A Visual Guide to Bible Events

JESUS CELEBRATES THE PASSOVER IN THE UPPER ROOM

MATTHEW 26:17–35; MARK 14:12–31; LUKE 22:7–38; JOHN 13–17

Following his reception into Jerusalem, Jesus spent the first few days of the week teaching in and around the Temple complex. Because the week would culminate in the celebration of Passover, Jesus’s disciples asked him where he would like to eat the special meal.15 Two disciples were instructed to follow a man carrying water to a home with an upper room (Mark 14:13–15; Luke 22:10–12). Although the particulars of that meal and Jesus’s words have long been the center of conversation, here we focus on its setting within Jerusalem—in a “guest room” and around a triclinium table for a reason.

As Jesus directed his disciples in their quest to find a suitable place for the Passover meal, he sent them into the city of Jerusalem (Mark 14:13; Luke 22:10). On the other days of this week, it appears that Jesus had been teaching in Jerusalem during the day and then returning to Bethany for the evening meal and overnight stay (Matt. 21:17–18; 26:6–7; Mark 14:1–3). But that routine was going to be broken because Deuteronomy 16:5–8 required the Passover meal be eaten within the city of Jerusalem.

The location for this meal was an upper room that is also called a “guest room.”16 As Luke describes this room, he uses a special term, calling it the “guest room” of the home (kataluma). Within his entire book, Luke only uses this Greek word two times (Luke 2:7; 22:11). The first occurs in connection with Jesus’s birth. Mary and Joseph were denied the opportunity to use the “guest room” for Jesus’s birth. The second time Luke mentions a “guest room” is here as Jesus’s earthly purpose was nearing its completion. With this subtle but powerful choice in words, Luke signals that Jesus’s earthly life had now come full circle and was reaching its final moment: the guest room that was denied at the time of his birth was offered to him in the hours before his death.

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Relief of a banquet scene at a reclining table.

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Jerusalem model representing the area of the upper room.

Finally we note that this room is fully “furnished” (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12) so that those eating could recline (Matt. 26:20; Luke 22:14). This suggests that Jesus and his disciples were dining around a triclinium table, which provided a U-shaped, three-sided eating surface. The table was set low to the ground so that those eating on the outer three sides of the table could recline on the left elbow while eating with the right hand.

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Guests took a seat around the table according to a prescribed social norm, where seating position carried the connotation of either greater or lesser honor. The need to determine who sat where apparently prompted discussion among the disciples about who was greatest, perhaps to clarify their seating position for the future (Luke 22:24–30). The seating arrangement around this table also permits us to better understand how certain conversations were public and others more private. Jesus was likely sitting in the second position at the table—the host’s position. John reclined to the right of Jesus, allowing his head to rest on Jesus’s chest, with Judas to the left of Jesus. This meant Jesus could have private conversations with either Judas or John while Peter, who perhaps was sitting at the servant’s position, signaled to John across the table to learn more about the content of those conversations (John 13:21–27).17

So the setting of the Passover meal in all its facets was carefully selected by Jesus for a reason. Israelites interpreted Deuteronomy 16:5–8 to mean that the Passover was to be celebrated in Jerusalem. The “guest room” was a reminder that the incarnate life of Jesus had come full circle. And the seating arrangements around the table help us better understand several of the conversations that occurred that evening.

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Jerusalem and the traditional location of the upper room