THE RESERVED GUEST-CHAMBER
[p. 72] THE RESERVED GUEST-CHAMBER
It is as the Teacher that the Lord speaks of eating the passover with His disciples; and in the corresponding scripture in John 13 He speaks of Himself as “the Lord and the Teacher”. I believe the only other occasion on which He spoke of Himself as Teacher is when He said, “The disciple is not above his teacher, but every one that is perfected shall be as his teacher”, Luke 6: 40.
It is a title accorded to Him by many, but He is only such in reality to those who love Him, like the two disciples (John 1: 38), or Martha (John 11: 28), or His own (John 13: 13), or Mary Magdalene (John 20: 16). The master of the house had accorded Jesus the place of the Teacher in his affections, and the effect was that he held his guest-chamber at the Teacher’s disposal. The “perfected” disciple is “as his teacher”; there is correspondence in mind and thought.
The Teacher is a presentation of Christ which is not exactly what He is either as Lord or Head. He has come to instruct His own in the will of God; and to have Him in our affections as Teacher would ensure complete instruction in the mind of God. Under His teaching the highest spiritual intelligence can be acquired.
I doubt whether we think sufficiently of Christ as the Teacher. Where affection accords Him that place there will be a perfecting in correspondence with His mind, and any guest-chamber we have will be reserved for Him. And He knows where He has a reserved guest-chamber in the midst of all that disowns Him here. The guest-chamber is provisional; it has its place during the time of His public refusal. In Matthew it is, “Go into the city unto such a one, and say to him, The Teacher says, My time is near, I will keep the passover in thy house with my disciples”. It is an authoritative word — the claiming of His right. But in Mark and Luke it would appear to be rather that He asks for that which has been reserved for Him, and held at His disposal. “My guest-chamber” in Mark would confirm this.
If we want spiritual ministry we must see to it that the Lord is known in our affections as Teacher, that we have, like Mary Magdalene, called Him, “Rabboni”, and that we have a reserved guest-chamber for Him. Where such conditions [p. 73] are found there will be a spiritual ministry; the man with a pitcher of water will go in there. It suggests that he had been the fountain, and had a replenished store of refreshment and purifying. There is sure to be that where the guest-chamber is reserved affectionately for the Teacher. We know what was done with the water later on. It was used by the Lord and the Teacher to wash the disciples’ feet. There was that which He could make use of to bring about conditions in which His own could have part with Him.
“A large upper room furnished” is suggestive of the fellowship. It is “where I may eat... with my disciples”. If you have a reserved guest-chamber for Him there will be room in it for all His disciples. He will not come alone. It is a large room. The effect of excluding leaven and of having a guest-chamber reserved for Christ, with a fresh supply of spiritual refreshment and purification, is that we get freed from all narrow and sectarian thoughts of fellowship. We make room in our affections for all the saints. There is nothing cramped or narrow in our thoughts, and love moves in freedom.
Then it is an upper room; it is elevated above the level of things here. What an elevation to be called from Judaism, or heathen idolatry, or corrupted Christianity, to the fellowship of God’s Son! It is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit also. What elevation there is in these thoughts!
It is, too, a furnished room. There has been forethought and care that all should be suitable. The master of the house had reserved his guest-chamber for Christ, the Teacher. Can you suppose that he neglected even the smallest detail in the furnishing? How many times did he cast his eye round that guest-chamber to see if anything could be adjusted or added to make it more suitable to the Teacher and His disciples! The furnishing would refer to all being suitable to the occasion; it would be furnished according to the knowledge of the Teacher’s mind, and the affections of a heart that loved Him. He had been exercised to provide, in the spirit of Psalm 132: 5, “a place for the Lord”.
All this indicates conditions which are according to the mind of God, as made known to subject and affectionate hearts by the Teacher, which provide a suitable place for Christ and His own during the period of His reproach and rejection here. In such a place He can unbosom Himself as amongst friends (Song of Songs 5: 1).
The Lord desired “with desire” to eat that Passover. What a disclosure this is of His innermost thoughts and feelings! It is perhaps as touching an expression of His personal love to those who followed Him here as anything that is recorded. It was the last occasion on which He would be with them here after the flesh. It was with deep affection and emotion that the Lord contemplated the end of that association. He valued the companionship in which He had been with them, and they with Him.
