Hastings: Inside the stone-walled city

“When you enter the city, a man will meet you carrying a jar of water.

Follow him into the house he enters ...

The owner will show you a large furnished upper room.

Make the preparations there.” — Luke 22:10-12 The Inclusive Bible

After Jesus had visited friends, made his triumphal entry to Jerusalem, and cleansed the Temple from those who were buying and selling, he prepared to celebrate Passover with his disciples. Like others who protested corruption in the religious system, they held their celebration a couple of days early.

Their Passover observance is believed to have been held in an unlikely place — among a Jewish sect known as the Essenes. The Essenes were well aware of corruption in the religious system and saw themselves as the Sons of Light in a cosmic battle between light and darkness. They had built a monastic community out of rocks at Qumran, overlooking the Dead Sea. But around 60 B.C.E. the Qumran community was destroyed by an earthquake. The Essenes had then moved inside the stone walls of Jerusalem to an area formerly occupied by the Hasmoneans whom Herod disliked and displaced.

While at Qumran, the Essenes had copied scriptures in their rock-hewn scriptorium and stored the manuscripts in jars in nearby rocky caves. When these manuscripts were discovered by a young shepherd in 1947, they confirmed that the scriptures have been faithfully handed down through the ages.

So the clue to the location of Jesus’ Passover observance is found in his instructions to look for “a man … carrying a jug of water.” Men in the culture of that day did not carry water; women did. Except in the monastic community of the Essenes.

As the disciples went out to prepare Passover, they found everything as Jesus had said. The man carrying water led them to “a large furnished upper room” where they could celebrate Passover quietly. When Peter neglected his foot-washing task, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet to show the way of servant leadership. John as server reclined on Jesus right. Judas was in the guest-of-honor position on Jesus’ left, close enough to dip with Jesus. In this way, Jesus showed how to “love your enemies,” for he knew Judas would betray him.

From the rocky Qumran community into the stone-walled city of Jerusalem, the Essenes helped Jesus lead his earthly ministry to its summit.

The Rev. Celia M. Hastings has a master’s degree in religious education from Western Theological Seminary in Holland. She is author of “The Wisdom Series” and “The Undertaker’s Wife.”

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Hastings: Inside the stone-walled city