In Control

Greetings.

As we move through the book Luke toward the Cross, it is familiar territory for most of us.  Today, we will look at Lukke 22:7-13, where Jesus sends two disciples to prepare a room for the upcoming Passover.  Here is my translation: 

7 Then the Day of Unleavened Bread came, on which it is necessary to slaughter the Passover lamb. 

8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go, prepare a place for us to eat the Passover.” 

9 They asked him, “Where would you like us to make these preparations?”

10 Jesus responded, “Pay attention to this, as you go into the city, you will meet a man carrying a clay jar of water.  Follow him into the house that he enters. 11 You will say to the owner of the house, ‘the Teacher asks of you, ‘Where is a room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’” 

12 He will show you a furnished upstairs room.  Prepare it there. 13 They went and found exactly as Jesus had said and they prepared for the Passover.

The time has come for Jesus to observe this last Passover with his disciples, and he must make preparations. This would be an excellent time and place for Judas to make his betrayal and hand Jesus over to the authorities.  This would be a private moment, free of the large crowds that the authorities fear so much. Jesus assures that this private moment with his disciples will reamain private.  Judas can glean nothing from these instructions. 

Jesus sends Peter and John on a mission to secure and prepare the place for their Passover.  They are to go into the city and follow a man that is carrying a clay jar of water to his house.  This mystical method of finding the place for the Passover keeps everyone else in the dark as to the location of the Passover meal.  Judas would not know the place until he arrived there and would be unable to alert the authorities, and Jesus, who knows that ultimately he is going to be betrayed and handed over to be killed, will have this final uninterrupted time with his disciples,  

Peter and John are given a big responsibility.  They are given the task of making the preparations for the Passover.  This includes preparing the room, getting the lamb slain at the temple, and buying the bitter herbs, the unleavened bread and the wine. 

With the city overcrowded for the Passover, getting a room for a group of at least thirteen on such short notice would be challenging, but Jesus had a plan.  Perhaps he had already made some kind of arrangement with this man, or possibly he just had some kind of miraculous foreknowledge of its availability and how to secure it. 

The man carrying the water jar would most likely be a servant.  Jesus’ instructions are to follow him, and address the owner of the house, and say, “‘the Teacher asks of you, ‘Where is a room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’” As the disciples are instructed to lead with ‘The Teacher’, the owner of the house is probably a disciple, as it seems clear that all that Jesus has to do is ask. 

The disciples find things exactly as Jesus' unusual instructions said that they would be.  If there is one thing that we learn from this, it is this: Jesus may be headed to his death, but he is one that is in complete control of the entire situation.