John 12:20-33

The crowds roared with “Hosanna!!! Hosanna!!!” as Jesus meandered His way along the dusty path into Jerusalem. It must have been a spectacle to see so many hundreds or thousands of people with palm branches hurrying to line the way and cheer Jesus as He entered the city. The trap that was set by the religious leaders to capture Jesus quietly would certainly not work with this large crowd worshipping Him. If they tried to arrest Him in this moment, they would certainly be torn to pieces by the mob.
Along the path, as Jesus made His way into the city, a group of Greeks, probably proselytes (converts to the Jewish faith), approached Philip. “We would like to speak to Jesus,” they said as they came close. The request probably caught Philip off guard, since the entire procession was a little bit loud and he wouldn’t know if Jesus wanted to stop to talk to this little group of Gentiles. Philip asked Andrew for some advice, and Andrew and Philip finally took these Greeks to Jesus. John doesn’t record what their question was, but he does record what the answer of Jesus was to them.
“The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.” This must have seemed obvious to them. “Glorified” carries with it the idea of “crowned, anointed, coronated,” and now Jesus was saying that He was going to be glorified. Everyone who had seen the procession and understood that King Solomon had ridden into Jerusalem on a mule when he was crowned King of Israel, could see that Jesus was going to be glorified. But their understanding of “glorified” was a bit short-sighted. They imagined that He would be establishing His throne and would be throwing off the Roman oppressors. In their minds, no longer would the filthy Roman rabble be dominating the Jewish people, rather Jesus would become the rightful ruler from the throne in Jerusalem.
With the thinking that Jesus had come as the prophesied Messiah to set their people free, it must have been confusing when He said the next statement, “Except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” He continued on with, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.” He finished with, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” In this one series of statements, Jesus was unfolding how He was the true Messiah.
He had come to bring liberty, but not temporal liberty from the oppressors that would eventually grow old and die themselves, but rather, liberty from the indomitable oppressors, death and sin. Jesus had come to die. It was the purpose for which He came to earth; Scripture tells us that He was “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth.” His glorification would come through His death. He would be raised by God and seated above every throne, including the one in Rome. He would conquer all, but first, He had to be obedient to God and become like a kernel of wheat. When planted in the ground, a kernel, or a seed , first decomposes a bit before the life inside of it can be opened and carried out into a manifold harvest. Similarly, Jesus prophesied that through His death, many would come in faith and receive eternal life. Many could come, including these Greek proselytes. Jesus had come as the Messiah for the whole world. His salvation would be for any and all who would come in faith relying only on the saving work that He would accomplish on the cross.

Food For Thought: What is a proselyte? What did Jesus prophecy about to these Greek proselytes?

John 12:12-19

The roar of the crowd echoed into the city. Jesus was on His way into town, but this time, He was not sneaking. He was not moving in stealth, rather, crowds of believers flocked to line the way into Jerusalem. There were approximately 2 million people that would come into Jerusalem on any given Passover Week, so the city was bustling with people from all parts of Judea and Galilee. Many of these knew Jesus and had seen His miracles, leaving no question as to His identity. The most recent miracle, raising Lazarus from the dead, finally authenticated His claim to be God. He was indeed the Messiah.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass…As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. – Zechariah 9:9, 11
The roars of the crowd carried with them the prophetic ring of the psalmist and of Zechariah. Jesus had arrived on a young donkey as foretold in Zechariah. Zechariah spoke that the Messiah would come, but He also mentioned that there was “blood of thy covenant” that the Messiah would take part in. No doubt, the last part of the prophecy was lost on those that day. They noticed that Jesus had shown up fulfilling the prophecy and that He was the Messiah, but they did not fully understand how He was their Messiah. They expected deliverance from their Roman oppressors, but He had come to offer deliverance from “the pit wherein is no water.”
Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD. God is the Lord, which hath showed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee. - Psalm 118:25-28
As the crowd shouted, they sang the refrains from Psalms 118. “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” But they didn’t finish the rest of the song, “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” This was a song of great praise, but it was also a song about a sacrifice that needed to be made. Jesus had come to completely fulfill the prophecy. Even though the cries of the crowd stopped at the beginning of the prophecy, Jesus had come to make a covenant with His own blood, and to offer Himself as a bound sacrifice to bring the glory to God that was prophesied.
The trap that the religious leaders so delicately set had snapped under the weight of Jesus’ timing. They were waiting for Him to sneak into the city for Passover, and He had ridden into town like a King with waving palm branches and shouts in the streets. The Sanhedrin thought that they had a plan for Jesus this week, but perhaps, He had His own plans that He was seeking to unfold during this Passover Week. They were now just five short days away from Passover, the day to commemorate those who bound the sacrifice and made a blood covenant to receive deliverance at the hand of a glorious God.
The boldness of Jesus, and the reception of the crowd left the priests feeling abandoned. Finally one exclaimed, “We have accomplished nothing, the world is gone after Him!” It seemed to be that Jesus was now running Passover week, not them. It would take a miracle for them to turn the tide now.

Food For Thought: Identify three things that were fulfilled by Jesus coming to Jerusalem on this Passover week from the prophecies of Psalm 118, and Zechariah 9.

John 12:1-11

Jesus is God. There is nothing that He doesn’t know. As the sinister leaders in Jerusalem plotted and planned, He was not a victim that would fall in their trap. Rather, in confidence He travelled into Bethany, right outside of Jerusalem, knowing that word would travel quickly to the religious leaders. He was on a mission to obey God. It was the will of God that Jesus give Himself as a sacrifice for sins. This required that He die, and it would be the hatred of the Jewish leaders that would lead them to kill Him.
Jesus journeyed into Bethany with His disciples and sat down for supper with Lazarus and several others from the area. As Jesus was dining, Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, came to see Jesus. In Matthew and Mark, we find that as she came, she carried a box made of alabaster stone that she broke open and poured on Jesus. In the Gospel of John we find that she poured it on His feet, but the other accounts explain further, that she poured it on His head and shoulders too. In a display of submission and humility, she then used her hair to wipe His feet. This was one of the most loving things that she could have done.
The conversation at the table stopped as everyone looked to Mary who in a heart full of love for Jesus poured out the most valuable thing she owned. The “spikenard” that she used was worth nearly one year’s wages, and she emptied it out on Jesus her true treasure. There was nothing that she counted as valuable as Him, and in this surprising act of self-sacrifice she demonstrated for everyone there, and to the countless millions who have read this text since that she loved Jesus with everything in her.
It certainly would have been surprising to those sitting at the table, and understandably some might have questioned what exactly was going on. But there was one, the thief as John calls him, Judas Iscariot, who began calculating how much they could have sold the ointment for and began mumbling about what a waste Mary had just made by pouring it on Jesus. Jesus would not let Mary go on being derided by a cruel man like Judas, so He rebuked Judas, “Let her alone.”
Mary had done the right thing; Judas had done the wrong thing. There was one disciple, a woman, who loved Jesus uncontrollably; there was another who had his eyes fixated on money, and would eventually sell-out Jesus for the right price.
As John continues the story, he takes a moment to remind the reader what was happening in Jerusalem. Word had spread that Jesus was with Lazarus in Bethany. Now people in Jerusalem had heard that Lazarus had been raised from the dead. People were travelling in droves out of Jerusalem over to the neighboring town of Bethany to see for themselves that Lazarus really had been resurrected. The frenzied priests sinfully turned their anger toward Lazarus, and began talking about how they could kill Lazarus so that people would stop believing in Jesus. It was one thing to think that Jesus was a blasphemer. It was another thing to want to kill a man to stop people from hearing the truth. Blinded by their sinful hatred, the religious leaders were getting worse and worse. Now they wanted to kill Jesus and Lazarus.

Food For Thought: Why did the religious leaders seek to kill Lazarus?

