in the home of one of Jesus' faithful unnamed friends.
In a large upper room they are shut in, gathered about the supper board.
As they eat Jesus is quietly but intently thinking. Four trains of
thought pass through His mind side by side.[103] The Father had trusted
all into His hands. He had come down from the Father on an errand and
would return when the errand was done.

And now the hour was come. The turn in the road was reached, the sharp
turn down leading to the sharp turn up and then back. It had seemed slow
in coming, that hour.[104] Dreaded things seem to linger even while they
hasten, dreaded longed-for things, dreaded in the experience of pain to
be borne, eagerly longed for in the blessed result; as with an expectant
mother. Now the hour's here.[105]

And yonder across the board sits the man so faithfully wooed, yet
dead-set in his inner heart on a dark purpose, more evil in its outcome
than he realizes. There must be more and tenderer wooing. He shall have
yet another full opportunity. And under all is the heart-throb of love
for these who are His own, being birthed into a new life by the giving
of His very own life these months past. He loves His own, and will to
the uttermost, the utterest, the mostest, limit of love and of time left
Him before _the_ great event. These are the thoughts passing quietly,
clearly, intensely, through Jesus' mind as they sit at supper.

Teaching Three Things in One Action.

Now He acts.[106] Quietly He rises from the table, picks up a towel and
fastens its end in His waistband for convenience in use, after the
servant's usual fashion. Then He pours water into a basin and turning
stoops over the feet of the disciple nearest Him. And before they can
recover from their wide-eyed astonishment He begins bathing his feet and
then carefully wiping them with the convenient towel. And so around the
circle. Peter, of course, protests, and so calls out a little of the
explanation. And then with tender passionateness he asks for the washing
to take in all his extremities, head and hands as well as feet. How
their hearts must have felt the touch upon their feet!

Then follows a bit of explanation.[107] But the chief thing had already
been done. The acting was more than the speech. Three things the Master
was doing. The teaching about humility lies on the surface, within easy
reach. It was acted, then spoken; done, then said. It was sorely needed,
and is. In it was the key to Jesu