John 12 Palm Sunday 07

I was speaking with Mike Warner and we decided to give you a break from Mark for the Easter season. We’ll be working on a couple different texts in John, so that might be a nice little break from Mark. I am enjoying Mark, though, and hope you are too.

In the Gospel According to John, Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last week of His life in chapter 12. He isn’t killed until chapter 19, and He rises in chapter 20. Essentially, 8 chapters out of the 21 in John are dedicated to the last week of Jesus life. I think that’s about 70 percent of John, if I’m not mistaken. We’re going to take a look at more than the Triumphal Entry today, but it will be a part of the sermon. Please stand for today’s reading of Scripture, beginning in John 12:1.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised form the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to see him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

Let’s pray.

The gospel according to John, just so you have some context, is much different than the other gospels. Certainly it comes to the same conclusion, Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, He came to earth from beyond, walked and taught, did miracles and healings, was killed in Jerusalem and 3 days later He rose. He was God. We are to worship Him with all our mind, heart and soul. But John is also more deeply theological than the other gospels. Where Mark has Jesus just start His ministry as a grown man, and Luke and Matthew fill in the back story of His miraculous birth, John instead begins His gospel with the beginning of time itself, and wants us to know that before there even was time, Jesus was with the Father and Jesus was God. Not “a” god, but the God. Matthew and Luke lead you to that conclusion, whereas John starts there. This is because John was written somewhat later than Luke and Matthew. John most likely had read Matthew and Luke, and knew they were helping people understand who Jesus was, but there was more needed. So the Holy Spirit prompted John to write about the deeper truths of who Jesus was.

John begins the story of Jesus last week of life with a dinner interrupted in Bethany, a town quite close to Jerusalem, within a couple miles. At the meal the men reclined on their sides, with their right hands free to reach into the center and grab chunks of food. Their feet are on the outside of the circle. Don’t forget that feet were considered to be very dirty in that society. No one talked about feet, no one touched feet if you could at all avoid it. There seem to be several themes running through the first part of today’s passage. There was the stuff about Lazarus, and how the Pharisees were plotting to kill him because his resurrection pointed to the people that Jesus was the Messiah, when the Pharisees had already decided for the people that Jesus was, in fact, not the Messiah. So there is the Lazarus part, and then there is the anointing of Jesus feet with oil, and the drying of it with Mary’s hair, and then Judas’ comments about the money which could have been used in a different way. All those themes are interesting to me, but I want to focus on Mary’s action. Listen again to the first part of the passage.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Yes, this passage points out the lengths the Pharisees were willing to go to in order to make sure Jesus was refuted in His claims to be the Messiah. It is almost a scary thing to see how mad they were at Jesus, how far they were willing to go in order to disprove Him. With this mindset, it certainly is within the bounds of their thinking that Jesus deserved to die, and they were the ones appointed to that task. It doesn’t surprise me that the Pharisees condemned and executed an innocent man.

The documenting of Judas’ attitude gives us insight into the man who will betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The money issue had been digging at Judas for a while apparently; money apparently was disappearing from the common purse that everyone contributed to. I doubt Judas was taking money out and giving it to the poor. I suspect Judas was irritated that he couldn’t take some of the money that would have gone into the collective money bag if the perfume had been sold. Judas let his greed blind him, his trajectory as a person was shaped by his greed, which culminated in him betraying his friend, his Lord, for a paltry sum. Judas is a tragic figure in the classical literature sense of the word. He has a fatal flaw, and it comes out when Jesus is in Jerusalem. His love of money over all else dooms himself.

The other part is Mary’s anointing of Jesus. I’ve pointed out how unusual it would have been to have Mary anointing Jesus’ feet in a society that, to this very day, views feet as dirty and not to be even talked about, much less touched. So that Mary, a Jew, would touch Jesus’ feet at all is worthy of note. Even more is her love and devotion demonstrated by the using of her hair to dry his feet. This is an act of pure love. The value of the perfume involved, the hair on the feet, the fact that she breaks the protocol of the Jewish people and she touches a man to whom she is not married, all those speak of her great love. Not only is this a loving act, but it is also symbolic, in two ways.

The first way that this is symbolic seems pretty easy to pick up. She is anointing His body with a type of perfume normally associated with dead bodies. Back then people would put strong perfume on decomposing bodies to counteract, at least in part, the smell of a decomposing corpse. Mary is foreshadowing Jesus death in this act of love. Jesus will be dead in less that a week. Mary is symbolically getting His body ready for the death that is coming. The second way this act is symbolic is a lot more subtle.

