The Gospel for this Sunday, Corpus Christi Sunday, Year B, comes from the events of Holy Week leading up to the Last Supper, and during the Last Supper. The missing verses are about Jesus arriving with the Twelve to the upper room and about who will betray Him.
It is the way the circumstances of the Last Supper were arranged that have caught my attention. Compare it to the circumstances of the birth of Jesus.
In Bethlehem Joseph and Mary were among the last of the descendants of David to arrive for the census. They had trouble finding anywhere to stay, and ended up in a stable of sorts.
Just outside Jerusalem, it is the day the Passover lambs are sacrificed, and there’s just enough time to get the lamb back from the Temple, and then roast it in time for the Passover meal.
By then, you would think all the best Passover meal locations would have been taken, most of them booked every year in advance by the same families. Yet Jesus is completely unconcerned. He knows His Heavenly Father has this covered.
Jesus is facing His final hours on earth and this momentous meal with the kind of trust a child has that if he falls backwards his daddy will immediately catch him. These moments are so precious and have been foretold in the scriptures, that Jesus has confidence that every detail will be utterly perfect.
The two disciples are shown a large upper room. What we translate as large is written as ‘mega’ in the Greek. We know from Pentecost that 120 people fitted comfortably inside it.
The whole place is prepared, it is clean, the tables, couches, lamps, crockery, condiments etc are all ready – which would have taken many, many hours of preparation. And it would be palace quality, not stable quality. Amongst it all would be fine details to surprise and delight the participants, calling forth memories from past Passovers that they hadn’t shared with each other before, and also referencing many aspects of the salvific history of the family of Abraham.
Reading between the lines, the only thing missing is the lamb (and The Lamb).
All of which means that the disciples can get back to Jesus rather quickly - and miss as few of these precious moments with Jesus as possible; and that Jesus has them close to Him for as long as possible.
That’s the stunning kind of provident care the Father worked behind the scenes for Jesus.
It is an important place. It is the location of the Last Supper. It is where the disciples will gradually return to after they have been scattered by the events of the Passion. It is where many appearances of the risen Jesus will take place. It is where Pentecost begins. We shouldn’t be surprised that the Father chose it with great care, and caused it to be available and ready for all of these sublime purposes.
This is how the heart of the Father operates.
His standard operating procedure.
If only we have eyes to see, and hearts to notice and appreciate.
We can be assured that our heavenly Father has the details of our last meals and last conversations with our loved ones already taken care of. He is the absolute best at preparing perfect endings.
We can choose to trust in Him, and to let Him take care of all the details of our lives far better than we could ever do ourselves.
He’s waiting for us to let Him do this.
May His tender care inspire us to have that same level of utter confidence that Jesus had. Amen.
It is the way the circumstances of the Last Supper were arranged that have caught my attention. Compare it to the circumstances of the birth of Jesus.
In Bethlehem Joseph and Mary were among the last of the descendants of David to arrive for the census. They had trouble finding anywhere to stay, and ended up in a stable of sorts.
Just outside Jerusalem, it is the day the Passover lambs are sacrificed, and there’s just enough time to get the lamb back from the Temple, and then roast it in time for the Passover meal.
By then, you would think all the best Passover meal locations would have been taken, most of them booked every year in advance by the same families. Yet Jesus is completely unconcerned. He knows His Heavenly Father has this covered.
Jesus is facing His final hours on earth and this momentous meal with the kind of trust a child has that if he falls backwards his daddy will immediately catch him. These moments are so precious and have been foretold in the scriptures, that Jesus has confidence that every detail will be utterly perfect.
The two disciples are shown a large upper room. What we translate as large is written as ‘mega’ in the Greek. We know from Pentecost that 120 people fitted comfortably inside it.
The whole place is prepared, it is clean, the tables, couches, lamps, crockery, condiments etc are all ready – which would have taken many, many hours of preparation. And it would be palace quality, not stable quality. Amongst it all would be fine details to surprise and delight the participants, calling forth memories from past Passovers that they hadn’t shared with each other before, and also referencing many aspects of the salvific history of the family of Abraham.
Reading between the lines, the only thing missing is the lamb (and The Lamb).
All of which means that the disciples can get back to Jesus rather quickly - and miss as few of these precious moments with Jesus as possible; and that Jesus has them close to Him for as long as possible.
That’s the stunning kind of provident care the Father worked behind the scenes for Jesus.
It is an important place. It is the location of the Last Supper. It is where the disciples will gradually return to after they have been scattered by the events of the Passion. It is where many appearances of the risen Jesus will take place. It is where Pentecost begins. We shouldn’t be surprised that the Father chose it with great care, and caused it to be available and ready for all of these sublime purposes.
This is how the heart of the Father operates.
His standard operating procedure.
If only we have eyes to see, and hearts to notice and appreciate.
We can be assured that our heavenly Father has the details of our last meals and last conversations with our loved ones already taken care of. He is the absolute best at preparing perfect endings.
We can choose to trust in Him, and to let Him take care of all the details of our lives far better than we could ever do ourselves.
He’s waiting for us to let Him do this.
May His tender care inspire us to have that same level of utter confidence that Jesus had. Amen.
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