Now
on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”
Matthew 26:17-18
Matthew 26 [14.] Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, and said, “What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you?” They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver. From that time he sought opportunity to betray him.
Matthew 26 [17.] Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
Matthew 26 [18.] He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”
Matthew 26 [19.] The disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and they prepared the Passover. Now when evening had come, he was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. As they were eating, he said, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
Meaning:
While Judas watched for an opportunity to betray him, Jesus calmly prepared to keep the Passover with his disciples. The disciples ask where to make ready, and Jesus sends them into Jerusalem with a message for a certain man. Mark gives more detail about the arrangements (Mark 14:12; Mark 14:13-15). Matthew keeps it short but records a phrase the others do not: “My time is at hand.”
- “on the first day of unleavened bread”
The Passover lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the first month, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread followed for seven days. By the time of Jesus the two feasts were often spoken of as one. Mark explains that this was the day “when they sacrificed the Passover” (Mark 14:12). The original instructions told Israel, “They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs” (Exodus 12:8). Every Jewish family removed all yeast from the house. Paul later used this custom to call believers to “keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8).
- “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
The Passover had to be eaten within Jerusalem, and the city was crowded with pilgrims. A room had to be found, a lamb taken to the temple to be sacrificed, and the bread, wine and bitter herbs made ready. The disciples rightly ask Jesus for direction. They have been with him for years, and they look to him as the head of their household for the feast.
- “Go into the city to a certain person”
Matthew does not name the man. Mark says the disciples would meet “a man carrying a pitcher of water” and follow him to a house with “a large upper room furnished and ready” (Mark 14:13-15). The secrecy may have been deliberate. Judas was looking for a chance to hand Jesus over away from the crowds (Matthew 26:16), and by not revealing the place in advance Jesus made sure the meal would not be interrupted. He was not avoiding his arrest; he was choosing its hour.
- “The Teacher says, ‘My time is at hand.’”
In John’s Gospel, as the last Passover drew near, Jesus announced, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). Matthew’s “My time is at hand” has the same meaning. The appointed time for his death, set by the Father, had arrived, and it would come at Passover. Jesus had already told the disciples, “after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2). He speaks with calm authority, as one who knows his mission and goes to meet it.
- “I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples”
Jesus intended to share this meal with his friends. At this Passover he would give the bread and cup a new meaning, pointing to his body and his “blood of the new covenant” (Matthew 26:26-28). The old feast remembered deliverance from Egypt; the new meal would remember deliverance from sin.
The Significance of Matthew 26:17-18
- Jesus is in control of his path
Even in the shadow of betrayal, Jesus guides the details. He knows the time, the place and the people. Believers can rest in the knowledge that their Lord directs events, even when enemies are at work.
- Simple obedience
The disciples asked, received their instructions and, as the next verse says, “did as Jesus commanded them” (Matthew 26:19). Faith often looks like plain obedience to the next instruction he gives.
Cross-References:
Mark 14:13-15: "He will himself show you a large upper room furnished and ready." Mark’s fuller account of the preparations.
Exodus 12:5-8: "They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread." The first Passover.
John 12:23: "The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." Jesus announces his hour.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8: "For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place." The meaning of the feast fulfilled.
Conclusion: Matthew 26:17-18 tells how, on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples asked Jesus where to prepare the Passover. He sent them into the city to a certain man with the message, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.” The passage shows Jesus calmly in control as his hour arrived, choosing to share the feast that he would fill with new meaning.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible