Last Supper Discourse

 

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knowing that his time had come to pass from this world to his Father, having loved those who were his own in the world he loved them to the end.” In chapter 13, the narration of evangelist John arrives at the ‘hour,’ the long-awaited moment. The moment of fulfillment has come. Jesus accomplishes the work of salvation, brings to the completion that love that he brought to earth, and now he realizes the project.

The evangelist knows that Jesus is aware and underlines it emphatically. “Fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.”

With the washing of the feet begins the text of chapters 13–16 that contain the last supper, that of the farewell, of the important things, in which John places on the lips of Jesus the spiritual testament, the mandate to his community, the important tasks. John does not narrate the institution of the Eucharist.

He does not refer to the bread and wine during this supper, to the words we say at the consecration. But he has dedicated almost the entire chapter six, after the sign of the bread, to the Eucharistic discourse. With the words that he pronounced that evening during the supper, he instituted the sacrament of his body and blood that John elaborated again as catechesis and placed them in chapter six. Now during that supper, he presents an episode that the other evangelists ignore.

The gesture of the washing of the feet has a meaning and a Eucharistic function. In some way, it recalls the sense of the Eucharist, which is the total gift of self and is a kind of representation of the mystery of the incarnation and the redemption wrought by Jesus. He rose from the table, removes his outer garments. He strips himself of his divinity to stoop down to earth, to the feet level of the disciples. He girds himself with the attitude of a servant and begins to wash the feet of the disciples.

Peter does not understand the meaning and reacts by not wanting to have his feet washed by the teacher. But Jesus shows him that acceptance is indispensable. “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” It is not simply the external gesture that Jesus performs, but it is the symbolic meaning behind the gesture. There is a baptismal reminder to the water that washes, and there is a paschal sense, sacrificial, the love of Jesus that cleanses the disciples from sin. If you do not let Jesus wash you, you cannot have part with him. There is a need to let oneself be loved and to accept this incredible style of a God who lowers himself to our unpoetic feet to wash our poverty, our limited humanity, our filth. This is the sense of what is going to happen. A great love that makes us pure.

After this gesture that left the disciples speechless, Jesus puts on his clothes, sits down, and begins to explain. Once again, we find the usual procedure: first a sign and then the explanation. The fact is accompanied by the words that present the significance: “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you the example so you can do the same.”

These words are very similar to what the Synoptics refer to as the last words of the institution of the Eucharist: “Do this in memory of me.” ‘I am the example, the model, the prototype, and you are called to continue in the same direction.’ It is not simply an exemplary function on the part of Jesus. He is the cause of this love. It is not merely a showing of how to do it by leaving us alone in our weaknesses. His act of love effectively touches our life and makes it possible for us to do as he has done. This is a fundamental fact.

The work of Jesus is not simply an example to be imitated, but it is a force of grace that enables the disciple to do the same. At this moment of great tension, Jesus reveals that one of the disciples is about to betray him.

Judas is portrayed in a very bad light in the Gospel of John. He is presented as a thief, the one who has the custody of the purse and helped himself from what was in it, as a hypocrite who had suggested to earn from the perfume of anointing at Bethany to help the poor, not because he was interested in the poor but because he wanted to take that money. Satan has already put in the heart of Judas the plan to betray Jesus. Jesus knows this and tells the disciple to do quickly what he is about to do. Judas sees this attitude of Jesus, giving the morsel a sign of friendship, as shocking. As he took that morsel, the devil entered into him. We say: ‘To be as mad as hell’ (‘to have a demon for each hair’ in Italian). It is precisely a moment in which the anger of the disciple breaks out against Jesus.

Generally, the term used is ‘betrayal,’ betrayer, to betray to indicate the act of Judas. If we were more faithful to the Greek text, we should always render these terms with the verb to hand over (deliver). Judas is a deliverer. In Latin, the verb ‘tradere’ is not a verb to indicate to betray. A familiar sound can mislead us, but it is a false similarity. In Latin, the traitor is ‘proditor.’ To betray is to ‘prodere.’ Here, on the other hand, the word ‘tradere’ is used, which is the Latin correspondence to the Greek ‘paradidomi.’ In English, we say: to deliver (hand over). From this verb ‘tradere’ derives, for example, the English word ‘trade.’ It has nothing to do with betrayal; it is commerce, the exchange of things. Therefore, what Judas does is delivering Jesus into the hands of enemies.

It was not necessary the betrayal of Judas. Many rubbish things were said about this fatal role. Jesus was not hidden in an unavailable place. When he wanted to remain hidden, he was in hiding. At this moment, he went to Jerusalem, and he is in the city, so he is under the eyes of all. It would be possible to arrest him at any moment. He does not defend himself and is unarmed. He is in public every day. So, there was no need for a traitor to discover the secret hiding place or to be able to find the famous untraceable fugitive. The role of Judas was banal. He facilitated the arrest. It would have happened anyway.

