"In the Upper Room, Jesus Teaches Us"

Sermon on Luke 22: 7-16

Saint Mark's, Watertown

Pastor Karl Walther

March 15, 2000

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Amen.

The Word of the Lord to begin our Lenten Midweek series on the Places of Jesus' Passion is on page sixteen-thirty-seven of your pew Bibles. It is Luke chapter twenty-two, verses seven through sixteen. On page sixteen-thirty-seven, then, is Luke's account leading up to Jesus' celebration of Passover in the Upper Room:

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."

"Where do you want us to prepare for it?" they asked.

He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, `The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there."

They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

This is God's Spirit-inspired Word of Jesus Christ.

Introduction: the Places of Jesus' Passion Are All in Jerusalem

Dear fellow Christians-- whom Jesus teaches to include him in every plan and to invite him to every event:

Today we start in earnest our Lenten series: the Places of Jesus' Passion. And those places of Jesus' passion all have one thing in common: they are in and around Jerusalem. Let me begin today by telling you a little bit about Jerusalem in Jesus' day.

Jerusalem, of course, lies in the land of Israel: a third of the world, and six or seven thousand miles, away from here-- basically at the juncture of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Jerusalem lies some thirty-five miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea, on five hills two thousand five hundred feet or so above sea level. Its climate isn't quite like anything we have in the United States; you'd probably describe it as semi-tropical, semi-arid-- temperatures run anywhere from forty to eighty-five, quite some rain does fall (but generally in the winter), and there is rarely any snow.

In Jesus' day you'd have to say that Jerusalem was a crowded little city. It really was little in size: only eight tenths of a mile north to south, and a half a mile east to west-- all enclosed by walls. It would be like a fraction of Watertown: from the river where Main Street crosses it over to Piggly Wiggly, and from the river up here where Fourth Street crosses it down to somewhere between the Post Office and Western Avenue. In that little space was crowded two-and-a-half to five times the population of Watertown: fifty thousand or one hundred thousand people altogether.

Theme: In the Upper Room, Jesus Teaches Us

It was into that particular setting that Jesus sent the two disciples to prepare the Upper Room for Passover. And there: IN THE UPPER ROOM, JESUS TEACHES US today. Jesus teaches us: TO INCLUDE HIM IN EVERY PLAN, and Jesus teaches us: TO INVITE HIM TO EVERY EVENT in our lives.

God's Word: In the Upper Room, Jesus Taught the Disciples

God's Word to us today begins this way: Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Scholarly research suggests that this was Thursday, April Sixth, Thirty ad. I'm not positive about that date, although it is my best guess.

What I am sure of is that this was the Fourteenth of Nisan on the Jewish calendar. That's the day that started the seven-day feast of Unleavened Bread. During the week of the feast, the Jewish people did no work-- except for preparing the food. And on this first day of the feast, the Jewish people swept their houses clean of all yeast. They did it for two reasons. First of all, a millennium and a half earlier, the Jews had left Egypt so hurriedly that they couldn't add yeast to their bread. So, this feast's lack of leaven was a commemorative necessity. Secondly, yeast also represented uncleanness and sin. And so, this feast's lack of leaven was also a spiritual necessity.

It was on this first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed. The Old Testament designated those Passover lambs: year-old males without any defect, from either the sheep or the goats. They were slaughtered at the temple in Jerusalem at twilight, and in Jesus' day that was reckoned between 2:30 and 5:30 in the afternoon. That evening the Jewish people ate the meat-- roasted, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Afterwards, they put the blood of the lambs on the top and the sides of the doorframes of their houses. It was all in memory of the way God used the blood of the original Passover lambs to deliver the Israelites from bitter slavery and the plague of the firstborn in Egypt some fifteen hundred years earlier.

On that day, from his place on the Mount of Olives, three quarters of a mile across the valley from Jerusalem, we read: Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover." You can understand that they had to arrange the place and arrange the food. And incidentally, Matthew's and Mark's accounts here suggest that it was Peter and John who took the initiative in approaching Jesus.

Now, arranging the food would be easy for Peter and John, but arranging the place was a different story. So: "Where do you want us to prepare for it?" they asked.

And we read that: Jesus replied, "As you enter the city, a man (literally: an individual) carrying a jar of water will meet you. It was probably a medium-sized container, for sure made of clay. Follow him to the house that he enters-- probably a smallish house by our standards. And say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher, as Jesus was known, asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room -- probably the entire second story of the house -- all furnished. Make preparations there."

