Looking back to the temptation story, we recall that after the last temptation, the devil departed from Jesus “until an opportune time” (4:13).

Now that opportune time has come. The tempter, here called Satan, enters into Judas Iscariot leading him to “look for an opportunity to betray Jesus.” We sense a connection to Luke’s story of the entry into Jerusalem where the donkey was where Jesus said it would be. Here, too, things seem planned out. “When you enter the city, a man carrying a water jar will meet you -- follow him.” That mysterious man should be easy to spot since women were usually the ones carrying water jars!

Luke’s account of the supper is a Passover story, linked to Exodus 12. Fred Craddock reminds us that the Passover Lamb was not a sin offering: “The lamb sacrificed for sin was another ritual; the Passover lamb was the seal of the covenant, and the Passover meal commemorated that covenant offered to the faith community by a God who sets free.”¹ Neither Luke nor Paul calls this meal a sacrifice for sin, but in both accounts, Jesus emphasizes the covenant. Only Matthew ...