The setting was as dramatic as can be imagined, for Jesus of Nazareth had gathered his closest disciples for one last meal. Jesus knew what the others did not yet understand, that on this very night he would be betrayed, in the morning he would be the subject of a sham trial, then he would be condemned by a corrupt Roman governor, and in the early afternoon he would be crucified and put to death. Yet there was this one last opportunity to extend his love to the disciples and prepare them for life