Walking With Christ

Luke 22:10 He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters(ESV)

The preparation for the last supper contains a few small details that may change how people view these events. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all three speak about this event. Luke and Mark both add one small detail that is so easily overlooked, but would have stood out to early readers.

Matthew, in verse 18, says, “Go into the city to a certain man”. Which man? How would the disciples have any clue which man to speak to without some kind of description? It’s like the spy novels that always tell the main character to go into the bar and look for the person with a yellow flower on the lapel of their jacket. It usually turns out that there are at least two people with yellow flowers on the lapel of their jacket. Mark and Luke actually narrowed down who to look for with the addition of one small detail.

“A man carrying a jar of water”. To us this seems like a normal thing to do. In those days, carrying water was considered the work of women. To see a man carrying a jar of water gives us a bit of a clue as to who this person was which deepens the significance of both this event and the upper room. One small exception to this rule would have been the Essenes. This small and isolated religious sect of Hebrews ignored a lot of local customs when it came to gender roles. The rules they lived by included the ritualistic purification of water.

The bible does not explicitly state who the man was, but given the details we have the man with the jar of water was most likely an Essene serving an Essene master. This also tells us that the upper room would have held special significance to the owner of the house and the Essene people.

Carry this on just a bit more and see that the ritualistically pure water from this jar was very likely the same water that would later be used to wash the feet of the disciples. Jesus used cleansed water at the last supper to symbolize not only the physical cleaning but spiritual cleansing through His sacrifice.

To tie it all together, this tiny detail shows us that God carefully orchestrated every detail of the events leading to the crucifixion and resurrection. Each detail, even the small, seemingly mundane details in the bible carry spiritual meaning and prophetic fulfillment. Water jars were often used in ritual purification, which was a key practice before sacred meals, especially Passover. Jesus choosing this particular man with the cleansed water to lead the disciples to the upper room where they would have the Passover meal may point towards Jesus as the ultimate source of spiritual purification.