The Final Evening: The Passion narrative is the account of the suffering and death of Jesus. It normally includes all the events beginning with the garden scene in Gethsemane and finishing with the burial. The centrality of the cross in early Christian preaching is reflected in the major emphasis given to it in each of the four Gospels. Matthew 26 records the events of Wednesday and Thursday of the final week of Jesus’ life.

26:36–39 Crossing the Kidron (the deep ravine to the east of Jerusalem) Jesus goes to a garden (cf. John 18:1) called Gethsemane. The name is from the Aramaic and means “oil press,” indicating the location is an olive orchard. Well-to-do citizens of Jerusalem maintained groves on the west slope of the Mount of Olives. In Matthew’s account it was there that Jesus would w…