Chapter 12, is the final chapter where Jesus has public
ministry. After this chapter, the invitation of Jesus is no longer there for
the crowds. He only teaches those who have chosen to be near him.
In the very structure of John’s Gospel, there is an ‘outside’
and an ‘inside’. Jesus preaches to all, the outside, but there comes a time
when that finishes. And He is only there for the inside. There is an
invitation. Then the invitation ends. We are either on the outside, or inside.
This chapter divides into four sections.
a. Jesus in Bethany 12:1 – 11
b. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem 12:12 – 19
c. The Greeks and Jesus’ death 12: 20 - 36
d. Jesus’ final appeal to the unbelieving Jews. 12: 37 - 50
We will look at the first two sections in this lesson, and
the last two in the next.
12: 1 – 11, Jesus in Bethany.
After the raising of Lazarus, Jesus goes to Ephraim with his
disciples, about 12 miles north of Jerusalem. This was a wilderness area. It
was safe. He could have stayed there. But He doesn’t. Jesus chooses to come to
Bethany, just two miles from Jerusalem. He is writing the story, not his
enemies. He knew it was dangerous for him to come there, and especially
dangerous to go to Lazarus’ home. Jesus knows what has been decided by the
council. So, he is starting his journey to the cross.
The coming death of Jesus is underlined in the first words of
the verse. Six days before the Passover…six days before the lambs would be
killed. The writer is saying – the hour is getting very near and he wants us to
understand the role of Lazarus. He is there at the start of the story, and he
ends the story. In v. 1 Jesus comes to Bethany, the home of Lazarus. There is a
feast given in Jesus’ honour – that’s not surprising – and we are told that
Lazarus was with Jesus. They were together.
That starts this story. Now look at the end of the story, in
v. 9. A great crowd of Jews – almost certainly from Jerusalem – are coming to
Bethany, not just to see Jesus, but to see Lazarus. And in the next story, the
entry to Jerusalem, we find out that many in the crowd have come to see Jesus –
because of Lazarus. (12:18).
The writer is doing at least four things here.
Every time he writes the name of Lazarus he is proving that
Jesus is who He says He is. He is the resurrection and the life. He has been
sent by God. There are no ifs and buts. Lazarus was dead for four days. Now he
is alive, eating with Jesus and his family.
And so, secondly, the writer is underlining the courage of
Jesus. Lazarus proves that Jesus is from God and this is what his enemies hate.
In fact they hate it so much they now want to kill Lazarus too. Look at v. 10.
Jesus knows this, but He still comes and sits right next to Lazarus.
And then thirdly, this means that the story about Mary
anointing Jesus – which points to his burial; and Judas’ criticism – which
points to the betrayal, these two events, death and betrayal – they are in the
middle of the story. Yes – there are dark events, but they are framed by life,
framed by Lazarus.
And finally by presenting us with Jesus and Lazarus sitting
together we have a contrast. Lazarus has been dead and is now alive; Jesus is
alive, and will soon be dead. There is a feast. This points to heaven, like the
wedding in Chapter 2, but as in Chapter 2 with the ‘best wine’ the blood, so
now – Lazarus is at the table, because Jesus is going to die. This is grace.
Now we come to the most famous part of this section. Mary’s
anointing of Jesus. It is all in v. 3.
This is almost certainly the same story that is recorded in
Mark 14 and Matthew 26, but it is not the story in Luke 7. The
one in Luke is in a different place, a different time, with a different host, and
a different woman.)
They are all enjoying the feast, with Martha typically in
charge of what is going on. She is the one who is serving. Mary sees Jesus,
maybe passing some bread to Lazarus, maybe she sees her brother laughing – and
she is overwhelmed by gratitude. Remember she is the one who didn’t go to meet
Jesus. She is the one who probably doubted Jesus’ love. And now she sits and
she realised how much He loves them. And it is almost certain that she knew how
dangerous for Jesus it was to be there with them. In fact, as we will see in v.
7, it is very possible that somehow Mary understood that Jesus was going to die
because of what He did for her brother.
So she looks at the scene and says – more, we must do more to
show our love to Jesus. This feast isn’t enough. So she gets up to find this
very expensive perfume – pure nard. It almost certainly belonged to the whole
family, not just her, because it is so expensive. It is a year’s salary. Jesus
is giving everything, she wants to give everything.
So she comes to Jesus with the perfume. He – and the other
guests would not have been sitting at a high table on a chair, nor were they
sitting cross-legged on the floor. They were reclining on thin mats around a
low table. They would be leaning on your arm, and your feet could come out,
from the table. So, Mary can easily come to Jesus’s feet.
In Mark it was Jesus’ head that was anointed; here it is his
feet. There is no contradiction here because also in Mark Jesus says that Mary
has anointed his body for burial. There is a pound of perfume. Plenty for the
head, the feet, the whole body. John’s focus though is on the feet. This
underlines Mary’s humility. And as in the next chapter we will find out that the
disciples were not willing to wash each other’s feet, this underlines their
lack of humility. Mary is ahead of the other disciples.
