Hey friends! Hope this finds you well. This is Leah. I’m one of the pastors here at Grace. I’m out here on one of my daily hikes with my dog, Simba, and daughter, Lake. My husband, Andrew, and I have actually gotten in the habit this season of taking two separate hikes throughout the day to allow on some alone time for the other, so that has been kind of nice. We’ve both been pretty busy with work, which we’re really grateful for, but it’s also left us super exhausted at the end of each day as we’re juggling tons of phone calls and online calls and of course parenting this little one in this season.

We are finding that getting out and getting into nature and moving our body in some capacity has been really grounding for us. So we are hanging in there and we are grateful for the blessings that we are able to find in this season of uncertainty, fear, and news cycle after news cycle.

We are finding ourselves welcoming this Holy Week as we look to the cross and Good Friday and to the hope of the resurrection this Easter Sunday. Especially in this season where it feels like we, in our own hearts and lives, and for our friends, family and community and world, are so in need of hope right now – hope that is real and gritty and tangible for our lives.

The passage that I want to reflect on with you today is found in the gospel of Luke 22:7-13. And it’s at this point in the gospels where Jesus is coming to the end of his life and ministry, and he is making preparations for the Passover meal, which is of course where he has his famous last supper, his last precious moments he has with his disciples before he is taken and killed. Here is what the text says:

7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

So in this text we find that Jesus sends two of his disciples off with very specific instructions. Each gospel writer actually highlights a little bit of a different detail for how they are going to prepare the Passover meal and where they are going to have it. And so he sends them out, and they are supposed to look for a man with a water pitcher. Now that may seem like a rather hard sign to discover. Aren’t there many people carrying water pitchers at this this time? But actually, in this time it would be the women that would have been carrying pitchers because they were the one’s more likely retrieving water. But in this case, it’s a man…look at Jesus breaking gender stereotypes even then. So they are to approach this man, and he is to take them to his master’s house, and it would be there that they would set up for the Passover meal. So obviously, to some extent, we aren’t exactly sure what or how, but Jesus had prearranged this whole meeting and details for the disciples and he to enjoy this Passover.

The reason Jesus is so secretive about this is because of Judas’ betrayal, which he knows is coming. And so here he is trying to buy some time. Not avoid what is going to happen, but buy some time to be with his disciples.

And that’s the part for me that is so key.

He goes through serious lengths to carve out this time to meet and be with his disciples in these final hours. And we’ll find out in these next set of verses that he has instructions for them, but more than that, he has something to show them.

And his presence is a really important part of that.

And of course, there is great significance to this particular meal, being the Passover meal, which is a really significant meal for the Jewish people, as they remembered the way that God had redeemed them. And that’s a clue for us here that Jesus seems to be very intentional about. There’s a message here that he’s communicating. There’s a connection he’s making to sacrifice of the lamb and the sacrifice that he’s about to make.

(As you may have heard, Lake was getting a little fussy there at the end of our hike. So I had to come home and put her down for a nap. So, real life, here we are, you get to see my kitchen back at home).

But here’s the point that I think is true for us through this passage. Jesus cares about the details. God is present in the details.

And God uses very every day things to meet us and to be present to us. And that is exactly the message he is going to communicate to his disciples in the upper room during the Last Supper. He is going to be present to them, and not just them, but anyone that is going to follow him after his death. And so I think our encouragement in this, and a challenge for us, is to look for the ways that God is present to us in the details, and present to us in the everyday aspects of our lives. It’s there, in the everyday, that Jesus is seeking to be with us and redeem us. As we close, I have a prayer for us from the Book of Common prayer for this Wednesday of Holy Week.

Assist us mercifully with your grace, Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the meditation of those mighty acts by which you have promised us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen