2. READ: MATTHEW 26:17-29
a. What time was "near"?
Answer: Jesus' appointed time was near, (verse 18).
Jesus' "appointed time" was His crucifixion:
Mark 14:35, 41: "Going a little farther, He [Jesus] fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him... Returning the third time, He said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.'"
John 7:6, 8, 30: "Therefore Jesus told them, 'The right time for Me has not yet come; for you any time is right...You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for Me the right time has not yet come.'...At this they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His time had not yet come."
John 8:20: "He [Jesus] spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized Him, because His time had not yet come."
John 12:23-24: "Jesus replied, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the Truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.'"
John 13:1a: "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father."
John 17:1: "After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: 'Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.'"