- Jesus anointed by Mary
- Jesus heralded as king
- Jesus explains his death
- Jesus sharpens urgency
- The status of Jewish belief
- The authority of Jesus
Jesus anointed by Mary
The setting
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 1 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.
Lazarus and his family chose to use the drawing power of the Passover celebrations to host a dinner in honour of their family friend Jesus. Seven months prior, death had struck the household of Lazarus, but the love of his close friend Jesus had brought him back to life witnessed by a crowd of devout visitors, who had gathered to mourn his death when visiting Jerusalem to join in celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. These visitors had since become a vocal force, wherever they travelled, promoting the Galilean who they had watched exercise power over life and death. How joyous it must now have been for the Passover pilgrims, especially the close friends of Lazarus, to see this modern day miracle continuing 6 months later, and to participate in honouring Jesus!
Jerusalem drew large crowds of devout Jews throughout Israel for ceremonial cleansing before the Passover feast. This was a time of much gratitude in Jewish hearts remembering when God had directed the Angel of Death not to touch the occupants within every house in Egypt that was identified by markings of blood at its entrance, shed from a flawless animal sacrificed for the ceremonial cleansing of the entire household. The Angel of Death slew every first born human and animal in Egypt but ‘passed over’ the households marked with the blood of sacrifice. This first pass-over was the beginning of Israel’s liberation from slavery and its birth as a nation. It became the high point of their annual feasts.
Today God continues to ‘pass-over’ myriads of individuals in every nation, who are marked by the blood of Jesus as the sinless Lamb of God sacrificed for their sins. He has already taken their judgement, thus paving the way for their liberation from slavery to sin, and enabling them to come alive with the new birth of Spirit of Life becoming one with their spirit.
The love of Mary
3 Then Mary took about a pint[1] of pure nard, an expensive perfume[2]; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
This was an extraordinary act of love and devotion from Mary that would have caught the gathering by surprise. It went beyond an act of gratitude to Jesus for having raised her brother from the dead. She was preparing Jesus for imminent death. Jesus understood the motive driving her act of love. He saw that she had grasped the urgency of the hour. He certainly would die soon, and she was responding to that certainty by preparing his body for burial with humble and sacrificial devotion.
Eastern women did not display their hair, let alone use it to wipe the dirt of the road off a traveller’s feet. Mary’s wiping of her expensive gift of perfume with her hair was a display of deep contrition in the presence of the one she saw as her Lord about to sacrifice his life for her.[3]
The blindness of Judas
This meaning of Mary’s public act of love was completely missed by Judas, because he had not embraced fully the mission of Jesus, nor his recent teaching regarding its approaching climax. His judgemental response exposed his rigid heart in sharp contrast with Mary.
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 "Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages."
6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
John adds his own editorial assessment to highlight the true motive that surfaced Judas’ negative criticism of Mary’s devotional gift to Jesus.Judas had a growing fissure of greed running through his heart that he created and fed by stealing funds that were not his. John labelled him as a "thief" and links his greed with his later betrayal. Jesus would have known this would be the end result of the greed of Judas, who therefore could not, and would not, lay it down when faced with the choice to follow Jesus to his death. Nevertheless, Jesus did not take the responsibility from Judas of handling the donations to his mission.
Judas was on his way to becoming the most tragic person in all history oblivious to the extent of his enslavement by Satan to financial greed. His blindness was total. This was tragic but not unusual. Every path of Satan will blind every one of its travellers. There are no exceptions. Blindness occupies every corner of society. Pride in one’s intelligence, social prestige, and emotional stability are not protections against spiritual blindness. It is critical to be honest about the path we are on. The choice before each person is to seek the light in order to walk in the light, or to remain in darkness oblivious to their spiritual state. This is not a test of personal stamina but of moral choice and spiritual condition. Jesus warned,
But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23)
In contrast to such blindness, Jesus explained,
Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you. (Luke 11:36)
Jesus claimed to be the Light of the world. This was not a religious boast, but a claim of his divine identity. His Spirit lives in us at our invitation and not by his imposition. Consequently, we presently live either in light or darkness understanding our spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and moral self and destiny, depending upon how we have chosen to relate to him. Trying to fix just one of these does not bring us into the light of life.