But the drama lies in the fact that this man does not share the style of Jesus. He is opposed to the way Jesus is doing. It is not that he does not believe him. He is convinced that Jesus is the messiah. But it bothers him that he goes so slowly that he does not impose himself; that does not take effort to accept it. So he would like to force Jesus to change his style. By delivering Jesus into the hands of the Sanhedrin in such a way as to bring him to a complete revelation so that those who welcome him come to understand and finally this blessed messianic kingdom be established. Judas would have liked things to go according to his ideas. Here Judas went wrong. His grave mistake is an attitude that is opposed to Christ; he does not follow him meekly. He wants to force him.

Faced with the attitude of Jesus, who shows that he knows his heart, his attitude, and despite everything, he loves him and hands him that morsel of friendship, Judas gets angry. He gets up mad and goes away, slamming the door. “After he took the morsel, Satan entered him… So he took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.” It is one of the most tragic phrases of John, a phrase that might seem banal. It was night; it was dark. Judas himself was night.

It was the drama of the struggle of darkness against the light. The drama of a man who encountered the light in person and let himself be inhabited by darkness. That exit in the night is the drama of that disciple, the disciple Judas, a disciple who has set himself against the master, who does not learn but wants to force the master to do his will. When Judas left, Jesus said, by now, it’s done. We are at the moment. The fatal machine started to run and will be set in motion; ‘in a few moments the soldiers will arrive to take me, arrest me, and everything will go as planned.’

Now is the moment of glory, and at this moment where everything is about to happen, Jesus speaks from his heart to his disciples. John collects in five chapters a significant quantity of Jesus’ teachings. We are in the heart of the messianic teaching of Jesus. There is the mandate, the great commandment of love.

This is the spiritual testament of Jesus. ‘I leave you this legacy. It is my commandment.’ Literally, the Greek term Ἐντολὴν – ‘entollé,’ would be better to translate as a ‘proposal.’ Because love is not a command. Jesus proposes. He places a possibility of loving in front of the disciples. He places it inside them, saying, ‘I offer you the possibility to love as God loved you,’ and I will prepare a place for you. He repeatedly uses the image of going to the Father to explain his death as an opening of the passage.

The Paschal story of Jesus is pioneering. He opened the way to reach God and give every person the possibility of realizing his or her existence. “Where I am going you know the way.” The disciples say no. We do not know where you are going then; how do we know the way. “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

It is another famous important theophoric formula with which he presents his divinity: I am. “I am the way and the truth and the life.” He had already said, “I am the door,” which corresponds more or less to the way. You have to go through me to get there. “I am the life.” He had already told Martha in front of his brother’s grave: “I am the resurrection and life.” He adds ‘truth’ and brings together three words: way, truth, and life to qualify his divine person. ‘I am the way; I am the method; I am the mode, the way, the means to be able to reach God. I am the revelation.’ ‘Truth’ in the Johannine language means revelation, i.e., not hidden. Jesus is the manifestation of God. He in his life, with that he said, he did, he showed God. He is the life; he is the goal.

The objective: to live in fullness. Jesus is life itself; he is the way to reach life. He is the revelation of life; he is life in person. ‘You know the way because I am the way. You are called to reach me through me.’ At the supper, the disciples (in these discourses) intervene, expressing their limitations and inability to understand. Peter is willing, he says in words, to follow him anywhere. ‘You will follow me later, Jesus tells him. Now you cannot go where I go.’ ‘You cannot come’ is very important. Where Jesus goes is to the Father. Peter and anyone, for that matter, with their strength cannot follow him. But he will follow later.

The important announcement in this discourse of the supper is the promise of the Παράκλητος – ‘Paraclete.’ The Holy Spirit is a technical term of the forensic language that John used. The ‘paraclete’ in Greek corresponds to ‘advocatus’ in Latin, meaning advocate. The advocate is the defender. Advocate the ‘Paraclitus’ is the one who is called to be close by for my sake, to do my part. He is the comforter, as the one who does not leave me alone but defends my interest. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. He is the ‘Paraclete’ that the Father sends in the name of Jesus to continue the work of Jesus.

Some fundamental actions are attributed to the Holy Spirit. ‘He will remind you of what I have told you, he will teach you everything, he will guide you to the whole truth, he will give testimony for me, will counter the opposition of the world, he will announce you the things to come.’ It is the testament in which Jesus leaves his inheritance, the Holy Spirit. The divine Person of the Spirit who will continue the action of the disciples will continue the action of Jesus in the history of the disciples, in the history of the Church. What is essential is to remain in Jesus.

The image of vine and branches is developed extensively to urge the Christian community to remain united to Jesus to bear much fruit. The last chapter, the seventeenth that closes the five chapters of the supper, contains the splendid priestly prayer of Jesus, in which Jesus says to offer himself so the disciples can be made perfect in unity, brought to fullness, and become one, united to the person of God.

As the Father is united to Jesus so his friends will be united in this divine intimacy, brought to perfection in unity. This is the consecration that Jesus makes of himself so that others can be consecrated in the truth. He is the truth. In him, consecration can be reached, that is, participation in the life of God, who is the only sacred reality. At this point, the summit of the teaching is reached.

After the supper, he goes out with his disciples and meets the glory that we usually call the passion.