And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” And he sent two of his desciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

Yeshu had made arrangements for a family room large enough to seat 13 grown men. It was his secret plan; none – Judas included – other than those two disciples, would know where to find the house. And Mark also keeps secret the name of the householder. The two men were to prepare the meal and the wine.

But how was it that Yeshu knew of the unusual sight of a man carying water?  Being God’s Son, see how he was in control of the last events before his death.

Read on to learn how he let himself be arrested at the right time, and then be unjustly condemned to execution.

Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Judas loved money. We may suppose that earlier he had hoped to make himself rich as Messiah Yeshu’s Chief Minister for Finance in Jerusalem.

But now he sees no hope for gain save in a small betrayal price.

When we firmly choose our own desires instead of Yeshu’s, he does not stop us from acting in a self-interested way. Rebellion against God causes bad karma of a kind from which there will be no escape unless we repent. (Read on for the meditation on verses 17-21)