Making space for what’s really important

Luke 22:7-13

⁷ Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸ Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

⁹ “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

¹⁰ He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, ¹¹ and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹² He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

¹³ They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

The middle third of Luke traces Jesus’ deliberate, purposeful journey towards Jerusalem and his confrontation with evil, timed to coincide with the celebration of Passover – remembering God’s confrontation with Pharaoh. Jesus had said plainly that this will end with his death as the true Passover lamb. The tension is electric as the powers in Jerusalem look for their opportunity to arrest Jesus and kill him.

But before that, a rendezvous with a man identified only by a jug, a cryptic greeting, and a room that’s already been prepared for them. It seems Jesus has been equally careful and deliberate in arranging to share this Passover meal – normally celebrated with closest family and friends – with his disciples. In the middle of the very public drama that’s unfolding, Jesus deliberately makes space to be alone with them, safe from the approaching ambush and betrayal.

Making that intimate personal time together with his disciples was so important to Jesus that he carefully arranged things. Restored relationship with us is so important that he deliberately took the worst of sin and death onto himself on the cross to achieve it (Colossians 1:19-20). That’s how valuable times like this are – time with Jesus, soaking and meditating in his word, talking with him in prayer, hearing him speak, just being in his presence, remembering Jesus, our Passover lamb.

Jesus, I love you. I love what you did to restore relationship between us and you. I want to walk with you today. I want to hear what you say. I want to be part of what you’re doing.

Written by David Cornell