in the discipleship of Christ will experience the fulfillment of this promise.
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Thursday Morning
Where Is the Room?
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.” And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
Luke 22:7–13
THE STORY of the Lord’s suffering leads us into the depths of unfathomable pain, but it also offers us much comfort. One such comforting event is the story of the preparation of the Passover. Even as we feel the painful poverty of the Son of Man who had no home of his own in which to celebrate with his disciples, we are touched by the courageous obedience and faith of the disciples whom the Lord sent out. They sensed the danger threatening the Master and them too in Jerusalem. They had no idea where and how they were to meet the unknown man with the jar of water in the city crowded with pilgrims to the festival. Nevertheless they went without protest, trusting the Lord’s instructions.
Here Jesus once more lets rays of his wondrous far-seeing vision shine out into the darkness of his way of suffering in order to strengthen the faith of his disciples. The disciples soon find the man whom he indicated, a secret follower of the Lord. He is carrying home a jar that he has just filled with water – but now his heart’s longing is to be filled with the water of life.
At the words, “The Teacher says to you,” his soul thrills with joy. For the one Master whom he honored, as the other disciples did, has recognized his longing and wants to come to his house. “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” The unknown man immediately understands this question. He does not give the apostles information as to where they might find a suitable room elsewhere, but with joyful readiness he opens his own house to them, giving them the use of his large room, carpeted and furnished with cushions.
As dismaying as the fact is that “he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him,” the words that follow are encouraging: “But to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11–12). There were some among his own people who received him in faith, and one of them was this householder.
At this time of Lent the Lord turns to us too and asks our hearts the question, “Where is the room?” And he says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). What a guest! What grace to be allowed to keep the Passover with him, to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with him! It is a wonderful task to prepare a guest room for him; still more wonderful is the joy of welcoming him. But the glory of being with him in eternity is a joy beyond our conceiving.
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Thursday Evening
The Passover Meal
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
John 13:1; Luke 22:14–18
ON THE THURSDAY EVENING before Easter, the Lord and his disciples entered the room that was prepared for the festival and sat down. He knew that this was the last Passover that he would celebrate with his disciples on earth, and they too were filled with anxious fears. Then the Lord opened his mouth and said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” What was the reason for this earnest longing? He knew how decisive this meal was for him. He knew that arrest, torture, and death would follow. But the power of love overcame all fear. “Having loved his own, he loved them to the end.” He wanted once more to share a peaceful meal with his faithful disciples, who had left everything to follow him. He wanted to lay his last teachings on their hearts and impart heavenly comfort to their souls, to give them strength to endure even the most difficult things for his sake. He longed once more to be refreshed and comforted by their fellowship of love. But his vision saw beyond this.
The Passover was a festival in memory of Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt, but at the same time it was a prophecy of the freeing of the whole of humankind from the heavy yoke of sin and condemnation through the atoning death of the perfect Paschal Lamb. It was his earnest longing now to fulfill this 1500-year-old prophecy and at long last to redeem the lost world through his sacrificial death, to close in this way the old covenant and set up the new one. But he saw still further beyond this deed of redemption. He looked into that sunny distance beyond time where his whole work would be brought to perfection, where he would celebrate the meal of joy on the transfigured earth with a redeemed humankind and drink with them the new fruit of the vine.
The Lord’s earnest longing is the same for all Christians throughout all ages and in all nations and for us too. But alas, how dull are our hearts, how lukewarm is our love for him, how little do we understand what he feels and does for us! Certainly in our hearts is also an abyss of longing and yearning, but all too often our wishes and desires are set only upon transient earthly pleasures, which can never satisfy us and bring us true happiness. We draw water from broken cisterns, and if we continue in this futile way we are bound to languish miserably with our thirst unquenched. Oh, that we might learn to bring all our thoughts into one high longing and endeavor: that we might set them completely on him who has loved us so ardently, and in whom alone we find peace!
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Friday Morning
The Disciples Quarrel
A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Luke 22:24–30
THE WEAKNESSES and mistakes of his own disciples were among the heaviest burdens that the Lord had to bear, even during his farewell meal. While he was expressing the longing of his heart all should have been filled with heavenly peace, yet a quarrel arose among the disciples as to which of them was the greatest. So the Lord now had to reprove their pride. He did this by pointing
