‘I go on ahead to prepare a place for you!” Jesus speaks these words to his disciples on the eve of his death as he sits at table with them and senses their sadness as they grapple with his dying, his going away.
His words are meant to console them and give them the assurance that they aren’t being abandoned. It’s just that he is going on ahead to prepare a place for them to come and join him later.
That story speaks to me very personally because of how one of my sisters died. She was young, the mother of a large family, and seemingly too young to leave her small children behind. She was dying of a cancer which, while relentlessly doing its deadly work, mercifully left her relatively pain-free and clear in mind and heart to the very end. The cancer eventually took her to a point where she could no longer eat, but could still be nourished for a time by intravenous transfusions.
