Scripture Daily

Context No. 1111 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 14:12-16: in context

12On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?” 13He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and there a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him, 14and wherever he enters in, tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 15He will himself show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Get ready for us there.” 16His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found things as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

On the day of Passover, the disciples ask Jesus where they should prepare the meal. He gives them oddly precise instructions: go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and tell the owner of the house he enters, the Teacher asks where the guest room is. He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready; prepare it there. The two disciples go, find everything exactly as Jesus said, and prepare the Passover.

Two things quietly stand out. First, Jesus' knowledge of what lay ahead, down to a man carrying a water jar, unusual since carrying water was women's work, so he would stand out, and a room already furnished and ready. Nothing about the last night was left to chance; the Lord who was walking knowingly toward the cross had also arranged the room where he would give his disciples the bread and cup that explained his death. He is not swept along by events; he is quietly ordering them. Second, the disciples' part was simple obedience to instructions they did not fully understand. Go into the city, follow the man with the jar, ask for the room, and they found it as he had said. They did not need to know how Jesus knew, or why; they needed only to go and do, and the provision was already there, arranged ahead of them. There is a pattern in that for following God: often we are given a next step that seems strange and are not shown the whole picture, and when we simply obey, we find that what we needed was prepared before we arrived. The room was ready; they only had to go and find it.

When God gives me a next step I do not fully understand, do I simply go and obey, trusting that what I need has already been prepared ahead of me, as the upper room was ready?

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