Jesus prepared for Passover much differently than everyone else did, because only he really knew that he himself was the Passover Lamb, Christ the Messiah, who would first be sacrificed for the sins of the world, in agreement with the Holy Scriptures.

There is no one else like Jesus and there can only be one Jesus, but many Christian church men, particularly in the more comfortable western world, do not appropriate the call Jesus challenged His disciples with, outside of the church building away from the Passover table meal. Not all Christian men are called to be “apostles” or “evangelists”, but all are called to pick up their cross and follow Him in the world to bear witness to Him. Paul understood what this meant when he wrote, “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions…” – Colossians 1:24. Are there some things still lacking, even now?

Many of us Christian men profess the desire to “follow Jesus”, in addition to having faith in Him, but many of the many are not willing to get up from the table to serve one another nor leave the building space to follow Him to the cross. Going to pray in the garden with Christ is one thing, although that is even difficult for us men, but appearing with Him at the cross is another. It is understandable, since many of us do not know exactly how that occurs and what it means practically even as the first disciples did not, and we need the grace and power of God for its fulfillment even as they did after the ressurrection, but underlying it also exists and persists within ourselves an unwillingness to publicly suffer with and for Him outside of the building and away from the table, although the internal desire may be there, that is, again as Paul also expressed, “I want know Him in His sufferings that I might somehow obtain to the resurrection”. Paul shared his personal experiential call and inspired words to the Church, also as a means to encourage the Church, especially us men, in the call to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus wherever He leads us go, because we love Him, because He loved us first.