What Really Happened in the Upper Room and Garden?
Good Morning Friends,
Today, this Holy Thursday marks the beginning of the sacred three days. There was tension in the air that day. Everyone knew something was about to happen. Then Jesus instructs the disciples to love one another as He had loved them. Interesting thought for on this day Jesus, the Lamb of God gave himself into the hands of those who would slay him. So he gathered the disciples in the Upper Room for a holy sacrament…the Passover with the Disciples. But there was so much more that took place and was birthed in this place that was prepared for them and us. So on this somber day in the hope of the birth of the Holy Spirit we ask, What Really Happened in the Upper Room and Garden?
Scripture: 12On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. 17 When it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ 19They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ 20He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread* into the bowl* with me. 21For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’ 22 While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the* covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’ 26 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Mark 14:12-26 (NRSV)
Message: There is a revelation given to the disciples in the form of a sacrament at the Last Supper. Embodied in it is the truth of Christ’s incarnation, His suffering, His substitution for our sins and His invitation to join Him. This is the truth that will make us free. This is the invitation to experience Him and His mighty acts in our lives. The power of the Lord’s Supper is that it connects us to Christ so that He might strengthen our faith in Him. It is a new sacrament that Jesus gives us to help us to understand the revelation that Jesus came for the forgiveness of my sins… of your sins… even of Judas’ sins. Through the day they made preparations. We remember and make present that Last Supper which Jesus shared with his disciples. We are in the Upper Room with Jesus and the Apostles and do what they did on this day. Through the ritual of washing the feet some will unite in service to one another this evening. Through our celebration of communion some will unite with Jesus and receive his gift for the first time. And then after the Last Supper, we join the apostles and Jesus in singing a song and then making a short journey across the Kidron Valley to the Garden where we too are asked to pray as Jesus experiences his agony. Here Jesus prayed that we would be one in the spirit of love. It should be our prayer too. And so the liturgy ends tonight ends in silence and darkness. It is an ancient custom to spend this time as if we are with Jesus in the Garden praying with Him. Friends, it was near midnight that Jesus was betrayed by Judas, was arrested and taken to the house of the High Priest. Here all the events of Lent and Holy Week prepare our emotions. Here as we join with Jesus we might just discover that the better way to experience all this is to face the reality of death. Then we have the test of our own emotions. And if we believe then we have hope.
Pray we walk the Christian walk during Holy Week. Pray it prepares us for what is to come. Pray in it we experience a God who created the power of life. Pray here we laugh at the absurdity of a few Roman soldiers armed with swords and spears deterring the God of all of History. Pray we wrestle with our emotions about the resurrection even as we pray with Jesus in the Garden. Pray we are prepared to see what the disciples saw, to feel what they felt and to believe in such a powerful way that we desire to tell others. Pray we contemplate Jesus’ suffering love and desire for our unity. Pray we see the love of God at work for you and for me reconciled in the experience of Holy week.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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