“Live from Jerusalem: The Upper Room”
Mark 14:12-16

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Maundy Thursday—April 1, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our celebration here this evening really goes back thousands of years, to the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples, and before that to the Passover feast first celebrated by the ancient Israelites before their Exodus from Egypt.  It is called “pass-over” because God sent the angel of death upon all the firstborn of Egypt, but the angel of death would “pass-over” the homes of the Israelites, on whose doorposts was smeared the blood of the Passover lamb.

Paul says in Romans, “The wages of sin is death.”  Because of our sins, we all deserve to be struck down by the angel of death.  But, Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.”  The ancient Passover was symbolic and prophetic of the salvation that was to come.  As John the Baptist proclaimed, Jesus Christ is, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  The sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross actually accomplished what the sacrifice of the Passover lamb symbolized.  As Peter says, “You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”  And, John says in Revelation, “He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.”

“Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  The Sacrament of Holy Communion is God’s testament to you that your sins are all forgiven on account of his Son’s sacrifice for you.  As John says, “He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 

Paul says in our Epistle Reading, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  Tonight we rejoice in the Good News that death will “pass-over” us and all who trust in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe how Jesus instructed the disciples to locate “The Upper Room” where they would celebrate the Last Supper.  Mark reports:

“On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’  So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.  Say to the owner of the house he enters, “The Teacher asks: 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.’  The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them.”

It is estimated the normal population of Jerusalem at that time was about 50,000.  However, during Passover week each year, pilgrims flocked to Jerusalem from all over Mediterranean world to commemorate the ancient Passover feast.  As the Lord tells Moses in our Old Testament Reading, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.”   So, for that one week each year the population of Jerusalem soared from 50,000 to 250,000.  We used to live in South Dakota, and those numbers are close to what happens each year during the famous motorcycle rally at Sturgis, when for one week the population of the state actually TRIPLES, because nearly 500,000 come from all over the world to gather at Sturgis.

Like most ancient cities, Jerusalem was a walled city.  So, there was a limit to how many people could actually stay in the city. Sturgis itself is a town about the size of Paola, so the 500,000 bikers at rally week have stay in towns all over the Black Hills.  In the same way, most of the Passover pilgrims stayed in small towns and camped on the hillsides surrounding Jerusalem.  Luke reports of Jesus himself, “Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives,” and Matthew says, “And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.” 

Bethany was a small suburb of Jerusalem, located on the Mount of Olives.  Jesus probably stayed there in the home of his close friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead at Bethany just a month before the Passover.  So, Jesus had a very prime place to stay during Passover week.  He was just minutes from the Holy City, and the Temple courts, where he taught on Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week.  And yet Bethany was a quiet retreat away from jam-packed Jerusalem.

However, although Bethany was an ideal place for Jesus to stay that week, for the Passover feast itself, there was a strong tradition that to be a proper Passover it should be celebrated within the walled city of Jerusalem.  For the wealthy this was not a problem.  They could afford to pay the huge sums which every available room in Jerusalem commanded that night.  But, most people couldn’t afford a place inside the city walls for their Passover feast, which instead took place in their tents on the hills surrounding the city.  But, it was still considered a proper Passover if you could at least see the Holy City from the spot where you were camped.

When we first moved to South Dakota, I naively thought it would be nice to take a family vacation in the Black Hills the first week of August, so the kids could see Mount Rushmore, the famous monument of their new home state.  I was trying to book accommodations many months in advance and couldn’t figure out why everything for three weeks solid was totally taken for a hundred miles around Rapid City.  Terry’s a South Dakota native, and explained that the first week of August is rally week, and everything’s booked years in advance.

That explains the note of urgency, even panic, in the disciples’ question to Jesus that morning: “On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’”

It’s already the first day of the feast!  The Passover lamb must be slaughtered at sundown today!  But, we don’t even have a room reserved, let alone making all the preparations, if we can even still find a place.

“So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.  Say to the owner of the house he enters, “The Teacher asks: 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.’  The disciples left, went into the city and found things, just as Jesus had told them.”

The disciples were panicking, but Jesus already had it all taken care of.  The Gospel of John doesn’t report these preparations for the Passover, but John records some words of Jesus later that evening at the feast which probably hark back to the disciples’ panic earlier in the day:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

Jesus is using as an illustration for the disciples their panic earlier that day about preparing a place for the Passover.  “Remember how worried you were this morning about where we would have our feast?  Didn’t I have this upper room miraculously prepared and ready?  Well, I am preparing another ‘upper room’ for you, in my Father’s house, where you will celebrate with me an eternal feast.”

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you also may be . . .  You know the way to the place where I am going. . .  I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Over the past year, exceptional steps had to be taken and extra preparations made so that we could still celebrate the Lord’s Supper under the current conditions.  As our Liturgy says, this is “a foretaste of the feast to come.”  For, just as we have prepared this upper room for our feast tonight, just as Jesus miraculously prepared the upper room for the Last Supper, Jesus has prepared for you an “upper room” in his Father’s house, where you will join with all the faithful in the feast that never ends.