Thursday: The Owner of the Upper Room

An Unexpected Honor

Is this where the meal took place? Yes. Right here in this very room.

Every year, I rent out this space for visitors coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. But this time, I had no idea it would be for Jesus and his disciples. I had the tremendous honor to host the Passover feast for my Lord.

When they first arrived, I was overjoyed to welcome them into my home. Yet as they came in, the men seemed preoccupied. A sort of debate had broken out among them. It seemed rather juvenile, but they were arguing about who among them was the greatest. Petty as it was, they were all jostling and vying to sit at the place of honor while they ate.

The Posture of a Servant

I left them to their privacy and stepped into an adjacent room. After a little while, the room fell completely silent. I was expecting to hear the lively sounds of them partaking in the feast, yet I quickly realized something else entirely was happening.

I stole a peek into the room, and what I saw stopped me in my tracks: Jesus was on his knees, washing the feet of his disciples. He had removed his outer cloak and wrapped a towel around his waist. He looked just like a common household servant! I felt instantly embarrassed—my own servant should have been the one washing their feet, not the Master.

Then one of the men spoke up in protest: “You are going to wash my feet? You will never wash my feet!”

John 13:6-8 (NASB)

So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, ‘Lord, do You wash my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’

It was a stubborn and brazen tone to take with our Lord, but Jesus calmly responded, “You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”

Such words seemed to only confuse everyone in the room, including myself. Then Jesus said, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

That caused the disciple to change his tune immediately. “Wash my feet, my hands, my head!” he urged. Even though these men had been acting selfishly and arguing so childishly, it was unmistakably obvious how deeply Jesus loved them.

Betrayal in the Shadows

There seemed to be peace in the room for a brief moment, but that peace was short-lived. As they began to eat the Passover meal, Jesus looked around the table and said the most peculiar and chilling thing: “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.”

John 13:21 (NASB)

When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.’

Jesus took a piece of bread in his hand and dipped it. He looked to the man on his right and handed him the morsel. The silence in the room seemed to echo for an eternity.

Then Jesus spoke softly: “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

The man holding the bread rose instantly and left in a hurry. I caught only a brief glimpse of his face as he rushed past me into the night, but he seemed grim and determined.

A New Covenant

I found it strange that the rest of the table simply continued with the meal without waiting for him to return. But Jesus gathered their attention once again and said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

Luke 22:15-16 (NASB)

And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’

Then he took another piece of bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way, after the supper, he took a cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

Luke 22:19-20 (NASB)

And when He had taken [some] bread [and] given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ And in the same way [He took] the cup after they had eaten, saying, ’This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

These words were profoundly confusing. The disciples didn’t seem to grasp what Jesus was trying to teach them—and understandably so. For generations, our people have eaten the Passover in remembrance of our deliverance from Egypt. Bread and wine had always pointed back to the Exodus. What did he mean by his own body and his own blood?

The Weight of What Was to Come

Things would become clear in only a matter of days. But that night, though none of us fully understood the mystery of his words, there was something undeniably ominous in the air.

I felt a heavy, sorrowful weight in my spirit—a grief that everyone gathered in that upper room seemed to share. They knew deep down that something terrible and momentous was about to unfold, and there was nothing any of us could do to stop it.