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)
He is the way for our whole being to become full of the light of life. The shining of Jesus on an open heart creates eternal life that begins now and enables that person to see the true meaning and actual destiny of their life.
The light of Jesus
Jesus comes to the defence of Mary and shines his light on the true cause for Mary’s act of deep humility, service, worship and grieving. He confirms that she had discerned correctly that his death and burial were imminent.
7 "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."
This is the day of burial! Mary knew it. The time for preparation for his burial by anointing was now. Jesus was ready, and already in motion to face into his death, e.g., his plan to enter Jerusalem shortly on a donkey sharpened the intensity of his public challenge to the religious leaders, who were well advanced in planning his execution. The Sanhedrin had no option other than to get rid of this popular "king" of the masses. He knew the willingness of Judas to trade him in to the Sanhedrin to receive a financial reward[4]. He knew that this would be the day of his burial.
The expanded attack
9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
The Sanhedrin’s death strategy to remove Jesus after his healing of the blind man (10:33) expanded quickly to include Lazarus when they saw the effect his renewed enjoyment of life was having on the devout worshippers celebrating with him:
10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.
The resurrected Lazarus had pulling power on many. His was the turning point miracle in the collision of Jesus with the religious rulers.
The pulling power of miracles
Witnessed miracles change previously held beliefs in an instant, when a belief does not align with a miracle. Why?
A miracle is tangible. It is witnessed through our physical senses. Therefore, it cannot be denied, whereas our beliefs about non-physical entities can suddenly evaporate, when they do not align with the physical reality confronting us.
This applies to beliefs about a human character, divine identity or any supposed spiritual guru. How often our pre-judgements are proven false! We can sum up and judge a person in an instant merely by how they present themselves without any idea of what has formed them! Our false assumptions and reasonings about any person are exposed in an instant by a contradictory miracle, just as are the hidden causes in us that produced them.
In particular, the false judgements we hold about Jesus are exposed by his multitude of miracles, if we face them. Many do not. That is why Jesus urged people struggling with his divine identity to focus on his tangible miracles, and at least believe in them, if unable to understand his identity as both human and divine, both Father and Son as one.
37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." (10:37-38)
We cannot deny his multitude of miracles. Read about them and their effect on his followers. They have pulling power more reliable than any philosophy or false teacher seeking a following of devotees by promoting their fabricated image. Early in his itinerate ministry Jesus performed a vast range of healings, which generated large crowds. They had undeniable pulling power for Jesus to reference (Matthew 4:23-25, Mark 6:53-56). There was already a multitude of miracles from which to choose to believe his claim to be in the Father and the Father in him. What more were needed?
Who else in history can throw out the same challenge to believe in their miracles to affirm the credibility of their claimed identity? Can your current idol or god or the belief that gives some structure to your life? How many public miracles demonstrating power over the physical world, and validated by many witnesses, can any other spiritual promoter reference to prove their spiritual authority and eternal value?
For any seeker of truth to deny the multitude of tangible, witnessed, physical miracles by Jesus is self-inflicted madness indeed! Their mounting impact was exactly what the Sanhedrin wanted to stop. The resurrection of Lazarus topped the lot.
So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well.
Over the following centuries, many have sought Jesus to be their Lord after receiving or witnessing an undeniable physical miracle performed using the authority of his Name. No conceived philosophy of life can stand against the power of a miracle. Our personal choice is to place the security of our future in a philosophy that will fade, or in the tangible miracles of Jesus that demonstrate his eternal love for every person seeking to love him. This is the most critical choice we will ever make in our life. It calls out for us to face it, which means we end up having to face ourselves.
Jesus heralded as king
The tempo of the confrontation of Jesus and the religious power structure was now at the point where Jesus could deliberately provoke it by going directly to the seat of that power structure with the crowd praising and heralding him as their king. There could be nothing more confronting to the Sanhedrin’s disappearing grip on power and position. There could be nothing more visible to the Roman occupying government of a potential leader for Jewish insurrection.
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches[5] and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna!"[6] "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the king of Israel!"
Jesus added to the image of his kingship by deliberately entering Jerusalem seated on a young donkey. He chose to enter Jerusalem in a style that would lead rapidly to the Cross. He provided visible ammunition for the Sanhedrin to gain Roman support for his execution.
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 "Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt."[7]
John adds an editorial explanation of why this act did not lead to insurrection fermenting instant Roman retaliation:
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
Nevertheless, the resurrection of Lazarus had not dimmed from the minds of those who witnessed it. How could they forget it? It was life changing. They kept its impact alive.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him.
They could not stop talking about it, thereby accelerating the moment the opposition of the Sanhedrin and the mission of Jesus would pass the point of no return. The authentic nature of their witness spurred many who listened to seek out Lazarus to see for themselves. The number who did so led the Pharisees to comment,
"See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!"
The whole world had not gone after Jesus, but to the Sanhedrin and Pharisees it felt like having done so with their power of control under perilous threat. Jesus had just blatantly ridden into Jerusalem as its king and Messiah provoking them to act on his execution. His triumphal entry added to their urgency to remove Jesus from their society before the masses rebelled and the Romans stripped them of any authority.
Jesus explains his death
John now inserts a brief cameo about some Greeks at the festival. It seems to serve no purpose other than to provide a lead into Jesus explaining the purpose of his impending death and highlight the choice of any who wanted to follow him.
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
Jesus had just been greeted as the king of Israel by the Passover crowd in Jerusalem. Like any busy political dignitary, there are formal channels and procedures established to request an audience with them. These Greeks must have observed that Philip had the ear of the king of Israel to gain access to him. Philip responded in the way Jesus had taught his disciples – interact with the world two by two. Philip sort out unity with another disciple to decide how to respond to the Greeks.[8] With Andrew’s confirmation, the two informed Jesus.
John gives no mention of Jesus responding to the request from the Greeks. Did he do so privately without John present to record the meeting, or did Jesus ignore their request, in order to give priority to what he needed to teach about his death and the requirements of being his disciple within the short time remaining before his death?
The Greeks are not mentioned again by John. After he records the explanation by Jesus of his death, John focuses his record on the Jews instead of the Greeks whose enquiry had precipitated Jesus explaining his death to the Jewish crowd in a way that enabled any potential follower of the heralded king of Israel to reflect on the extent they wished to stay on his path with him or leave. Now it was time to face assessment of personal intentions towards Jesus as Messiah. Did they go as far as choosing the death of one’s personal pride, ambition and control of daily activities in surrender to the will of the Messiah? Jesus explains that without this death of our will, no spiritual life can occur.
Death releases life
Death of Jesus
23 Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds[9].
In response to the message received from Philip and Andrew, Jesus announces that now is the hour that the true value of his identity and worth as the Son of Man should be seen and honoured. This should happen now! Thus, Jesus uses the dramatic way in the Greek of his day to express his purpose for coming[10]. His identity and purpose should be seen, but not all will do so. Therefore, Jesus uses the subjunctive Greek tense to express that now is the time that he should be glorified, but that is not guaranteed from everyone looking at him.[11] On this occasion, he is being consistent with his previous claim that narrow is the way to life but few find it. The onus is on each person to choose whether or not to be in the "few".
Jesus then explains that he came to die in order to give life to many.
…unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
He was sent by his Father for that purpose. Without his death he would have remained as the Son of God, but no one else would have been raised to sonship, and he would not have been glorified.
Death of his followers
25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Jesus now explains how the principle of life coming from death operates in the person who wants to follow him. If we are emotionally attached to our life, it will perish, and we will lose it. According to Jesus therefore, being attached to the life we have developed, and hold to ourself, is a lost cause. It will one day self-destruct, particularly at the point of our death.
In sharp contrast, the person who hates their life will guard and preserve it for eternity. Our love for the life we have built and have plans for its future must have no sway over wanting to follow Jesus. The reason given by Jesus is simple and very real. The human heart’s limits of affection can only function with either/or and never with both/and.
13 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (Luke 16:13)
We cannot build the life of God while anchored in physical dimensions. For this reason, Jesus insisted that,
26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.
This is far more than following a teacher’s philosophy. It is to be at his side, steadfastly cleaving to his teachings, his movements and example wherever he goes, even to death to be a seed that produces more seeds. Because Jesus committed to love to the point of death, there is no watered down option for a person attracted to the identity and life of Jesus with the desire to be his disciple. Living faith in Jesus is long obedience in the direction of sacrificial love to others, just as his faith in his Father was. He obeyed from his childhood years through multiple trials to the end. He made it clear that anyone wanting to be his disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow. His disciple will embrace the whole of his mission to the end. For that disciple is the promised certainty,
26 … My Father will honour the one who serves me.
The hour of death affirmed
By the Son of Man
Having clarified the spiritual reality that the wilful death of one creates spiritual life for many, Jesus lifts up the cover over his soul for us to look into his mind and emotions. He reveals they are stirred up to the point of deep agitation. His choice to come to die was not merely clinical. It challenged every aspect of his being.
27 "Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say?
The depth of his agitation is causing him to consider alternatives to his predicament. How should he respond to what he could see coming as the day of his burial?
…what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’?
We all face such moments where our options sit on a painful knife-edge. What determines our choice? What reference point do we choose? Is it how we feel and how much longer we think we can handle our emotional pain? Or have we established another reference point in our life to guide our difficult decisions? How did Jesus handle his emotional crisis?
…what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!"
Jesus returned to the core principle of his eternal relationship with his Father. The *mutual glorification of the Father and the Son. Jesus begins his final prayer before his disciples with this central principle of their shared life.
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you… (17:1)
Their eternal love for each other aimed to glorify each other in every choice and action. Satan could not break into, and break down, that unity of purpose. This was relationship commitment intended for humans modelled by God himself as the Father and Son. Marriages and families that are committed to the same mutual reference point withstand the greatest storms that Satan attempts to throw at them. Any partner in a marriage without the reference point of seeking to glorify their partner, can be swept into any emotion that Satan wants to stir in them to destroy the love needed to maintain and grow unity of purpose and pleasure.
To learn from Jesus as his disciple, we need to ask, "How do I deal with a deep relationship agitation that comes upon me? Have I established a core principle for my relationships or am I vulnerable to any emotional wind directed to blow me off course onto the rocks? Jesus was not. He sought to glorify his Father, regardless of personal cost, as his core principle of relationship with the Father, who kept him off the rocks. What is my core principle?
By the Father
…what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!"
The Father immediately and publicly affirmed the sustained commitment of his Son to their core relationship of mutual glorification, thus adding weight to the claim made by Jesus that the hour had now come for him to be glorified by his death, in order to produce multiple seeds of life.
Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
Jesus in turn immediately explained that the sound was a voice and the motivation behind it was to link his troubled spirit with the imminent arrival of his death. It was now. The rulership of the world was about to change dramatically. To clarify further, Jesus expanded his explanation of how his death will make new life available for all people.
30 Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
His death lifted up from the earth would cause a major change in control of the human race. Satanic power was about to be confronted by the conquering power of the Father in his Son removing the debt of sin over every person prepared to follow him. It would involve both a "driving out" accompanied by a "drawing to". With the debt removed by Jesus taking the full judgement on all sin, Satan would be stripped of his condemning hold over every person, who chose to place their trust in the Father’s promise of having accepted his Son’s completed substitution in judgement for them. The impact of this substitution initiated by the Father and the Son’s love would be an instant displacement of the condemnation and fear-based rule of Satan that grips and manipulates at will the alienated mind and dispossessed heart. The living impact is the decisive casting out of Satanic power in every person the moment they place their full trust in the Father’s and the Son’s actions and promises of love for all.
…now the prince of this world will be driven out.
Jesus’ explanation of the reason for the voice was steeped in dramatic imagery with which the crowd would have been all too familiar. Only 100 years prior, the Romans had brutally crucified 6,000 slaves along the 200 kilometre Appian Way as the main road constructed for troop transport from Rome along the South Easter coast to Capua. Oral history already developing around such brutality would have given the crowd immediate understanding of the imagery Jesus used to announce his impending death. One only has to imagine briefly the impact on travellers walking down this corridor of blood as they looked up at the agonised faces of slaves in their last death throes on crosses lining the Appian Way. Now Jesus was saying that he would die similarly.
32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
What kind of drawing would this be? Jesus was not equating his impending death with the drawing power of the latest Hollywood masochistic film designed to shock, terrify and leave brutal images in the mind. His death would not draw people to him throughout all ages by its horror. Its drawing power would ever remain the image of self-sacrificing love one sees there given a moment of contemplation and reflection on its fulfilled prophesies.
