Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart: http://sothrichfield.podbean.com
Mark 14:12-16 (NIV)
12 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.
The Seder Feast, also known as the Passover meal, is a rather labor-intensive event. This meal gives the disciples an opportunity to remember the history of Israel as God saved his people from Egypt. Now the disciples must set to work on gathering the food and preparing for the meal. A space has already been set aside, the upper-room in someone’s home. The disciples don’t know this yet, but this will be the last meal they will eat with Jesus. As the final days of Lent go by for us, I invite you to walk with the disciples as though you don’t know what is coming either. What must these days have been like for this small group?