John 12:12-19

Hey. Welcome back.

Thanks for joining us as we continue through the Gospel of John.

We're in chapter 12.

And in some ways, this is a good dividing line.

We're not quite at the halfway point.

Probably past that.

A little while ago, but it's very close.

And this marks a change in.

John is interesting, in this regard.

And we'll talk about it in a little bit, but we're, we're just a little past

halfway through the gospel and we're moving to Jerusalem.

And that's that's not the way that the story is presented in the other gospels.

So that is something that John does uniquely.

This is a familiar story.

Though maybe not the most familiar version of it,

but this is the triumphal entry or what we call

in the other texts, Palm Sunday.

And, again,

kind of fascinating that we encounter

in only the 12th chapter of the Book of John.

But let's look at let's look at this jumping in here, verse 12,

and we'll come back and go through it the next day.

A great crowd had come to the festival, heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and shouted, Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.

Jesus found a donkey and sat on it as it is

written, do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.

Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.

His disciples didn't understand these things at first,

but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered

that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

So the crowd that had been with him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb

and raised him from the dead, continued to testify.

It was also because they heard that he had performed the

this sign that the crowd went to meet him.

The Pharisees then said to one another, you see, you can do nothing.

Look, the world has gone after him.

So, again, an interesting choice for John.

John, this, John chooses to spend

almost half of his gospel focusing on the

the last part of Jesus experience and the moving to Jerusalem.

That happens pretty late in the other three gospels.

A very much condensed telling of the story.

John's going to insert a long chapter of a prayer,

some teaching stories, some other things.

But it's clear that John wants to focus

on, as an author what happens to Jesus in Jerusalem

in this last part of his journey toward the cross?

His actual telling of the story

is is pretty straightforward, though.

And check me here, Michael, if I'm wrong, I think this is the first time

that I remember that John has told us that something happened to fulfill

Old Testament of trying to run back through the other stories we've seen.

I feel

like this may

be the first time we've encountered as it was written,

John is not nearly as inclined as, say, Matthew,

to quote Old Testament, but we see it here.

Do not be afraid.

The reference here.

And then again, John gets ahead of the story

and says the disciples will look back.

We've said this over and over.

John is not trying to keep a secret.

He he has the ending in mind, and he believes his readers do as well.

So, in in

some ways a pretty simple telling here.

Hosanna in the highest again.

John goes so far to say, and I think John may be the only one that does this.

The King of Israel, which is an incredibly loaded phrase

in Jesus day in time.

Yeah.

So what has happened with Jesus already shouldn't be underestimated.

Of course, the miracle with Lazarus, which precedes, is

the most, you know, immediate miracle that happens that precedes this move.

Now towards Jerusalem is a story changing moment.

Jesus is not only demonstrated.

The ability to heal Jesus has not only demonstrated

the ability to have control over the elements.

Turning water into wine is a great example of that.

Jesus has also shown himself to be capable of controlling death itself.

And so at that turn now, there's really not there's no sign left.

Ultimately, in terms of those kinds of miracles,

the greatest sign is yet to come.

As John will tell the story.

But as now, Jesus, as he turns his face to Jerusalem,

I think in many ways, Clint, John is now bifurcating crowds.

And I think you're going to see that here later on in this text where you see

you've got the crowd that saw Lazarus come out of the tomb.

So you've got the crowd of people who have seen and believe,

and then you also have the crowd here,

who are the ones who are coming to meet Jesus as he comes to the city,

that there's this kind of growing element

of the fact that now Jesus has become a force to be reckoned

with in terms of the people responding to the revelation.

And interestingly, you know, John, keeps throughout the story

this pace, those who are amazed at Jesus's revelation and believe

he always shows us that equal and opposite power

of those who see Jesus as miracle, and they're driven to be his enemy.

They're driven to push back against him.

And and that's just going to continue as the story goes on.

I do think it's really interesting and really noteworthy here

that John does turn back to Old Testament sources,

like you say, Clint, to, point out ways in which we that

Jesus is fulfilling the things that have come before.

That very clearly is a way for John

to connect back to the scriptures, that people who would have received

this book would have considered their Bible

right before there was the Gospel of John in our Bible.

Those Christians were reading what we call the Old Testament

as they are scriptures.

And the reality here that John is embedding this Jesus story

on the way to Jerusalem with all of the things that are going to happen.

They're embedding that within God's story over a much longer period of time.

There's a way, Clint, when John references the scriptures of the Pharisees,

you know, these are the very texts that they would use,

to describe who the Messiah would be and and what that will look like.

John is once again providing this

this clear delineation between who sees Jesus

and believes they might even see him in the Old Testament.

Those who see Jesus and don't believe are blinded

to the reality of who he is, in spite of the Old Testament.

And I think in John, the scriptures serve a slightly different purpose

than what they do in like, say,

the book of Matthew, where it's all about fulfillment.

I think here John uses those scriptures to show us how,

regardless of, exactly who receives them.

We don't necessarily all end in the exact

same place once we see Jesus through those scriptures.

So once again, being transformed by the revelation of Christ is central.

And and those Old Testament passages, they become sort of buttresses around that.

Yeah.

And though John is an abbreviate

telling of this story, if you're familiar with it from other gospels, there's

preparation, there's an explanation of where they go and get the donkey.

There's the Lord has need of it.

Jesus tells, you know, the disciples to make ready.

John doesn't do any of that.

John sticks to the very bare bones of the story here.

Jesus rides the colt, and yet

all of those same themes are here, right?

Humility.

The idea that there are some that praise

Jesus, that put down palm branches for him.

I do think the word King, while it may be in other,

Palm Sunday texts,

I do think that it functions a little differently in John.

I think it's a it's a little bit more of an intentional theme

in this gospel, and yet that we shouldn't miss

just because we know the story from other sources.

We shouldn't miss this idea that that the King,

the Messiah, the the coming one rides a donkey.

That that interesting, juxtaposition that that interesting combination

of Jesus as Messiah

and Jesus as humble man and, all of, I think the triumphal entry text

paint that picture, John, is no different in that John

maybe paints the simplest version of it, but it's clearly there.

Well, it is, I think, nuanced by the Lazarus story.

So, Clint, because the King, as was expected

by the people, very much, did have a militaristic overtone.

The idea was the king would have power because the king would command

the military strength

to do something about the Romans who were lording it over the people.

And so I think that these words become very much reinterpreted.

Do not be afraid of saying, look, your king is coming,

sitting on a donkey's colt.

Well, the power that Jesus has is not in the militaristic

power of the horse riding into the city.

Right?

That sort of large and in charge image. No.

The power of Jesus has already been demonstrated.

We're not waiting for it.

Jesus has shown his power.

He's called the man from death itself.

Like no Roman Caesar could ever call someone from death itself.

Jesus has demonstrated the power in the Gospel of John.

What is happening?

Is he showing that in his kingdom he comes on a donkey.

He doesn't need to hold a spear.

He doesn't need to be flanked by trained military.

Jesus has the power intrinsic to who he is.

And so the revelation that comes from these Old

Testament Texas, hey, look, that's what they've been saying all along.

We just misunderstood them.

Yeah, I think there is a temptation at times in Christian history to

to make Jesus a warrior king.

I think that's

basically impossible to do in these texts.

This is a humble king.

This is the king that would ride a colt.

This is the king who a few people celebrate,

and other people you know are seeking to kill.

And Jesus is not riding in as a conquering hero here.

Jesus is riding in as something very different.

The humble yet powerful Son of God.

And the last thing I think I'd want to point out, Michael, is

John does this sort of commentary,

that sort of almost parenthetical here

from verse 16, following his disciples didn't understand these things at first,

but after he was glorified, they remembered

that this is not the last time we're going to see that

that that that idea of looking back and and seeing something more clearly

in the context and with the

clarity of the resurrection is, again, not just John.

The other gospels do that.

I think maybe John does it the most and maybe,

arguably the best.

But there is something beautiful about that, that it

they see Jesus do a thing,

or they hear Jesus say a thing,

but they don't yet understand what it means that

that it takes Jesus fulfilling his whole mission,

his true calling,

before the people of God will look back

on these stories and reinterpret them

and for the first time understand what Jesus was saying.

You could talk about this when Jesus says, you know, tear down

the temple and I'll build it up again.

You if you eat this bread and drink this cup.

There are many examples of that,

and many of them come from this latter part of Jesus ministry.

And life. And I think there's something

meaningful in the idea

that none of us understand the depth of Jesus

in the first encounter, that it takes

understanding the bigger picture, the whole story.

It takes remembering.

It takes re-experiencing,

it takes the Old Testament, it takes the New Testament.

They remembered what had been written

and what had been done to him, and then they understood.

And sometimes we want to think that understanding is just, you know,

pull down the arm, pull down the glasses and see everything perfectly.

But that's typically not how faith works.

It's a process.

It's a progress in which we grow into understanding who Jesus is.

And I love that John gives us some of that language

as he tells the story and as he, claims that even for the disciples.

Well, I think here in verse 18, the word glorified is an important part of that,

because the glorification of Christ, if you're going to take that literally,

you might think, especially as he's making this triumphal entry

into the city, that glorification is going to look like a powerful seat,

a place of influence, lots of popularity and people following him.

