John 19 Chapter 12 It's All Falling Together

[HKHaugan]

This chapter holds the end of Jesus' open public teaching. It takes place in the context of the Passover season, His last and 7th sign of Messiahship and His last public appearance. His hour has come, the hour He foretold, the hour of His glory. It was a 'looking forward' time for Him, grim though it was, looking forward to the Cross and beyond. He was looking forward in faith not only for Himself but for all those around Him who never really ever got what He was about. He was looking forward to the final act of obedience to His Father's will, the final act of love for His Father, the ultimate act of love for all Creation and especially each of us, the sacrifice of death on the Cross only, the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind only He could do perfectly.

In summary, Jesus has given 7 signs to show He is the Messiah. Each sign has been accompanied by a miracle with an Old Testament reference). He turned water into wine (Gen.14:18, Is.55:1-3 wine of the new covenant)), healed an official's son in the 7th hour (Ex.20:8-11, Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath,7th day of Creation), healed a crippled man (Jer.33:6), fed 5000 (Is.26:6), walked on water (Job 9:8), healed a blind man (Is.42:7) and raised Lazarus from the dead (Is.26:19, 49:9). The first opened us to the Holy Spirit of life, the next five to clearing the barriers to life through the Holy Spirit and the seventh, showing the power of the Holy Spirit over physical death. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus at work through the faith of Jesus.

Next, we have been introduced to three Passover themes, spiritual rebirth, spiritual feeding of the new born and spiritual power over death. The first, passing over being born in sin to being reborn to spiritual life in Jesus (Jn.2:13-3:16). The second, passing over from how the world feeds us to the feeding of the new spiritual life in the Word (Jn.6:4-15), from world to Word. The third, the passing over from physical death to eternal spiritual life (Jn.11, 12:1). All three 'Passovers' with the Lord Jesus who carries us through the valley of the shadow of death to His eternal Temple Mount in Heaven, the final Passover. In Chapters 13-17 we will look in on Jesus celebrating the Passover with His disciples.

Chapter 12 contains five of seven significant events, Jesus' anointing, the gathering crowds, Greeks requesting an audience with Jesus, the Father's voice from Heaven and Jesus' last public statement. They may seem disconnected but it is the last two that will connect them all and bring the overall plan of God to fulfillment. This will become clear when they happen which we will see in the succeeding chapters. The final clash of dimensions between the devil and the Lord God is coming to a head. The forces of evil and their prince are massed at the ready in the spiritual dimension to war against Jesus. They will appear using conspiracy, mob rule, compromised leadership and fickle loyalty. These will be energized by the evil spirits of fear, envy, pride, compromise, greed, hate, jealousy, distrust, apathy, dishonesty and a host of others that the gates of hell will unleash against Him. One man standing against all the forces of evil for our sake.

To put it in its historic perspective, it's the totality of evil; the fallen world, the tainted flesh, the devil with his spirits and demons, taking on one person, God the Son in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. They will find the human Jesus relying on His perfect faith as God the Son. Can He withstand this massive assault? What makes this so critical is its presence in our lives, in each of us in every next moment. It's a struggle against sin that makes the mind, the heart and the spirit separated from God and totally self centered. He alone has the faith to take sin on Himself, fight its temptations, see and do battle in the unseen, because the unseen is where He is from. He demonstrated that on the Cross. Without Him we are at the mercy of sin in the unseen and die alone as a result. With Him we can navigate the unseen dimension and find life because He is the light and the life in the unseen exposing its sin and its author, the devil. This struggle is spiritual, personal and relational. It takes place in each of us.

Is there anyone or anything else in which we can place our trust in this triangular inner conflict?

His Cross, His Resurrection defeating death, the devil, sin and evil are the thunder and lightning witnessing to the hope He has given each of us in our moment to moment experience in the unseen. No religion, philosophy or institution offers proof of its authenticity in a relationship with a person who has survived death and whose body has been perfectly raised from the dead. Then offering a relationship where the person raised lives in the heart of the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the good news about Jesus the Christ, God the Son, who is that very person.

Now let's look at the five events; the anointing, the crowds, the Greeks, the Father's voice and Jesus' last public statement.

First, the anointing Ch.12:1-8

Vs.1-3 It's 6 days before the Passover. 6 is the number of incompleteness. We have seen it before. The 6 jars of water turned to wine, 6 as the number of the Samaritan woman's five former husbands plus the one she was cohabiting with and now its 6 days before the Passover in Jerusalem. In all three Jesus is the number 7, God's number, the Creation number, the Messianic sign number and now even our weekly calendar number, most importantly the number of redemption. In each Jesus is the fulfillment of them especially the Passover, the final Passover which He personalizes in Himself as the Lamb of God whose shed blood brings eternal life to all who believe in Him.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Jesus' sacrifice is about to take place and what goes immediately before it are 5 events. The first is the anointing. Jesus returns to Bethany where He raised Lazarus from the dead. Mary takes perfume she has been saving. It was a custom of brides to have a gift for their future husbands. This could have been so here. If so she would have considered her faith in Jesus to be worthy of anointing Him with her most precious gift. He in turn would bequeath her and all those who believed in Him the covering of His blood shed on the Cross for their salvation's anointing. Then too, of course, the cleansing water of baptism would come into play here. But this anointing is special. Matt.26:6-13 records Jesus' response in detail, that she shouldn't be condemned for she will be remembered for her anointing Him for His burial. The important point here is that the room was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. At Pentecost the house where the 120 believers were gathered was filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul mentions believers being the aroma of Christ (2Cor.2:15).

Vs.4-8 Here Judas remarks that the expensive perfume could have been sold and money given to the poor. But the real Judas is exposed as a thief and betrayer who stole from the gift money with which he had been entrusted.

