Reflections for Holy Week 4: Maundy Thursday - the man with a jar of water

 

‘On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

[Mark 14.12-15]

 

Let’s be clear, men don’t carry water jars, that woman’s work! So why was I walking around Jerusalem in the middle of the afternoon carrying a water jar?

 

I had been a follower of Jesus for a while, not that my parents knew of course, my father was involved in the politics of the Temple, and he would have gone ballistic if he knew that I was following this Jesus fellow. But it was clear to me that he would be the one to restore Israel’s fortunes.

 

Word had come down to me from Judas that Jesus needed somewhere in the city to celebrate the Passover, could I help? Of course, I could I said, I know just the place, not too far from the Temple or that garden everyone calls Gethsemane, an nice little room if you don’t mind the sound of the lambs being slaughtered for the Passover sacrifice. All I had to do was guide Jesus’s friends to the room, and it had to be done furtively because Jesus was already in all sorts of trouble due to his actions in the Temple, clearing away the money changers and all.

 

So here I was, doing woman’s work on one of the busiest days of the week, in the busiest city in the country. I just hope no one notices.

 

…

 

Later than night dad came home proclaiming that they’d finally got him! Jesus was in the high Priest’s house under arrest! Of course I knew this already, I’d been there in the Garden watching, and had only just managed to escape by the skin of my teeth! (Quite literally as I’d left my clothes behind* when someone grabbed hold of me in the melee.)

 

Who had told them where he was I don’t know? I just hope they don’t find out about me. There’s no where I can escape to, and the place is crawling with soldiers and Temple officials encouraging people to go to courtyard outside Pilate’s palace for something big they’re saying. I think I’ll keep my head down and see what happens next. Someone might recognise me. It’s not often you see a man carrying a water jar!!

 

* ‘A young man followed [Jesus into the Garden where he had gone to pray, and where he was arrested he was], wearing nothing but a linen cloth; and they seized the young man, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked’. [Mark 14.51-2]