In order to be King of the Jews, several things had to happen. The king needed to be proclaimed the king, he needed to be crowned, and he needed to be anointed. All these things happened in the final week of Jesus life. Think of the sign above Jesus head when He was on the cross. What did it say? Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. There we have the proclamation that Jesus was the King. It is a backwards, mocking proclamation, but then again, Jesus was a different sort of King. Jesus is crowned as well. What mocking symbol is slammed onto His head as a part of the torture leading up to the cross? Right, a crown of thorns. It isn’t the sort of crown a regular king would have gotten, of course. But Jesus isn’t the regular sort of King, He wasn’t the sort of King the people wanted or knew what to do with. And lastly, the king had to be anointed. That happens here. A woman anoints His body with oil. The anointing is different than anyone would have expected. But there it is. All three parts of the ceremony proclaiming the King of the Jews is in the text, just not in the way anyone expects, it happens backwards, it happens subtlety, it happens in a different way than we would expect. Even the King’s entrance into Jerusalem happens differently than we would expect, than the people expected. He comes humbly, not on a white war horse, but on a young donkey? What kind of king might this be? This is our King. This is our Lord, anointed by a woman, crowned with thorns, mocked by the sign above His head that was the truth. This is our Lord who loves us enough to go to the cross for each of us. This is our King, if we accept His gift of His sacrificed body and blood for us. Remember that a little later when we take communion. This is our King, anointed, crowned, proclaim, bloody and broken, for us. Remember that, and celebrate.

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

The entrance into Jerusalem, when it was packed with people from the outlands, is interesting. Many of the people who had been following Jesus around, you know in Mark we’ve been noticing the crowds that keep following Jesus around the Sea of Galilee, likely would have gone to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. And now they see the teacher they have been following, proclaimed as the Messiah. I’m sure they were some of the first people yelling “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” They suddenly realize the teacher they had been following around is making His claim to be the Messiah. Jesus is finally proclaiming the truth that many people had been wondering about; could He be the Messiah? Yes. He is the Messiah, riding into Jerusalem. But again, not in the way people had expected. He is the king that rules His own way, through His death and resurrection. He rules not through force, but through love. He rules for our good, not His own. Jesus is the greatest king because of His willingness to serve His subjects, rather than force them to serve Him.

Jesus the King is coming into Jerusalem, traditionally the seat of Kings of Israel. But He has not been anointed by the religious rulers, His coming is neither sanctioned nor desired. The Pharisees have not dissuaded Jesus from making His claim. They have not intimidated Him, they have not forced Him away from Jerusalem. Jesus knows He has an appointment to keep with a cross, just several days away. But that day is not yet, and for this day, He is proclaimed the king by His people, those who would have Him as their king. This is our king, the humble king, the one crown by thorns, anointed by a woman, proclaiming His kingdom by riding a donkey into Jerusalem.

It is interesting that John would point out to his readers; hey don’t feel bad that you don’t understand everything…even the disciples were slow to catch on. The crowds that had seen Lazarus alive after he had died, knew that Jesus was different than the religious stuff they had been forced to adhere to their entire lives. This was the man who had performed miracles unheard of, except in the pages of their Holy Book, when the prophesies talked about what the Messiah would do. Jesus stood ready to assume the throne of all who would have Him as king. But the religious leaders stood in the way, appalled that so many people were following Jesus.

What is standing in your way of following this humble king, who entered on a donkey, who will wear the crown of thorns, who will die to be your Lord? Does His coming bring joy to you, or simply questions? Is this your King, or not? What is standing in the way of His throne in your life? Is it pride? That you will not have any king other than yourself? Is it fear? Fear that your life will have to change, that you will have to give up to much and you might lose yourself? If you accept this King, your life will change. You will have to give up some aspects of your life that are precious to you. I will not sugar coat the truth. Jesus changes lives, but always for the better. Is it that you don’t really need a Savior, you just want to feel better about life in general? We all need a Savior; there is no one here that can stand on their good deeds before God, because the sins we have committed as so vile to God. All the good deeds in the world don’t cancel out a single sin. Only Christ can do that, this humble King, come to us, for us. He calls out again for all those who would follow. Lay your life down, in Christ, so He can give it back to you, new and improved.

I invite you to see Jesus anew through this week; through His entrance into Jerusalem, through the teaching and anguish of the last night with His disciples, through the pain and shame and death of Friday, through to the resurrection of next Sunday. I invite you to take the next step of faith if you can, if you will.

Let’s pray.