How can I be sure that this "drawing" power of the sacrificial death of Jesus is sustained throughout my life? My daily meditation on his Cross is essential for it to have sustained and growing drawing power now in my life. Each day I need to stop and reflect on what happened there and what is operating now in my soul. Is it the "driving out" of the disenfranchised prince, or the "drawing to" the enthroned king of Kings, or neither? In which state will my own death find me?
The hour of death not understood
34 The crowd spoke up, "We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?"
The crowd’s response appeared to indicated that their minds linked Jesus’ description of his pending death to the lifting up of the victims of crucifixion, who died on the Appian Way. The brutal truncation of those lives clashed with the crowd’s synagogue teaching that their Messiah as a son of David will come in the end times to establish an eternal rule on earth based on justice, righteousness and peace[12]. He would not be lifted up but be the eternal Messiah preached the prophets. So what did Jesus mean? They challenged Jesus to clarify his claim that did not match their end times beliefs.
Jesus was not interested in theological debate but in their salvation. Accordingly, he changed the topic and elevated the urgency upon them to act on what he had already taught:
… "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (8:12)
Jesus had restored the eyes of the man blind from birth as a metaphor of his life goal to restore the sight of our soul with the light of life, which is the light of his eternal life. His light enables us to see spiritual realities and truth. Without it, we remain as physical beings in a physical universe ignorant of spiritual existence and separated from the holiness of God by our sin. We operate in spiritual darkness where pride rules to promote Self and pure unconditional love cannot survive. Therefore, Jesus now stressed the urgency of their situation. Darkness was eagerly about to seize them.
Jesus sharpens urgency
35 Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you."
Katalambano used by Jesus to describe the action of darkness in a life, translated as "overtakes", conveys an eagerness to seize and possess. Hence Jesus is warning of an unescapable potential of darkness aggressively taking hold of the person who rejects the power and presence of his life. The result is the person is lost spiritually and has no idea of their state and direction in life.
Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going.
Hence, the urgency to,
36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light."
Jesus concluded his teaching of the crowd by placing before them the urgency to trust him to the point of continually entrusting all activity in their life to him as the life and light of mankind. John recorded this call to urgent action to connect with the beginning of his record of his journey with Jesus,
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
John concludes his record of this interaction with Jesus cutting off his interaction with the crowd.
36 When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
The status of Jewish belief
John chooses to add some of his own editorial comments to this interaction in order to bring it to a strong conclusion. He presents the underlying cause for Jesus leaving the Passover crowd. He quotes from Isaiah the prophet to validate the fruitlessness of Jesus seeking to persuade the crowd of his kingship, even after his recent triumphal entry to Jerusalem.
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
"Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"[13]
The Jews were not ready to enter into any meaningful interaction on the role of Jesus in their national and personal salvation. John then links this dearth of belief with God’s sovereign decision to make belief impossible for the hardened will of the Jews.
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 "He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them."[14]41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
John’s explanation of the Isaiah’s prophecy is that he was seeing ahead to the state of Jewish unbelief that would resist Jesus coming among them and cause him to have to cut off his current interaction with the Passover attendees.
They were blinded and hardened religious adherents, who would not set their religious pride to one side, in order to put full trust in Jesus. Nevertheless, according to the following observation inserted by John, they were a mixed bag containing some who hid their belief in Jesus but also feared losing social acceptance.
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
Nothing much has changed today in the spread of responses to Jesus. I have often remained quiet when I should have challenged motivation. Jesus confronts us with the choice between fear of social rejection and public advocation of truth and righteousness as his disciple.
The authority of Jesus
Complete revelation
44 Then Jesus cried out, "Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.
Jesus now unmistakably and emphatically claimed his unlimited deity as the God of Creation, who Moses met with and wrote about as he led the Jewish ancestors of the Passover crowd out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land. Jesus now claimed that to trust in him is to trust in that God of Israel. The essence of this claim was that the identities of God and Jesus cannot be separated. Jesus is the complete revelation of the God of creation and Israel. To trust in one is to trust in the other. To reject one with unbelief is to reject the other. Likewise, to behold and contemplate one, is to behold and contemplate the other. The identities of the one sent and the one sending are inseparable. I cannot be a devout worshipper of the God of creation and a Jesus avoider. Having clarified his identity, Jesus declared his purpose for coming to earth.
