First Stop! The Last Supper

First Stop! The Last Supper

Hello Friends!

How are you today? Can you believe that March has arrived! You only have about three more months of school–March, April, and May–until summer vacation! (Unless you have to make up all those adventurous snow days, then you may have to go a little longer.) Now that March has arrived, we, as a church, are beginning our own adventure that will last about forty-days–which seems like a very long time. Do any of you know what holiday the church is celebrating now? No, it’s not St. Patrick’s Day. That’s right; it’s Easter!

What do you know about Easter? Yep, Jesus died during Easter; Jesus died on a cross; Jesus was put in a tomb; and Jesus came back to life! Very good! And yes, we usually find Easter Eggs and eat lots of candy on Easter! Before we get to the Resurrection–to Jesus coming back to life–we have to make a few stops along the way. If you have every been on a vacation before and have made several stops along the way to see this thing or that thing, then our journey may sound and feel like that: we are going to make several stops along the way, seeing the places that Jesus was during his last few days of life here on earth, as we find ourselves at the cross of Jesus. Our first stop is the Upper Room!

The Upper Room is a place in Jerusalem where Jesus met with his friends–the disciples–before he went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. While in the Upper Room, Jesus and his friends sat on cushions on the floor while they ate from a very low table. They ate lamb, herbs, eggs, some sort of applesauce, flat (unleavened) bread, and drank grape juice. This meal was known as Passover. Passover is a Jewish celebration that reminds the Jewish people of their exile from being slaves to being set free from Pharaoh. But this particular meal wasn’t called the Passover per-se: it was called the Last Supper. Would you want lamb, eggs, and applesauce as your last supper?

This meal is called the Last Supper because it was the Last Supper that Jesus had with his friends in the Upper Room before he was taken by the Roman Soldiers–the bad guys. During this Last Supper, Jesus made a promise to his friends and to you that he will save you and protect you and love you. He said, “As long as you eat this bread (the body) and drink from this cup (the blood) I will forever abide in you as you abide in me.” Jesus made a promise to always be with us even though we can’t always see him. That is really cool!

So, at our first stop, we saw the place where Jesus ate with his friends and made a promise to always protect us, be with us, and love us. Our next stop is the Garden of Gethsemane in a place known as the Mount of Olives. We have to make this journey at night, though, so that we won’t be seen! Buckle up and hang on!

Your Friend, Holy Spirit!

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