Mark 14:15

Mar_14:13; Mar_14:15

Go ye into the city.

The finding the guest chamber

We might expect that Christ, knowing to how great effort the faith of His followers was about to be called, would, in His compassionate earnestness for their welfare, keep their faith in exercise up to the moment of the dreaded separation. He would find or make occasions for trying and testing the principles which were soon to be brought to so stern a proof. Did He do this? And how did He do it? We regard the circumstances which are now under review, those connected with the finding the guest chamber in which the last supper might be eaten, as an evidence and illustration of Christs exercising the faith of His disciples. Was it not exercising the faith of Peter and John-for these, the more distinguished of the disciples, were employed on the errand-to send them into the city with such strange and desultory directions? There were so many chances, if the word may be used, against the guest chamber being found through the circuitous method prescribed by our Lord, that we could not have wondered had Peter and John showed reluctance to obey His command. And we do not doubt that what are called the chances were purposely multiplied by Christ to make the finding the room seem more improbable, and therefore to give faith the greater exercise. Again, there would have been risk enough of mistake or repulse in accosting the man with the pitcher; but this man was only to be followed; and he might stop at many houses before he reached the right. But Christ would not be more explicit, because, in proportion as He had been more explicit, there would have been less exercise for faith. And if you imagine that, after all, it was no great demand on the faith of Peter and John that they should go on so vague an errand-for that much did not hinge on their finding the right place, and they had but to return if anything went wrong-we are altogether at issue with you. There was something that looked degrading and ignoble in the errand, which required more courage and fortitude than to undertake some signal enterprise. And the apparent meanness of an employment will often try faith more than its apparent difficulty; the exposure to ridicule and contempt will require greater moral nerve than the exposure to danger and death. We believe that it is very frequently ordered that faith should be disciplined and nurtured for its hardest endurances, and its highest achievements, through exposure to petty inconveniences, collisions with mere rudeness, the obloquy of the proud, the sneer of the supercilious, and the incivility of the ignorant. Nowhere is faith so well disciplined as in humble occupations; it grows great through little tasks, and may be more exercised by being left to the menial business of a servant than by being summoned to the lofty standing of a leader. And we do earnestly desire of you to bear this in mind; for men, who are not appointed to great achievements and endurances, are very apt to feel as though there were not enough in the trials and duties of a lowly station for the nurture and exercise of high Christian graces. Whereas, if it were by merely following a man bearing a pitcher of water that apostles were trained for the worst onsets of evil, there may be no such school for the producing strong faith as that in which the lessons are of the most everyday kind. But there is more than this to be said in regard of the complicated way in which Christ directed His disciples to the guest chamber where He had determined to eat the last supper. He was not only exercising the faith of the disciples by sending them on an errand which seemed unnecessarily intricate, and to involve great exposure to insult and repulse-He was giving strung evidence of His thorough acquaintance with everything that was to happen, and of His power over the minds whether of strangers or of friends. You must consider it as a prophecy on the part of Christ that the man would be met bearing a pitcher of water. It was a prophecy which seemed to take delight in putting difficulties in the way of its own precise accomplishment. It would not have been accomplished by the mere finding the house-it would have been defeated had the house been found through any other means than the meeting the man, or had the man been discovered through any other sign than the pitcher of water; yea, and it would have been defeated, defeated in the details, which were given, as it might have seemed, with such unnecessary and perilous minuteness, if the master of the house had made the least objection, or if it had not been an upper room which he showed the disciples; or if that room had not been large; or if it had not been furnished and prepared. And whatever tended to prove to the disciples their Masters thorough acquaintance with every future contingency, ought to have tended to the preparing them for the approaching days of disaster and separation. Besides, it was beautifully adapted to the circumstances of the disciples that Christ showed that His foreknowledge extended to trifles. These disciples were likely to imagine that, being poor and mean persons, they should be overlooked by Christ when separated from them, and, perhaps, exalted to glory. But that His eye was threading the crowded thoroughfares of the city, that it was noting a servant with a pitcher of water, observing accurately when this servant left his masters house, when he reached the well, and when he would be at a particular spot on his way back-this was not merely foreknowledge; this was foreknowledge applying itself to the insignificant and unknown. Then, again, observe that whatever power was here put forth by Christ was put forth without His being in contact with the party on whom it was exerted. Christ acted, that is, upon parties who were at a distance from Him, thus giving incontrovertible proof that His visible presence was not necessary in order to the exercise of His power. What a comfort should this have been to the disciples. It is easy to imagine how, when His death was near at hand, Christ might have wrought miracles and uttered prophecies more august in their character. He might have darkened the air with portents and prodigies, but there would not have been in these gorgeous or appalling displays the sort of evidence which was needed by disquieted and dispirited men. But to ourselves, who are looking for the guest chamber, not as the place where the Paschal lamb may be eaten, but as that where Christ is to give of His own body and blood, the pitcher of water may well serve as a memento that it is baptism which admits us into Christian privileges; that they who find a place at the supper of the Lord must have met the man with the water, and have followed that man-must have been presented to the minister of the Church, and have received from Him the initiatory sacrament, and then have submitted meekly to the guidance of the Church, till introduced to those deeper recesses of the sanctuary where Christ spreads His rich banquet for such as call upon His name. Thus may there have been, in the directions for finding the guest chamber, a standing intimation of the process through which should be sought an entrance to that upper room, where Christ and His members shall finally sit down, that they may eat together at the marriage supper. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Providential meetings

There are no chance meetings in this world. They all are providential. They are in Gods plan. On many of them great possibilities hinge. You enter a railroad car, and take your seat among strangers. A proffered courtesy brings you into conversation with a fellow traveller. An acquaintance is the result. Years of helpful Christian co-work follow in the train of that first meeting. You visit a place of winter resort for health seekers. At the dinner table you meet a man unknown to you until then. An entire change in the aim and conduct of his life is one consequence of that meeting; and his labours for good may be far more effective than yours in your whole lifetime. You look in upon a celebrated preparatory school, where two hundred young men are at their studies. One face impresses you. Your meeting with him affects your course and his for all time, and involves the interests of a multitude. Your meeting of another young man in a Sunday school where you are present only for that one session has more influence over his life than all other agencies combined-and scarcely less over yours. You may even meet on the street one whom you wished not to see, one whom at that moment you were seeking to avoid; and as a result more lives than one are affected in all their human course, and in their highest spiritual interests. All these illustrations are real incidents; and there are thousands like them. It behooves us to consider well our duty in every meeting with another. We can fail to improve our opportunity and lose a blessing. We can fill our place just then, and have reason to rejoice eternally that we did so. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do-when next I meet one whom thou hast planned for me to see? (Sunday School Times.)

The Masters question

The Master saith! Has the charm of the Masters name vanished in these latter days? Are we, men and women of the nineteenth century, children of a modern life and civilization which is ever extending itself with feverish restlessness and painful throes of new birth, are we grown familiar with strange voices, with forces unknown in that ancient world, and those ancient days spent under the blue Syrian sky; are we become superior to the claims, the force, the beauty, and the authority of a great personal life? Have we relegated Jesus of Nazareth merely to a place, however great, in the development of history? Is He merely the product of social forces and political and historical traditions? The Master saith! Being dead, doth He yet speak; yet so as through the faint vibrations of memory-of memory which grows weaker as the ages roll behind us into the eternity of the past; or is it a living voice still which I hear-a voice which no results of time can shake with the tremulousness of age? Do not our own hearts-we who have become disciples, we who, constrained by a force which we could not resist, have exclaimed, Master, Thou art the Christ who hast conquered me, Thou art the Christ who hast died for me-do not our own hearts passionately exclaim, He liveth still to make intercession for us, and to rule us with the supremacy of perfect love? Will ye also admit the Master within? Will ye hear Him? Will ye let Him talk with you? This night, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bring the word to you also: The Master saith! The voices of all His disciples are but weak echoes of the mightier and abiding voice which is His. The Master saith! But where? Hath His voice a local habitation and a name? Doth He reach me through the channel of my senses, or how doth He touch my living spirit? It is here that the Master saith!-even now. These poor temples of ours, they are for the most part but shapeless structures of stone and lime, yet they are clothed with the spiritual and unfading beauty of a Divine guest chamber; a voice which is not my voice overpowers my struggling will, subdues by gentle and beautiful processes my efforts to make my own will my law and arbiter of duty, and speaks through me. And most of all is it of infinite moment to know that there is one called Master, and who does speak. This is what I need to know and feel. In Jesus of Nazareth life and duty are reconciled. In Him I recognize the Master whom I need. To Him, in whom gentleness was so perfectly blended with strength, I come, craving to touch but the hem of His garment, contented in that I have seen my Lord. The Master saith! If His voice is the voice of an authority, sublimely enforced through self-denial, patience, gentleness, suffering, and death, why should I crave more? Shall I not say, It is enough; He calleth me, and I must answer? He bids me arise, and I must arise. For me the highest virtue is obedience, for it is the Master who saith. (J. Vickery.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 14:15. Ἀνάγαιον μέγα, a large supper-room [upper room]) It is probable, that Jesus had before this kept the passover in the houses of other inhabitants of the city; but this Passover Himself celebrated [marking it] with greater solemnity.—ἐστρωμένον, laid out) with carpets. This householder had been guided by Divine Providence. This circumstance illustrates the omniscience of Jesus, more than if it had been laid out (paved) with precious stones.—ἑτοιμάσατε, make ready). The verb is neuter; Luk 9:52.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 14:15 . ἀνάγαιον ( ἀνά , γαῖα = γῆ ), a room above the earth, an upper room. μέγα , large, enough for the company. ἐστρωμένον , furnished with table-cushions. ἕτοιμον , perhaps a synonym for ἐστρωμένον = furnished, all ready; possibly pointing to the removal of leaven (C.G.T.).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Greek word signifieth that part of the house that is highest from the ground, to what use soever it be put, but because they used to sup in that part of the house, they called it a supping chamber.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 15. Furnished] Spread with carpets - εστρωμενον - so this word is often used. See WAKEFIELD. But it may also signify the couches on which the guests reclined when eating. It does not appear that the Jews ate the passover now, as their fathers did formerly, standing, with their shoes on, and their staves in their hands.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(15) Furnished and prepared.—The first word implied that it was not a bare, empty chamber, but set out with cushions or divans, on which the guests could recline; the second, that it was specially arranged for the Paschal Supper of that evening.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. a large upper room furnished] “a greet souping place strewid,” Wyclif. The guest-chamber was on the upper floor, ready, and provided with couches, as the custom of reclining at meals required. We may conclude also from the word prepared that the searching for and putting away of every particle of leaven (1Co_5:7), so important a preliminary to the Passover, and performed in perfect silence and with a lighted candle, had been already carried out.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he will show you a large upper room,.... A room in the highest part of the house, large enough for such a company, for thirteen persons, which was the number of Christ and his disciples:

furnished and prepared; with a table, and a sufficient number of couches to sit, or lie upon, and with all proper vessels necessary on such an occasion:

there make ready for us; the passover.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.

Ver. 15. {See Trapp on "Mat 26:18"} {See Trapp on "Mat 26:19"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he will himself show you a large upper room furnished and ready. He himself, that is, the goodman of the house; perhaps John Mark. This upper room was furnished and ready (estrwmenon etoimon); furnished, that is, with table and couches and tapestry, and in all respects ready for the purpose.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Furnished - The word properly means, spread with carpets.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Make the preparations for us there

They were to prepare the meal for Jesus and his disciples to eat. AT: "Prepare the meal for us there" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

The disciples left

"The two disciples left"

as he had said

"as Jesus had said"

translationWords

Passover

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

15. αὐτὸς ὑμῖν δείξει. A further note of prescience. The man will himself conduct the disciples to the upper room, which will be found in complete order, set out with rugs on the couches. This might mean no more than that the man was certain that the room would be required by some one for the Paschal meal; but it looks as if “the Master” had bespoken a room.

ἀνάγαιον. Anything raised above the ground, “upper floor” (Xen. Anab. V. iv. 29), upper room. MSS. vary much in spelling; ἀνόγαιον, ἀνώγεων, ἀνώγεως, ἀνώγαιον, ἀνώγεον, but the best MSS. have ἀνάγαιον, which is confirmed by papyri with καταγαίῳ, κατάγειον. The word was originally an adj. and it is so treated in [3321] ἀνάγαιον οἶκον. The Latin renderings vary also; cenaculum (Vulg.), medianum (a), pede plano locum (b), in superioribus locum (c e), superiorem domum (d in Lk.).

[3321] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15.] In the midst of a verbal accordance with Luke we have here inserted ἕτοιμον, indicating that the guest-chamber was already prepared for the celebration of the Passover, as would indeed be probable at this time in Jerusalem. The disciples had therefore only to get ready the Passover itself.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. καὶ αὐτὸς ὑμῖν δείξει ἀνάγαιον3 μέγα ἐστρώμενον ἕτοιμον· καὶ ἐκεὶ ἑτοιμάσατε ἡμῖν—and he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; and there prepare for us.

ἐστρωμένον—spread or strewn. It is used of making up a bed or couch, and here of making up, or furnishing a room with couches. καὶ ἐκεῖ ἑτοιμάσατε—καὶ connects ἑτοιμάσατε with ὑπάγετε, ἀκολουθήσατε, and εἴπατε.

ἀνάγαιον, instead of ἀνώγεον, Tisch. Treg. WH. א AB* CDEFGHKLPV Π. Insert καὶ before ἐκεὶ, Tisch. Treg. WH. א BCDL 346, two mss. Lat. Vet. Vulg.

Καὶ ἐξῆλθον οἱ μαθηταί, καὶ ἦλθον—And the disciples went out, and came.

Omit αὐτοῦ, his, after μαθηταί, Tisch. (Treg.) WH. RV. א BL Δ Egyptt.

AT THE PASSOVER, JESUS PREDICTS HIS BETRAYAL

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he [αυτος] . The Greek is more emphatic. "He will himself show you." So Rev. Probably the owner of the house was a disciple. Furnished [εστρωμενον] . Lit., strewed with carpets, and with couches properly spread.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.