Here we have to look into the Greek again. The word that is translated "they killed" is in the Greek ethuon. It is third person plural, imperfect active indicative. Now I will untangle that for you. It indicates an action in progress; one that is not yet completed; one that is taking place, and they are doing it.
Did you catch it there? Brethren, when this happened the killing of the lambs was going on! That is a bombshell! Now we have to ask the question: Who were they? It could not possibly be the priests at the Temple, because the book of John shows very clearly that the priests, even the next morning, had not yet sacrificed the Passover lamb. They did not want to go into Pilate "lest they be defiled," and could not eat the Passover.
The sacrificing of the home-killed sacrifice—the domestic-killed sacrifices—was going on at the very time the disciples asked this question. I will tell you, that is a bombshell which shows that the people out in the public were not having their lambs sacrificed at the Temple. They were doing it themselves, and they were doing it at home, or they were doing it at the inns. They were doing it themselves, and they were doing it at the beginning of the 14th.
If you were a disciple of Jesus, and you saw this occurring right before your eyes, would you not ask the question that they did? It is so interesting that Jesus did not say, "Well, let's wait till tomorrow afternoon. After all, the late 14th is the right time to do it." There is no indication at all in all three of these accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that what they asked was any different from what they had already been practicing the years that they were with Jesus.
They expected to keep the Passover at the beginning of the 14th, and they were wondering, "When are we going to do it? It's getting late." But the account shows that Jesus had already made plans, and so He told them, "Go into such and such a city. You will see a certain person. Follow that person home. Ask the master of the house about his upper room there, and we will keep the Passover in the room that has been prepared."
