⁷ Then came the day of matzah, on which the Passover lamb had to be killed. ⁸ Yeshua sent Kefa and Yochanan, instructing them, “Go and prepare our Seder, so we can eat.” ⁹ They asked him, “Where do you want us to prepare it?” ¹⁰ He told them, “As you’re going into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house he enters, ¹¹ and say to its owner, ‘The Rabbi says to you, “Where is the guest room, where I am to eat the Pesach meal with my talmidim?” ’ ¹² He will show you a large room upstairs already furnished; make the preparations there.” ¹³ They went and found things just as Yeshua had told them they would be, and they prepared for the Seder.

¹⁴ When the time came, Yeshua and the emissaries reclined at the table, ¹⁵ and he said to them, “I have really wanted so much to celebrate this Seder with you before I die! ¹⁶ For I tell you, it is certain that I will not celebrate it again until it is given its full meaning in the Kingdom of God.”

¹⁷ Then, taking a cup of wine, he made the b’rakhah and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. ¹⁸ For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink the ‘fruit of the vine’ until the Kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹ Also, taking a piece of matzah, he made the b’rakhah, broke it, gave it to them and said, “This is my body, which is being given for you; do this in memory of me.” ²⁰ He did the same with the cup after the meal, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant, ratified by my blood, which is being poured out for you.

²¹ “But look! The person who is betraying me is here at the table with me! ²² The Son of Man is going to his death according to God’s plan, but woe to that man by whom he is being betrayed!” ²³ They began asking each other which of them could be about to do such a thing.

²⁴ An argument arose among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. ²⁵ But Yeshua said to them, “The kings of the Goyim lord it over them; and those in authority over them are given the title, ‘Benefactor.’ ²⁶ But not so with you! On the contrary, let the greater among you become like the younger, and one who rules like one who serves. ²⁷ For who is greater? The one reclining at the table? or the one who serves? It’s the one reclining at the table, isn’t it? But I myself am among you like one who serves.

²⁸ “You are the ones who have stayed with me throughout my trials. ²⁹ Just as my Father gave me the right to rule, so I give you an appointment, ³⁰ namely, to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Isra’el.

¹⁴ So are we to say, “It is unjust for God to do this”? Heaven forbid! ¹⁵ For to Moshe he says, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will pity whom I pity.”^{[a] 16} Thus it doesn’t depend on human desires or efforts, but on God, who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Tanakh says to Pharaoh, “It is for this very reason that I raised you up, so that in connection with you I might demonstrate my power, so that my name might be known throughout the world.”^{[b] 18} So then, he has mercy on whom he wants, and he hardens whom he wants.

¹⁹ But you will say to me, “Then why does he still find fault with us? After all, who resists his will?” ²⁰ Who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to him who formed it, “Why did you make me this way?”^{[c] 21} Or has the potter no right to make from a given lump of clay this pot for honorable use and that one for dishonorable? ²² Now what if God, even though he was quite willing to demonstrate his anger and make known his power, patiently put up with people who deserved punishment and were ripe for destruction? ²³ What if he did this in order to make known the riches of his glory to those who are the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory — ²⁴ that is, to us, whom he called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles? ²⁵ As indeed he says in Hoshea,

²⁷ But Yesha‘yahu, referring to Isra’el, cries out,

²⁹ Also, as Yesha‘yahu said earlier,