Thursday, April 17, 2014
THE WEEK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
THURSDAY: DAY OF PREPARATION ... and PRAYER
- Preparation for the Passover Meal -
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover." "Where do you want us to prepare for it?" They asked. He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. Where is my guest room, where I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
- Jesus Prepares a Meal for All His Disciples of All Time -
When Judas left, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body give for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you." And they all drank from it. "This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins," He said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."
- Jesus Prays for Himself -
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word."
- Jesus Prays for His Disciples -
"Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-- the name you gave me-- so that they may be one as we are one."
- Jesus Prays for All Believers -
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, called Gethsemane, and he and his disciples went into it.
-- Selected and Adapted from Orville Daniel's "A Harmony of the Gospels" (NIV84)
