To Kill The King (witness number twenty two) ...

The plot thickens.  The resurrection of Lazarus was definitive public proof of who Jesus was.  He was the true Son of God.  No one else could raise the dead back to life, not man, not even Satan; this was something only God could do.  And it was something the people were simply not going to ignore; the Messiah had come.  They did not understand why He had not declared Himself King.  They did not understand why the Romans seemed oblivious to His arrival since they were surely soon to be driven out of Israel.  But one thing was certain, only God could raise the dead back to life.  From a purely military perspective this would make their new army invincible.  Their soldiers could fight fearlessly and if they lost, Jesus would simply reattach the dismembered pieces and bring them back to life again to keep on fighting.  The Romans, and no other power on earth, could resist that kind of army.  And the Pharisees could see it; they were losing the hearts and minds of the people entirely to the new Messiah.  So their desperation was raised, and in the last few verses of John’s Gospel account in chapter eleven they issue a public edict that if anyone knew where Christ was, they were to tell them, so that He could be taken.

Knowing the Passover was near they reasoned among themselves that Christ would probably be coming to it.  After all, Jesus had attended prior feasts.  He taught in the temple on Sabbath when He was there.  He healed on it too, but that was the source of all this righteous anger in the first place, if you asked them.  Jesus in fact, had done nothing to deny the validity of the Jewish faith, or destroy its system of worship, or deny its law.  But how Jesus amplified the law, and focused on the motives of the heart rather than the actions of public display, was a stark contrast between the intent of the law, and the perversion of it.  The Pharisees sought to use the law and the scriptures to hold power over the people.  Christ sought to use the law to free the people from the chains and bondage of evil and serving self.  Christ sought to teach the people that harmony with the law begins and ends with loving others, and can only be achieved through a transformation of character – a resurrection from the death of evil, to the life of loving others through Himself and His transformative power.  Christ was not interested in a hierarchical system that preserved power for the few.  Instead He was keenly interested in a one on one relationship with every hurting soul, to make them free from the pain they embraced.  While the Pharisees were obsessed with Politics and Power, Christ was passionate about redemption and reformation within us, not around us.  Christ was a true revelation of what the Jewish faith was supposed to be about, not what it had become.  And so those whose highest ambition was to rule, had reached the inescapable conclusion, they must kill the one who cared nothing for ruling, but would completely destroy their power.

In chapter twelve, John begins by marking the time – six days before the Passover, which would be the last Passover for Christ in this world.  Then John gives us the precious location of Christ, He had traveled back to Bethany to be with His newly risen friend and his sisters who were so loved by Christ.  And in verse 2, a special meal is prepared for Jesus and his disciples.  It was not His famed “last” supper, but it was probably the last supper He would have occasion to enjoy before the intensity of the burden He must bear for us would occupy His every thought.  This was a special dinner with friends and adopted family.  John notes, that Martha would serve at this meal, and Lazarus would sit at the table with them all.  Perhaps Martha understood best of all who were there that night that serving is the highest honor one can enjoy.  Perhaps the faith of Martha who was the only one of them to open the door to an immediate resurrection of her brother before it happened, and the only one to declare openly and assuredly that Christ was the Messiah before He raised her brother – understood it the best.  A life with Christ who transforms us, is a life of service to all.  Lazarus would enjoy His company.  Mary would make her finest gesture of love to Him.  But Martha would quietly serve and in so doing would understand better than everyone else there, what life was to be about, and where joy comes from.

Then in verse 3, John describes the act of Mary on her Lord, the best and only offering she could think to make.  Verse 3 states … “Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”  She could have used a towel to wipe her Lord, Lazarus was wealthy and there would be no shortage of proper towels for that purpose.  She could have been less extravagant in selecting the ointment to use on His feet.  It would have been less noticeable and less costly.  But that would not due.  A life savings of money would hardly be enough to express her love to Christ.  He wore no finery, or gems, so she could not buy him some object to keep.  And though this gesture would only last a short while, it was something she believed He would accept.  The source of her funding for this gift was likely not the best.  It is possible being caught in the act of adultery some time ago was a pattern by which she was paid for her services.  It is one possible explanation for how a woman would gain access to a year’s worth of earnings at a single point in time.  It is also possible this was her share of the family inheritance, or perhaps what remained from the process of burying her now risen brother.  We are not told, how she came across this gift, only that she did.  Mary was overcome by grief to think that love would allow her brother to die.  But now she knew why, and she now knew, that nothing could interrupt the love Christ had for her, or her brother, not even death.  She had hope now, no matter what would come to be.  And so her gesture must be comprised of the best of all she would ever have. And even then it could not equal what He had done for her.

