Journeying with Jesus – Page 4

John 12

Jesus anointed by Mary
Jesus heralded as king
Jesus explains his death
1. Death releases life
Jesus sharpens urgency
The status of Jewish belief
The authority of Jesus
1. Complete revelation
2. Purpose of revelation

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 ↩︎

John 11

Introduction
The situation
Its higher purpose
Preparation of the miracle
The arrival
- The situation
- The meeting
The resurrection
- Split impact

Introduction

John follows his account of the murderous reaction of the Pharisees to Jesus’ claim to be God’s Son with a detailed record of possibly the most tender account of Jesus’ love he recorded while journeying with him.

This chapter is for anyone who finds themselves in an emotional or relationship death of any kind, suffering bereavement and needing to be lifted up into new life and hope. The love of Jesus recorded by John that was present in this situation, continues to be extended to all who reach out to be loved tenderly and securely by him in their crisis.

As I read this chapter, a tune arose automatically from my emotional memory bank that soothed me at a time of bereavement in my young life. Then some of its words surfaced in my consciousness as I hummed the tune:

There is no heart like the heart of Jesus,
Filled with a tender love;
No throb nor throw that our hearts can know,
But he feels it above.

Jesus’ love! precious love!
Boundless and pure and free!
Oh, turn to that love, weary wand’ring soul!
Jesus pleadeth for thee.^[1]

In this account of journeying with Jesus, John describes in detail how Jesus gave tenderness and miraculous support to special friends grappling with the intense pain of bereavement. He records details of the empathy Jesus extended to the point of his tears, which he turned into positive steps to bring hope by creating life out of death.

This is a timeless account that has since brought millions out of their despair into the new hope of trustworthy acceptance and love by their Creator. John has recorded it to broaden and deepen our trust in the identity of Jesus. A core quality of that identity is a cherishing love that seeks to lift every wounded person out of their despair to renewed wholeness.

The situation

John introduces the situation recorded in Chapter 11 with an economy of words:

¹ Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) ³ So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."

In short,

A man is sick.
He has a sister Mary (known for performing a major act of love towards Jesus anointing him with perfumed oil equivalent to a year’s worth of earnings).
Word is sent by the man’s sisters to Jesus that the one he loves is sick.

John does not go into details about the nature of the sickness of Lazarus other than choosing to use a word that indicated that he was in a feeble state (wasting away and without strength)^[2]. Instead, John identifies Lazarus by his location and his sister. She subsequently carried out a sacrificial, public act of devotion to Jesus. Clearly her act of love had impacted John, because although it happened later in his journey with Jesus (John 12), he can’t resist referring to it when relating this earlier event. John even identifies Bethany in association with Mary. He then records the words of a message the sisters sent to Jesus about their brother Lazarus.

They address Jesus with the highest respect^[3].
They experience a familial love with him. They describe their brother as being loved demonstrably by Jesus with the warm affection of intimate friendship^[4]. They were like a family to Jesus, who went to Bethany at critical moments of his life, e.g., in the final week before his crucifixion that followed his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Thus, from the beginning of this account, John captures a scene of love that continues throughout.

Its higher purpose

John prefaces the rest of his account of the sickness of Lazarus with its higher purpose as immediately revealed by Jesus when informed of the situation.

⁴ When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it."

This statement is clear and forthright. Jesus re-framed Lazarus’ common human experience of sickness as having a divine purpose. This would not have been foreign for John and other disciples to hear from Jesus, because he had only recently heard Jesus restoring the dignity of the man blind from birth by assuring him that his blindness was not due to his or his parents’ sin but rather for the higher purpose of being used by Jesus to illustrate that he was the spiritual light of the world, e.g.,

"For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." (9:39)

In this case, the sickness of his friend Lazarus was occurring specifically so that Jesus may be glorified as God’s Son in the aftermath of the Pharisees’ recent rejection and extreme attack on his identity as the son of God. They had tried to stone him and later capture him. (10:31,39)

The chosen means of bringing glory to Jesus as God’s Son would need to be dramatic and measurable, so no doubts about his divine identity could remain in the mind of the objective observer. Consequently, Lazurus would need to live, and Jesus would need to be seen to intervene miraculously in his death.

Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death….

Jesus alerts his disciples that death at this stage would not be the ending of Lazarus’ story. Instead, Jesus would be glorified by showing his control over Lazarus’ death and life, thereby validating his claim to be God’s Son. The Pharisees would be silenced.

Preparation of the miracle

The love

John prefaces his account of how Jesus responded to the news about his friend Lazarus with another mention of Jesus’ love for this Bethany family.

⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

At this point, to describe the love of Jesus for Lazarus and his siblings, John moves beyond a social friendship love to a quality of love that is devoted, sacrificial, wholehearted, and unconditional. He uses the word for love used throughout the New Testament for God’s love for his Son, Jesus’ love for his Father, and their love for each of their redeemed family. It is the quality of love described by Jesus in his specification of the greatest of all commandments, viz., to love: 1) God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and 2) our neighbour as ourself.

Jesus loved the Bethany family with this quality of divine love existing between the Father and the Son that he later commanded his disciples to perpetuate, which John sought to do in this account of the resurrection of Lazarus.

The delay

Surprisingly, even though Jesus had a devoted love for Lazarus and his family, he did not immediately rush to their aid with his healing powers. He did not even immediately heal Lazarus from a distance, as he had previously demonstrated he could do by remotely healing a centurion’s paralysed servant (Matthew 8:13). Instead, he delayed.

⁶ So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,

Why the delay? Various reasons could be given. The most likely answer, however, must be found in what Jesus had already signalled as the contextual reason for his delay.

"…it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it." (v. 4)

This ultimate reason to act for his Father’s glory would eclipse any other. Later in John’s record it becomes clear how the delay would be used to enhance God’s glory.

This explanation by Jesus highlights the need for me to test at the beginning of each day whether my goal for that day is to glorify God or myself in all I have planned to do. It only takes a little time to reflect and test what is in our heart driving choices in our planning for the day and execution of it. "Father, may I stay alert to glorifying you through every encounter and motivation today. Go with me in Spirit to glorify yourself and your Son. Convict me whenever I obviously or subtly seek to draw attention to myself."

Jesus was prepared to go and face danger with the timing that glorified both his Father and himself.

⁷ and then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." ⁸ "But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?" ⁹ Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. ¹⁰ It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light."

Seeking glory

The constant frame of mind of Jesus governing his daily interactions was,

"I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge." (8:50)

Mankind’s history is full of the endless pain caused by seeking glory for oneself.

"If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me". (8:54)

The Father always has his timing to glorify his servant with his praise. Jesus listened for the timing.

He resisted the enthusiasm of his mother wanting him to do a miracle by stating, "my time has not yet come", because he followed his Father’s plan for revealing his divine identity. (John 2:4) He resisted his brothers’ pushy attempts to enhance his popularity by going to the Feast of Tabernacles to perform more miracles. Instead, he went in his Father’s timing rather than his earthly family’s timing. (John 7:10) For the sake of our salvation, he resisted the goading of the Pharisees to prove he was the Son of God and come down off his cross, before he had completed suffering the penalty for every sin of mankind. (Matthew 27:43)

¹⁹ Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. (John 5:19)

His Father always drove the timing in his life, and Jesus kept his eyes and his heart on it. Likewise, he wants to drive the timing of every life according to his plan for it. His productive disciples learn to keep their eyes and heart on it.

The lesson

¹¹ After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."

¹² His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." ¹³ Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

At this juncture, Jesus proceeds to explain clearly a second reason for his deliberate delay in responding to the cry for help from Mary and Martha. This reason is a purpose higher than an aging close friend’s terminal sickness. The reason is a lesson that is the Father’s heart for every seeker of truth.

¹⁴ So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

The Father’s and the Son’s heart for these learning disciples was for them to believe.

"Believe what?" – believe in the saving divine identity of Jesus. That was the goal of Jesus for his disciples that drove his delay set by his Father.

Many since have believed in the saving identity of Jesus. There is, however, a wide variety of beliefs in Jesus, all influenced by the footprints of relationships, successes and failures over a person’s lifetime. As a result, beliefs can be mystical, emotional responses to positive and negative family and social inputs, some based on various historical or contemporary studies, some on a belief in the Bible as divine revelation etc.

For each of us, what we believe will vary over a lifetime as our perspective of life changes under the influence of our relationships. Depending on our emotional condition, what we believe about God and Jesus may change. We can feel strong one day and distant the next. We may feel during one phase of our life close to God and seek spiritual interaction with others. Yet during a time of trial, feel that God has no interest in us and look to other sources for satisfaction. Those sources can vary and in turn bring changes to what we believe about the saving identity of Jesus.

"Believe how?" is therefore a more pertinent question to ask to understand the reason for Jesus delaying his journey to Bethany. How did he want them to believe? He needed them to believe without a doubt in his divine identity and power, in order to trust their whole life to him and embrace the need to expand his mission to the ends of the earth. At a future time, each one of them would be tasked to present his divine identity unequivocably in the face of the opposition they were already seeing mounted against him. In the future, they each would die for preaching the certainty of the deity of Jesus as the Son of God, his essential sacrifice for the sins of every individual, and his promise of the Spirit of God to live within any person who entrusts their life to his control. That is "how" Jesus needed them to believe.

Therefore, Jesus delayed rushing to the side of Lazarus so that his disciples’ faith in him would be deepened and broadened to the maturity needed to continue his mission after his departure, as witnesses of him and teachers of those who would also choose to become his disciples and continue his mission with no dilution of its message. As history shows, his disciples did not resile from obeying his command to witness faithfully to his identity and call to trust in him as their only Saviour in the face of all opposition and distractions. His delay to go to Lazarus had the desired effect in equipping them to spread the message of him throughout their world. As a consequence, today we are beneficiaries of the delay of Jesus to go to Lazarus. John recorded this event so that we might read it and join those who trust in Jesus without a doubt to receive his eternal life.

Hesitation?

¹⁶ Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Was this a cynical comment of Thomas, or an expression of deeply felt commitment to follow Jesus to the point of death? Certainly, the later death of Jesus hit Thomas so hard that he could not believe in the news of his resurrection.

The arrival

The situation

¹⁷ On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

Lazarus was certainly dead. The delay had stretched his time in the tomb before the arrival of Jesus to four days. Thought of any recovery from sickness had well and truly gone. His body was now in the phase of protein breakdown called putrefaction that releases pungent odours like hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide and natural gas found in sewers. Rigor mortis would also have begun to set in. Even the most antagonistic critic of Jesus could not deny with any credibility that a staggering miracle had occurred to reverse this stage of the decaying process and restore Lazarus back to full health. The Pharisees in particular could not deny such a miracle that was about to be witnessed by many devout Jews from Jerusalem.

¹⁸ Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.

These visitors were not impartial. They were invested in the welfare of Mary and Martha to the point of walking two miles to comfort them. Their presence counteracted that of the Pharisees on the hunt for their next opportunity to incriminate and capture Jesus "the blasphemer". Their presence silenced the Pharisees, who could not deny with any authenticity a public miracle that instantly reversed the process of death.

Accordingly, the Pharisees’ resistance to Jesus would now have to move tactically from deny to destroy.

The meeting

²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. ²¹ "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died".

The delay from Jesus was met by a delay from Mary. She must have had a good reason to stay at home given her love for Jesus. For example, Mary and Martha may have planned to meet their friend in that sequence and location according to their state of bereavement.

The faith of Martha

Martha’s greeting of Jesus has no initial pleasantries or expression of appreciation for coming at their time of bereavement. She makes a direct statement of faith, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died".

It could be transliterated,

"If you, the eternally-present I AM of our nation, had been PRESENT here, my brother would not have died off".

Is her leading statement a veiled complaint of Jesus taking his time to respond to their urgent message to him? Or does Martha seem to have the proximity of the I AM associated with the probability of a miracle? Had she not heard of the remote healing of the centurion’s son from a distance? Martha seems to be saying, "If you Jesus had been present, a miracle to prevent death would have been possible". Martha then seems to modify her statement with an afterthought of faith,

²² But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."

In other words, "Even though I know my brother is well and truly dead after four days, when I consider how you have demonstrated your relationship with God in past miracles, I believe that if you ask God for his life to be renewed, God will do it for you as his Son."

Martha certainly had no doubts about the identity of Jesus relative to the God of her Jewish faith, nor the many miraculous answers by God in the past to his kings and prophets. She had plenty of evidence to give her confidence for any miracle requested by Jesus to be done.

The response of Jesus

²³ Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

Jesus’ response left room for interpretation, and Martha gave her interpretation as far as the understanding of her faith would take her as a product of her teaching since a child.

²⁴ Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."^[5]

Jesus takes Martha’s declared belief and gives it further content for her to understand the scope of his role as the Son of God and to expand her trust in him.

²⁵ Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶ and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Did she believe she would never die? What about her brother Lazarus? He trusted Jesus. He has undoubtedly died. What kind of death is Jesus talking about?

Her response is a clear statement of her belief in the identity of Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, but she makes no comment on Jesus being resurrection and life, regardless of how she understood what he was saying.

²⁷ "Yes, Lord," she replied, "I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

However, that is not what Jesus asked from her.

"…whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

To believe that her brother Lazarus would never die, even though he trusted in his close friend Jesus, was certainly not true. He was dead. For Martha to test if she believed his promise for herself required a more thoughtful assessment of her faith in what Jesus promised, because it unearthed what she could believe from him about her personal destiny. This challenge of Jesus to Martha is timeless, because resurrection ushers in timelessness for any person who is resurrected. Because it is timeless, it stands today for every person to confront. Do I believe that I will never die because I put my trust in Jesus and his words? Do I certainly? Do I confidently?

How then is Jesus the resurrection? How is he the life? He is the initiator of my resurrection. His Spirit becomes my life, and because he does, I will never die. Do you believe this?

The faith of Mary

²⁸ After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." ²⁹ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

³² When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Mary’s spontaneous words, as she fell at the feet of Jesus in front of the small number of comforters who had followed her, were identical to her sister’s. Was that a coincidence, or was it the result of them both hanging onto this hope every minute that their dying brother edged closer to his death, while waiting for Jesus to arrive? Had they been affirming this hope to each other repeatedly almost like a mantra to bolster their faith every minute as the minutes dragged by? The sisters certainly manifested the same belief. Jesus, however, was being confronted with more than a repeated belief in him. Now the tears of heightened emotions confronted him.

³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

The impact on Jesus of Mary’s sobbing and the wailing of her comforters was dramatic and easily seen by John^[6]. He describes Jesus as having deep emotional agitation to the extent of audible groaning^[7]. He was deeply moved, much more than offering the courteous sympathy often shown by mourners. His reaction could have been indignation at the attacks of Satan on his close friends. Whatever the case, Jesus was stirred to action by his troubled spirit.

³⁴ "Where have you laid him?" he asked.

"Come and see, Lord," they replied.

The compassion of Jesus

³⁵ Jesus wept.

The brevity of John’s statement magnifies the impact on him of seeing the tears of Jesus. Was he caught off guard? There would have been more than the odd tear for John to notice. He describes the reaction of Jesus to Mary’s grief as a silent flow of tears, in dramatic contrast to the tearless bemoaning or wailing that can overtake some mourners at a funeral.8 Nevertheless, Jesus identified with Mary fully. His silent tears joined hers and gave more comfort than any words could have. They pointed forward to a later vision given to John concerning God the Father motivated by compassion to raise his followers to full dignity from their earthly state.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true". (Revelation 21:3-4)

The resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus validates that they are. We have each shed many tears since the first day of our life and continue to do so whenever the suffering of loved ones or strangers hits our hearts and compassion swells up. Tears are shed through life’s journey over regretful wrongs we have done and can’t reverse except to ask forgiveness. Fortunately, the compassion that leads us to forgiveness and restoration is a constant state of God the Father, even when having to discipline our wanderings into sin.

"For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back".
In a surge of anger
I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,"
says the Lord your Redeemer.
(Isaiah 54:7)

The Father God of compassion is always ready to call the wanderer back to his heart and to the riches of the fullness of life to be found in his Presence. The tears of his Son Jesus that flowed for Mary, Martha and Lazarus in their sorrow still flow originating in the Father’s heart. They are evidence of the tender heart of God seeking to offer eternal life to all. Nevertheless, the response of many to the sacrificial death of his Son Jesus is to turn their faces in the opposite direction, despise him, not care, and continue with their destructive sin. This is not just a contemporary behaviour. It began in the Garden of Eden and was present at the crucifixion.

He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. (Isaiah 53:3)

A majority still do not.

The boundary of faith

³⁶ Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"

It was not only John who saw the tears and took note. So too did the Jewish establishment.

³⁷ But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

Yes, he could have. There was no boundary to his power, but it was not his plan. Jesus was focused on something greater than preventing death, viz., he was looking forward to the higher purpose of giving life so that millions in the centuries that followed would trust in his desire and power to overcome any trial and gift us with eternal life.

The resurrection

³⁸ Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

John must have been following Jesus closely as they walked to the tomb, because he observed again the depth of Jesus’ emotions describing them as a sighing with strong vexation or melancholy.^[8]

Lazarus had been buried in a cave, which was a common practice in first-century Judea, sealing them with a disk-shaped stone, to convert the cave into a tomb.^[9]

³⁹ "Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days."

Note the comment on verse 17 previously made on the state of the corpse of Lazarus. Putrefaction would have been well set in creating a strong odour. When physical realities are clear, the number of disciples who continue to believe in a miracles drops dramatically to just a few. The faith of Martha was at a tipping point.

⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"

Our trust in the identity of Jesus wavers depending on how we assess the possibility or impossibility him being able to perform a miracle we need. As we have noted, Martha was well aware of the likely state of her brother’s corpse after four days of death. Jesus expressed the likelihood of her believing in him bringing Lazarus back to life by using a subjunctive future tense,

"…if you should happen to believe…"

He recognised that Martha’s trust in him to bring her brother back to life was not guaranteed. He did not impose any expectation upon her to meet the benchmark of believing without a doubt that he had both the desire and capability to bring her brother back to life. He did, however, state the certainty of God revealing his glory for the person who does believe in him.

