His final steps led to the Upper Room.

 

Sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 6, 2023

Mercy and peace to you all, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.  Amen.

Mark 14:12-17  ¹²On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”  ¹³He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and there a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.  Follow him.  ¹⁴Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house that the Teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  ¹⁵He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready.  Make preparations for us there.”  ¹⁶His disciples left and went into the city and found things just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.  ¹⁷When it was evening, he arrived with the Twelve. (EHV)

His final steps led to the Upper Room.

Dear disciples of the faithful Word,

            Does it strike you a bit odd that on one of the most important days of the Christian faith, our sermon theme is focused on a mysterious upper room?  Why should we care where Jesus ate His last Passover meal?  Well, we must admit that it isn’t the place that is so important, but rather, that we are enriched by what happened on that day and in that unidentifiable room.

Now, there is a place outside the walls of old Jerusalem claiming to be that Upper Room.  It has been a site of pilgrimage for many centuries.  Thousands upon thousands of Christians journey to visit the site every year, but it is almost certainly not the actual location.  Thus, far more important than going to such a place is that we focus on what Jesus did for us in arranging that precious meal.

Another item that might seem odd is that “On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?’”  Are you kidding me?  It isn’t odd that His disciples would ask that question, but the timing seems crazy.  Consider the fact that the population of Jerusalem swelled by perhaps millions of people for the Festival of the Passover.  How could anyone wait until the morning of the Feast and still hope to find a place to gather with friends?  Why were the disciples not prepared for that most important event?  And, is it possible Jesus didn’t plan ahead?

That last question is especially silly on my part.  All of this is evident that Jesus and His Father in heaven had planned every moment of Jesus’ last week before His death in most minute detail.  Thus, we ask, “What is going on here?”  To answer, understand the reality Jesus faced that week: the Jewish leadership was looking for a way to seize and kill Jesus quietly, crowds of ordinary people wanted to take Him by force to make Him King, and Judas was looking for a way to betray Jesus for those few silver coins.  As we will see in the passion history later, Jesus was managing every detail so that all prophecies would be fulfilled and so that His disciples would be protected from every danger. 

On that morning of the day Jesus would be betrayed, “He sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and there a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.  Follow him.’”  That was Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ question of where they would eat the Passover.  It seems random to us, but no one could know any of those details except Jesus.  Thus, God’s plan would move forward on schedule without any danger of Judas or Jesus’ many enemies interrupting.  Jesus knew exactly where He was sending His disciples, who would be in the perfect place to meet them, precisely how they could recognize the man, and most important that he would lead them to the one place in Jerusalem already prepared and ready to host Jesus and His disciples for the Passover.

Now, there is no sense in pretending that Jesus had secretly met with that man in advance.  There is no need.  Our God and Lord always works in unseen ways to direct things necessary for our salvation, and believe me, this is all necessary for our everlasting good. 

Jesus told the two, “Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house that the Teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready.  Make preparations for us there.”  Here, we get a glimpse of how the Lord had arranged for His salvation plans to be carried out.  The Passover meal had been set in Israelite culture for over fourteen hundred years.  Every previous Passover festival was pointing forward to this night.  Every spotless lamb chosen out of Israel’s flocks foreshadowed the Lamb God would sacrifice for the sins of the world. 

Now, there were strict protocols to be carried out before and during the meal.  The room had to be swept, cleaned, and in perfect order before the celebration, but this was already done before the disciples arrived.  Their job then was to gather the rest of the meal, the bitter herbs, the appropriate condiments to go with the lamb and the bread.  They had to procure the wine, plus either buy or bake the unleavened bread.  Finally, they had to retrieve a lamb, inspected and approved by the priests, likely not cheap with every family in the city doing the same things. 

That afternoon yet, the lamb was slaughtered, its blood sprinkled on the altar at the temple, the disciples would then have to roast the lamb over an open fire, all before the evening when the Passover was eaten following the instructions and traditions laid down in Israelite history to teach the people about how the Lord had rescued His people from slavery in Egypt.  All of this would be done with the utmost reverence and care as if the lives of the people depended on it.

“His disciples left and went into the city and found things just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.  When it was evening, he arrived with the Twelve.”  I said that all of this was done as if their lives depended on it.  Of course, on the very first Passover, the lives of every firstborn Israelite depended on following God’s commands to a T.  If they failed to follow God’s instructions given through Moses that day, there would be much weeping in the house.  Yet, by morning, the blood of those lambs had rescued all the Israelites while the Egyptian houses were devastated.

