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. 

In The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, 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.

William H. Willimon is professor of the practice of Christian ministry at Duke Divinity School and a retired United Methodist Church bishop. A widely published author, preacher, and teacher of preachers, Willimon has written more than eighty books, many of which have been translated into many languages and have sold over a million copies. He is the author of Heaven and Earth: Advent and the Incarnation (Abingdon), The Gospel for the Person Who Has Everything (Paraclete Press), Leading with the Sermon: Preaching as Leadership (Fortress Press), and Aging: Growing Old in the Church (Baker Academic), among others. 

For twenty years Willimon served as dean of Duke Chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke Divinity School. He has served congregations in Georgia and South and North Carolina and is a retired bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church.