It is now two days before the Passover and Jesus is staying in Bethany with His disciples ready for the festivals. He visits Simon the leper for a meal and a woman, (John 12 tells us this was Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus) comes to Jesus and anoints His feet with a very costly perfume and wipes His feet with her hair. When admonished for this, Jesus says they must leave her alone, she is anointing Him in preparation for His burial.

Two days later, Jesus and His disciples prepare to celebrate the Passover. Jesus has organised for them to go to a large, upper room in the city to celebrate there. That evening when they are eating the meal, Jesus tells them that one of them will betray Him. They are all saddened by this, and then Jesus said the words that we now use in the Communion service, “This is My body” and, “This is My blood of the new covenant.” After supper they go out to the Mount of Olives and here Peter and the other disciples swear that they will never betray Jesus. Then they go to Gethsemane where Jesus prays for the upcoming events to be taken from Him, while His disciples sleep; and then in the final verses of today’s passage Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot and then arrested.

This passage covers a lot of events, but looking at them altogether, we can see that Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him, and how the events would play out. He prays in Gethsemane for things to be changed, but He submits to the Father’s will anyway. Jesus was so close to His Father, that He knew what the Father’s will was, and He loved the Father so much He was willing to carry it out whatever the cost to Himself.

I wonder if we can say that? That we are so close to the Father that we know what the Father’s will is for our lives; and that we love Him so much, that we will carry out His will no matter what the cost to us? This is not an easy thing for us to do, but if we do love Him and want to achieve His purposes in our lives, He will give us the strength to do it, just as He gave His Son the strength to do what He had to do.

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Lord, help me today to listen to Your voice so that I can know Your will for my life and with Your strength, carry it out. Amen