On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?”
This statement opens the beginning of the last evening of Jesus’ earthly life: the preparation for the Passover meal. The “Feast of Unleavened Bread” recalled Israel’s exodus from Egypt, when the people went out without leavened bread as a sign of freedom. The disciples’ question, “Where do you want us to prepare it?” shows their faithfulness and expectation. They still did not realize that this meal would no longer be a repetition of the old memorial, but the beginning of the new covenant. Jesus was preparing, at that table, to establish Holy Communion, making the bread and the wine a symbol of His body and blood. Thus, in this verse a transition takes place from the Old Covenant to the New: the old Passover sacrifice was to be replaced by the true Lamb, Christ. The disciples’ simple question becomes a prophetic hint toward the mystery of salvation, by which the Lord is preparing to establish, by His body and blood, a covenant that gives eternal life.