Israel Trip - The Upper Room

 

Entrance to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, with Shelby about the climb the stairs.

Our next stop on the tour was the Upper Room, where Yeshua held his last Pesach (Passover) Seder here on earth.  Christians call this event The Last Supper, but our Messiah was Jewish, and He was observing Pesach with his talmidim (disciples).  

You can read about this in Matthew 26 and Mark 14.  The quote from the book of Mark below is from the Complete Jewish Bible, which I highly recommend.  You can read this version at  Bible Gateway.

¹² On the first day for matzah, when they slaughtered the lamb for Pesach, Yeshua’s talmidim asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare your Seder?” ¹³ He sent two of his talmidim with these instructions: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him; ¹⁴ and whichever house he enters, tell him that the Rabbi says, ‘Where is the guest room for me, where I am to eat the Pesach meal with my talmidim?’ ¹⁵ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make the preparations there.” ¹⁶ The talmidim went off, came to the city and found things just as he had told them they would be; and they prepared the Seder.

The two pictures below are the room where Yeshua held the Seder with his talmidim. It is a beautiful space, but I don't imagine it looked exactly like this during His time there.   

 

The tree pictured above was a bit strange, and our tour guide did not have an explanation for it.  

I imagined Yeshua, here with His talmidim, going through the Seder.  I don't think a Christian believer knows the full impact of that evening unless they've attended a Jewish Passover Seder.  Each year, when we go through it, I think about this room.  I visited it the first time in 1996 and attended my first Seder within the next year.  I encourage you to learn more about the Passover Seder HERE on my blog.

Can you imagine the reaction of the talmidim when He said, "This is my body,"as He held up the matzah and, "This is my blood" when He held up the cup of wine?

They'd gone through the Seder all of their lives and had remembered G-d's delivering Israel from Egypt by their killing a lamb and putting the blood over their doorposts.  By obedience to G-d's command, the spirit of death passed over Egypt that night, and spared those with blood on their doors. 

Yeshua was saying, "By acknowledging Me as the lamb, you will be saved from eternal death."   

He lifted up the matzah, which is bread made without leaven, and said, "This is my body."  Leaven represents sin. He was without sin, and He doesn't want sin in our lives.  The matzah reminds us of this each year at the Seder. We are to be holy, as He is holy. 

Yeshua is our Passover Lamb.  His blood will take away the sins of the world, but that blood must be applied individually.  The children of Israel had to follow G-d's instructions by putting the blood over the door in order to be saved. 

I am quite certain they did not understand Yeshua's words at the Seder that night, but as events unfolded in the days that followed, His meaning became clear.

This begs the question:  Is there sin in my/your life?  If so, have I/you applied His blood for forgiveness? I pray we will listen to and obey G-d's commands.

My next post will be about our visit to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane.  I hope you'll come back by.
~~~~
I'm linking up today with:

 Spiritual Sunday

The Gathering Spot Link-Up
GRAND Social

Modest Mom Monday Link-up  Meet-Up Monday

Growing Homemakers Link-Up

Titus 2 Tuesday 

Tuesdays with a Twist  Share Your Stuff Tuesday

A Hope in Every Season Homemaking Link-Up   Wordless Wednesdays 

Winsome Wednesday

A Wise Woman Builds
Whole Hearted Wednesday 
Wake Up Wednesday

Jenny Marie's Wordless Wednesday 


Favorite Things 
Hearts for Home 

Fab Creative Friday
Friendship Friday 
Freedom Friday