There's no other way to read all this than to say it was a display of Jesus' omniscience. As God, Jesus knew all things, although he didn't always make use of that knowledge. Here he did. And the reason he did is important. You see, Judas had already agreed to betray Jesus. Had Jesus given name and address, and had Judas known where he was going, Judas immediately could have told the Jewish officials and ruined Jesus' time with his apostles. Jesus used his knowledge of all things, so that didn't happen.

Naturally, we read next: Peter and John left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

Jesus must have spoken to Peter and John no later than the middle of the day on that first Maundy Thursday. So, now hours passed-- maybe many hours. Then, sometime after sunset on that day, we read: When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. So, this last Passover supper included Jesus and the twelve-- afterwards, only eleven. They were reclining at the table: because back then tables were low to the ground, and a person lay on his left side, eating with his right hand. The table, though, must have been rather large to handle all of a dozen people.

And Jesus said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." In final analysis what Jesus was saying was this: "In the next day, the kingdom of God (God's saving, ruling activity through the Gospel, especially in the New Testament)-- the kingdom of God will reach its fulfillment. And so will this Passover meal. Instead of a lamb's blood, my blood will be shed. Instead of freedom from slavery, I will purchase you freedom from hell. And Passover will never be the same again."

Application: In the Upper Room, Jesus Teaches Us

to Include Him in Every Plan and to Invite Him to Every Event

And that's the meaning of the account in the Upper Room for you and for me.

° You see, in Jesus' day every Jewish individual knew the account of his people's oppression in Egypt. He could tell you how the Egyptians' ungratefulness enslaved them, how for centuries they were not free, how his forefathers labored in bricks and mortar, scattered all over Egypt to gather scraps of straw, and still faced the murder of the baby boys-- and threats to every Israelite life.

• But these days every genuine Christian knows the account of his greater oppression. You know you were born a slave of Satan. You know that Satan has aimed to center you so on yourself that you were scattered here and there: laboring hard to feed your greed, working like crazy to pad your pride, laboring hard to pursue your every pleasure. And you know that, finally, that's not pleasant-- to be a slave to the devil's desires and still to face murder at his hands all day long.

° On the other hand, in Jesus' day every Jewish individual knew the account of how the Lord redeemed his people out of slavery in Egypt. He could tell you how the Lord plagued Egypt ten times, how the Lord delivered the firstborn from death, how he parted the sea, and drowned Pharaoh's army-- to access Israel's full freedom.

• These days every Christian knows the account of his greater redemption. You know how the Lord judged Satan on the cross. You know how Jesus died in place of your death. You know how the Lord imparted that to you in Holy Baptism. And you know that it was there Jesus drowned your Old Adam to access for you full freedom to enjoy earth and heaven.

Now, consider it: that kind of love meant it was unthinkable for Peter and John not to approach Jesus to plan for the Passover. Is it any more "thinkable" for you and I to make plans apart from him? Kids and students: how can you plan a career-- without prayerfully consulting Christ as to how you can best serve him with your life? Young wives and husbands: how can you presume to plan a family-- without prayerfully considering Christ's love for children and his heartfelt desire to supply them to many in marriage? You other adults: how can you plan your projects-- without prayerfully consulting Christ as to whether your project will serve your Savior? And those of you who are getting on in years: how can you contemplate retirement-- without considering Christ's blessings on various forms of labor?

You see, in the Upper Room: Jesus teaches us to include him in every plan of ours! He urges us to invite him to every event, too.

Consider that for a moment. It would have been unconscionable for the disciples to celebrate this final Passover without Christ himself. Can we with any better conscience fail to invite Jesus to our parties-- where we might at least acknowledge him in prayer? Or: can we imagine not expressing Jesus as the source of every blessing-- when we are acknowledging congratulations on an anniversary or another commemoration of some kind? Or suppose we're taking a vacation: how could we refuse to take Christ along with us-- behaving ourselves like Christians, probably speaking of our Savior like Christians?

Conclusion: Places of Jesus' Passion Will Continue To Be Our Focus

You see, then: In the Upper Room, Jesus Teaches Us ... to include him in every plan, and to invite him to every event. And you can be sure he will richly and eternally bless it-- as he did at that final Passover.

And now I'd like to invite you to include yourself on Wednesdays during the next several weeks, as we continue our tour of Jerusalem-- from Gethsemane, to the meeting places of the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate, and on to the way of Christ's cross. Amen.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Amen.