Thursday
📖 Matt. 26:17–46; Mark 14:12–42; Luke 22:7–46; John 13–17; 1 Cor. 11:23–25
Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples. In the middle of the meal, He took bread and said, “This is My body,” then the cup, saying, “This is My blood.” He instituted the Lord’s Supper not as a mere symbol, but as a means of grace in which He Himself is truly present—though not physically. In the bread and wine, believers are genuinely united with Christ through faith. We do not merely remember Him—we are nourished and strengthened by the Living One.
Even as Jesus offered Himself, the disciples were arguing about who among them was the greatest. How far their thoughts were from the path of the cross. Yet Jesus did not leave them. He knelt and washed their feet—one by one—including the feet that would soon run away. He knew who would betray Him, yet still handed him the bread. Not because His love was naĂŻve, but because all was unfolding according to the Father’s plan. Even betrayal could not undo the love that had been appointed from the beginning. In the midst of human weakness, love pressed forward to the cross.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed in deep agony. He cried out that the cup might pass—but surrendered fully to the will of the Father. In that quiet place, He kept watch while the disciples slept. And it was there, in the darkness, that victory began—because there, Jesus chose obedience. Today we are invited into the stillness of Gethsemane—not only to grieve, but to learn to trust and surrender to the perfect will of God.