​Devotional Trip – Day 5, Site 1 ... The Upper Room (Cenacle)

Read: Mark 14:12-26 (www.biblestudytools.com/nrs/mark/14.html)
Sing: For the Bread Which You Have Broken, UMH 614
 
This is a site which exemplifies the importance of what happened as opposed to where it happened. It is obvious that this is not the Upper Room where Jesus observed Passover with his disciples. It is a second floor room but its Gothic arched architecture points to its origins as a 12th century Crusader chapel that was part of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Zion.
 
These facts, however, do not mean that we are in the wrong place – we are in the right place (perhaps) at a different time. Archeological research shows that this 12th century chapel was built on top of a church/synagogue constructed by the 1st century Jewish-Christian community of Jerusalem. Were they commemorating an important site?
 
This archeological evidence gives credence to the claim of this site as the Upper Room where Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and/or washed his disciples’ feet; where the disciples gathered and locked themselves in hiding after the crucifixion; from where the women left and to where they returned that first Easter morning; where the two disciples who met the Lord on their way to Emmaus came to make their report; where Jesus appeared suddenly in the midst of his disciples and then a week later appeared again for Thomas’ sake; where the disciples gathered and chose a replacement for Judas; and, where the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. This may also be the site of the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. I was not a part of what happened here but now that I am a believer I am a part of all that took place in the Upper Room.