Reading the Gospels Together The Story of the Last Meal – Part 5 Not only has John added much but John has also omitted much which is of great significance. Of course the most important thing that John has omitted is any mention of the way in which Jesus transformed the Passover meal into what Christians have come to know as Holy Communion. There is no talk of Jesus taking bread and blessing it and giving it to his followers with the words, “This is my body.” And there is no mention of Jesus taking the cup of wine and saying, “This is my blood shed for you.” John mentions none of this. There is eating and drinking but no mention of what we have come to know as the “Words of Institution” which Mark, Matthew, Luke, and Paul share together. Because John has omitted these words there are some who have argued that John is anti-sacramental and that John does not know of the Sacrament of Holy Communion which has been a fundamental practice of the Christ church from the very earliest days. Nothing could be farther from the truth. One only needs to look at the sixth chapter of John and Jesus words in interpretation of the multiplication of the bread to know that John and John’s community share the sacrament of Holy Communion with other Christians. What else can Jesus have been referring to when he said in John 6, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you!” John knows of Holy Communion! But he does omit the mention of it in this scene. Why does John do that? The answer is in the radically different time frame of John’s gospel compared to that of the others. We have noticed that Mark, Matthew, and Luke all believe that the meal Jesus was sharing with his disciples was the Passover meal. Luke especially makes that unmistakably clear. But for John this meal cannot be the Passover meal since in his storyline Jesus is killed at noon on the day when the Passover lambs are being slaughtered and therefore Jesus is already dead when the Passover arrives. We will need to say more about that in a little while but for now that is the reason why John does not mention the transformation of Passover into Holy Communion. There is no Passover to transform! As we look closer at John’s gospel we will notice that he has also omitted any mention of Jesus sending two disciples ahead of the others to prepare for the Passover meal. In fact, as we read John’s gospel closely we discover that when Judas leaves the meal after he has been identified as the betrayer the other disciples mistakenly think that perhaps Jesus has sent him out to make preparations for the coming Passover! This is one more proof that John does not view this meal as a Passover meal. The disciples can mistakenly think that perhaps Judas is going to prepare the Passover only if it has not yet arrived! So John’s timeframe puts this meal in the evening on the day prior to the day of Passover.