147‒49, 345‒46.

[23] F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, ed. and trans. Robert W. Funk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), 72 §130(1), 164‒65 §313; Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 437‒38. For the divine passive in this passage and this passage, see Brown, Death of the Messiah, 212; Thiselton, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 869–70; and Levine, Entering the Passion, 115‒16.

[24] Brown, Driver, Briggs, “bryt,” BDB, 136–37.

[25] Thiselton, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 878–82.

[26] Thiselton, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 886–88.

[27] France, Gospel of Mark, 570‒71; Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 734‒35.

[28] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 1078‒84.

[29] I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1978), 797‒807. Significantly, the JST of Mark 14:20‒25 includes and in fact strengthens the commemorative language of Paul and Luke that is otherwise missing from the received text.

[30] Holland, “This Do in Remembrance of Me,” 68.

[31] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 55, and Worship, 48‒49.

[32] Huntsman, Behold the Lamb of God, 55‒56, and God So Loved the World, 53.

[33] C. Craddock as quoted by Ben Witherington, John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth Gospel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 231.

[34] Michaels, Gospel of John, 726.

[35] Keener, Gospel of John, 902, 904.

[36] Gottfried Nebe, “meros,” EDNT 2:410. See also Brown, Gospel according to John, 565‒66, and Michaels, Gospel of John, 728‒29.

[37] Brown, Gospel according to John, 552, 558‒59, 566‒67; Michaels, Gospel of John, 730‒32.

[38] For instance, the entrance ritual of the Kirtland School of the Prophets (Doctrine and Covenants 88:139‒138‒141 and the initiatory and ordinances connected with the house of the Lord. See Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, Joseph Smith’s Quorum of the Anointed, 1842‒45 (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2005), xiv‒xvi, 54n9.

[39] Michaels, Gospel of John, 725; also Levine, Entering the Passion, 122‒23.

[40] Brown, Gospel according to John, 551, 568; Keener, Gospel of John, 902.

[41] Huntsman, Worship, 34‒36, 40‒44.

[42] Huntsman, Becoming the Beloved Disciple, 9‒11, 124‒26.

[43] While Luke was apparently written sometime in the AD 70s, considerably before John, the Third Gospel seems to have been familiar with some of the source material of the Fourth Gospel, perhaps from the witness of the Beloved Disciple himself. See Mark A. Matson, In Dialogue with Another Gospel? The Influence of the Fourth Gospel on the Passion Narrative of the Gospel of Luke (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001), 6–10, 155–63, 263–438.

[44] Keener, Gospel of John, 896‒98.

[45] Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the Gospel of John, ed. Francis J. Moloney (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 259.

[46] Brown, Gospel according to John, cxxxii‒cxxxv, and Introduction to the Gospel of John, 48‒51, 284‒87. Witherington, John’s Wisdom, 23‒27, sees this as reflecting the motif of “Jesus as personified Wisdom.” Keener, Gospel of John, 47‒49, 54‒55, 76‒78 is more cautious, recognizing “rhythmic patterns” and even acknowledging that they might reflect the speaking patterns of the historical Jesus but noting that they could also be the result of the prevailing oral culture.

[47] Hans Hübner, “�����ō,” and Joseph Fitzmyer, “monē,” EDNT 2:407‒8, 439.

[48] Notably Exodus 3:14 (Hebrew, ʾehyeh ʾăšer ʾeyeh; KJV, “I Am that I Am”) and Isaiah 43:10 (Hebrew, ʾănî hûʾ; KJV, “I Am he”). See Brown, Gospel according to John, 533‒38; Catrin H. Williams, I Am He: The Interpretation of ʾAnî Hûʾ in Jewish and Early Christian Literature, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament vol. 2 of 113 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000); Keener, Gospel of John, 318‒19; Abhau, “Taking Away the Sin of the World,” 44, 54‒56.

[49] Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Grandeur of God,” Ensign, November 2003, 70.

[50] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 56.

[51] Horst Balz, “hagios,” EDNT 1:16‒20.

[52] Jürgen Roloff, “�󾱱�������ŧ�����Dz�/hilasmos,” and Helmut Merkel, “�첹�ٲ���������ŧ,” EDNT 2:185‒86.

[53] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 57.

[54] deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner, Book of Psalms, 810, 847, 850, 853, 858‒61, 863‒64, 869‒70.

[55] Heinz Giesen, “skandalizō,” EDNT 3:248.

[56] See the detailed discussion of Huntsman, “The Accounts of Peter’s Denial: Understanding the Texts and Motifs,” The Ministry of Peter, the Chief Apostle, ed. Frank F. Judd Jr., Eric D. Huntsman, and Shon D. Hopkin (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014), 127‒49)

[57] Brown, Driver, Briggs, “qdr,” BDB, 871; William Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1988), 313.

[58] �ѳܰ�����-��※��DzԲԴǰ�, The Holy Land, 146‒50; Joan E. Taylor, “The Garden of Gethsemane,” Where Christianity Was Born, ed. Hershel Shanks (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2006), 117‒27.

[59] Huntsman, Behold the Lamb of God, 59, and God So Loved the World, 58‒59.

[60] See Brown, Death of the Messiah, 227‒34, for a detailed discussion of whether Heb 4:14‒16 and 5:5‒10 represent an independent memory of the Gethsemane incident.

