Verses 1-30
A. The Last Supper 13:1-30
Jesus concluded each of His prolonged stays and ministries in a district with an important meal.
"At the first ’Supper,’ [i.e., the feeding of the 5,000, at the end of the Galilean ministry, mainly to Jews] the Jewish guests would fain have proclaimed Him Messiah-King; at the second [i.e., the feeding of the 4,000, at the end of the Decapolis ministry, mainly to Gentiles], as ’the Son of Man,’ He gave food to those Gentile multitudes which having been with Him those days, and consumed all their victuals during their stay with him, He could not send away fasting, lest they should faint by the way. And on the last occasion [i.e., the Last Supper, the Judean ministry, to the Twelve], as the true Priest and Sacrifice, He fed His own with the True Paschal Feast, ere He sent them forth alone into the wilderness. Thus the three ’Suppers’ seem connected, each leading up, as it were, to the other." [Note: Edersheim, 2:63.]
John recorded more of what Jesus said and did in the upper room than any of the other Gospel evangelists. Much of this was a discourse on the disciples’ future. Jesus prefaced this instruction with other lessons for them.
John’s description of the time of the Last Supper seems to conflict with that of the Synoptics. They present it as happening on Thursday evening, but many students of the fourth Gospel have interpreted John as locating it on Wednesday evening (John 13:1; John 13:27; John 18:28; John 19:14; John 19:31; John 19:36; John 19:42). Resolution of the apparent contradictions that these seven verses pose will follow in the exposition of them. The Last Supper was a Passover meal that took place on Thursday evening.
John’s omission of the institution of the Lord’s Supper has disturbed some readers of the fourth Gospel, especially sacramentalists, those who believe that the sacraments have some part in salvation. We can only suggest that John did so because the earlier Gospels contained full accounts of it, and he wished to record new material rather than repeating. Obviously John did not record many other things that his fellow evangelists chose to include. Each evangelist chose his material in view of his distinctive purpose.
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