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This incident is very well-known. It occurred during the last evening of Jesus’ life, shortly before he would be arrested, and its details are recorded in each of the Gospels. The surprising aspect of John’s account is his lack of reference to the commencement of the Lord’s Supper by Jesus, the detail that is stressed in the other Gospels. And the incident of the footwashing is not mentioned in the other Gospels. From the point-of-view of most people, the big event taking place in Jerusalem that weekend was the Passover. Thousands of Jews had gathered in the city for the event. The Passover lamb would be slain shortly in the temple. The Jewish day began at sunset, so while we would call it Thursday evening, in the Jewish calendar it was Friday evening. And it was on their Friday evening that the Passover celebrations began when families and friends would gather together for a Passover meal. Jesus had looked forward to this occasion because he knew that it would be the last Passove...

This incident is recorded in each of the Gospels, a reminder of its significance in understanding who Jesus is. We know from John’s Gospel that it took place on the day after he was anointed by Mary of Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. It took place on the first day of the final week of Jesus’ life on earth. This perspective should cause us to look for clues as to how he felt at that time. The provision of the colt From one point of view, it is possible to regard this incident as the spontaneous outpouring of an enthusiastic crowd glad that Jesus had come to the annual Passover and who were hoping that he would do something about their captivity to Rome. No doubt, many of the crowd reacted in this way. Yet it is also obvious that Jesus was in control of events, and we can see this from how he obtained the colt to sit on when he entered the city. Luke’s account informs us that Jesus knew where the colt was, that it was tied, and that no one had ever sat on it. It is possib...