But to one who cares less for love, than for self, this act must be due criticism.  Enter Judas.  John rarely records the interactions of the other disciples with Christ throughout his Gospel.  He usually only records what they say when it is critical to the story.  In this instance, Judas asks the question why this ointment was not sold and given to the poor?  This does appear to be the model for the early Christian church.  New converts would sell everything they owned and give the money to the church for distribution as there was need.  So while this question may appear as though it was motived by a better ideal, John is quick to point out that was not why Judas asked.  John lets us know, that Judas was also a thief, and he stole from the bag for the poor that he kept on him at all times.  An interesting question might be, what did he spend the money on?  Whatever it was, appeared not to quench his greed.  This is the fundamental problem with serving self – self never reaches contentment, it always wants more.  No matter how much money we feed our greed, our greed can envision more.  Self is a perpetual unhappy customer, because all the joy in serving it, is temporary at best, empty at worst.  Whereas the joy of serving others can be never-ending, to make another happy is perhaps our highest honor and opportunity.  Mary would pour out her love to Christ with everything she had, holding nothing back for herself.  Judas would endlessly take from the bag for the poor, and never find enough in there to make him contented with what he had already taken.  The contrast again was stark.

But Jesus knew both the heart of Mary, as well as the one in Judas.  So Jesus defends Mary and her act of complete selflessness and charity.  In verse 7 He says … “Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. [verse 8] For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.”  Here Jesus appears to reveal that Mary perhaps understood better the true mission of Messiah was one of sacrificing His own life for ours.  He accepts Mary’s gift not from a sense of greed, but from an understanding that she is offering the best of anything she will ever have.  Then He offers a solemn reminder to His disciples, His time with them is growing short and He will not always be with them.  To Judas, His phrase … “the poor always ye have with you” … was to subtly remind him that he would always have an opportunity to give to others, particularly those in need.  The giving was not about changing the lives of the recipients, it was about changing the heart of the giver.  This was the lesson underway with Mary, and unfortunately a lesson Judas would seem to never learn.  It may have been that in this subtle rebuke, the heart of Judas was offended, and he realized that this humble Man would never take the power everyone wanted Him to have.  He may have seen that His death was more inevitable, than any power Judas may gain if He ascended to the throne of Israel.  Who knows; all that is sure, is that John’s commentary was hindsight for all of them.  Had John or any other of the disciples known that Judas was stealing from the poor, the crime would not have gone unmentioned.  Only his suicide would come to reveal these facts.

Meanwhile, verse 9 reveals that many people had gotten the news that Jesus was with Lazarus in Bethany.  This gave an occasion for them to travel there, because they would not only see Jesus, but they would be able to speak with Lazarus and meet the only man who had ever come back from the sleep of death.  This irrefutable proof of His divinity had to be addressed from the Pharisees point of view.  Nothing they could say about it could crush it.  It required action.  The best plot they could come up with was to kill Lazarus once again.  If Lazarus was back in his grave, perhaps people would believe he had never left it.  Dead is dead after all.  It is perhaps this revelation of John regarding the fate the Pharisees intended for Lazarus, the prompted Jesus to keep secret some of his earlier miracles recorded in the other gospel accounts of His ministry.  Jesus had brought a young girl back from death as well, but told her and her parents to keep it secret.  Perhaps Jesus knew, that the Pharisees would not have thought twice about re-killing her as well.  Living, walking proof had to be dealt with.  The logic of course is ridiculous.  If Christ raised Lazarus once, what was to prevent Him from doing it again.  But then evil rarely makes sense in its plots against love.  There is a reason why it is referred to as the “mystery” of iniquity – because it hardly ever makes sense to choose it, yet we do.  How does one kill the source of life anyway?  Perhaps this is why Jesus said He had to lay down His own life, that no man could take it from Him.  John records in verse 11, that because of Lazarus, many Jews, even those in leadership “went away” and believed on Jesus.  Even the threat of being put out of the Temple was losing its grasp.

