At home in Bethany

Often when I am reading about Jesus' last days, I start thinking about the gaps that the Gospels didn't write into, the unwritten moments of down time. Jesus spent much of that down time in the town of Bethany, where lived a few of His closest friends: the family of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. His quiet, beloved chosen family.

Alone in the understanding of His rapidly approaching death, I imagine Jesus taking comfort from the presence of these particular friends, who not long before had become a living picture of what He was about to do, in the form of Lazarus' death and resurrection. I think that they, more than His chosen 12, had a much clearer idea of His inner turmoil - as evidenced by Mary's anointing Him with a year's worth of perfume (John 12:3), as well as their willingness to host Him in spite of talk that the chief priests were thinking about killing Lazarus as well as Jesus (v.10).

To me, this family most clearly represents us, Jesus' everyday followers. They couldn't, for whatever reason, travel around with Him during His ministry, anymore than we can go back in time and do so. But they were the ones He loved. They believed in Him as the Messiah even before He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:27). And in the final deep breaths before heading into the worst moment in all existence, this was where He wanted to be.

It's a comfort to think about Him there, gathering His strength and enjoying a foretaste of His great family, the one He put together before He created the universe.

"Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin,
He will see His offspring and prolong His days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
After He has suffered,
He will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:10-11)

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

"Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again, and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." (John 16:22)

As we, His chosen family, gather tonight (for some of you, tomorrow) to observe our precious Savior's suffering, into which we have been privileged to enter, which is one of the great mysteries of God in Christ Himself, remember that we are not truly separate. We are members of one body - HIS - and united through Him in spirit. In His eyes, we are together. In His eyes, we are one. And we will all see each other again.