Owner of Upper Room is witness to amazing story of faith

Visitors walk into the Holy Cenacle, the upper room believed to be the site of Jesus’ Last Supper, on Mount Zion in Jerusalem on Feb. 2. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)

By John F. Fink (Special to The Criterion)

My name is Samuel. I live here in Jerusalem during the time that Pontius Pilate is the Roman procurator. About a year ago, I was a close witness to the most amazing story in the history of the world, and I have to tell you about it.

About 18 months ago, I became attracted to the preaching of a man named Jesus. Once while we were talking privately, I told him that I own a home in Jerusalem that has a large upper room. If he and his followers ever wanted to use it, I said, they were welcome to it. I live on the first floor of my house.

Jesus took me up on my offer last year when it was time for him and his disciples to celebrate Passover. My home is in the Essene section of Jerusalem. Essenes are a Jewish sect like the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Because of our historical disagreement with the Pharisees and Sadducees about the legitimacy of the temple’s high priests, we Essenes have our own calendar. Jesus and his disciples celebrated the first night of Passover according to that calendar, earlier than most Jews.

After the Passover supper, Jesus and his disciples left the upper room. Imagine my surprise when some of the disciples returned a few hours later with the report that Jesus had been arrested while they were at the Garden of Gethsemane at the bottom of the Mount of Olives. They were afraid that they would be arrested so I let them stay in the upper room.

The next day, I had to see what was happening. Those Jewish high priests that we Essenes loathe so much took Jesus to Pilate and insisted that he be condemned to death by crucifixion. Pilate seemed to try to find reasons to save Jesus from that fate, but eventually he gave in and ordered his execution.

I was in the crowd that watched his crucifixion, but Roman soldiers kept us at a distance except for Jesus’ mother, the Apostle John and Mary of Magdala, who were the closest to him. Some women from Galilee were back in the crowd where I was standing.

There’s no doubt that Jesus was killed. A soldier even thrust a lance in his side, and blood and water flowed out. Then Jesus was taken down from the cross, wrapped in a shroud and hurriedly put in a nearby tomb before the start of the Sadducees’ feast of Passover.

I hurried over to John and invited him to bring Jesus’ mother and Mary of Magdala back to the upper room where the other Apostles, except for Judas, were already assembled. That was Friday night.

They stayed there during the Sabbath. Then, on the first day of the week, some of the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. It wasn’t long before I saw Mary of Magdala running back. She quickly told Peter and John that Jesus’ body wasn’t in the tomb. She thought, of course, that someone had taken it.

Peter and John ran to the tomb and found that what Mary had said was true. They returned to the upper room, wondering what to do next, while Mary stayed by the tomb. But soon she also returned, this time with the astounding news: “I have seen the Lord.” Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to her!

And that’s not all. That night, the Apostles carefully locked the doors to the upper room since they were still afraid. Suddenly, Jesus appeared and stood in their midst. Over the next 40 days, he appeared to them frequently.

So that’s how I came to be part of this amazing story. Since that time, though, there have been some people who have tried to downplay it since they refuse to believe that someone could possibly rise from the dead.

I’ve heard people say that perhaps the tomb wasn’t really empty and the Apostles just claimed that it was. That doesn’t make sense because all the Jewish and Roman authorities would have had to do to refute their claim would be to produce Jesus’ body.

I’ve even heard some people say that perhaps Jesus didn’t really die, but only appeared to be dead.

In other words, we’re supposed to believe that he awoke in the tomb in a severely weakened condition, somehow was able to get out of the shroud that bound his body, had the strength to push back the boulder in front of the tomb without the soldiers noticing it then make his appearances as a healthy man.

Then there’s the story that the soldiers were instructed to tell others—that Jesus’ disciples stole his body while the soldiers were asleep.

Can you imagine what would have happened to the soldiers if they had, indeed, fallen asleep? Even if they had, wouldn’t they have been awakened by the scraping of the boulder as it was being pushed away from the entrance? The story that the chief priests and elders instructed the soldiers to tell only reinforces the evidence that the tomb was empty.

What about the possibility that the Apostles made up the whole story? Maybe they got together and decided to claim that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them. Again, that could be refuted simply by producing Jesus’ body, and everyone in Jerusalem knows that the tomb was empty.

Besides, I can testify to the fact that the Apostles refused to believe the report of the women to whom Jesus first appeared. They thought the women were talking nonsense.

There’s no way that they could have plotted to get Jesus’ body out of the tomb and hide it then claim that he had been raised from the dead and appeared to them.

Yes, I know that it really happened.

After those events of a year ago, the Apostles continued to use the upper room of my home. They met there to appoint a successor to Judas, choosing Matthias.

And they were there on the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit appeared to them. After that, their personalities seemed to change. They were no longer afraid. Rather, they became fearless. Led by Peter, they went out and proclaimed all that Jesus had taught them.

John has taken Jesus’ mother to live with him nearby. Now my upper room has become a church.
 

(John F. Fink is editor emeritus of The Criterion.) †