Hospitality

 

Mark 14:12-15

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.”

When subsequent events

drown out intention

And a quiet meal with friends

becomes a mere backdrop

to a politically charged execution

that eclipses the intimacy

of final teaching and preparation

for a life of discipleship

Something is lost

in the detail

of careful preparation

of hospitality writ large

Hospitality

that went beyond

the jostling festival crowds

to carve our space

for mutual encounter

in which true meeting is possible