Chapter 12 – Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as King Chapter 12 of Saint John’s narrative marks a significant transition in Jesus’ life. While no less than three years elapsed in the first eleven chapters, John slows the pace of his narrative to cover less than a week in this chapter, and then three days in chapters thirteen to twenty. This segment also marks a sudden shift from public ministry to private mentoring. Jesus’ final week on earth would be spent in the company of His closest friends as He prepared His disciples for what lay ahead. The Lord’s raising of Lazarus had stirred up murderous opposition from the hostile Jewish leaders. The Sanhedrin had decreed that anyone who knew where Jesus was should report that information to them. They decided that they had to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. But rather than turning Jesus in like some criminal, the Lord’s friends in Bethany gave a supper in His honor. At this setting in Bethany, we see Mary Anoint Jesus. The first step in preparing a body for burial was to rinse it with water and anoint it with perfumed oil. Jesus used Mary’s expression of devotion to signal the coming of His own death. The anointing itself points to Jesus’ death; and the mention of Passover in this context reminds the reader that the one who raised Lazarus from the dead is about to go to his own death, as a sacrificial lamb, a Passover lamb, the deliverer of his people. In this section, which describes the event commonly known as the “Triumphal Entry”, Jesus officially presented Himself to Israel as the Messiah and Son of God. When Jesus mounts a donkey’s colt and rides down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, He is deliberately and provocatively claiming to be the promised king of Israel who will re-establish the throne of David. By so doing, He set in motion the chain of events that would quickly lead to His death at the exact time foreordained by God. As the King came to die, He did so at the proper moment, with the passionate multitude, in the predicted manner, and to the perplexity of His men. Jesus was not at the mercy of His enemies’ plots; He remained in absolute control of the circumstances. The divinely ordained time had come for Him to die, but He would do so on His own terms. The Jewish leaders wanted to put Jesus to death, but not during the Passover celebration. Their plan was to seize and execute Him after the feast was over and the people dispersed. But regardless of His enemies’ desires, the Lord would die at the precise time foreordained in God’s eternal plan; fittingly, the Lamb of God would be sacrificed on the same day that the Passover lambs were being sacrificed, because He is ‘Christ our Passover’ sacrifice. Therefore Jesus prepared to publicly enter Jerusalem to force the issue of His death. Up to this point, the Lord did not allow His enemies to take His life. “Jesus had entered the city of Jerusalem many times during His ministry, but this ‘triumphal entry’ to the capital of the Hebrew nation differed in one primary respect. He no longer visited as a worshipper; this day He claimed it as King. However, unlike a conquering warrior king, He entered the city on a symbol of peace. He rode on a humble donkey rather than sitting high in the saddle of a prancing white steed or riding in a stately chariot behind a team of horses.” (Theologian Dr. Charles Swindoll) So, not only was this a fulfillment of well-known Old Testament messianic prophecy (Zechariah 9:9-10), such a thing as this triumphal entry was exactly calculated to spur the Jewish religious leaders into a change of strategy. In fact, it is something of an understatement to say that these events did not catch Jesus by surprise. On the contrary, he provoked them. With his triumphal entry into Jerusalem Jesus deliberately set the ball rolling that would by the end of the week crush him under its weight. The chapter ends with a lengthy meditation, steeped in Old Testament Scripture, as to why so many Jews did not believe, and a reflective summary of Jesus’ authority and of the urgency of belief. Once Jesus had proclaimed the good news to the world and had fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, He concluded His public ministry. Every paragraph builds toward the farewell discourse, passion and resurrection which immediately follow. In the next section, Jesus will prepare His disciples in seclusion for His departure and their future work of evangelism and disciple-making.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:55:18 +0000
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