On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. (Mark 14: 12-16)

Gedaliah Alon has written, "The festive and solemn meal on Passover eve is a high point in the religious life of the Jew, an annual climax in the people's spiritual self-awareness. It is freighted with collective historical memories of the birth of the nation, and its march to freedom. Faith in the future redemption and longing for it, the sanctity and radiance of the occasion, the initimate fellowship which binds all Jews to one another - all these are fully expressed in the Seder, and have come down to us much as they were in the pre-destruction times."

Jesus came originally to redeem the lost sheep of Israel. He died a devout Jew. His followers continued as devout Jews, seeing themselves as a reform movement within Judaism. The crucifixion of Jesus during Passover has forever linked the common spiritual descendents of Abraham. It has often been a tragic relationship, especially in the mid-Twentieth Century.

In this new century another tragedy threatens. Jews and Christians are increasingly demonized by some Muslims, and some Jews and Christians join in demonizing Islam. Yet all claim descent from Abraham and all honor Moses. Both Christians and Muslims believe that Jesus will return in glory at the end of ordinary time. While details of belief and practice are different, all three traditions focus on loving God and neighbor.

Alon is quoted from The Jews in Their Land in the Talmudic Age, Harvard, 1980. The graphic is from a Turkish Islamic text depicting Jesus ascending into heaven.