According to the rather sketchy stuff written in the various gospels, the apostles had no idea that Jesus would be arrested, and Jesus gave them no clue, either. After he was dead, they mostly concluded that it was all over, until he appeared before them, and even then, Thomas required special proof, according to at least one of the Gospels. So much for their faith.
My point is that this was a rather daffy way of asking to be remembered. Martin Luther King did a better job of announcing his premonitions. Note that he did not ask anyone to eat any part of him, even symbolically.
Pilate supposedly tried to turn Jesus loose, asking the crowd to choose between him and a rather nasty criminal named Barabbas, and they chose Barabbas, for no specific reason. So much for his celebrity. Pilate apparently just did not want a rebellion by the Jewish authorities on his hands.
I am all for religious people being allowed to say anything they wish, anywhere they wish. This is not the same as believing them. I just think that they are harmless. And indeed, Jesus was no real threat to the Romans for decades after his death.
All I am saying is that with regard to the New Testament, people seem predisposed to accept any sort of illogical lunacy: that the Romans would require everyone to return to their birthplaces to be taxed, that demons can be cast out of a madman and into a herd of pigs, that Jesus will return "soon" and still wait over 1900 years later, that after Jesus reigns for 1000 years, he will turn the whole world over to Satan.
I am not anti-Christian, I simply am in favor of applying logic and sanity to everything I hear.