NOTE: THESE CHAPTERS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN A MUCH IMPROVED, EXPANDED BOOK, "A SWORD SHALL PIERCE YOUR SOUL" from FriesenPress
Mary awoke with a start. Someone was pounding on the door of her parents’ house and calling for her! Mary listened to see if her father would respond, for she as a woman should not go to the door of her first, especially at night. Then she heard him moving towards the door. Understandably, she could hear a little annoyance in his voice as he asked what all the fuss was about in the middle of the night. She could not hear everything that was said but then she heard him approach where she was sleeping and call out tersely, “Mary, this man at the door says Jesus has been captured by the temple police and taken for trial before the Sanhedrin! They took him to Governor Pilate who has sent him to King Herod! He says his name is John. He thinks you will want to join him and his friends, that you will want to be there.”
Mary could see the anguish in her father’s eyes. She herself felt as if she was going to faint. Her head spun and she clutched at her clothes. First John, her cousin, and now her son! “Oh, Jahweh,” she cried in her spirit, “help your maidservant! Protect your son! Oh, what can I do?”
It seemed as if her prayers were heard. She was able to pull herself together and try to get up. Her father saw her unsteadiness and helped her to her feet and supported her as she walked out to meet John. Yes, he was the kind young man she had taken a liking to ever since meeting him those years ago in Cana.
John bowed slightly as Mary approached, “Mother, he began,” addressing her politely. “We had to let you know what has happened to your beloved son. I volunteered to come and tell you. Do you want to come with us?”
What else would she do? “Of course,” Mary said.
“But Mary,” her father interjected, “Will it be safe? Let me come with you.”
“No, father,” she said, looking lovingly at her elderly parent, “It will be too much for you.” She knew how much he cared for his grandson and thought of how this must also be affecting him. “Stay here with mother. I will let you know what happens.”
Mary turned to go with John and then impulsively turned back and embraced her father and kissed him, “You can pray for us, please?”
“Of course,” father said and then Mary was gone with the young man.
John took Mary’s hand to make sure she was OK. Mary clutched her cloak tightly around her as she hurried through the chill of the dark night with John, praying earnestly in her heart for her beloved son’s welfare. Then John began to fill her in on what had happened.
“We had gone with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives after we finished seder,thinking we would continue on to Bethany for the night. Jesus seemed unusually troubled and went off by himself to pray, which you know is not that unusual for him. He did ask us to pray with him – more than once. We were so tired we kept falling asleep. I feel so bad now that we did not do that, or what happened next might have been avoided (Mathew 26:36-46). We had fallen asleep again when suddenly this crowd of noisy men with torches and clubs came storming across the valley and into the garden. And Judas was leading them! He took them right to Jesus (Matthew 26:37-50).”
‘Judas,’ Mary thought, ‘I never really had liked that one-’
John was continuing, “Jesus said something to Judas about betraying him and the next thing we knew Jesus was in the hands of these men and being led away, back towards the city. Then what had happened at sedermade more sense. Jesus was talking about one of us betraying him but the idea seemed so preposterous. We all asked him if he meant one of us. He said it was the one to whom he would give a piece of bread after he had dipped it, and gave it to Judas. When Judas asked him whether he meant him, Jesus had said, “You said so (Matt. 26:20-25, John 13:21-26).” Then he told Judas to do quickly what he was going to do and Judas left us. We thought he had sent Judas to take care of some bill or something (John 13:27-30).”
“Where are we going?” Mary interrupted John.
“To King Herod’s palace, as that is where they took Jesus after taking him to the council and then the governor (Luke 23:1-12). Mary shuddered. She did not want to imagine what would happen in front of Herod. She had never forgotten what this king’s father had done all those years ago to all those innocent babies in the Bethlehem area when he could not find her own son (Matthew 2:16-18). And then there had been the beheading of John. Poor John. And now? Now? Would it be Jesus’ turn? Mary’s heart felt a sharp pang of pain and she remembered another happening from the past, the words of Simeon in the temple when they had dedicated Jesus: “as a result of him the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul as well (Luke 2:25-35)!” How often those words had troubled her. What did they mean? Now, she realized, she was going to find out.
When they neared the palace, all seemed quiet there but they could hear a growing roar of voices from the governor’s quarters beyond that. When they got nearer, all Mary could hear was “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
‘Oh no, Mary thought, ‘What is wrong with these people? What has happened? What has Jesus done wrong?’
When they arrived at the edge of the crowd, Mary instinctively covered her face. She did not want to be recognized and get into trouble. But John saw some of his friends, Jesus’ followers, and steered Mary in their direction. Mary saw that some of the women she was just getting to know were there too. There were Joanna, Clopas’ wife, Susanna, Salome and Mary from Magdala (Mark 15:40, Luke 8:15). There was another woman Mary was to learn later was Veronica, the one Jesus had healed of a bleeding problem that had plagued her for 12 years (Mark 5:25-34).
They were all weeping but they all hugged Mary when they recognized her with John and expressed their distress at what they were seeing through their tears. Then they all turned to see what was unfolding before them when they saw their beloved Jesus at the entrance to the governor’s quarters. There was something that looked like branches wrapped around his head and blood dripping down his face. Beside him was a man with a white toga they all knew instinctively must be the hated governor, Pilate. A number of Roman soldiers flanked the two men. Mary knew this was not good. Part of her wished she had not come to this place to see this.
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