Mary’s drying of Jesus’ feet with her hair is dramatic. This
is sometimes what the slave women would do. And showing her hair was scandalous.
That is something a Jewish woman would never do. A woman’s hair was for the
eyes of her husband only. For a woman to show her hair in front of other men,
that was terrible. There was a Jewish mother, Kimchit and all her sons became
high priests. When asked why she thought she had had this honour, her reply
tells us much about the Jewish culture. Kimchit said, ‘Ever since I married the
walls of my home have not seen my hair’ Kimchit kept her hair covered Mary
didn’t. Her love for Jesus was ready to break al the cultural rules.
This perfume speaks of intimate love. Nard is mentioned three
times in the Song of Solomon. So in 1:12 we have ‘While the king was on his
couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance’. This intimacy means that now the
smell of Jesus will be in her hair, and the smell of her hair will be with Jesus.
Mary is not worried about the money, she is not worried about her reputation.
She only wants to show her love for Jesus.
In Mark and Matthew we are told that Jesus says that what
Mary has done will be told wherever the Gospel is preached. John doesn’t tell
us this. But he does say that, ‘The house was filled with the fragrance of the
perfume’. Jesus’s first miracle at the wedding focused on the taste of the
wine; now here we are just before his entry to Jerusalem, and the focus is on
the smell. We have already been told about the terrible smell that comes from a
dead person– in 11:39. Marth was right. Death has a terrible smell. Now we are
being told about Jesus’ death and burial – and yet there is no terrible smell.
There is a beautiful smell that is felt throughout the house. Death has a
terrible smell; but that smell completely changes with Jesus. He too is going
to die, but his death gives off not a terrible stench but a beautiful fragrance.
It completely takes away the smell of Lazarus’ death, because it is this death
that brings resurrection to mankind. No wonder the smell fills the whole room.
It is right also to think of this fragrance being Mary’s worship
and you can connect the nard to the incense used in the temple. The story is
encouraging us to respond to Jesus’ love with worship which is similar to hers
– extravagant But, we need to take the camera a little closer. It is true that
what Mary did cause the house to be filled with the fragrance – but we must
also remember the source. The source is the death of Jesus. The fragrance that
fills the house comes from the body of Jesus Christ which has been prepared for
burial.
That was verse 3. Then for four verses the camera goes to
Judas. How our writer loves contrasts. The contrast between the resurrected
man, Lazarus, and the condemned man, Jesus. The contrast between the fragrance
coming from Jesus’ body and the stench coming from Lazarus’ body. And now the
contrast between Mary – the disciple to emulate, and Judas, the disciple to
loath.
Our writer does not like Judas. He is mentioned eight times
in the Gospel and four times he has to tell the reader that this is Judas – who
betrayed him. As if we can forget. It’s obvious. The writer is deeply hurt because
what Judas has done.
Judas is posing. He wants everyone to think that he is
concerned for the poor. But the writer tells us that is a lie. Judas wants to
get rich. So he tells us – and this is only from John – that Judas was a thief
and he stole from the money box. Given that Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces
of silver, this is not hard to believe. This betrayal of the trust Jesus had in
making Judas the team treasurer, points to the much worse betrayal that is
going to happen.
And perhaps there is more going on here than just money. Perhaps
Judas is ambitious for control of the group. Jesus first mentioned his betrayal
at the end of chapter six, when the disciples had left Jesus. So this probably
means it was Judas who suggested the disciples
leave Jesus on the mountain praying. He was taking control of the group. It’s
the same here. Mary has done something scandalous, showing her hair wiping
Jesus’ feet. The whole room is silent. And so Judas sees his chance, feeling that
many in the room will support him. So he speaks up and criticises Mary. This
means of course that he is criticising Jesus, because Jesus gave permission.
Jesus could have said – yes, Judas is right. And if he had
done this, then he would be saying that Judas – and others – can have a say in
how things happen in their group. It would be a surrender of his leadership. So
– after Judas has spoken there is a lot at stake. All eyes look to Jesus, not
Mary. Jesus is very strong. He robustly says, ‘Leave her alone’. He is
protecting Mary and he is rebuking Judas for attacking her instead of Him.
Jesus then interprets what she has done. What he says is a
little enigmatic It can’t mean that she is going to keep the perfume till the
day of Jesus’ burial, because Mark tells us that she broke the flask. That
means she had already poured all of the perfume on Jesus – his head, his body,
his feet. What Jesus is probably saying to Judas is that this perfume was never
for selling and giving for the poor. This perfume was for his burial. And now
she has used it. Jesus is not saying that we should not help the poor, but you
can always do this, with our normal money. But we must also understand that
there are times in life for special expenditure – and the going of a loved one is
one of them. We will all find that out. Jesus is also implying that Mary knew
what she was doing, that she knew he was soon going to die, and so she wanted
to prepare his body for that terrible death.
The woman in this story then shows not just devotion – but
extraordinary insight. The man in this story has no devotion, and is only
concerned about his own pocket. The message is obvious for disciples. Be like
Mary, never be like Judas.
Let’s turn now to the second section of this chapter, Jesus’
entry into Jerusalem, 12 – 19.
