Why is this so hard to see? The "Last Supper" was a party, at which the participants were drinking wine and probably inebriated. Mary Magdalene might have been there too, although her presence there would have been written out of the story in a heart-beat by the Romanized authors of the New Testament. It was organized to herald a hoped for intervention by God to end Roman rule but not for an actual immediate intervention. After all, "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
A lot of memorable things were said and some remembered, like at all parties. Jesus asked the disciples to remember him. The prospect of betrayal was bandied about. The times were clearly uncertain. These were men, after all is said and done.
Imbibing with the rest, Jesus might say it would only take two swords to defeat the Roman legions with the help of God, curse a fig tree, make a toast to a hoped for future event like the Messiah's Feast (the reason for calling the gathering "the last supper") or say other witticisms for an effect. Passover was a time of celebration as well as a time to yearn for liberation. For Christ's sake, it was a party!
It was not intended to be the doom and gloom event portrayed in the New Testament, but it was part of a package of events including Jesus' continual mockery of the Jewish priesthood and his pageantry of his riding an ass into Jerusalem as the prophesized messiah of Hebrew scripture, a symbol that aroused a cheer and excitement among the Jewish population, that had the dire consequence of his crucifixion. And it would have made Jesus especially vulnerable if Jewish authorities had placed a spy in his midst, which is not unheard of, is it?
A lot of memorable things were said and some remembered, like at all parties. Jesus asked the disciples to remember him. The prospect of betrayal was bandied about. The times were clearly uncertain. These were men, after all is said and done.
Imbibing with the rest, Jesus might say it would only take two swords to defeat the Roman legions with the help of God, curse a fig tree, make a toast to a hoped for future event like the Messiah's Feast (the reason for calling the gathering "the last supper") or say other witticisms for an effect. Passover was a time of celebration as well as a time to yearn for liberation. For Christ's sake, it was a party!
It was not intended to be the doom and gloom event portrayed in the New Testament, but it was part of a package of events including Jesus' continual mockery of the Jewish priesthood and his pageantry of his riding an ass into Jerusalem as the prophesized messiah of Hebrew scripture, a symbol that aroused a cheer and excitement among the Jewish population, that had the dire consequence of his crucifixion. And it would have made Jesus especially vulnerable if Jewish authorities had placed a spy in his midst, which is not unheard of, is it?
![[Image: images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSLWrh47_KO7auUlJAanCH...ll8cjuEt3g]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=t3.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcSLWrh47_KO7auUlJAanCHrtjOfDjGJYsxC-2ms4hOWll8cjuEt3g)
