Jesus's Path To The Cross: An 8-Day DevotionalSample

The Upper Room

The room in which Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover meal as his Last Supper is called both a “guest room” (Mark 14:14; Luke 22:11) and a “large upper room” (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12). Most homes, whether large or small, typically had a room used to receive or entertain guests. Such rooms were located toward the front of the building so that guests need not enter the more private quarters of the home. This particular guest room was a large room upstairs, likely with a view. From the description it seems Jesus’ meal was eaten in a large compound, perhaps similar to the mansions of wealthy people found in archaeological excavations in the southern part of the Old City of Jerusalem (see “The High Priest’s House” on p. 1528). These excavated mansions included large upper rooms decorated with frescoed walls and stuccoed ceilings and furnished with elegant tables and utensils. 

A disputed church tradition dating to the fifth century AD places Jesus’ Last Supper in the Cenacle. This room is in a building located on the highest part of the hill that made up the southwest quarter of first-century Jerusalem. Today this location is called Mount Zion (not to be confused with the Mount Zion of David’s time) and is outside the Old City walls. A fl oor in this building, as well as a portion of its exterior southern wall, dates to Roman times, perhaps as early as the first century AD. Its “upper room,” a popular spot for pilgrims, is in the Gothic style and dates to a reconstruction in 1335. The same site is also associated with Pentecost and with
David’s burial.