We move from a very private scene in Bethany, to a very
public scene in Jerusalem. Josephus tells us that 2.7. million Jews would come
to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. It was the most important feast,
and all adult men were expected to be there. In this crowd many people are
talking about the raising of Lazarus, look at v. 17. The people who had been in
Bethany were ‘bearing witness’.
So when the news comes that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem, a
massive crowd go out to greet him. Not thousands, but hundreds of thousands. On
their way, many break off palm branches which were plentiful in Jerusalem.
These they use to wave in the air. This is political, because the waving of
palm leaves was associated with the victory of the Maccabees over Antiochus in
167AD. And what they chant for Jesus is political: Hosanna! That means ‘give
salvation – now’. Jesus – do something now, bring us salvation from the Romans
– now. ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’, that is from Psalm
118. This is what the crowd think: Jesus comes in the name of the Lord and He
is the true king of Israel – not Herod, not Pilate.
In John 6 Jesus had escaped when the crowd wanted to make him
king. Now his hour is near, and he accepts what they are saying. But he does
something which a normal king would never do. He finds a donkey to ride on. This
fulfils the prophecy in Zachariah (9:9), but it dampens down the nationalism. For
a king going to war would never ride a donkey, he would ride a horse. The
reference to Zachariah 9 underlines this. One commentator invites us to
consider three points. This text says we are to expect a king who will stop
war; bring peace to all the nations; and this is connected to the blood of
God’s covenant. None of this was in the minds of the crowd who were chanting
‘The King of Israel’. They wanted a king who would go to war with the Romans;
Jesus came as a king who was ready to die – to bring peace to all nations. No
wonder the disciples did not understand.
We are so familiar with the story of Jesus riding into
Jerusalem on a donkey that we can easily forget what a brave thing this was for
him to do. He knew very well that He had powerful enemies there. But still he
got on that donkey. And when the crowds shouted out that He, Jesus, was ‘The
King of Israel’ Jesus did not stop them. This is raw courage. For this was
bound to mean his enemies would kill him.
This courage had impact. As He rides into Jerusalem on that
donkey He is saying unequivocally to Caiaphas, and Pilate, and Herod – your
days are numbered. I am the true King, and you will have to answer to me. Jesus
here does not just have the courage to come to Jerusalem to save the world; He
also has the courage to rebuke the world. And He is ready to do this – even if
it costs him his life.
Here we get valuable insight into Jesus’ way of dealing with
government injustice. Apart from calling Herod a fox, Jesus has refused to
support any opposition against the rulers. The opposite. He teaches that they
should support these rulers – the Jews didn’t want to carry a Roman’s bag for
one mile, Jesus said, go two miles. The Jews didn’t want to pay taxes, Jesus
said, pay the taxes; the Jews wanted to get rid of Pilate for his cruelty, but
Jesus said, make sure you repent, otherwise you will end up being one of his
victims (see Luke 13).
What is the insight? In the short-term Jesus supports the
system even though He knows it is unfair because a system is better than
anarchy. But that does not mean there will be no justice for those responsible
for government injustice. There will be. The King is coming, and this is
exactly what Jesus is saying when he rides into Jerusalem.
Even though it will cost him his life. There is no thought of
Jesus dying as he rides towards the city. This looks like a victory march, and
the Pharisees (v. 19) admit this. There is nothing they can do. ‘The world’,
everyone is for Jesus.
This ‘nothing they can do’ is true, not true, and true. It
has three meanings. It is true that at that point in time Jesus’ opponents
could not do anything. If they had tried to arrest him they would have had to
kill a lot of people. There would have been an uproar. It is not true because
they are going to find a way to do something. They will arrest him in a secret
place, Gethsemane, and have him sentenced to death by the Romans, so if the
crowd get angry, the Romans would deal with them. But it is also true, because
even though they think that by sending Jesus to the cross they can stop him, in
fact, ‘there is nothing they can do’ to stop the message of Christ spreading,
and that has been happening ever since the crucifixion.
And so the first part of Chapter 12 ends.
Let us be warned.
Judas allowed a love for money to develop in his heart – so
he stole from the money box, later he would sell Jesus for thirty pieces of
silver. And he gave himself the freedom to criticise Jesus. Let’s be careful
with our hearts, and careful with our tongues.
Let us be challenged
By Mary’s devotion and understanding. A feast was not enough
for her, Martha’s serving, while good, was not enough. More was needed. And she
gave, and so the fragrance of Jesus body, prepared now for burial, spread
through the whole house. Let us all follow Mary.
Let us be encouraged.
Jesus comes. He comes to Bethany, He comes to Jerusalem.
He comes with a purpose – to celebrate life with a family he
loves, and to remind the rulers of Jerusalem that one day they will have to bow
to the true king. Perhaps there are situation when we think that Jesus should
do something. Be encouraged. He will act – at the right time, and in the right
way.
He comes – even though it will cost him his life.
In the second half of chapter twelve some Greeks come and say, 'We want to see Jesus'. This triggers 'the hour'. To read more - click here https://sternfieldthoughts.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-gospel-of-john-greeks-and-jesus.html
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