John Chapter 12
This account of Jesus' last days starts with his arrival at Bethany 6 days before Passover. (Harmony says the last public ministry of Jesus is now recounted, from the Friday before until the Tuesday of Passion week, in the Spring of AD 30, or maybe AD 29.) John says they gave a dinner for Jesus in Bethany. This would have been the night BEFORE the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Such a dinner would seem a fairly big deal and the implication is that the whole town was involved. Martha serves at the dinner, Lazarus himself reclines at the table, and Mary anoints Jesus' feet with perfume and cleans them with her own hair. Judas sees this as waste, though he is more jealous of not getting his hands on the money it would have brought. Jesus says she should "keep it" for his burial. So this same spice may later have anointed his body for burial. I never caught that before either. Perhaps ESV is why this is here. Nope, once you see the ESV translation, the KJV obviously says the same thing. I just missed it. 2020 - I note this year that John is pretty direct about the kind of person Judas Iscariot was, even before he betrayed Jesus. Judas was perhaps never a true believer. He traveled with a sinless man, and stole money from the common purse with that man, and with 11 "friends" of his. He was never really part of the group, despite the teaching that he got. Perhaps this is why he'd been better never to have been born. The parables that were a mercy to those who would never believe anyway were explained to him. To him, MUCH was given, and he disabused it all. He would have much to answer for. Just like we as Gentiles do today. The mystery has been revealed, and we ignore it at our own risk.
Possible FB post. Start with "why did Jesus say Judas should never have been born. Bring in the parables - designed to lessen hell for unbelievers. Then think of Jesus. Then think of this country and the resources we have now. To reject Jesus here and now is to say "Call me Judas.
2021 - This verse:
7 Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. [Jhn 12:7 ESV]. There is a footnote with an alternate translation that says "Leave her alone; she intended to keep it..." Jesus tells Judas he was never going to get the money for this fragrance anyway. Mary had always intended to use it when Jesus died, to anoint his body for burial. She apparently decides to use a bit of it while he is alive, so that he may enjoy it. This more directly put Judas in his place. He should have realized from what Jesus said that Jesus knew his real motivation was greed, not helping the poor. But more than that, Jesus says "This was never going to be yours, you really didn't lose anything here.".
2022 - This verse:
8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." [Jhn 12:8 ESV]. I've heard this verse quoted, but never really appreciated the context. Judas sees this expensive ointment and says it would have helped many poor. Jesus says the poor will still be here next week, and you can worry about them then. But for now, honor the one who won't be here next week, the one with whom your time is very limited. We ought to think of this in terms of our family and friends also perhaps. When something is either/or, shouldn't we choose those we love, who we do not have forever, rather than something ultimately "common", that will always be there? Shouldn't we hang with the kids on Saturday and Sunday rather than getting ahead at work? There will always be work to do. As there will always be playoff games, grass to mow, groceries to buy, houses to clean. These things will all be there tomorrow. We ought not behave as if there is a big choice to be made between these things and those we love.
Good FB post.
The chief priests find out Jesus is in Bethany, and that many Jews have come there to see him. And they also see Lazarus, alive, and believe in Jesus because they know Lazarus was dead. They know. They knew him before, they likely saw him dead, and now they see him eating. This would profoundly prove that Jesus was more than man. So the elite plot to kill Lazarus too, so that he cannot persuade others of the truth of Christ. It is this same principal that makes those who are outspoken about Christ despised today. The darkness hates the light, and so hates the sources of light that shine on what they want hidden.
2021 - These verses:
10 So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. [Jhn 12:10-11 ESV]. See above. This is a good FB post. The darkness hates the light. The brighter the light the more the darkness hates it. Lazarus is a pretty bright light. There are people at this dinner that saw him dead. For days. They saw him buried. They saw him walk out of the grave in the "clothes" he was buried in. Lazarus was proof - dazzlingly bright proof. Lazarus had to die...again. We have to ask ourselves if we are even shining bright enough to be noticed by the darkness. If we're dim bulbs we need to do something. We need to find a way to shine brighter. And here is something...Only in darkness is a light noticeable. If we're hanging out with bright lights, we add very little. Even if we are dim, we look bright in the light of those who shine. We can be dim and no one knows it, if we hang with the right kind of folks. Our light only shines when we are bright enough to be noticed in the company we keep. And we can judge the success of our cranking up the lumens by whether or not we are hated by the darkness. So there's the method and the measure for amping up our light!
