Reading the Gospels Together Jesus and the Passover – Part 3 So as we move back to our questions it seems more likely that it is John who has taken one Passover and divided it into three to help emphasize his view that Jesus is the Passover lamb who takes away the sin of the world. It is far easier to think of the climatic event of Jesus death during a single Passover when all three elements these four gospels share together occurred than it is to imagine Mark collapsing them into one. It is critically important that the Passover in which Jesus instituted Holy Communion happened in the way in which Mark has told it. And we can lean on Paul to substantiate this view. Paul wrote prior to any of these gospel writers and he tells his readers that it was on the night in which he was betrayed that Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to them to eat saying that it was his body. And after supper he took the cup and blessed it giving thanks and saying that it was his blood poured out for many. Paul agrees with the synoptic writers and says that it was the tradition he received and is passing on to his readers. But we must not miss the point that reading all four of these gospels together adds more power to each of them than reading them alone. They enhance one another. And they expand our understanding. Certainly Passover is itself an important point of contact among these gospel writers. As we listen to them together we come to a fuller understanding of each.