It Was Just A Room

Matthew 26 17On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

Lord Jesus--From the disciples view, this was just another passover...the festive season coming and preparations needed to be made. There were vague warnings of future malefaction from the Master but it was not clear. There were tensions within the group that were ill defined.What is up with Judas?

What the group knew for sure was that the Master would celebrate the high feast that remembered the exodus from slavery and the protection of God's people during the process.

18He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.' " 19So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

Lord Jesus--There are so many details that we just don't know. What was the name of the person whose house was so central to the story...where was it? How did you know this unidentified man. Would his life have been in danger if it had been known?

You referred to yourself as the teacher...and with a level of familiarity. There is an assumption in the question asked that the answer would be yes. Was he a follower maybe from a bit of a distance? I wonder if he and Nicodemus ran in the same crowds.

Was he a part of the 120 that would draw ranks and form in the days just after your hiatus back to the Father? He was willing to have his home a center of the action for a significant period of time. I wonder if the Jerusalem church continue to meet in the upper room even after Pentecost? Did he ever get his house back? I have a feeling that it really didn't matter at all. If the Master needed, whatever he had, it was already His.

The owner of the upper room was not identified...but it was an open secret to the people of the group. The people in early church did not need to have him named. They knew him. The open secret would serve to keep him safe in the coming years. It would only be a few years until it would not be safe to be identified as a follower of the Master.

Lord Jesus-- The more that I think about it...I want to be like this unnamed owner of a house in the right place at the right time. I want it to be assumed that whatever I have access to is yours without their ever being a direction question asked about it.

I want it to be an open secret that whatever you need I will give even if it radically alters the way that life flows for the near term and the long term in my life. Even if the open secret obscures my role as time progresses.

I am thinking that this man's extra room at the top of the stairs and it's use were matters of holy pride...a reminder of right choices made at the right time. This room was a tangible place where this man could point to in his life where he had been used by the Holy.

What more could I ask for?After all it is just a bit of room that you want...room in my house...room in my heart...room in my time...room and the opportunity to bring the Holy into the everyday.

Lord Jesus--Use my everyday and by that use make it different, changed and somehow holy.