A Walk to Remember
Today we walk with anticipation of celebration.
This will be hard for you and me. We know. They don’t.
Walk with me each step. Let’s experience the joy and the agony.
We will get a fuller glimpse of the Savior if we don’t run ahead.
This is the day! The first day of Unleavened Bread. The day to sacrifice the Passover lamb.
Peter and John were tasked with the last of the preparations. Jesus gave these instructions: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” Mark 14:13-14
Jesus is preparing to leave. He gathers His robe. That beautiful, priceless robe that His Mother had made. The one that is seamless, perfect, just as He is. It envelopes Him in love and in as much earthly comfort as a Mother can give to her Son.
He leaves the house of His friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary. What tender good-byes they must have been. He sets His eyes toward Jerusalem and walks on. I wonder how far down the road He walked before He looked back? One last look, then one foot in front of another.
And so they arrive just before the Passover Feast is to begin. “Having loved his own who were in this world, He now showed them the full extent of His love.” John 13:1b John, the Beloved, writes from his heart. How did he experience Jesus’ love? In so many ways. John writes the following words for you and I to know the depth of love that those who walked this earth with Him experienced.
“so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.” “When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them.” John 13:5 & 12
He wanted them to get it. To understand that they were going to need each other very soon and that required humility and sacrifice. He showed them what to do. It had to be intimate and personal. He needed to touch them. With His touch still lingering on their skin He commands and blesses them. “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13:17 He speaks protection over them.
It is here that our path takes a turn. To walk here we all must be brave of heart.
The next steps Jesus takes are laying down stones, forging a new path for His disciples to follow. He has to tell them, it is only fair that they know.
“After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.'” John 13:21
This was ludicrous! Who would dare?
“Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him.” John 13:26-27
The path was set. It wouldn’t be long now. Satan had waited. Satan’s conversation with Jesus in the desert was just a test. It was a test to see if Jesus could be swayed in His malleable earthly form but Jesus was more than that. So much more. So betrayal was the way. Satan had experience in betrayal. Lots of it, all the way back to when he had betrayed the God who created him. Judas Iscariot did as his Master said.
“And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me’. In the same way, after the supper He took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.'” Luke 22:19-20
Once again, Jesus lavishes His love on His disciples. What holy moments we now experience in our communion because of Jesus’ love for His disciples. We partake because we need to remember.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34
So many things Jesus needs for them to know. These last moments are not just pouring wine but life into them in every way He can. How do you end an evening like this… in song, of course. Have you ever wondered what they sang? Some Passover hymn probably. Something they all knew. Something that bound them as Jews with a rich heritage as the children of God. How appropriate.
Their bellies were full. Their minds were full. It was time to take a walk.
We know where they walked. The Garden of Gethsemane, peaceful, beautiful, fragrant and holy because Jesus’ chose it to be. It is here that Jesus’ submits to His Father’s plan of salvation. He, in heart-wrenching agony, asks one more time if there is another way to save those He loves now and for eternity. There is a reckoning that sin has to be atoned. That Passover lambs are not enough. They will never be enough.
None of them knew that this was the end of the earthly path that they would walk together. The betrayer would come and with a fatal kiss turn Him over to the guards of the high priest. Jesus would be ripped from their midst in chaos and confusion. They would all scatter in fear, running for their lives.
Jesus would be taken before the Sanhedrin. Testimony after testimony would be given but none of them agreed. There was no evidence to condemn Him. Until…“Again the high priest asked Him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed one?'” Mark 14:61b
“I am,” said Jesus. Mark 14:62a
Jesus’ personal confession of His divinity was counted as blasphemy. They condemned Him to death. He was spit upon, beat with fist and stick. Bloodied and exhausted, Jesus walked into His captors arms. There was no other way.
I don’t know how long or how far Jesus’ disciples ran but when they stopped the world was different. The straight path they had always walked with Jesus was now a twisted, thorny path before them. Peter’s even more so. He would do the unthinkable. He would do just as Jesus had said. He would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed twice. The devastating despair, fear and grief they must have all felt! The bread like a stone in their stomachs and the wine like vinegar.
I cannot hasten to judge. I did not walk this path. We only vicariously trod via verses in our Holy book. The sadness that overwhelms me at the end of this journey today is lightened because I know what is coming.
Take heart, my friends. Let us walk from here today doing as the Lord commands.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34
Tomorrow will be a hard day but join me anyway. We don’t have to walk it alone; let’s walk together.
Love,
Laura Lea
