Observation: It is the last day of Jesus' ministry, the day he will celebrate Passover and afterwards be betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified. Passover will take place in the "upper room," which will be generously provided to them by a stranger. However, the room must be prepared, and whom Jesus sends to do the work of preparation are ... Peter and John.
Later in this verse we see the disciples discuss which of them will be greatest, and Jesus teaches them that - just as he serves and will be sacrificed - greatness in kingdom-terms is defined by humbly serving. We know Jesus had a hierarchy of his disciples, though, and that among all of them James, John, and Peter were the inner circle. The fact he sent two of them to do this work - to serve others - cannot be overlooked. When something was important and needed to be done just right, Jesus would rather have two top leaders actually do the task, than to assign it down to any number of lower followers. By Peter and John being the one who had to do all the prep work that day, he was marking them as leaders.
Application: I have lost my heart to 'do' at church, and it is a problem. For a long while, I recognized that what I should be doing at church is just showing up and 'doing' whatever needed to be done. Now, I want to sometimes show up, and mostly talk. I want to be seen as a leader, and am not doing much of anything. It is in this changed attitude that I am failing Jesus.
I need to return to the heart of just showing up, serving others, and doing work. That is all I am worthy of anyway ... having my head down and working tasks to which I have been assigned. I shouldn't want to do more. In fact, I should actively want to simply do that well, under the watch of my Lord.
Prayer: Lord, I do know I am failing when it comes to serving you, serving others, and being obedient, and that my failure is that I just am not doing the tasks. May I fix that, with your strength and guidance. Amen.
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