Likewise, everything Jesus did that night He did because our lives depended on Him.  Those lambs that saved Israel in Egypt foreshadowed the Lamb of God being sacrificed to rescue the world from slavery to sin, death, and the devil.  Jesus is that Lamb of God.  Our sins were laid on Him so that He would carry them out into the wilderness of God’s condemnation.

So, what else happened in the upper room that night?  While the meal was being served, but before anyone began to eat, Jesus surprised them all by taking the form of the lowest household servant as He washed and dried their feet.  He then commanded His disciples to pay attention to what He did and to do likewise.  Jesus said, “I have given you an example so that you also would do just as I have done for you.  Amen, Amen, I tell you: A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (John 13:15-17)

Now, some today think Jesus meant we should practice foot washing once per year, but Jesus was demonstrating for them what He had previously spoken, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  It will not be that way among you. Instead whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave.” (Matthew 20:25-27)  Jesus’ followers are sent out into the world to love the world as He loved us.  Here, He shows us that to love means to serve, humbly, faithfully, without regard for selfish pride or aclaim.  The greatest Man ever to live gave of Himself unselfishly so that we might live and never die.

We could talk about the betrayer being identified at the meal, because that happened too.  We could speak about the disciples arguing among themselves who was greatest, but what is most important is that we remember Jesus’ concern for all those believers who would be in the world after that night.

On Maundy Thursday, it is our tradition to remember the new meal Jesus instituted in that upper room, not based on the Passover per se, but utilizing some of its elements.  “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples.  He said, ‘Take, eat, this is my body.’  Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28)  The original Passover meal commemorated Israel’s rescue from slavery in Egypt.  Each year after, until Jesus gave His life for ours, Israel was to commemorate the lambs slaughtered in Egypt with new lambs sacrificed for the people’s sins.  However, none of those lambs took away sin.  That all changed the night our text records.

The Lamb of God was leaving the upper room that night, knowing that He was giving His life in exchange for the lives of every person ever born into this world.  He knew the suffering and pain He would bear on our behalf.  Jesus went willingly out to the garden where His friend would betray Him, the authorities would arrest Him and begin their merciless treatment and vile accusations against Him.  While His disciples fled in terror for their lives, Jesus went willingly to the cross, bearing the sins of the world, because of His love for people like you and me. 

Furthermore, our Lord wants you to know His love in a very personal way.  Jesus wants you to know with all confidence that His sacrifice bought your freedom from the slavery of sin and condemnation.  Therefore, Jesus gave us this Holy Supper of His own precious body and blood, so that just as Israel ate the lambs whose blood covered their doorposts in Egypt, we could eat His body in the bread as food for our souls, food to nourish our faith in Him, food that delivers again and again the forgiveness Jesus gained for all people, so that when our hearts are troubled by the sins we commit, we can flee back to Him in repentance for forgiveness and peace.

As we drink the wine He blesses, Jesus takes of His blood and sprinkles it on the altars of our hearts to show, without any doubt at all, that our sins are covered by the righteousness of His blood.  The writer to the Hebrews tells us,

“He entered once into the Most Holy Place and obtained eternal redemption, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood.  Now if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who were unclean, sanctifies them so that their flesh is clean, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works, so that we worship the living God?” (Hebrews 9:12-14) 

Dear friends, Jesus’ blood cleanses our consciences completely.  And just as Jesus could see exactly how the disciples would meet a man in the city, and just as Jesus knew the homeowner would willingly open that upper room for the Teacher, Jesus knows you and me.  He knows our troubles, our sins, our failures.  Jesus sees us when we stumble and when we are weak.  He sees us when we are beaten down with guilt and remorse. 

Jesus sees us when we wander in the wilderness of shame or despair, and with His arms open wide, He invites us to come to Him for rest.  Forever after, with His sacrifice complete, Jesus wants us to taste and see His forgiveness.  He wants to comfort us with the sure hope that God has taken our sins away from us as far as east is from the west, because the Lamb of God was sacrificed on the altar of the cross to reconcile us with our Creator.  Tonight, as you remember that His final steps led to the Upper Room, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Blessed is everyone who takes refuge in him.” (Psalm 34:8)  Amen.

Now to Him who is able to strengthen you—according to the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, . . . to God, who alone is wise, be glory forever through Jesus Christ.  Amen.