John 11:46-57

Following the resurrection of Lazarus, a large number of the friends of Martha and Mary “believed on him.” But here we see the divisive nature of truth. While some accepted Him as their Lord, others refused to worship Jesus as the Messiah. Even though they had just witnessed a man who was dead being raised back to life, a handful of the siblings’ friends hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the chief priests and the Pharisees that Jesus was back at it.
Jesus had turned the water into wine in Cana, demonstrating to His disciples and to the servants that He was indeed Christ. He had then healed the nobleman’s son in Capernaum. Next in Jerusalem, He had healed the man who had been lame for 38 years. Along the Sea of Galilee, He had taken a little boy’s lunch-able and miraculously multiplied it to feed 5,000-plus people. Following this astonishing miracle, Jesus had then walked across the Sea of Galilee to meet His disciples on the water in the middle of a storm. More recently in Jerusalem, He had healed the man born blind. That had never been done before. That was new. But it was not as novel as what just happened in Bethany. There at Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. The grieving and consolation was well underway and people from everywhere had arrived in time to see Jesus come and raise Lazarus from the dead.
In response the religious leaders formed a council that would be able to come up with a solution to their Jesus problem. The council meeting began with one member proclaiming what all of them had now realized, “He is doing too many miracles. Before long everyone will believe on Him.” He certainly was doing a large number of miracles, and there was quickly becoming a large faction of Jerusalem and the surrounding country side that was beginning to believe that He was in fact the Messiah.
“One man should die for the people.” This was the great plan. All along, they wanted to kill Jesus, so when Caiaphas muttered these words, very few people took note. Many of the men in the room had already been present on one of the four previous occasions there in Jerusalem where they were ready to stone Jesus. Killing Jesus was the plan, but John makes a special side note here in the text for the reader. Since Caiaphas was the high priest, God could still speak prophetically through Him, even if He was a corrupt man. Now, God had used Caiaphas, the High Priest of the Jewish religious system, to be the first person besides Jesus to articulate the reality of the gospel. Many had been saying that Jesus would save them, but Caiaphas was the first one besides Jesus to say that it would be through the death of Jesus that all of the people would be saved.
With the trouble stirring in Jerusalem, Jesus took His disciples and headed away from the unrest. Even thought Jesus was gone from Jerusalem, as the next major feast approached, a few of the Jewish leaders began to get uneasy. It was when the large crowds were gathered in Jerusalem that Jesus showed up to attend the feasts too. With the Passover feast looming on the horizon, perhaps Jesus and His followers would be returning. For the first time, the religious leaders were proactive. They established a new law across the town – if anyone knew where Jesus was, or anyone saw Him in Jerusalem, they must come immediately to the chief priests and tell them. In Jerusalem, the net was finally set. If Jesus tried to sneak back in, the Jewish leaders would catch him and finally kill him.

Food For Thought: Even after seeing Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, why would people not believe on Him, but instead run back to Jerusalem to tell the High Priests? (Give at least two reasons)

John 11:17-44

As Jesus and His disciples journeyed to Bethany, word of His arrival reached Martha. She had certainly heard of the tumult that had occurred in Jerusalem over the past few weeks. According to verse 37, word about Jesus healing the blind man had already preceded Jesus to Bethany; no doubt, the other details about the attempted stoning by the Pharisees had also reached the three sibling-friends of Jesus.
Now, as Jesus approached the town, Martha met Him along the way. “Jesus, if you had just been here four days ago, you could have healed Lazarus.” Martha was a believer, a Christian. But even believers at times miss the greater realities of Jesus. In this case, she perceived that the glory of God could only be found in the healing of Lazarus. She didn’t realize that perhaps God intended for Lazarus to die, and had brought about the death of Lazarus that He might receive greater glory.
John tells us that after professing to Jesus that she trusted Him and believed that He was indeed the Christ, the Messiah, Martha sent a messenger to retrieve Mary out of the house where she had been grieving. Because of the close proximity to Jerusalem, many people from Jerusalem had gathered to comfort Martha and Mary. Hurrying out of the house, Mary gathered an entire entourage of followers that assumed she was going to weep at the grave side.
But as Mary hurried down the trail, she headed away from the tomb, and out of town. I imagine that the crowd bustled a few hundred feet behind Mary trying to keep up, but grew more and more curious as she left town. From a distance they saw her stop on the trail and fall to the feet of a man on the trail. The Jerusalem folk certainly began to recognize Him as they drew closer; it was Jesus, the one who had caused the uproar in Jerusalem after healing the blind and the lame.
Mary repeated the truth that Martha had thought, and that the crowd was certainly thinking, “Jesus if you had been here four days ago, you could have healed Lazarus.” The crowd murmured amongst themselves, “He opened the eyes of the blind, if He had been here, He could have healed Lazarus.” After speaking briefly with Mary, Jesus walked down the path to the grave. Arriving at the tomb, Jesus instructed the men to remove the stone. Martha interjected, “Jesus, he has been dead for four days.”
At this point, Jesus stopped her and said, “You will see the glory of God.” This was the same message He had told to the disciples in verse 4 before telling them that they needed to wait a few more days before heading to Bethany. Jesus had let Lazarus die instead of rushing to heal him. Why? So that there would be no disputing Who He really was. With the stone rolled away, and with authority unlike any who had ever walked on the earth, Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come forth.”
In an instant there was stirring in the tomb, as Lazarus came walking out of the tomb. Lame bodies healed, that was impressive. Blinded eyes, no one had ever done that. Power over death, this truly was the Son of God. The truth was undeniable for all those who were there. Lazarus had been dead for four days. Now, Jesus showed up and raised Him from the dead. There was no refuting the evidence. God had come in the flesh, Jesus truly is the Christ.