God had given Him a household composed of those who were His spiritual kindred and companions. They had shown responsive affection to Him; they had persevered with Him in His temptations, and this had been intensely gratifying to His heart. There was never anything before like it, and there never will be again. Those three and a half years stand alone in time and eternity; the Son of God here as the Man of sorrows, and a little band privileged to follow Him, and to be His friends! It was an association which was about to terminate. “The things concerning me have an end”. It was to be accomplished in Him that He was to be “reckoned with the lawless”. But in that condition which was to end by His suffering death He valued companionship with His loved ones. His soul said, “In them is all my delight”. An association which He had valued more than all else on earth was coming to an end, and He felt it deeply.
This should touch us in a special way. Our companionship with the saints in a scene of sorrow, reproach, and temptations is coming to an end. We shall never have that kind of companionship again! How do we value it? What are we prepared to surrender to enjoy more of it? One would desire to value more what we have in common as our solace and joy in presence of all that is testing here. With difficulties inside and outside, what are we prepared to sacrifice to maintain the fellowship? The Lord would have us to be “perfected” under His influence as Teacher so that we may be in correspondence with Him. I am sure He would affect us by the disclosure of His own deep feelings in regard to His association with His own here.
It is here a question of eating the Passover — that which will have its fulfilment in the kingdom of God. The companionship in which Jesus and His disciples had walked together was one of humiliation and suffering, but which ever had in view [p. 75] the kingdom of God. They were together in that companionship for the last time. He “received a cup”, a new feature in connection with the passover not alluded to in the Old Testament. The Jews may have introduced it as a custom, but the Lord took it up and gave it spiritual significance, just as He took up the custom of breaking bread (Jeremiah 16: 7). It was reserved to the Lord to give “a cup” its place in relation to the passover, suggesting a solace and joy which the love of God as revealed in His death in passover aspect would be to His disciples as left in the scene of tribulation.
In the kingdom of God love must be supreme, for He is love. Love was the motive behind the Passover, for “God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us”. We are privileged to share mutually in that love while we remain in the place of tribulation. We are to divide it among ourselves.
In the light of the true passover we have the joy of the kingdom as anticipated in tribulation. We boast in hope of the glory of God, and we boast in tribulations, having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us (Romans 5). The Lord was going out of the scene of tribulation; the peculiar solace of the love of God as known through death in such a scene was to be theirs. A joy would be theirs through His death which would sustain and invigorate them in the scene of tribulation in which He was about to leave them.
There was a revelation of divine love in the passover which was to be their common portion in the place from which He would be absent. His portion with them henceforth would be in the kingdom of God — a new and divine sphere — not in the scene of contrariety. But in the scene of contrariety we have that which we can divide among ourselves. It suggests a mutual sharing in the joy of the love which was revealed in the true Passover. What sustaining and preserving power would this love have as known in each heart! What constraining motive would it be to lead to intelligent movements here in accord with the fellowship!
Then the breaking of bread has its own unique place as in remembrance of the One who is absent. He would be known and remembered in the love in which He gave His body, and in which the cup was the new covenant in His blood poured out for His own. This is to sustain us in relation to Him, so that instead of His absence leading to His fading from the [p. 76] affections of His own He is more and more known and cherished there, and His saints are kept in heart-contact with each other in relation to Him and His wondrous love. We do not lose Him in affection, though conscious that He is outside the scene of contrariety. He has devoted Himself for us in giving His body and His blood.
It is the bringing in of God as known in love in the establishment of relations between Himself and us which are most blessed. It is not only that we have the support and solace of the love of God in presence of the contrarieties of the scene around, but we know God through the death of Christ in the precious thoughts of His love. When He makes the new covenant with Israel and Judah they will know Him as their God, and they will be His people. He will give them one heart and one soul. “And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land with my whole heart and with my whole soul”, Jeremiah 32: 41.
God puts us in abiding relations with Himself known as the Source of infinite blessing, and He delights to have us as His blest ones near to Him in responsive affections. We know the love of a blessed Man who has devoted His body for us so that the will of God may be established in our fullest blessing, and in that same Person the love of God has been made known as setting us in relation to Him according to what He is in His nature.
This brings in the positive blessedness of the knowledge of God, so that it can be lived in and enjoyed together. This is not only solace in the presence of all that is adverse, but a positive joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We drink into a blessedness which has acted where all was sin and ruin, but which has turned all that into an occasion for making known what a God is ours. He is ‘well known in Jesus’ love’. We have full joy in the knowledge of God, and in those relations in which His love has set us with Him.
Four things have a distinct place in relation to the Lord’s supper: (1) an affectionate remembrance of Him in giving thanks and breaking the bread and giving thanks for the cup; (2) the communion we have together in so doing; (3) the announcement of the death of the Lord until He come — the public testimony on God’s part to the fact that the Lord has died there; (4) the occasion which it affords to the love of Christ to manifest Himself to those who love Him (John 14: 18)