Places of the Passion: The Upper Room

Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

In the upper room, the focus is not on the table that is set before us, but it's still there. The disciples and Jesus have come together to celebrate the Passover meal. It was the one event in the whole year that was the pinnacle. It was the one celebration that one had to be at because, wrapped up in the Passover, it was so much of their history, so much of their tradition, and so much of their faith and belief in God's grace and mercy. The Passover celebration celebrated the fact that God had rescued them out of the hands of the Egyptians and had led them into the promise land, that when the angel of death came over and the angel saw the blood of the lamb on the door post and on the top, the angel passed over demonstrating God's mercy, God's grace upon His people.

So they come to celebrate this meal, but Jesus surprises them a little bit. More than just celebrating the Passover meal, this meal is going to have another special significance to it because Jesus reveals to them, "This is the last time I will celebrate the Passover with you. Not until I come again and I establish my kingdom will I eat it again." So all of a sudden, the Passover meal becomes a farewell supper, a farewell to Jesus because Jesus will be leaving them.

It takes on many of the characteristics of what we would think of as a farewell dinner. You and I have had them. Maybe a friend takes a promotion and he's transferred to Kansas City or over to Chicago, to the Twin Cities, and usually you get together for a meal and you celebrate with them and you also feel sadness because they're leaving. Or maybe it's when the newly retired couple decides they're going to move south or out west for warmer weather, so you get together with them for one last time. You talk about the past and the good times you've had. You talk about the present a little bit, where they're at with their packing and what's going on. And you talk about the future, the opportunity that lies ahead of them and maybe even dreaming about when the two of you can get back together again. That's a farewell meal.

All of those elements are here tonight as Jesus gathers with His disciples. He talks a little bit about the past and the ministry they have had together. He talks about the present situation they're in, and He talks about the future and tries to equip them with that. So it is indeed a farewell supper of Jesus with His disciples. But there are some strange happenings at this farewell supper. There are some strange things that are happening in this upper room. This room should be a place that's filled with grace and it's filled with love for, after all, they're sitting down with the Son of God. After all, they're celebrating the Passover and all of its meaning. They're celebrating the friendship they have with Jesus. This should be almost a sacred place in this upper room and yet when you read Luke's account, what do you find? You find deception. You find divisiveness, and you find denial. It just doesn't fit. The contrast is so great. There is this sacred meal set before them and Jesus in their midst, and we have deceitfulness, divisiveness, denial going on? Satan wanting to sift them like wheat, wanting to take a hold of them? And yet that is what's happening. You have Judas who is over here in the corner trying to not really be noticed by anyone else. He's really trying to deceive everyone in the room. He's deceiving everyone but Jesus because Jesus knows that Judas has now sold him out, that for 30 pieces of silver, that's all that Jesus' life was worth to him. But Judas is deceiving the other eleven. They don't think anything's wrong. Maybe Judas is just in one of his moods and he's going to sit in the corner and sulk. Deceitfulness in the midst of this room. Over in another corner, you have a group of disciples and they're starting to argue with one another. You can almost listen to what they're saying. "Well, don't you remember when I cast that demon out when we were in that one city? Tell me, could you do anything like that? You couldn't handle it, but I could." "Well, yeah, do you remember when I defended our Lord when that one Pharisee came up?" Arguing among themselves who was better than the other disciple, who was greater than the other disciple, who was more deserving of special honor when Jesus finally established His kingdom. Divisiveness. Arguments.

And then you have Peter. Peter, I imagine, is close to Jesus. He was one of His closer friends. You can almost see Peter almost with a smug look on his face, looking around, thinking, "What is going on here?" And then Jesus looks at Peter and says; "Satan will sift you like wheat, Peter, but don't worry. I'll pray for you, and you'll come back." And what does Peter say? Does Peter say, "Oh, Lord, no, forbid that." Or "Don't let that happen, Lord." Or "I can't believe that's going. . ." No. In arrogance, Peter says, "No, Lord, I'm not going to do that. I'd go to prison. I would die with you, Lord." That's how arrogant Peter is at this point. He basically tells Jesus that He doesn't know what He's talking about. He denies what Jesus tells Him to be true. So here in this sacred place, in this place of this supper, and at Jesus' farewell, you have deceitfulness, divisiveness, and denial.

What was true then is true today. Here we are gathered in God's house. This is to be a place in which God comes to meet us. His presence is here, we believe. This entire building, what do we span, two blocks, is all dedicated to God and to His ministry. From one end to the next, it stands for forgiveness. It stands for grace and mercy and love and acceptance. That's what this place is. It's to be a sacred place, a holy place. How often in this sacred place do we find deceitfulness, divisiveness, denial? How often, as you pass through the narthex and down the hallway, do you hear arguments going on, cross words between members? How often is their deceitfulness going on as we lie about things that we know not to be true, but we don't want to be embarrassed so we say something just to cover up? How often is there denial going on, denial about what's really happening in our lives, denial about what we believe? Where does it all stem from? How could it happen in this upper room and how can it happen here in God's house? It stems from one root cause. We start looking inward instead of looking outward.