Food For Thought: Read John 11:4-6. Why did Jesus wait to go to Bethany? According to verse 45, what was the result?

John 11:1-16

Leaving Jerusalem was the best thing for Jesus and His disciples. The crowds there were like a powder keg, ready to explode at any moment. From the time that Jesus entered Jerusalem and healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were looking for ways to kill Jesus (John 5:16). Now, the last two times that Jesus visited in Jerusalem, to heal the blind man and to teach that He was indeed the Messiah, the religious leaders had stirred the crowd to a dangerous rage. Swiftly, Jesus and His disciples headed out of Jerusalem. They travelled the 25 plus mile journey to the other side of the Jordan River.
After retreating to the Jordan River, Jesus eventually received word that some of His closest friends were going through a hard time. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were three siblings that had become terrific friends of Jesus during His ministry in Jerusalem and the outlying area. They lived in the town of Bethany, which sat just outside of Jerusalem.
Martha and Mary had sent messengers to Jesus to tell Him that Lazarus their brother, and a dear friend of Jesus, was sick and about to die. John tells us in John 11, that Jesus intentionally waited where he was for a couple more days before heading to visit Martha and Mary. Finally, He told his disciples, “Let us go into Judaea again.” Judaea was the name of the region that Bethany and Jerusalem were in, the place where a few days earlier, the angry crowds had tried to kill Jesus and his disciples. This was a detail that wasn’t lost on the disciples. Immediately at this proposition, the disciples responded, “Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?”
Jesus explained that he had greater things to do than to remain immobilized by the fear of angry crowds. Jesus responded to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go, so I can wake him out of his sleep.” He was using the word “sleep” to mean that although Lazarus was dead, he was not permanently dead. Instead, Jesus was going to “wake him up,” in other words, He was going to resurrect Lazarus. The disciples missed the whole point of what Jesus was saying, and instead responded, “If he is just sleeping, then why do we need to go see him?” Finally, Jesus put it bluntly, “Lazarus is dead.”
The reality of the danger that they were putting themselves in came from the mouth of Thomas, the realist, when after hearing this response of Jesus, he said, “Then let us go, that we may die with him.” Travelling to Bethany would most certainly endanger their lives. Lacing the sarcasm, with which the words of Thomas bit, was the grave reality that Jerusalem was becoming a seriously hostile place. Any trip to Jerusalem would no doubt open the door to further attacks by the religious leaders. But Jesus had said that he must go because God would be glorified, and the Son of God would be glorified. The glory of God was more important than self-preservation. God being glorified was worth risking life and limb over. God was worth it. So, with certain trouble ahead, they departed for Bethany.

Food For Thought: Why was travelling to Bethany dangerous for Jesus and His disciples? Why was Jesus willing to hazard His life and His disciples’ lives by travelling there?