IN DEFENSE OF TWO DINNERS AT BETHANY DURING THE LAST WEEK IN JERUSALEM

JESUS' SEVEN LAST STATEMENTS FROM THE CROSS

Jesus’ Last Seven Statements from the Cross	Scripture
1. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."	Lk 23:34
2. "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."	Lk 23:42
3. "Woman, behold, your son"... "Behold, your mother."	Jn 19:26-27
4. "Eli, Eli lema sabachthani," "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ~ Hebrew	Mt 27:46 (*Ps 22:1a quoted in Hebrew)
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani," "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" ~ Aramaic*	Mk 15:34 (Jesus quoted from Ps 22:1/2a in Aramaic)
5. "I thirst."	Jn 19:28
6. "It is fulfilled."+	Jn 19:30
7. "Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit."+	Lk 23:46 (Ps 31:5/6 quoted)
Michal E. Hunt © copyright 2012

*Jesus alluded to Psalm 22 in Mt 27:35, 39 and 43.
+It is hard to know which of these two statements are His last words from the Cross.

...but did still twice each day, in the morning and about the ninth hour, offer their sacrifices on the altar (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 14.4.3/65). Jewish-Christian scholar Alfred Edersheim: According to general agreement, the morning sacrifice was brought at the third hour, corresponding to our nine o’clock (The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, page 108).
Jesus fulfills the Tamid—the sacrifice of the atonement and sanctification:

He was condemned at dawn as the priest brought the first lamb to the altar.
He was crucified at 9 AM as the priest sacrificed the first lamb.
Darkness came over the whole land at noon as the priest led the second lamb to the altar.
The second Tamid lamb was sacrificed at 3 PM as Jesus gave up His life on the altar of the Cross.
The Tamid was the single sacrifice of two lambs; Jesus, the Lamb of God is the single sacrifice of He who is fully human and fully divine.

Jesus fulfills the sacred annual feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits His last week in Jerusalem.

The Passover is the last Old Covenant legitimate sacrifice that looked forward to Jesus’ sacrifice the next day when Jesus became the true Lamb of sacrifice that all other Old Covenant animal sacrifices prefigured.
The first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Old Covenant faithful ate the Passover victim in a sacred meal, became the New Covenant sacred meal of the Eucharist. It was the beginning of Jesus’ walk to the altar of the Cross. The next day, on the first daytime celebration of Unleavened Bread, Jesus is crucified.
Jesus is raised from the dead on the annual Feast of Firstfruits as the "first fruits" of the resurrected dead.