Reading one of the Passion narratives this week, a detail around Mark 14:12-18 caught my eye.
It’s when, on the first day of Unleavened Bread, his disciples ask, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He sends two of them into the city, telling them to find a householder who will have an upper room furnished and ready and there “to prepare for us.”
And next thing is “When it was evening he came with the twelve. And as they were at table eating,” etc.
So my question is: What was Jesus doing between day and evening? What was he doing on the day before the Last Supper?
He could have been hanging out with the other ten so that when the two who’d been sent into the city returned, all twelve could enter the city (or meet there) and go to the upper room together.
On the other hand, he might have wanted a couple of hours to himself. In particular, he might have wanted to visit with his mother. He might have wanted just to be among the people, the jostle and banter of daily life, maybe buying a piece of pita bread and some goat cheese for a snack. He might have wanted to take one last walk, knowing he was so soon to leave the earth he’d inhabited for 33 years.
He might have even wanted to visit the Garden at Gethsemane in the daytime, and to marvel at the olive trees, and to thank the Father for the beauty of the world for which, along with its people, he was about to lay down his life.
Anyway, it might be a nice reflection for Holy Week: to imagine Jesus taking one last walk. It might be rich, and a comfort and a consolation, to imagine walking with him.
Maybe we will know these things in the next life!
Yes, Phillip! When we no longer see through a glass darkly, but see Him face to face…Blessed Easter to you–
That’s beautiful. Certainly never gave it much thought. Now l will. What a good and gentle Savior we have.
Yes…both a profound contemplative and a total man of action…He is (almost) risen!
Heather, I wonder too, about the missing time in the ancient narrative that leaves us to, well, leave it empty or begin to fill in the blanks ourselves. I’m an artist, so you know I’m going w Door#2. 😳
Your writing connected in my head w a recent show of a friend’s work. A set. Of Stations recently exhibited and acquired by Duke. Here’s a link to a few of them, but first, a bit of a caution – artist Margaret Adams Parker ensnares our hearts w an immediacy of our own humanity and irreparably imprints truths upon (what we think is) our Christian identity: https://ecva.org/exhibition/power-series/parker-series.html
Holy Lent, Easter Holiness. mel
Easter glory and blessings to you, Mel, and thanks for these wonderful stations…I especially like Station XIII…reunited…
A friend visiting Atlanta sent me this link to another set, at the High Museum of Art, by Bruce Onobrakpeya (Nigerian, born 1932).