April 8 - Gathered Around the Table

Mark 14:12-3 

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” (Mark 14:12)

This begins a miraculous chain of events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus tells them to go into the city and follow a man carrying a jar of water into a house and then ask the owner of the house for a guest room large enough for Him and the Disciples to share the Passover. The owner showed them a room upstairs, furnished and ready. It all played out as Jesus said. As will the next two days.

Family meals together around the dining room table have not been a regular practice for years, what with life getting so busy and complicated. Perhaps this year, for a few weeks at least, many of us are going back to a calmer and more peaceful time, instilling this practice once again. Family meals are a key function of a community and they were once a daily habit. It is around this table we discuss life, laugh, share our troubles and sometimes speak hard truths.

Jesus and His closest Disciples were family. They traveled together, lived together, laughed, and loved one another. Their mealtimes were probably boisterous gathering where the men shared their hearts with each other. Dinner was an event where discussion would turn to a difficult topic.

While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.” (Mark 12:18)

Such topics at our dinner tables might be about a lost job, or a cancelled vacation. This Last Supper the topic turned to the future. Jesus shared what was to come yet tonight.

“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:
“‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’(Mark 14:27)

But there is so much more to the story. Stay tuned...