“On the first day of the Festival 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?” 13 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. 14 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?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” 16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.” Mark 14.12-16
This happens to me every year. Im going along, enjoying spring, loving the end of the school semester and BAM! Summer hits! Now I just got back from a week and a half vacation in Italy, and have landed back in Texas with the heat and rhythm of summer in full swing. I love summer but its sudden arrival has me in a tail spin!
This is how I feel about Passover and the Passion of Jesus each time I get to the end of one of the Gospels. Mark is even shorter than the others, so when I suddenly move from miracle-working crowd-pleasing Jesus to persecuted Jesus, I am always a little shocked.
Where we pick up in Mark 14 it is only the first day of eight days of the Jewish Passover. Jesus has a bit to go on this journey but on this first day, he sent out his disciples to find a place for them to celebrate. Now Jesus, being God in the flesh, had an advantage on room reservations. He had it all set up, just needed to the disciples to feel needed! Jesus said, “Go into the city…and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.” I’m sure they were like — “Ok Jesus, that is kind of vague but we will obey!” (I feel like the Holy Spirit was the concierge!)
Then, “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?” Then that man will show the disciples a large upstairs room, furnished and ready. “Make preparations there,” Jesus concluded.” So the disciples “left, went to the city and found things just as Jesus told them.”
Even though the Passover sneaks up on me, and perhaps the disciples, Jesus was ready, he was prepared. He had everything under control and knew exactly what he needed and where to send his followers.
This is kind of like us and life — I’m not always ready for the next thing but Jesus knows best. He has it all laid out if only I will obey, walk with him, and follow his steps. Sometimes the instructions, like where with the disciples will celebrate Passover, are multi-layered and complex. But Jesus had it all worked out. So it is with us — he knows the plans he has for us, if we will trust and obey he will certainly guide us.
What is it that you are seeking from the Lord? Are you questioning his leading? I certainly do from time to time. But I have found it best to focus my heart, mind and soul upon his will and seek to follow. Sometimes I get it right and other times I am like the Israelites wandering around in the desert.
But God is faithful. Just as the disciples faithfully fulfilled Jesus’ plans for the preparation of the Passover, so he enables us by the power of the Holy Spirit to obey. To “trust and obey”, as the song says, “there is no better way.”
“O Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for your power that brings life and your sacrifice that brings salvation. Come now, Holy Spirit, and fill us with your love. Help us capture the essence of trusting and obeying your Word so that we might have life now and life to come. For you are good and your love endures forever.” Amen