John begins in verse 12 saying … “On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, [verse 13] Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  Battle over, priests had lost.  Nothing was going to keep the people from openly declaring in favor of the coming of the true Messiah.  It was to be His coronation day, today, whether He wanted it or not.  The priests had lost the PR war, and the actions of the masses of the people proved it.  They went to greet the proposed King of Israel in the traditional manner dating all the way back to King David.  The joy of Israel was unbridled and unrestrained.  All they could imagine was that this would be the last day of Roman occupation, the last day of servitude, and the first day of the ascendency of Israel to the preeminence among the nations.  The joy therefore was great, but the understanding misguided.

How like us.  We come to Christ and find great joy in the belief that from now on, all our prayers will be answered in the affirmative.  We never stop to think that our hearts have not been changed enough yet to “want” the right things.  So we treat Christ more like Santa Clause, than like our Savior.  When the answers to our prayers do not come in the way we wanted, we go away sorely disappointed.  Just like the people who would leave to greet Him with palm branches expecting to return with a new King, and instead would return only with the memory of that day.  Our disappointment comes because we want things that are not in harmony with the will of God.  We see through self-centered eyes, and with the limited scope of human vision that cannot see past the grave.  God sees what is best for us, now, and for the eternal life He wants to give us, which is really the only one that truly matters.  If we saw things through the eyes of God, we would gladly accept His answers, and realize what we ask for is not always in our best interests.  How different would the lives of those aspiring servants of Christ been, if He had granted their requests to overthrow Rome, but did nothing to overthrow the evil in their hearts.  Israel would have amounted to only another dictatorship ruling by fear and the sword, and the greed of men.  Instead Christ did nothing to change the political status of those servants, choosing rather to offer them freedom from within, that no power on earth could ever take away, and a life of service that would be the only one worth living.  It does not matter if Rome is in charge on the outside, if Christ is in charge on the inside.

Verses 14 through 18 outline the fulfillment of prophecy, in Christ riding in to Jerusalem triumphant, and on a young colt of an ass.  The people were drawn there in great numbers, singing, praising God, and expressing great joy.  The resurrection of Lazarus was the crowing miracle of achievement in His ministry, it was the confirmation the common people and leaders alike could only attribute to being divine.  And in verse 19, the Pharisees state the facts … they have lost the war of hearts and minds of the people.  The people flock to Christ no matter what threats they can conjure.  Against this revelation of truth, they could have responded by giving in, yielding, and joining the crowds in acknowledging Christ as divine.  They too could not dispute the resurrection of Lazarus.  The facts were plain.  But when a choice is made, to refuse to believe, facts do nothing to persuade.  The Pharisees knew the truth, and refused to accept it.  And so the only path laid out to them was one of death.  They thought to kill Christ and be done with it.  But in truth, they were signing away the only hope for redemption that would be offered to them.  It was their own death warrants they were issuing.  To refuse Christ, to refuse truth, to refuse redemption, was to embrace not only the first death, but the eternal one as well.  This is where the pursuit of self, and of power, will ALWAYS lead – to the death of the pursuer.  This is why the wages of sin is death, because death is the only welcome release from the pain of sin.  And the choice to refuse to believe, in spite of what they knew, left them no other path to follow.

We face an equal danger.  There are those Christian who treat the holding on to a cherished sin, or pleasure of self, as if this choice bears no fruit and carries no consequences.  We hold back from Christ that thing which we do not want Him to change.  And so our sin remains, and our pain remains with it.  Instead of being willing to lay all on the alter, we keep some cherished pleasure hidden away.  But like a cancer it grows and grows, until it reaches a point where we begin to question whether we want God more than we want that thing we have been holding on to.  Our sin begins to cloud our judgment until we begin to think there is no moral conflict at all with it.  We can have BOTH God and our favorite sin.  We rationalize that we do not need to change anymore.  And like the Pharisees of old, we plant seeds in ourselves that reap a harvest of pain on a pathway to death.  Refusing to accept redemption can lead to no other outcome.  Redemption is designed to spare us from ALL pain.  Redemption and recreation teaches us to want different things, and let go of the things that are hurting us.  But we must be willing to be re-created completely, not just in part.  We must learn to trust God with ALL of us, not just the parts we think need tuning up.  And when we do, we find relief from the pain, and a pathway of life, not a highway towards death.  Let us never refuse to accept what we know to be true … and perhaps we can avoid finding ourselves in a plot to kill The King.