In public and by day Jesus was safe enough in Jerusalem.  Danger came with darkness, and so each evening he left the city with his disciples.  They spent Palm Sunday night at Bethany (Mark 11:11), and the following three nights they bivouacked in the open on the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37; Mark 11:19).

The danger, however, would become acute as soon as the traitor Judas knew the address of the house where it was proposed that they should eat the Passover, because by law this house had to be within the city.  But Jesus needed that house for the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday night.  In that way the institution of the Eucharist would not only be invested with the solemnity accorded to the Passover, but would also be indelibly associated with the Passover itself and all that it symbolised.