A friend of mine this morning posted a meme about this day in history. This was the day that our Lord Jesus gathered His disciples in the upper room for their last meal and get-together before the horrible but vital events of Easter began.
Later in the day Jesus met with His disciples in that room. They broke bread as He explained to them the significance of the bread and the wine and gave them an idea of what was going to happen, even though even such men as these had no real comprehension of the miracle that His ugly death was going to provide for the world.
In late February of 2015, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit Israel. The current room that is celebrated as the room room of the Lord's Suppe, or at least built on the sight of the original one, is a fairly large granite and marble room with pillars and niches for displays and statues. It looks nothing like my mental image of the original room and more like a formal room of an old church. The outside stairway on the back of the building helps a little but it's not what I was expecting.
This is not the way I've ever pictured the upper room, probably because of paintings I've seen as a child. I pictured it as an open room on top of the flat roof of a house, more like a terrace, with half walls beneath open windows and a roof supported by wooden and\or stone pillars, with flowering plants hanging down. This could be the painting I saw as a kid. It's certainly the way I've always thought of it.
Jerusalem is a city that has been recreated over the centuries, with new portions of it being built over the top of old ruins. The Tomb of David and the surrounding buildings are on top of Mount Zion on the South Eastern side, near the city walls. There is no reason to believe this room is the current room that housed Jesus and his disciples that evening but it is very possible it is built over the same sight.
Scripture tells us that it was in this room during the meal that Jesus told Judas to go ahead with his business and get it over with. Scripture also tells us that when they had eaten they walked down the mountain to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. They could very well have used this stairway to the East of where they were that ran from the front of the home of Caiaphas, just East of the room.
I so wanted to wander my way down that stairway all the way to the Kidron Valley and into the Garden while we were there. What a journey that would have been - to actually walk the way that Jesus walked. It is believed, and architecturally likely, that these are the actual stairs Jesus climbed after His arrest when he was brought before Caiaphus.
It is said that once you have been to Israel reading the Bible is never the same as it was. I believe and understand that now. When I read scripture today, and remember being in the place where an event actually occurred, when I read about the Garden of Gethsemane and the rock where Jesus prayed, when I read about his triumphant entry into the old city riding on a donkey and remember "I've been there," it makes everything real and move vivid. An even though the current room of the Lord's Supper was not what I expected it to be, standing in that spot, surrounded by ancient buildings and new, following the narrow road that leads to the Via Dolorosa and all it has to reveal, makes me humble beyond belief.
Thanks to my old friend Jon who posted the meme and inspired me to pull these thoughts and memories together. What an event this day became for mankind.
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