If if you know the story to come, which we've said multiple times, John

very much assumes that you know how this story is going to end.

We're going to discover glorification looks very, very, very difficult.

Glorification is subjugation.

Glorification is giving up of of one's body and ultimately his Jesus's life.

You know, sometimes the gospels do this.

I mean, this is not just John where they make a statement

that if you were just reading it casually,

you would be forgiven for thinking that you completely understand it.

Well, Jesus can be glorified. Well, yeah, of course.

So he's going to be lifted up.

He's going to be a ruler. You're going to think like revelation.

You know, he's going to come in on the white horse with a big sword.

But in Matthew, for instance, you have at the very end the Great Commission.

Matthew says, they are quotes.

Jesus is saying, I'll be with you even to the end of the age, literally, as

Jesus is going up that Jesus is leaving.

There's a kind of irony in those texts.

And so you have to

understand that glorification, or I'll be with you to the end of the age.

These things

mean something different when you put them in the context of the whole.

When you allow the story of Jesus and every single part of it

to come together like a puzzle, you begin to see something

that's more than the parts are individually.

And I think what we have here is this awareness that the glory of Christ

can't be understood, even in the moment of seeing Jesus restore life to Lazarus,

which is unimaginable for most of us, that would be glory enough.

But the disciples don't get yet the kind of glory

that Jesus is revealing because they haven't seen him.

Give it all up yet, and it's only on the other side of that

that they will be get, that they'll be able to put it all together.

And John, I think to John's credit, is giving us this story

so we can have a similar journey to those disciples.

Right?

We can see Jesus along these revelatory moments in his life.

But John expects, like those first disciples,

that there will come a point where we too can see the larger

puzzle that has been created out of the individual pieces.

And I think that's a powerful way of of sort

of providing for future disciples,

which we count ourselves on the number to be fashioned and,

and for our imaginations to be shaped by who this Jesus really is.

And I think the word remember helps there, particularly in Greek.

In English you can read the word remember and you can think.

It's like when you forget to pick up something at the store,

you know, you didn't get bread, it was on the list and you forgot it.

In the Greek and particularly in the Bible,

remember has a deeper sense than that.

It doesn't just mean call to mind, it means understand.

It means put the pieces together.

And so they do more than just, oh, he did say that.

Think they there's an understanding that is inherent in this word.

And then the only other thing I would say, Michael, is I think this is true

in all four of the gospels in some ways, this is the mountaintop for Jesus.

He comes into Jerusalem, albeit not everybody,

but there's some significant part of the crowd that welcomes him,

even sings the Messiah songs or quotes the Messiah verses.

You know, if you were

going to say that there is a kind of high point

in Jesus experience in the Gospels, arguably I think this is it.

You know, we're going to see more conflict

and ultimately the persecution and crucifixion.

But this is a nice moment.

This is, the sort of deep breath before we get into the rest of it. And,

it is,

I think in many ways kind of a pinnacle of, of the story.

It's an interesting kind of triumphal entry.

And I think that John tells it intentionally that way.

But I think if you're going to look for a phrase to be that turning

point, Clint, I think you see it here in verse 19.

You see, you can do nothing.

Look, the world has gone after him and that is a kind of recognition

that the people have seen the responses happening.

The really interesting thing is, we know the end of the story.

There is yet something to do, but only because Jesus is going to allow it,

that that's the kind of tone that I think John has woven.

And you've seen this already, right?

Is that even in Jesus's highest moments, the places where his

revelation of his power is so spectacular and we can see it so clearly, is often

in these places that either Jesus will sort of bring in a darker note,

he'll talk about his upcoming death, or he'll share the difficulty of it.

I think even in the triumphal entry,

the donkey represents a kind of weakness.

Even in the triumphal entry, John gives the Pharisees a word

as they find themselves in this moment, flummoxed.

All we have to do is hold on to the story.

We just hold on to the thread.

John is going to pull us along, and we're going to see how

the the darkness of this story is only going to grow.

Which is ironic, of course, because the light of the world

is present in the midst of the story.

But but significantly,

as we get into the upper room and we hear all these discourses

and all of this revelation still yet to happen,

there is a kind of tone

of Jesus is drawing near to the hour where he knows what he's going to give up.

And I think John has a way of building that through the whole narrative,

which which I appreciate.

I think it's really masterfully done.

It has something to teach us.

Yeah, this is a in one sense, the simplest version of the story,

in the other sense, the way John uses it, where John puts it, it it functions

as a really important transition in this gospel.

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