The disciples were more concerned about themselves than they were the ministry that Jesus had given them. Judas was concerned because he was in debt and he needed money. So what for the ministry. So what for the Messiah. So what for the other eleven. He thought only of himself and his needs. The disciples that were arguing among themselves, thinking of only about their needs, only about the fact that they wanted to have a prestigious place in God's kingdom. And Peter? Peter wanted to stay as Jesus' right-hand man, couldn't even comprehend that he would do anything against Jesus. All of them were looking inward. All of them were looking at their own needs, their own wants, and not looking outward. Not looking out for each other and not looking out at the ministry that Jesus had called them to.

As it was then, so it is today. When we start looking inward and all we care about is our needs and our wants and stop looking outward at the needs of others and the ministry that we share, the same deceitfulness, divisiveness, and denial that was in place in this room takes place in this holy place. When we start looking at only our needs and only what our wants are, are we concerned about other people? Sure, we're concerned about other people as long as they don't interfere with me. Are we concerned about guests and visitors coming to us? Certainly we're concerned about them. They just better not sit in my pew. And they best not ask me to change the way I worship. Are we concerned about fellow members? Certainly we are, but they better not reserve the same room that I want for Saturday night at 7:00 because then we'll have words.

When we look inward to our own needs and our own wants, it only spells disaster. It did for the upper room. The disciples were caught in all kinds of things, and the devil was having a good time with each and every one of them. The only thing that saved them was Jesus in that room because Jesus would not be sidetracked as the disciples were sidetracked. Jesus was on a one-road mission. Jesus did not enter that open room looking for His own needs to be met and, trust me, He had many at that point looking ahead to the cross. But He walked into that room wanting to meet the needs of those twelve disciples. And He wanted to meet the needs of each one of them.

Judas, who had sold Him out for 30 pieces of silver, and yet Jesus reaches out to him at the table, did He not? He gave him a chance to come back. The disciples are arguing among themselves over everything that's happening and who's the greatest in the kingdom. So Jesus comes over to them and says, "This is not how the kingdom is. It's not a matter about who is the greatest, because the greatest among you will be the least among you." He says, "Wait a minute. Let me prove it to you." He walks over, and He grabs a towel. He puts it on His shoulder, and He grabs a basin of water. He bends down, and He washes their feet. This is the Son of God. This is their Rabbi. But He says the greatest must be the least. "Living in this world in My kingdom isn't a matter of who has more power and authority. It's not about your needs. It's about meeting the needs of others." And even to Peter who is sitting next to Him and Peter who He knows is going to deny Him three times Jesus says, "Peter, I have already prayed for you. And, Peter, I know you're going to turn back to me. So go ahead and just strengthen the other disciples when you do that."

Jesus came into this upper room not looking for His needs to be met, but He wanted to meet the needs of the disciples. Jesus comes to us tonight not looking for His needs to be met, but He has come looking to meet your needs. Just as He came into the midst of the sin of that room, so He comes into the sin of this place and all of our failures and all of our shortcomings, all of our deceitfulness and divisiveness and denial, all of our selfishness, and Jesus comes into this place seeking to meet our needs. So He comes to us in this sacred place and when the altar is set as a table, He comes to us with His body and His blood and He says, "All of your sins are forgiven. All the divisiveness is forgotten. All of the deceit is a distant memory." He comes to us in His word, and He tells us of the life that we have in Him and the joy that we can have and the purpose we have while we're in this world. He comes to us seeking to meet each and every one of our needs.

And then Jesus says to us, "As I have come to meet your needs, now you go and meet the needs of others." As Jesus came to serve us, Jesus says now we are to serve one another. As Jesus is willing to meet us in any place of our life and serve us, so Jesus says in every place that we find ourselves, we also are to serve others, to be that display of His grace and His love to everyone we come into contact with. Jesus took this upper room, and He turned it into a place of service.

Jesus takes this beautiful sanctuary and the wonderful building we have, and He makes it a place of service, a place in which He can meet the needs of people. And Jesus invites you to make your places a place of service, to make your home a place of service, to make your schools a place of service, to make where you work a place of service, that no matter where you are, there is an opportunity not to think inward but to think outward, not to think about how you can be served but how you can serve others.

Jesus took a farewell meal and turned it into a place of service. And Jesus invites us to take every place we are and turn it into a place of service. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church