This is a beautiful subject for meditation, though we have no record of it in Holy Scripture. We can imagine our Lord, as on the Wednesday He took supper with His disciples, in the house of Mary and Martha ; His mother and the holy women being in another part of the house, and Magdalen, who served, asking Him, saying, “Master, let us know that You will keep the Passover with us ; I pray Thee, do not refuse us.” To which our Lord could by no means assent, as He was about to keep the Passover at Jerusalem. Then Magdalen, retiring in tears, might be depicted as going to Christ’s mother, and laying before her the desire which she had revealed to our Lord, that she might ask Him.
Then, supper being ended, imagine the Lord Jesus returning to His mother, and conversing with her at her side, affording her the delight of His presence, which was so soon to be withdrawn. Behold them, in spirit, conversing together, our Lord and His mother; see her reverence and affection for Him. Then Magdalen goes to them, and throws herself at His feet, and repeats her request, saying, that our Lord will fall into the hands of His enemies, if He goes to Jerusalem for the Passover. Whereupon His mother, with a mother’s tenderness, beseeches Him, if it may be, that He should not go, because of the snares which were laid to take Him at Jerusalem. And the Lord, we can conceive, replying, “Mother, most beloved, it is the will of My Father that I should keep the Passover there, because the time of Redemption has come, and now all things must be fulfilled which are written of Me, and they shall do to Me what they will.” But the holy women heard these things with an intensity of sorrow, for they well understood that He spake of His death. At this, we can imagine that Christ’s mother was deeply moved. “My Son,” we can hear her say, in broken utterances, “I am overwhelmed with grief and my heart has failed me ;” yet was she content to leave all in the Father’s hands, only desirous, naturally, for a little delay, that they might keep the Passover with their friends. But the thought would come, — “Had it been otherwise ordered, Redemption might have been wrought, without Thy death, for all things are possible with God.”
O what a scene of sorrow is here ! Look at our Lord, with love grieving for His mother ; Magdalen simply prostrated with the tidings of His approaching Death. All is sighs and tears. Can you restrain weeping as you contemplate their grief?
Consider them, then, in this state; and then our Lord graciously comforting them. “Weep not,” says He. “Know you not that I must accomplish the will of My Father obediently ? But have no doubts, for quickly I shall return to you, and on the third day I shall rise again in safety. It is My Father’s will that I should keep the Passover on Mount Zion.” And Magdalen said, “As we cannot detain Thee here, we will go to Jerusalem also ; but, I believe, never will be seen so bitter a Passover.” The Lord, it may be, consented that they also should keep the Passover in the house at Jerusalem.