“His Final Steps Led To The Upper Room”
Text: Luke 22:7-20
4-17-2025
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. There is a special room in Jerusalem that has become a popular tourist site. It’s called the “Cenacle,” which is a word derived from the Latin for “dining room.” This particular room has been important to Christians for over 1,600 years. Why? Well, the Cenacle is purported to be the same upper room where Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Last Supper. Gayleen and I visited that room during our tour of Israel 10 years ago. What makes the site even more impressive is that it’s built over what is claimed to be King David’s tomb. On the lower level you will find Jews gathering and praying at that site.
However, it’s highly doubtful, this room is the same place Jesus used on Holy Thursday. Although the foundations for the building seem to go back to the 3rd century, the Cenacle that tourists visit today is a massive room with a soaring Gothic ribbed-vaulted ceiling. In other words, it doesn’t match the architecture of Jesus’ day and most archaeologists agree that it was likely constructed by crusaders, perhaps sometime around 1200 a.d. That doesn’t stop thousands of religious pilgrims from visiting the Cenacle every year. Well, even though the precise GPS location of the upper room may be uncertain, we have the reliable Word of God in the Gospels that tells us what made the actual Cenacle a sacred place to be. Tonight, we’ll go there with St. Luke as our Spirit-inspired tour guide to help us see why Christ’s final steps led to that upper room.
Before we do so, I want you to know this sermon on the upper room will probably be different than other messages you’ve heard about it. Normally, we only focus on the supper where Jesus instituted for us the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Don’t misunderstand. It’s good for us to meditate on those precious words of Jesus when He gave His body and blood for us to eat and drink “for the forgiveness of sins.” But this sermon will focus more on the preparations for that special Supper because that too can strengthen our faith as well as our appreciation for the blessings of this holy Sacrament. It’s important for us to realize that the Supper didn’t just fall out the skies fully prepared by angelic caterers. Jesus carefully and purposefully rooted the Lord’s Supper in the Old Testament celebration of Passover. And Passover took hours upon hours of careful preparation on the part of the disciples.
Gayleen and I can vouch for that. For over 20 years, we’ve been hosting a seder meal, which is a Passover celebration that carefully follows the ancient Jewish ritual but adds dialogue that clearly points to Christ. Anyway, preparing all the food, setting the tables, and serving the meal takes lots and lots of time and good planning. That being the case, you can be sure that a lot of meticulous care went into preparing for the Passover meal that Christ celebrated in the upper room. According to their custom, the Jews would ceremonially sweep that room the day before to make sure every last crumb of yeast was removed. So, when Jesus told 2 of His disciples to go into the city and find a man who would show them “a large upper room furnished; prepare it there”, the disciples must have been thrilled because the owner had apparently spent hours of careful preparation already.
But that didn’t mean the disciples didn’t have anything else to do. They needed the centerpiece of Passover: the lamb! That in itself would take hours of time-consuming preparation because they couldn’t just waltz over to the nearest Jewish deli and bring home a pre-roasted lamb. The Passover lamb had to first pass the inspection of the temple priests. Next, it had to be slaughtered early on Thursday afternoon at the temple, and then it was roasted carefully before the evening meal. A lot of work, to be sure. But I haven’t even mentioned the most daunting task that lay ahead: finding a quiet upper room. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that Jerusalem’s population swelled to more than two million people during Passover. All of them were looking for a quiet room within the city, because the Jews were forbidden from carrying a lamb slaughtered in the temple outside the city walls. That means large upper rooms were a hot commodity. But one that was furnished and ready to go? Good luck with that! It seemed impossible.
But not for Jesus. He sent Peter and John into Jerusalem with directions that were fail-safe, even though they may seem vague to you and me: “when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters…” That man carrying water might as well have been wearing a blaze orange hunting jacket because in that culture, men didn’t fetch the water needed for drinking or for the Jewish ritual washings. That was women’s work. But Jesus had it all planned out perfectly. Among the millions of people in Jerusalem, the disciples were to approach this unusual man and tell him, “The Teacher says to you, ‘Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’” Was the owner of that house a follower of Jesus? It seems like it. Otherwise, why would the title “the Teacher” be enough to secure the upper room?
Even with all the excitement and anticipation over this meal, it’s almost as if a dark cloud hovered over Jesus as He reclined at the table with His disciples in that upper room. The other Gospel writers tell us that during the meal He shocked His followers by warning about one of the 12 who would betray Him. He spoke of His “blood of the new covenant” being poured out. Surely that meant death. He warned that all 12 of the disciples would abandon Him and specifically, Peter would deny Him 3 times. Thankfully, though, Jesus also spoke words of comfort to them, and ultimately to us. St. John tells us that on that night Christ promised to prepare a place in heaven for all believers. He said that He truly is “the Way and the Truth and the Life.” And He gave to our troubled hearts those beautiful words, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
The Savior gave us all those words, and so many more in that quiet upper room. He knew He needed a secluded spot and a safe place, hidden away from the crowds and unknown to His enemies, where He could enjoy a few final hours of fellowship with the Twelve one last time before His cross.
He knew all this ahead of time and He made that ever so clear in those instructions He gave His disciples for preparing the Passover meal. Of all the millions of people in Jerusalem, He tells them to find a man carrying water who would lead them to the needed room. And voila! They easily find the man who has the upper room furnished and ready, fit for the King of kings. And yet, when we carefully piece together all the gospel accounts about the message Jesus passed along for the owner of the upper room, we learn there was a tad bit more than what Luke records, a bit of essential information that added urgency to the Savior’s request. We find the detail in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus said, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.” This is the chosen time, the appointed time, that our Lord had set from eternity which was now finally at hand.
This was the set time for all of our Savior’s final steps. His final steps: To the upper room. To the Garden of Gethsemane. To the betrayal of Judas with a kiss. To the trials. To the scourgings. To the spitting. To the trial before Pontius Pilate. To the Via Dolorosa—the road of sorrows. To the center cross on Golgotha, where God’s Lamb would forever finish the bloody business of washing away all of humanity’s sin, yours and mine included.
That’s where this Holy Thursday message needs to get more personal. The same Savior who peered into a city of millions of souls gathered for Passover and could pick out one man carrying a water jug who would open up his home for Him, is the same Savior who peers into our world of 8 billion people and sees individual sinners like you and me who need to hear His words of forgiveness. So, like with His 12 disciples, He invites us to come to the quiet room away from all the hustle and bustle of our loud and busy world. He invites you to come here to His special table that has been prepared just for you. We don’t recline our bodies at this table, but we do recline our souls here as we gather at the Communion rail. Because here, Christ invites us to come and celebrate His new Passover meal with Him as we join together in receiving His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. The same body that was hung on the cross for the remission of all our sins. Along with that, as Jesus invites us to this quiet room, we listen to His comforting words of forgiveness, as He assures us of His eternal love, as He assures us of our heavenly home. And as He announces to us His everlasting peace which was won for us by His death on the cross. Now that you have heard those gracious words of forgiveness, and now that you’ve heard His loving invitation, come now and receive His holy meal of the new covenant of His blood shed for you. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!