Last Supper Leader Guide

Experience Lent through the stories Jesus told on the way to the table.

The Leader Guide contains discussion questions and session plans for a six-week study of The Last Supper. It includes opening and closing prayers, optional activities, and weekly session goals. It is designed to be used with the book and DVD.

Travel with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem in this profound six-week Lenten study that explores the parables and stories Jesus told at tables along the way to his final meal. Will Willimon invites readers to experience how these table stories―about searching shepherds, welcoming hosts, prodigal sons, and rejected invitations―illuminate the deeper meaning of the Last Supper and Christ's sacrifice.

Through engaging biblical exploration and Willimon's characteristic storytelling wisdom, readers will:
Discover how Jesus used meals to reveal the surprising nature of God's kingdom
Explore how stories of mercy, invitation, and radical hospitality prepare us for Holy Week
Understand why sharing bread and wine became the central ritual of Christian faith
Experience Maundy Thursday's profound significance in fresh, meaningful ways

Each chapter concludes with thought-provoking questions for personal reflection or group discussion that connect these ancient stories to contemporary Christian life.

This Lenten season, gather at the table with Jesus and his disciples to experience the journey from Palm Sunday to the cross through the stories that prepared the way. Willimon's accessible yet profound insights will transform how you understand both the Last Supper and your own place at Christ's table.

Will Willimon is a lifelong Methodist. He is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke University Divinity School and retired Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, after serving for twenty years as faculty member and Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. As Bishop, he led North Alabama's 157,000 Methodists and 792 pastors. He has authored roughly a hundred books and is widely recognized as one of Methodism's most insightful, inspiring, and challenging voices.