2022 - Good FB post...why have I not seen it before? Check and make sure it hasn't previously been used.
2022 - Does tradition/early church history tell us what happened to Lazarus? Did he live on to a natural death, or did the Chief Priests succeed in killing him? A quick Google search turned this up - in a couple of different places:
The Bible gives us no further information about Lazarus. Any additional details stem from church history and may or may not be accurate. One tradition holds that, after Jesus’ ascension back into heaven, Lazarus and his sisters moved to Cyprus where Lazarus became the bishop of Kition and died of natural causes in AD 63. Another theory claims that Lazarus and his sisters moved to Gaul to preach the gospel, and Lazarus became the bishop of Marseilles, where he was beheaded under the tyranny of Emperor Domitian. Whatever happened to Lazarus is unknown. But we can be certain that his physical body died a second time. And we know that, according to 1 Corinthians 15:51–53 and 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17, Lazarus will be raised again from the dead to join all God’s saints in eternity. https://www.gotquestions.org/what-happened-to-Lazarus.html
The next day, Jesus goes into Jerusalem, sitting on the colt. John's account says the people were saying "...even the King of Israel." They knew who Jesus was, but proclaiming him King publicly would certainly have gotten the attention of the Romans, in addition to the chief priests and other elite. This sort of puts them all on the same side against him.
2021 - This verse:
15 "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!" [Jhn 12:15 ESV] John quotes the OT here. I don't think he's done that very much at all up to this point. He must have thought this prophecy fulfilled, with perhaps thousands of witnesses who could attest to it, was a worthy point to make.
2022 - And a difficult thing for the sect of the Baptist to refute. Just too many witnesses. And a sign like this, if it was something people tried to pull off every day, would be well known. They were too reverent of scripture to go around trying to fake it all the time. This ride on the donkey was unique because it was in prophecy.
Vss 16-19 are "new" to me. John says the disciples didn't connect the colt, the foal of a donkey to Jesus' entry until after Jesus was glorified. They just didn't make the connection. It also says a large crowd of Jews in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover go out to meet Jesus as he arrives because they had heard he raised Lazarus from the dead. This miracle was well known and widespread, and the miracle was connected with Jesus the man. Because of this "rush to Jesus", the Pharisees become more desperate, seeing that they are losing their authority to him, and their plots are coming to nothing. It is clear they will become more direct.
2022 - Not that in 16, John gives us another of his "explanations" of the events he is narrating. He does it again in vs 18. And 33. And in 41 he tells us what Isaiah meant.
There is a story of some Greeks who want to see Jesus. When told about them, Jesus says that a grain of wheat comes to nothing unless it dies first, and then it will come forth producing more wheat. He is speaking of his own death, but goes on to say that whoever loves his life here will lose it - we all do - and whoever hates life here, and despises it for the sake of things to come, will gain his life. It ends with "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." 2020 - In what way is this answer connected to the request of the Greeks to come and see Jesus? Is it about the prevalent Greek belief that the soul is a good thing, and the physical body a bad thing? Is he answering their questions without actually having them come to him? Hmm...it kind of seems so, because Jesus talks about how something that dies ends up producing on the other side. Therefore, all must die in order to be glorified. This was the answer to the Greeks unspoken question. Doesn't Paul use this same analogy about a seed somewhere in his own ministry? YES! Here: 35 But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. [1Co 15:35-38 ESV] I never connected these two before today. ALSO, only John tells this story, and the next part, where God speaks to Jesus from heaven as Jesus is troubled. John might well relate the part about the Greeks, and Jesus' answer, because of the attacks on the church at Ephesus by Greek philosophers. Maybe. And perhaps the Gnostics were somehow assimilating this part of Greek philosophy into their "special knowledge". 2021 - I think this is the right way to interpret this. The Greeks wanted to discuss soul and body. Jesus sent them the right perspective. This body must die, that a better can take its place, and live forever.
2022 - The word "glorified" keeps showing up today. It is in vs 16, Jesus uses it in vs 23 and 28. Theos also uses it in 28.
These two verses, also "new" to me, and only recorded in John:
27 "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." [Jhn 12:27-29 ESV]
2022 - in vs 28 God says he HAS glorified, past tense, His name, and he WILL glorify it, future tense, again. Are these references to specific times, or is this general? It would seem to me that the perfect sacrifice glorifies God. Doesn't Jesus say elsewhere that his purpose is to glorify the Father? I bet there is a lot in this little verse that I am missing.