Purpose of revelation
Jesus claimed to have come to provide a way out of darkness and give spiritual sight to any and every human, who chose to trust him after exposure to his nature.
Sight
46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
Light is spiritual energy, as the Spirit of God, that existed eternally before any physical existence of light in our universe was created by God transferring some of his spiritual energy into physical energy. Jesus claimed to be the expression of God through whom that creative energy was released.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (1:3)
Darkness is the absence of that life-giving energy due to separation from it. Our spirit was created to be empowered by union with God as Spirit, i.e., union with the life-giving energy in Jesus. Sin separated us from that pure energy. Consequently, Jesus claimed that putting trust in him as light, the original source of all energy, transfers the new believer from their natural state of separation from all spiritual energy and light to the state of a trusting union with that light. Trust in Jesus as light, therefore, transfers us out of our darkness into light.
It is important to note that this spiritual transition is different and beyond the results of psychological analysis and support, which can never give spiritual life. Such mind activity can only help identify and analyse the origins of the emotions that drive our daily choices. It can never analyse the spirit, but only the physical functioning of mind, emotions, will and body. God’s Spirit and our spirit become known by revelation and not by analysis. Jesus called his age to trust him as he had revealed himself. The crowds that followed him, including the religious leaders, had ample evidence of his identity revealed to trust him, as we have also.
Salvation and judgement
Jesus was very clear about his purpose for coming to earth, viz., to save and not to judge. That is the focus to have in mind whenever we approach him. He is approachable because he is open to save us from whatever seeks to enslave and destroy us.
47 "If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.
Every person can quickly register whether they have accepted the claims of Jesus or rejected them. We can each know immediately whether we stand in the place of judgement by his words, or acceptance determined by our responses to his words.
To make his role clear, Jesus then validated why his words have life authority in determining our eternal destiny.
Words of the Father
49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.
50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."
This claim of Jesus is unique and has to be measured against the claims of all religious leaders. Jesus claimed to have spoken the words the Father commanded to him to say. These words were not optional extras for his social and religious interactions. They were commanded by the Father not some other religious leader.
0.5 litres ↩︎
Nard is a "perfume, made from the roots of the aromatic plant ‘Nardostachys Jatamansi‘ growing on the Himalayas", which would have accounted for its expensiveness when exported throughout the Middle East. ↩︎
This account and Mary’s motivation of love is not to be confused with Luke’s account of the woman in the Pharisees house in another town, whose act of gratitude was driven by the many sins she was forgiven by Jesus. (Luke 7:36-50) ↩︎
Approximately $800 AUD ↩︎
The waving of palm branches to welcome a victor was an ancient tradition. Military conquerors, kings, athletic champions were celebrated this way. ↩︎
"Hosanna" meaning "save" became a term of praise. The crowd coupled it with blessing to the one who comes in the name of the Lord to rule and to save. (Psalm 118: 25-26) They were expressing their hope in Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah, who would liberate them from the yoke of Roman rule. Every person considering their relationship with Jesus needs to be aware there is more palm waving to come. "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-10) ↩︎
Zechariah 9:9 ↩︎
It would be interesting to know the reason why the Greeks were in Jerusalem in the first place. What had they heard about Jesus that drew them to want a private audience with him? Did they want to explore how the teachings of Jesus differed from Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates, or were they assessing whether or not to become servants and worshippers of this king of Israel ? ↩︎
Other translations: "much fruit (karpon) The idea is the death of just one will yield a large crop to harvest. ↩︎
Instead of using a straight infinitive to express his purpose for coming, Jesus uses hína, which is the dramatic way of expressing purpose in Greek ("for the purpose that"). ↩︎
The subjunctive mood in English uses words like "should" and "might" to express potential or possibility of a future action that is contingent upon other future developments. ↩︎
Current synagogue teaching would have establish the belief in Jewish attendees that the Messiah would be a descendent of King David who will come in the last days to establish ↩︎
Isaiah 53:1 ↩︎
Isaiah 6:10 ↩︎