The man carrying a pitcher

Saint Mark - Chapter 14

HOLY THURSDAY

A man carrying a pitcher. J-J Tissot

[12] Et primo die azymorum quando Pascha immolabant, dicunt ei discipuli : Quo vis eamus, et paremus tibi ut manduces Pascha?
Now on the first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the pasch, the disciples say to him: Whither wilt thou that we go, and prepare for thee to eat the pasch?

[13] Et mittit duos ex discipulis suis, et dicit eis : Ite in civitatem, et occurret vobis homo lagenam aquae bajulans : sequimini eum,
And he sendeth two of his disciples, and saith to them: Go ye into the city; and there shall meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water, follow him;

[14] et quocumque introierit, dicite domino domus, quia magister dicit : Ubi est refectio mea, ubi Pascha cum discipulis meis manducem?
And whithersoever he shall go in, say to the master of the house, The master saith, Where is my refectory, where I may eat the pasch with my disciples?

[15] Et ipse vobis demonstrabit coenaculum grande, stratum : et illic parate nobis.
And he will shew you a large dining room furnished; and there prepare ye for us.

[16] Et abierunt discipuli ejus, et venerunt in civitatem : et invenerunt sicut dixerat illis, et paraverunt Pascha.
And his disciples went their way, and came into the city; and they found as he had told them, and they prepared the pasch.

[17] Vespere autem facto, venit cum duodecim.
And when evening was come, he cometh with the twelve.

The disciples had asked the Saviour to give them His instructions about the Passover, and He had chosen Saint Peter and Saint John to go and prepare everything, and first of all to find the place described by Him.  They are represented in my picture watching for the man passing bearing a pitcher, of whom the Master had spoken, having for this purpose taken up their posts against the wall of the Sion quarter, where the street leads down by way of the Ophel suburb to the well now known as the Fountain of the Virgin, the ancient En-Rogel.  The water of this well being the purest in Jerusalem was the best suited for making the unleavened bread used at the Passover.  Men and women bearing pitchers pass along the street, the women in greater numbers than the men, for the fetching water is generally their business.  It would therefore be easy to observe the few men who returned from the well, slowly climbing up the hill, laden as they are with their heavy loads.  Many have already passed, but not yet the one designated by the Master.  When he comes, it is John, the beloved and trusted friend of Jesus, who recognizes him immediately, and the disciples at once prepare to follow him.  They have scarcely 100 steps to go, for they are already far up the street and quite close to the ancient Sion, which looks down upon the mountain on which Jerusalem is built.  The precise and homely details here given to us by the evangelist, with those supplied throughout the whole history of the successive scenes of the Passion, enable us to obtain a wonderfully vivid and truthful idea of all the facts connected with this deeply interesting period.  We feel that it, witnesses are speaking, or at least that eye-witnesses inspired the writer even in his most minute shades of expression.  Saint John saw everything, the other Apostles wherein the very best possible position for obtaining trustworthy testimony; so that in reading the divine record, the whole tragic story is lived through again, as it were before our very eyes, the 2000 years which have passed roll away as though they had never been, and we receive just such a vivid impression as we shall in reading a contemporary journal.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ by J-J Tissot (1897)

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam