The very last evening that our dear Lord was on earth before His death,
He and His twelve disciples were gathered together in that upper room
to eat the Passover.
On the morrow he was to die! But though He had told the disciples very
often of His death, they had failed to believe it.
Peter had said "That be far from Thee, Lord!" and had, like the other
disciples, dismissed the fear from his thoughts.
It had only been a few days before this Passover night that Mary, the
sister of Lazarus, had poured the sweet-smelling spikenard ointment on
our Lord's Head at the supper table; and He, knowing all things that
were coming to pass, said she had anointed His Body for His burial. But
still, the listening disciples paid no heed.
But now the last evening had come.
The Passover supper was over, and Judas had left them and gone out into
the darkness. If no one else expected the death of the Lord of Glory,
Judas knew in his heart that he had sold his Lord for thirty pieces of
silver, and that the Jews would surely kill Him!
But Judas was gone out; and now our Lord turned to the eleven who were
left, and began to comfort them, with words of strength and hope.
He had just told His over-confident disciple, Peter, that before the
cock should crow in the morning he would thrice deny Him! And all the
disciples were full of dismay at such a possibility.
So our Lord's first words, in His talk with His own, we read in the
14th of St. John's Gospel; and they come as a wonderful comfort to all
sorrowing and fainting ones, from that holy hour down to this time
which seems so hard to us! He said these words to His eleven disciples
and to all who love Him: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in
God, believe also in Me."
And then, because of the coming trials which He knew His disciples
would have soon to pass through, He gives them the wonderful promise,
which has comforted thousands and thousands of weary hearts since then:
"In My Father's House are many Mansions; if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."
He seems in these words to say something like this: "My Father's House"
is safely Above, where no storms can touch its security. It is an
Everlasting abode—one that will not pass away with the ravages of time,
or the thunders of war. It is an Everlasting Home; and I go to get it
ready for each one of you.