Just Before the Crucifixion

186:0.1As Je­sus and his ac­cusers started off to see Herod, the Mas­ter turned to the Apos­tle John and said: “John, you can do no more for me. Go to my mother and bring her to see me ere I die.” When John heard his Mas­ter’s re­quest, al­though re­luc­tant to leave him alone among his en­e­mies, he has­tened off to Beth­any, where the en­tire fam­ily of Je­sus was as­sem­bled in wait­ing at the home of Martha and Mary, the sis­ters of Laz­a­rus whom Je­sus raised from the dead.

186:0.2Sev­eral times dur­ing the morn­ing, mes­sen­gers had brought news to Martha and Mary con­cern­ing the prog­ress of Je­sus’ trial. But the fam­ily of Je­sus did not reach Beth­any un­til just a few min­utes be­fore John ar­rived bear­ing the re­quest of Je­sus to see his mother be­fore he was put to death. Af­ter John Zeb­e­dee had told them all that had hap­pened since the mid­night ar­rest of Je­sus, Mary his mother went at once in the com­pany of John to see her el­dest son. By the time Mary and John reached the city, Je­sus, ac­com­pa­nied by the Ro­man sol­diers who were to cru­cify him, had al­ready ar­rived at Gol­go­tha.

186:0.3When Mary the mother of Je­sus started out with John to go to her son, his sis­ter Ruth re­fused to re­main be­hind with the rest of the fam­ily. Since she was de­ter­mined to ac­com­pany her mother, her brother Jude went with her. The rest of the Mas­ter’s fam­ily re­mained in Beth­any un­der the di­rec­tion of James, and al­most ev­ery hour the mes­sen­gers of David Zeb­e­dee brought them re­ports con­cern­ing the prog­ress of that ter­ri­ble busi­ness of putting to death their el­dest brother, Je­sus of Naz­a­reth.