Holy Week Day 5: The Upper Room

FAITH

Apr 2

It’s Thursday afternoon, the upper room is being prepared and we see thirteen men coming down the street. Every eye is upon them. Men, women, and children are running out of their houses to see those men. What if we as strangers ask, “Who are these men?” and the people tell us, “Why, that’s the Galilean prophet and his apostles, from the city of Capernaum.”

We look upon them with amazement. We have heard how that man has given sight to the blind, how He has healed the lepers, given bread to the hungry, and even raised the dead.

Our curiosity takes us and we follow the tribe.

They go along the streets, and come to the home of that “certain man” and begin the flight of stairs to the upper room.

Let’s go up those stairs with them.

We find them there in a guest room, the Son of Man seated with His twelve.

He was soon to taste the bitter cup, to taste death for every man, to lay down His innocent life for sin.

His soul was troubled, and as He sits there at that table in the upper room He lets out the secret of His heart, and tells them that that night He is going to be betrayed by one of them. They look at one another, and one says, “Lord, is it I?” “No.” And another says, “Master, is it I?” “No,” and they one after another ask the question until it is Judas’ turn to answer.

The betrayal from the day before comes to a head at that moment, turns to Him as though it was the devil himself asking, “Is it I?”

Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly. {John 13:27}

You could have heard a pin drop in that room. Judas’ time of repentance had come and instead he stood up and ran out.

You could hear him running down those stairs and into that dark night.

That night the Son of man was to be betrayed by a man.

He sold Him. Sold Him for the price of a slave as was promised.

But while Judas was finalizing the sale of his Master, Jesus was speaking tender words to His disciples.

You can feel the love He had for His disciples as He spent these last three years with them. They walked with Him and heard those beautiful parables; they had seen Him raise people from the dead, had seen Him cure the deaf and the blind. They had been in His presence for three years, and now they were about to be separated from Him.

It was at the moment Jesus whispered to them,

Let not your hearts be troubled… {John 14:1}

They started with 13 and finished with 12 in the upper chamber.

Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. {John 14:1-3}

There was our Savior in that bitter, dark hour, trying to cheer and comfort the tribe. Promising them a Helper that will be with them forever. {John 14:16}

And then He utters those beautiful words in prayer in John 17. He poured His heart out to God in prayer. He not only prayed for His disciples, that had stood firmly by His side, but prayed for His enemies.

He longed for our knowing of His Father and Him as His Son.

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. {John 17:3}

Closing it with, “the hour of my departure is at hand.”

And then He gathered the eleven around Him and they started back down the steps, out of the house and through the streets of Jerusalem. As they continued through the Valley of Jehoshaphat and to the garden of Gethsemane.

You wonder in awe what was going on in the minds of His disciples as they were going through the Valley?

How many times do we give up in the valley with our trust, our faith, and even His purpose for our lives?

Yet, like Jesus, we can meet God in the garden.

And there He took Peter, James and John with Him and told them to wait here. He departed a short distance from them, fell on His knees and prayed.

The cold night has fallen this Thursday and you can hear Him in that garden; you can hear His shattering cry: “Father, let this cup pass from me if it be your will.”

It was as if you could hear the agony in His voice. The drops of sweat leaving His brow as great drops of blood as each one hit the ground.

You could hear the Son of God’s voice not only physically agonizing, but mentally, because the sins of the world lay on Him.

And God the Father turning His face away from Him because God could not look upon sin.

He was sin made flesh.

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ {Colossians 2:11}

The Father could not take away the cup. He had to leave Him to drink the very filthiness of you and me.

And Peter, James, and John?

They are fast asleep as our Lord suffers for us and them.