Second, the gathering crowds, vs.9-11

This second event is two gathered crowds with different agendas. One came to see Jesus and Lazarus probably some out of curiosity, others in faith and others with an ulterior motive. It was this gathering that caused the chief priests to make plans to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. They feared Jesus' popularity and now Lazarus' as well since many came to believe in Jesus because of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Those with ulterior motives are probably the nucleus of the soon-to-be crowd that will shout for Jesus' death before Pilate. Inciting mob rule is invoking a spirit of collective anger that sweeps people up into an orgy of violent reaction.

Vs.12-15 The gathered crowd greeting Jesus outside of Jerusalem was quite different in spirit. They had come together strewing Jesus' path with palm fronds. Palm fronds were a sign of victory and loaded with Messianic expectation at this time in particular. Jesus finds a donkey colt and rides it into Jerusalem fulfilling the Zechariah 9:9 prophecy of a king coming who is righteous and bringing salvation. Both groups converge and shouts of 'Hosanna (save us)' ring along the way.

Vs.16 gives us an operative word to show the internal work of the Holy Spirit, realize. Realization is an awakening, an 'Oh,-now-I-see' word. Realization comes when Jesus is glorified on the Cross and in His Resurrection and realization fully matures at Pentecost. Realization for us is when we are inspired to believe, to trust and to have faith. But realization doesn't stop there. It is a continual growing in relational and spiritual insight that results in loving others and sharing our faith experiences.

Vs.17-19 The crowd that was with Jesus when He brought Lazarus out of the tomb spread the word more and more each day. This to the consternation of the Jewish leadership who set themselves to get rid of Jesus any way they could.

Third, the Greeks, vs.20-28

Since these particular Greeks came to worship at the Passover Feast they were Jews born and raised in Greek culture (Hellenistic Jews). Why mention them as Greeks? It is what they represent as Greeks; love of life in this world, philosophy, intellectual pursuit of truth, fascination with pagan religious beliefs, academic superiority even among Romans. Cultural conditioning is a big factor in shaping one's belief system. It can be the subtle compromiser when relational and spiritual issues demand absolutes as opposed to shifting cultural conformity. Perhaps we can now see why Jesus responds the way He does when His disciples inform Him that the Greeks want to see Him. They will be returning to their Greek environment.

“The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.”

Here Jesus proclaims truth as He knows it in Himself. Seeds die, life springs forth. The man who loves his cultural life will lose it but he who hates his life in this world (realizes the fruitlessness of his cultural absorption) will find eternal life. It's the misplaced love and affection for the world as opposed to spiritual life in Christ. If the Greeks desire to serve Jesus they have to follow Him without question. A true servant of Jesus is an all in and yielded servant keeping His eye on His Master. To put the cream on the cake Jesus tells them that His Father honors His servants. He goes even further by saying that though He is troubled by circumstance He will not retreat because what is about to happen on the Cross is the reason He came into the world. So he calls out in front of the Greeks and His disciples “Father, glorify your name!”

Fourth, the voice, vs.28-33

When Jesus says, “Father, glorify your name” a voice from Heaven comes “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” That's two glorifications. One for the work Jesus has done and the one He will accomplish on the Cross. Imagine the confusion when some said it was thunder and others heard a clear voice. Jesus clarifies the event as benefiting all those present and says further that judgment is coming to the world and the world's prince, the devil, is being exposed, driven out in the open so that people may know the instigator of all the evil and its suffering in the world. When Jesus goes to the Cross it will be the devil's work behind the scenes that put Him there. But it will be when Jesus is lifted up on that Cross to die in their place and then raised from the dead that all men will be drawn to Him. It will be decision time which will involve multitudes in “the valley of decision (Joel 3:14).”

So Jesus implores those present to walk in the light (He is the light of the world) while they can. Without Him they walk in darkness and don't know where they are. If they walk in His light they are sons of light. After He said this, Jesus hid Himself from them.

Even after the display of miracles and signs the Jewish leadership is more driven than ever to remove Jesus from the world. Little do they realize that the more secretive they are the more exposed is the devil and his strategy in which they try to hide. Conspiracy, secret meetings, paid betrayal, gathering a mob of discontents, currying the favor of foreign authorities, religiosity, the spirits of apathy, anger, fear and pride energized against Jesus, all these are historically recorded and their infamy revealed as the devil's reality at work. He is the prince of this world, the father of lies, the son of perdition and his abode is hell's lonely darkness.

Even as this anti-Jesus sentiment grew many leaders believed in Jesus but were afraid of losing their position so remained silent. Sound familiar?

One aside here as to the question of Jesus' being seen throughout the Old Testament. John quotes Isaiah 53:1 to show the blindness and hardheartedness of the Pharisees and then Isaiah 6:1-6 which describes the prophet as having seen Jesus as the King of glory, the Lord Almighty.

Fifth, Jesus' last public statement, vs.34-50

Jesus stresses three very important truths to all those assembled:

First, belief in Him is also belief in the One who sent Him. Even more to the point is that when you see Jesus you see the One who sent Him. Through Jesus we can also see darkness and its contents exposed (vs.44-46). Jesus is the light that reveals the Father and the entire spiritual dimension.

Second, Jesus does not judge. It is His words, Scripture, that judge and that judgment is at the last day (vs.47-48). Scripture is our spiritual mirror.

Third, Jesus never spoke on His own accord, in other words, apart from His Father. It was the internal sense of His Father that led Him to think and express Himself. The Father's commands bring eternal life so Jesus reacted to His every next moment as the Father wanted (vs.49-50), an exclamation point on “I and the Father are One (10:40).” This was the perfect faith of Jesus at work in His every next moment.

The signature principle here is the authority of Scripture to which Jesus gives total affirmation. Jesus is both a man of His Word and God of His Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.