[61] Wiard Popkes, “peirazō/��𾱰��������Dz�,” EDNT 3:64‒67; Brown, Death of the Messiah, 195‒200.

[62] Metzger, Textual Commentary, 151; Brown, Death of the Messiah, 180‒81.

[63] Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, 831‒32; Brown, Death of the Messiah, 181‒84; S. Kent Brown, The Testimony of Luke, BYU New Testament Commentary (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2015), 1022‒24, 1027; Lincoln H. Blumell, “Luke 22:43–44: An Anti-Docetic Interpolation or an Apologetic Omission?,” TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 19 (2014): 1–35.

[64] Marshall, Gospel of Luke, 385.

[65] Gerhard Dautzenberg, “agōn /agōnizomai / agōnia,” EDNT 1:25‒27; Brown, Death of the Messiah, 189‒90.

[66] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 184‒86.

[67] Bruce R. McConkie, “The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Ensign, May 1985, 9.

[68] Neal A. Maxwell, “Willing to Submit,” Ensign, May 1985, 73. See the careful, detailed discussion of the implications of this experience in Andrew Skinner, Gethsemane (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 72‒91.

[69] McConkie, “Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” 9; see also Skinner, Gethsemane, 68‒72.

[70] Robert L. Millet, What Happened to the Cross? Distinctive LDS Teachings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2007), 107.

[71] John Hilton III, “Teaching the Scriptural Emphasis on the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ,” Religious Educator 20, no. 3 (2019): 133‒34; and John Hilton III and Joshua P. Barringer, “The Use of Gethsemane by Church Leaders, 1859–2018,” BYU Studies Quarterly 58, no. 4 (2019): 49‒50.

[72] Hilton and Barringer, “Use of Gethsemane by Church Leaders,” 56‒58, 67‒75.

[73] Jean B. Bingham, “That Your Joy Might Be Full,” Ensign, November 2017, 86.

[74] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 66, and “Preaching Jesus, and Him Crucified,” in His Majesty and Mission, ed. Nicholas J. Frederick and Keith J. Wilson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017), 61.

[75] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 248‒51, is generally supportive of the involvement of Roman soldiers at this phase of Jesus’s passion but notes arguments against it, which are expanded by Huntsman, “Christ before the Romans,” in From the Last Supper through the Resurrection: The Savior’s Final Hours, vol. 3 of The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ, ed. Richard N. Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 292n74. In short, it is unlikely that a full cohort of six hundred men (the military formation often translated by the Greek speira) would be sent to arrest Jesus, let alone be put under the command of the Jewish authorities. Further, there is no hint that Pilate and the Roman authorities were involved at this stage; rather, the Gospels portray parallel but separate patterns of Jewish custody, a preliminary hearing, and abuse of Jesus Thursday night and then Roman custody, trial, and abuse Friday morning. For our translation of the Greek ����ŧ���ٲ��� as “retainers,” see Gerhard Schneider, “hypērtēs,” EDNT 3:400.

[76] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 252‒59; France, Gospel of Mark, 591‒93.

[77] Rachel Elior, “Early Forms of Jewish Mysticism,” in The Cambridge History of Judaism, 8 vols., ed. Steven T. Katz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 4:779.

[78] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 259‒62; Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 63‒64. I am particularly indebted to the work of Abhau, “Taking Away the Sin of the World,” 56, for the connection of Jesus’s possible uttering of the divine name with the response of the arresting party given rabbinic discussion of falling prostrate as the appropriate response.

[79] Other interpretations of this figure include his identification with the evangelist of the Second Gospel himself, traditionally John Mark, or have seen in it cryptic references to initiation such as those suggested by the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark. See Brown, Death of the Messiah, 294‒304; France, Gospel of Mark, 595‒97; Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 64‒65. For other possible interpretations, see Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 760‒61, including the parallel with the young man clothed in linen at the tomb at Mark 16:1‒8. See our discussion in chapter 9, page 225 below.

[80] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 417‒23; Dana M. Pike, “Before the Jewish Authorities,” in From the Last Supper through the Resurrection: The Savior’s Final Hours, vol. 3 of The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ, ed. Richard N. Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 214‒26.

[81] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 417‒26; Pike, “Before the Jewish Authorities,” 211, 226‒31, 253‒58.

[82] Whether Jesus’s claim was strictly blasphemy, see Brown, Death of the Messiah, 520‒47; Pike, “Before the Jewish Authorities,” 231‒53; David W. Chapman and Eckhard J. Schnabel, The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus: Texts and Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2019), 98‒130.

[83] Huntsman, “The Accounts of Peter’s Denial,” 136‒40.

[84] �ѳܰ�����-��※��DzԲԴǰ�, Holy Land, 119.

[85] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 66, and “Preaching Jesus, and Him Crucified,” 60.

[86] Itinerarium Egeriae 35.1‒36.3 = McGowan and Bradshaw, Pilgrimage of Egeria, 171‒75.

[87] Joanne M. Pierce, “Holy Week and Easter in the Middle Ages,” 164–67; “Maundy Thursday,” in Holidays, Symbols, and Customs, 4th ed., ed. Helene Henderson, (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2009), 556‒60.

[88] Israel J. Yuval, “Passover in the Middle Ages,” Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman, Passover and Easter: Origin and History to Modern Times (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999), 132–33.

[89] Levine, Entering the Passion, 113‒14.

[90] Holland, “This Do in Remembrance of Me,” 67.