Part 10 (1/2)
”Reft of thy son, amid thy foes forlorn, Mourn, widow'd Queen; forgotten Zion, mourn.
Is this thy place, sad city, this thy throne, Where the wild desert rears its craggy stone; Where suns unblessed their angry l.u.s.ter fling, And way-worn pilgrims seek the scanty spring?
Where now thy pomp, which kings with envy viewed?
Where now thy might which all those kings subdued?
No martial myriads muster in thy gate; No suppliant nations in thy temple wait; No prophet bards, thy glittering courts among, Wake the full lyre, and swell the tide of song: But lawless force and meagre want are there, And the quick-darting eye of restless fear, While cold oblivion, 'mid thy ruins laid, Folds its dank wing beneath the ivy shade.”
_CHAPTER XXII_
_John a Provider for the Pa.s.sover_
”He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and make ready for us the Pa.s.sover, that we may eat.”--_Luke_ xxii. 8.
”And they went ... and they made ready the Pa.s.sover.”--_v._ 13.
The last time we saw Judas was when he left the feast of Bethany, murmuring at Mary's deed, angry at the Lord's defence of her, and plotting against Him. ”From that time He sought opportunity to betray Him.”
”The day ... came on which the Pa.s.sover must be sacrificed.” A lamb must be provided and slain in the Temple for Jesus and His disciples.
Moreover a place must be provided for them to eat it. This preparation would naturally fall on Judas, the treasurer of the company, whom at a later hour the disciples thought Jesus instructed to buy some things for the feast. The place in Jesus' mind was yet a secret, unknown to the disciples, including Judas who could not therefore reveal it to His enemies. Who shall be entrusted with the service which He needed, and be in sympathy with Him in the solemn approaching hour? Not Judas. The two who had been the heralds of the King should be His messengers. So ”He sent Peter and John saying, Go and make ready for us the Pa.s.sover that we may eat.” Again and again we shall find Peter and John together in circ.u.mstances of joy and sorrow, trial and triumph. Their first question was a very natural one, ”Where wilt Thou that we make ready?” The Lord's secret was not at once revealed. He gave them a sign by which their question would be answered--another proof of His divine fore-knowledge.
He told them to go into the city, entering which they would find a man bearing a pitcher of water. Him they were to follow to the house he entered, and tell its owner of His purpose to keep the Pa.s.sover there.
In a furnished room they were to prepare for His coming. They were full of curiosity, but had no doubt concerning the result of their errand.
They trusted Him who had entrusted them with it.
Soon at the public fountain they were watching for the servant who should be their guide. Having done ”as Jesus appointed them,” they ”found as He said unto them.” As instructed they said ”unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest-chamber where I shall eat the Pa.s.sover with My disciples?”
”The goodman of the house” is the only name by which this owner has been known. Some have thought He was Joseph of Arimathaea; others the Father of Saint Mark; others Mark himself. It is the name by which Jesus has called Him; that is honor enough. Without doubt he was a friend of the Lord. Perhaps like Nicodemus he had come to Him privately for instruction. He was ready to do what he could for His necessities when homeless in Jerusalem. He was ready to give Him a place of protection when, that very night, His enemies were seeking His life. Peter and John may never have met this unnamed disciple before. If so, it was doubtless the beginning of an acquaintance close and tender between them and him who was ”the last host of the Lord, and the first host of His Church.”
He showed them ”a large upper room.” It was probably reached, as in many oriental houses, by outside stairs. It was the choicest and most retired room. The goodman led the disciples into it. They found it ”furnished”
with a table, and couches around it on which Jesus and His company could recline. But this probably was not all. The table was ”prepared” with some of the provisions required for the feast. These included the cakes of unleavened bread, the five kinds of bitter herbs, and the wine mixed with water for the four cups which it was the custom to use.
But there was something more which Peter and John must do to ”make ready” for the feast. It was the most important thing of all. It was to prepare the ”Paschal Lamb.” With such a lamb they had been familiar from childhood. As their fathers brought it into their homes, and their mothers roasted it, and parents and children gathered about it in solemn wors.h.i.+p, the Bethsaidan boys had no thought of the day when the Messiah would bid them prepare for the feast of which He Himself would be the host, at the only time apparently when He acted as such.
When John was pointed by the Baptist to Jesus, he had no thought that He would prepare the last Lamb for Him whom He was to see sacrificed as ”the Lamb of G.o.d.” No wonder that Jesus sent Peter and John to make ready, instead of Judas the usual provider, who in the same hour ”sought opportunity to betray Him.”
We follow them from the house of the goodman toward the Temple. Nearing it they listen with mournful solemnity to the chanting of the eighty-first Psalm, with its exhortation to praise,--”Sing aloud unto G.o.d our strength. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on the solemn feast day.” Then they listen for the threefold blast of the silver trumpets. By this they know that the hour has come for the slaying of the lambs. Peter and John enter the court of the priests, and slay their lamb whose blood is caught by a priest in a golden bowl, and carried to the Great Altar.
Of this they must have been reminded a few hours later when Christ spoke of His own blood shed for the remission of sins. John must have remembered it when he saw and wrote of the ”blood and water” that flowed from the pierced side of his Lord. While the lamb is being slain the priests are chanting, and the people responding, ”Hallelujah: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”
The lamb of sacrifice, slain and cleansed and roasted, is carried by the two disciples on staves to the upper room. After lighting the festive lamps, they have obeyed their Lord's command, ”Make ready the Pa.s.sover.”
Meanwhile He and the remaining ten, as the sun is setting, descend the Mount of Olives, from which He takes His last view of the holy but fated city. The disciples follow Him, still awed by what He had told them of its fate, and with forebodings of what awaited Him and them. Among them was the traitor carrying his terrible secret, bent on its awful purpose which is unknown to the nine, but well known to the Master. Thus they go to the upper room where Peter and John are ready to receive them.
In Jesus' message to the goodman He said, ”I will keep the Pa.s.sover at thy house with My disciples.” They were His family. He chose to be alone with them. Not even the mothers Mary and Salome, nor Nicodemus on this night, nor the family of Bethany, could be of His company. No Mary was here to anoint His feet with ointment; nor woman who had been a sinner to bathe them with her tears. Lazarus was not one of them that sat with them; nor did ”Martha serve.” It was the twelve whom He had chosen, and who had continued with Him. It was to His apostolic family that He said, ”With desire I have desired to eat this Pa.s.sover with you before I suffer.” And so ”He sat down with the twelve” alone, the only time--as is supposed--that He ever ate the Pa.s.sover meal with His disciples.
That room became of special interest to John. Sent by his Master to find it, he was mysteriously guided thither. There he was welcomed by the good owner of the house, who united with him in preparation for the most memorable feast ever held. It is there that we see him in closest companions.h.i.+p with his Lord. It was the place in Jesus' mind when He said, ”Go and make ready for us the Pa.s.sover.” ”Where shall we go?”
asked John. He found answer when he entered that upper room. Because of his relation thereto it has been called ”St. John's Room”--more sacred than any ”Jerusalem Chamber,” so named, or any ”St. John's Cathedral!”