Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.
Read Chapter 22
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
First observe the greatness of His divine power. He is talking with His disciples, yet knows what will happen in another place. Next behold His condescension, in that He chooses not the person of the rich or powerful, but seeks after the poor, and prefers a meaninn to the spacious palaces of nobles. Now the Lord was not ignorant of the name of the man whose mystery He knew, and that he would meet the disciples, but he is mentioned without aname, that he may be counted as ignoble.
Or the pitcher is a more perfect measure, but the water is that which was thought meet to be a sacrament of Christ; to wash, not to be washed.
Now in the upperparts he has a large room furnished, that you may consider how great were his merits in whom the Lord could sit down with His disciples, rejoicing in His exalted virtues.
By the day of unleavened bread of the Passover, He means the fourteenth day of the first month, the day on which, having put away the leaven, they were accustomed to hold the Passover, that is, the lamb, towards evening.
As if tosad, We have no abode, we have no place of shelter. Let those hear this, who busy themselves in building houses. Let them know that Christ, the Lord of all places, had no where to lay His head.
To explain this Passover, the Apostle says, Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Which Passover in truth must needs have been slain there, as it was so ordained by the Father's counsel and determination. And thus although on the next day, that is, the fifteenth, He was crucified, yet, on this night on which the lamb was slain by the Jews, being seized and bound, He consecrated the beginning of His sacrifice, that is, of His Passion.
They prepare the Passover in that house, whither the pitcher of water is carried, forthe time is at hand in which to the keepers of the...
When the disciples had prepared the Pascha, Christ ate it with them. Christ was patient toward the traitor, and from his infinite lovingkindness condescended to admit him to the table. Judas was already a traitor, because Satan was staying within him. What did Christ also say to the holy apostles? “I have desired a desire to eat this Pascha with you.” Let us examine the deep meaning of this expression. Let us search out the meaning concealed in there, and let us search for what the Savior intended.I have already said that the greedy disciple was seeking an opportunity to betray Christ. So Judas might not deliver him to his murderers before the feast of the Pascha, the Savior did not openly state either the house or the person with whom he would celebrate the feast. He explains to them the cause of his unwillingness to tell them openly with whom he would lodge. He says, “I have desired a desire to eat with you this Pascha,” apparently meaning, “I have used every effort to enable me to e...
Perhaps Christ speaks this as symbolizing something mystical and necessary. Wherever waters enter, the waters of holy baptism, Christ stays there. How or in what way does this happen? They free us from all impurity, and they wash us from the stains of sin. They do this so that we also might become a holy temple of God and participants in his divine nature, by participation of the Holy Spirit. So that Christ may rest and stay in us, let us receive the saving waters, also confessing the faith that justifies the wicked and raises us high so that we might be counted as an upper room.…He that would say that the soul of every saint is an upper room would not miss the truth. Commentary on Luke, Homily
By its shadows, the law prefigured from of old the mystery of Christ. He is himself the witness of this when he said to the Jews, “If you would have believed Moses, you would have also believed me, for he wrote concerning me.” Christ is presented everywhere by means of shadows and types, both as slain for us, as the innocent and true Lamb, and as sanctifying us by his lifegiving blood. We further find the words of the holy prophets in complete agreement with those of most wise Moses. Paul says, “When the fullness of time was come,” the onlybegotten Word of God submitted to the emptying of himself, the birth in the flesh of a woman, and subjection to the law according to the measure that was fitting for human nature. He was also then sacrificed for us, as the innocent and true lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. This feast day was called Pascha, a word belonging to the Hebrew language and signifying the passing over….The name of the feast on which Emmanuel bore for us the sav...
Someone may ask, “Why did Christ not plainly mention the man to those whom he sent? He did not say, ‘When you go to such and such a person, whoever it might be, there prepare the Pascha for us at his house.’ ” He simply gave them a sign: a man bearing a pitcher of water. What do we reply to this? Look, Judas the traitor had already promised the Jews to deliver Christ to them. Judas continued in his company to watch for a good opportunity. While still making profession of the love that was the duty of a disciple, he had admitted Satan into his heart and was travailing with the crime of murder against our common Savior Christ. Jesus gives a sign to prevent Judas from learning who the man was and running to tell those who had hired him. “There will meet you,” he says, “a man carrying a pitcher of water.” Commentary on Luke, Homily
But should any one say, “If on the first day of unleavened bread the disciples of our Savior prepare the Passover, on that day then should we also celebrate the Passover;” we answer, that this was not an admonition, but a history of the fact. It is what took place at the time of the saving Passion; but it is one thing to relate past events, another to sanction and leave them an ordinance to posterity. Moreover, the Savior did not keep His Passover with the Jews at the time that they sacrificed the lamb. For they did this on the Preparation, when our Lord suffered. Therefore they entered not into the hall of Pilate, that they might not bedefiled, but might eat the Passover. For from the time that they conspired against the truth, they drove far from them the Word of truth. Nor on the first day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover ought to be sacrificed, did they eat their accustomed Passover, for they were intent upon something else, but on the day after, which was the...
And perceiving these signs, the disciples zealously fulfilled all that had been commanded them; as it follows, And they went and found as he had said to them, and made ready the Passover.
But as they knew not to whom they were sent, He gave them a sign, as Samuel to Saul, as it follows, And he told to them, Behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he enters in.
Now on the same fifth day He sends two of His disciples to prepare the Passover, namely, Peter and John the one in truth as loving, the other as loved. In all things showing, that even to the end of His life He opposed not the law. And He sends them to astrange house; for He and His disciples had no house, else would He have kept the Passover in one of them. So it is added, And they said Where will you that we prepare? .
He sends them for this reason to an unknown man: to show them that He voluntarily underwent His Passion, since He who so swayed the mind of one unknown to Him, that He should receive them, was able to deal with the Jews just as He wished. But some say that He gave not the name of the men, lest the traitor knowing his name might open the house to the Pharisees, and they should have comeand taken Him before that the supper was eaten, and He had delivered the spiritual mysteries to was disciples. But He directs them by particular signs to a certain house; whence it follow...
