WAS THE "LAST" SUPPER THE PASSOVER MEAL?

    I want to summarize for you the reasons why that meal was, in fact, the Passover.  I put the word "last" in quotation marks because it is inaccurate.  For forty days after His Resurrection Jesus taught and ate meals with the disciples.  I want to acknowledge the highly respected New Testament scholar D.A. Carson as my primary source for the following.

   The "Synoptic" Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) clearly speak of that meal as the Passover.  Several statements in the Gospel of John seem to indicate that it was "before" the Passover meal.  John as been misunderstood and misinterpreted.  Here is why.

   "Before the Passover Feast" (Jn. 13:1) refers to the act of washing the disciples feet.  The KJV "supper being ended" was a mistranslation.  The meal had "been served" but not yet eaten ("during supper").  

   The words in Jn. 18:28 :to eat the Passover" refer to the entire Feast of the Passover including the days of Unleavened Bread.  

   Considerable evidence exists to indicate that the words "day of Preparation" in Jn. 19:14 were a technical term for the Friday of Passover week.  The Sabbath (Saturday) of Passover week was a "special" and "high" Sabbath.  Thus the NIV has "the day of Preparation of Passover Week".

   There remains, therefore, little if any reason to see any real discrepancy between the Synoptics and the Gospel of John.  Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples. 

   The reader is referred to the fuller discussion of this in the Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, pages 528-532.  D.A. Carson was commissioned to write the commentary on Matthew (600 pages!) for this excellent series.  He dealt with all the major problems relating to the four Gospels, including this one on the "Last" Supper.  I disagree strongly with Carson on his interpretation of passages relating to the Tribulation and the Second Coming but in

this matter of the "Last" Supper being the Passover meal and in nearly all other matters I have the highest regard for his scholarship. 

BEEF CATTLE AND GOD'S PROVISION

 

   Memory takes us back a half century.  We were living on a farm that belonged to a Christian businessman and his wife.  When he told me to obtain some feeder cattle to raise I inquired of my neighbor, a veteran farmer filled with wisdom, as to whom I should contact.  He referred me to a man who hauled cattle and could be relied upon to get me good stock.  I do not recall the number of young feeder steers he brought but it was, I believe, at least eight.  They were Herefords like those in the photo you see above.  It was late in the summer so we kept them on pasture until winter.

   During the winter I kept them on clean straw with clean water always in front of them.  I kept good quality hay in front of them with a daily ration composed of the following ground up together:  three fourths parts of ear corn (cobs and all), one fourth part oats, all combined with molasses and beef mineral supplement.  This is very different from today's beef rations which tend to put more fat on the beef.  Almost no one has ear corn today since corn is shelled as it is harvested and the cobs go back on the ground with the corn stalks.  But this ration was once recommended at the Ohio State College of Agriculture in the 1950's.  I found that it produced more meat and not excessive fat on the cattle.  At the time it was ridiculed at "taking forever to fatten the cattle".

   I also provided an area outside the barn where the cattle could walk around and not be in mud.  In the spring the cattle reached a weight of around 1100 - 1250 pounds.  The owner of the farm then said an amazing thing:  "Get the cattle processed and give a half of beef to every teacher at Mansfield Christian School".  We were not nearly so large a faculty then as that school has now.  I contacted Nevin Border of Plymouth to process the beef.  In those days he and two helpers came to the farm to slaughter cattle and then took the carcasses to his market to process.  He did three at a time.

   The first time he came to do three he asked me if the people getting the beef would be paying me directly or were they to pay when they picked up the beef at his market.  I said, "Nevin, this beef is all being given to people".  How I wish I had a photo of the look on his face.  When he was finally able to speak he said,  "Well, you tell them they are sure getting nice beef".  Whether or nor the beef would have graded prime or top choice I do not know but to this day my wife Susan will tell you we have never had better beef and very rarely had any as good.

   I should add that it only cost each teacher at MCS about $35 to have their half processed.  Inflation has changed that considerably.  This was just one of many time times that this businessman and his wife helped people in very generous ways.  They are both gone now but I sometimes pray a blessing for their children and grandchildren as I remember these things.

   I enjoy relating all this because there are both spiritual and practical agricultural things to be learned.  As I mentioned earlier, modern feed rations often put excessive fat on cattle or have other drawbacks.  The cobs of the ear corn added good roughage to the feed and the slower growth made for an overall better product in the end.  Much as been made in recent years about Angus (black) cattle being better than Herefords.  Grocery stores advertise "Angus Beef Only".  But I can assure that I have never had Angus beef that came close to the quality and flavor of those Herefords.  But, more important is the example of generosity in all this.  We do not have to be wealthy enough to give away several cattle.  We can share a beef roast at a meal in our home with someone who needs encouragement and bless them in Jesus' Name.

FIGHTING CANCER: A CHRISTIAN VIEW

   For a long time I have been intrigued by the statement, "___________ is fighting cancer".  What is meant by that, of course, is that ___________ is undergoing treatments.  They are not, themselves, "fighting" the malignancy; the medical professionals are fighting it with various therapies:  chemical, radiation, surgery, etc.   The person being treated, if they are fighting at all, is probably fighting a mental and psychological battle.  "Do I continue enduring this or do I just give up?"

   My wife Susan fought that battle in 1989 while undergoing the chemotherapy protocols of that time.  She endured for six months and the protocols called for two more rounds of treatment, but she said "enough".  Her oncologist agreed.  The cancer she was "fighting" was follicular lymphoma.  Over the next twenty

years it reappeared at least four times and was treated with oral chemotherapy, radiation and finally with what is now the cutting edge of cancer therapy, monoclonal antibodies.  If it does not appear on her scheduled C-scan this December she will have gone ten years without a relapse.  

   Any number of our friends have not had the same happy results that she has had.  This leads us, as Christians, to the question of why seemingly so few are delivered from cancer in answer to earnest prayer on their behalf by other believers.  That miracles do occur has been well documented.   So, is God "arbitrary".  Or, are there other answers?  Or, will we never have all the answers in this life?

   The purpose of this blog is to redefine, or at least expand the definition of, what it means to "fight cancer". Actual, meaningful fighting of cancer, and all other diseases, begins as soon as one is old enough to make decisions about what they will eat.  The research is massive and the conclusions are undeniable.  The weapons in this war are, or should be, well known by now:  green or other brightly colored vegetables and fresh fruits; adequate intake of vitamins C and D and trace elements such as boron; minimizing the intake of red and fatty meats;  minimizing the intake of refined sugars; adequate amounts of fiber; more intake of fish, especially salmon;  and adequate intake of water.

   This does not exhaust the list of physical weapons but it constitutes a pretty good arsenal.  We turn now to the spiritual weapons against disease.  In the image you see above is a quote from Isaiah chapter 58.  Please look at the entire chapter, especially verse 8 and the words "your healing will quickly appear".  A life spent helping to relieve the suffering of others, this passage says, brings blessings from God upon one's own health.  There is no formula to guarantee perfect health in this life but a war against disease waged with both the physical and spiritual weapons we have briefly mentioned here would, I am convinced, result in much more health than we are seeing at present.

   "What if I follow all the advice in this blog and still, someday, get a diagnosis of terminal cancer", you ask.  I answer that you can look to God, and to the people standing ready to pray for you, with a clear conscience that you have done all that is humanly possible.  Your future, and mine, is then in the Hands of Him Who "spared not His own Son but gave Him up for us all" and from Whose Love "nothing can separate us".