God again testifies before men of the glory of Jesus. A witness. Jesus testifies of himself, God testifies of Him, John testified, and the miracles testify. Four proofs. Interesting that not all who heard identified it as God's voice. Some thought it thunder, but even then...very impressive.
2021 - There is sort of a break between vss 26 and 27. A response is sent to the Greeks, then Jesus is troubled in the next verse. We can't really tell where Jesus was at this time. He had entered Jerusalem on the colt, but we haven't been told that he arrived at a particular place. Did this come upon him as he was riding? Had he dismounted and gone in somewhere private for a few minutes? Had he arrived at the temple and been surrounded by throngs of people come to hear what he had to say? Was he overcome by the hatred of the Pharisees,? This is an emotional moment - a very human moment - where ever it took place.
Some think it merely thundered, others think an angel spoke to Jesus. My guess is that none but maybe the apostles understood the words. Maybe only John understood since he is the only one who talks about this.
2022 - It is odd that only John would consider this event significant enough to include in his gospel. Maybe John is indeed the only one who understood the words, and the others just thought it coincidental thunder. But if so...don't we need to look for the reason that only John would hear this? It is about God's glorification of the Son. No....it was a big enough deal for Jesus to explain it to the crowds in the following verses....
Since no one understood it exactly, Jesus explains it this way: 30 Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." [Jhn 12:30-32 ESV] Why in the world is this only in John? Look at what all is here! Judgement day is here. The second part of the double punishment? Or continued blindness and deafness for not accepting Christ? Judgement on the world or judgement on Israel? Ahh...Judgement on Satan, the ruler of this world! Because upon Jesus rising from the dead, after being the perfect sacrifice owing to his sinless life, Satan's end is sealed. Satan has spent all of history and who knows how long before then trying to prevent the death and resurrection of Christ, and he is about to forever lose that battle. From this time on, salvation is not through any other - especially not through Satan - but only by the name of Jesus. There is no compromise here with Islam. It just cannot be compromised. No compromise with the RCC. Maybe the reason it is only in John is because he wrote so much later, and by that time they'd begun to understand in far more completeness just what Jesus was really about. They'd more formally separated and understood the prophecy of Suffering Servant and Conquering King, and John recognized just how pivotal in God's plan for humanity this moment was. From vs 28b, it would seem that he was still outside. Likely he was thronged in the streets, and was overcome with the need around him, and with his role in meeting that need.
2022 - But Jesus says it is about that voice. The voice is to affirm that these events are God-ordained. They all knew this voice was a big deal. Jesus tells them why. Satan had been in charge of this world since the fall. Sin reigned. The Law shined the light on the sinfulness of man. Belief until then kept you out of hell in the afterlife, but it did not, could not get you to heaven, because the necessary propitiation had not yet appeared. With Jesus' accomplished work, believers in him go straight into heaven to be with God. We go as spirit. At the rapture, body and spirit are reunited as one. We will eat again, we will hug, we will hold hands with those we love...at the rapture. NOTE: I have no idea if this is on the right track or not, but surely there needs to be an explanation for why we need a rapture if we go straight to heaven anyway. I mean, don't we need a reason?
2022 - But then this verse:
34 So the crowd answered him, "We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" [Jhn 12:34 ESV]. So the argument of some - who were quite familiar with scripture - was that once Christ appeared, he would remain forever. They seem to understand very well that Jesus is saying he must die. Also very significant is that they know Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, and these people associate that term with Christ. They see the two titles as belonging to the same person. This is a big deal. What they are not connecting is that the Suffering Servant is also the same person. They did not expect, AT ALL, that the Son of Man would die and be resurrected. They did not anticipate that Christ would conquer death and in THAT sense be with them forever.
2022 - If it was the followers of John claiming that Jesus could not be the Messiah - the one that John said would come after him - a greater than John - then the Apostle would include this exchange in order to remind them that they were wrong about Jesus at that time. By the time John writes his gospel, Jesus had risen and this was a widely known fact. So John's gospel is not only saying that the Sect of the Baptist was wrong at the beginning, but that even they know by now what Jesus meant by these words.
2022 - MSB gives two possible verses they might have had in mind:
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. [Isa 9:6-7 ESV], and/or possibly:
25 They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. [Eze 37:25 ESV]
Both these are considered Messianic, and we are privileged to have explanations for them today. But there is no indication here that the son given must first die and then be resurrected, nor that Ezekiel is speaking of the Millennial.
2022 - Jesus' answer also seems to reference an OT messianic scripture:
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. [Isa 9:2 ESV]. Those asking the questions knew where Jesus was from. They knew him as a Galilean. That is the region to which this Messianic prophecy referred. So via this verse, Jesus connects himself also to the verses his questioners referenced. He is answering "Who is this Son of Man". Jesus is telling them that he is Christ, AND that they have missed something. He is saying that their understanding is incomplete, and that he is the explanation. He does not "reveal" what has been hidden to them, but he tells them where to look. He is sort of telling them to pursue that question! You have gotten yourself a clue - you see that Christ and Son of Man are the same - but there is more to the mystery, and you need to keep pursuing the answers and observing what "the light" that is present does - so that the mystery can be revealed to you. Do this lest you fall back into the darkness and the light is not longer there to observe. What an answer!
Despite all this, there is vs 37:
37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, [Jhn 12:37 ESV]
Why would we be surprised when people who haven't seen miracles directly but only hear of them or read of them reject the truth of what happened. They saw, yet did not believe!
2021 - 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" [Jhn 12:38 ESV]. John quotes the OT again here and in vs 40: 40 "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them." [Jhn 12:40 ESV]. In 37, John says people didn't believe, despite all these miracles. How could they not? Perhaps this was the great question in Ephesus as John is writing this. How could they have seen, and not believed? And John answers the question....the miracles were more than sufficient to make anyone believe, but they were not all allowed to believe. Israel's punishment for their rebellion was not yet complete. They were blinded, prevented, locked out of salvation because justice had to be done, promises had to be kept.
2022 - With reference to vs 40:
40 "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them." [Jhn 12:40 ESV]
I wonder how much of the confusion about Calvinism vs Armenianism is rooted in this blindness that God sent upon the Jews because of the continual rebellion of Israel in the OT. God DID blind the Jews and make it impossible for them to be saved - many of them blinded even while the light was walking among them. Only those Jews God chose and GAVE into Christ's safe-keeping were allowed to "see" the light and be saved by the light.
Can we separate out the references to God's choosing of certain Jews for salvation from references that also apply to the church during the church age? That is...oh my, can I even write this...does Calvinism have any place at all in the church age? We would also have to try and determine, during each of Jesus' discourses, whether he was talking to all men, those hearing his words and all future men, or only to those hearing the words, or only to the church. Now that would be a pretty mountainous task...and I bet a very rewarding task.
John says this unbelief was prophesied by Isaiah - so about the Jews of Jesus' time, not necessarily about us. It says this is connected with God blinding them. Surely this was done as part of the punishment for their apostasy as a nation, their perversion and outright rejection of their national covenant with God himself. They didn't recognize Jesus because they had rejected everything that led up to him. It was justice that they be denied knowledge of him because of the sins that led to this situation, and for their own sins in that day. I never understood the fairness of this. Now I see that it was. I am more convinced than ever that the Covenant of Sinai is set aside and of no effect in our modern times. I don't even see that the current nation of Israel has a place in scripture.
There is so much here. These verses:
42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. [Jhn 12:42-43 ESV]
Belief, but not sufficient belief for their salvation. These are the seeds that fell among the tares. They were overcome by the things of this world, and never produced. Never matured. 2020 - never saved?
vs 46, the new covenant is a covenant of light, not of salt:
46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. [Jhn 12:46 ESV]
And I cannot close without these verses, which distinguish the work of Father and Son in the Trinity:
47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. [Jhn 12:47-48 ESV]
2022 - I think we saw this term "last day" a couple days ago. I think in Jn 11. It seems to me that Jesus is saying here that he will not judge those who reject him. God will judge them. It is God who is on the GWT, no Jesus. Theos not Christos/Kyrios. Jesus will sit on the throne and judge at the beginning of the Millennial. Only then. Even the bema sit will have God on the throne. Jesus is again speaking spiritually, not physically. John is just full of this, and so are the other gospels, if you are just aware of it.
Jesus doesn't judge, the Father judges. The Son redeems. And those who reject the redemption of the Son will be judged without mercy by the Father that sent him. How can this be anything but fair? Jesus doesn't judge lest he be accused of judging in anger or vengeance for the death he suffered for what we sinners have done. He doesn't put himself in that position. We are judged by the one that sent him for a purpose. An objective judge.