"…if you should happen to believe, you will see the glory of God."

This is the cause and effect operation of God’s love. We believe in him. He responds with the best loving action always.

With confidence in the love of Jesus restored, they obeyed his request.

⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

Jesus responds with a physically demonstrated purposeful prayer. Firstly, he looks upward. Then he addresses his Father. His upwards orientation could have been demonstrating his submission to his Father or the Father’s location being in the heavens. Either way, John noticed.

Jesus begins by thanking his Father for hearing his prayer. We often hear a person listening to another say, "I hear you" to assure them that they empathise with them in their situation.

"Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me…"

The relationship between the Father and the Son was strongly empathetic. The Son loved the Father and listened for his instructions and timing in fulfilling his commands. He had already described that dynamic between them. (John 5:19; 8:29)

The Father loved his Son and listened closely to his expressed desires. Jesus knew this relationship reality from his experience of the oneness with the Father from eternity past into this present moment.

⁴² I knew^[10] that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here…"

The purpose of his prayer of gratitude to the Father is not for personal benefit but public.

…that they may believe that you sent me.

Every miraculous work of Jesus before and since has been intended as evidence of his eternally divine identity. Every miraculous work we can observe in the created order has been done by him so that we might believe (trust) in him. That is why any rejection of him in the face of his amazing works of creation is without excuse^[11]. Those who die in that state will not have a leg to stand on when they stand before him in judgement.

On this occasion, Jesus is about to perform a miracle of control over nature that only God could perform. In the face of the Pharisees’ declared objection to his claim to be the Son of God, which had set them on their justified path of seeking to kill him, Jesus needed to make clear that he and his Father God worked in unity in the control of life and death. With this public prayer, Jesus opened a window into his relationship with the Father for us to look through. Now was the time to demonstrate the power of that eternal relationship! All the details provided by John were intended to build to this moment. With the Jerusalem mourners’ anticipation running high, any religious leaders present ready to pounce, Mary and Martha in deep grief, yet still trusting in the power and comfort of Jesus, he yells out in a booming voice,

⁴³ "Lazarus, come out!"

⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Jesus completes the resurrection with a command to those in attendance, who had sufficient love for Lazarus and his sisters to take time off to comfort them in their grief.

Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

This last step was critical. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life. Others had to set him free. Symbolically, this is the final task to complete every spiritual resurrection.

Many come to Jesus bound and have been isolated in their self-made cave for a significant time. In that state, we can lose sight of any balanced view of who we are. Negative emotions bind us up and attack our sense of worth. All confidence in any self-worth slowly drains away. Then we hear the voice of Jesus calling us with his love. We reach out and trust him with our life. Then he comes to us physically in those who love him and embraces us with his love in tangible ways. We join in their gatherings to love Jesus and one another. We become renewed in community with all our grave clothes gone. We are free to connect with confidence to live again as the unique creation intended by God.

Split impact

Belief

This undeniable and dramatic resurrection with many observers caused two different responses, as has always been the case with any work of God throughout history. In some, God’s work leads to belief (trust) in him.

⁴⁵ Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Hostility

In others, God’s work, even when presented in the context of love, builds defensiveness of varying degrees, which often targets the message bearer with some expression of hostility ranging from avoidance to scheming how to denigrate and silence them. In others, the demonstration of God’s power leads to the intent to kill. Behind all resistance to the work of God is a self-centred pride that will not let go of the control of its environment and will attack any attempt to reduce it. The very public resurrection of Lazarus flushed out this degree of pride in the religious hierarchy.

⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

The resurrection of Lazarus brought to a head the religious hierarchy’s fear of losing its control over their nation. It created a major turning point in their determination to kill Jesus.

Fear

"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation."

John does not record the rationale they used to make that conclusion, but it is clearly fear- driven, even if it is an exaggeration. The miracles of Jesus were not centred in the Temple. Removing it would not stop his miracles, which would have been immediately evident to any Roman suggesting they should demolish the Temple. Removing it would, however, immediately dispense with the need for the Pharisees. Losing their income and identity would cause them to justify whatever was needed to protect it. That is why Caiaphas had an instantly receptive audience willing to contemplate murder, even though they were appointed to be guardians of the whole Law that forbade murder.

Expediency

⁴⁹ Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰ You do not realize that it is better^[12] for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."

Caiaphas overrides the Law with expediency. He is the controlling pragmatist at heart and mocks his colleagues for being so slow coming to the conclusion of the need to remove Jesus by any means, even if that is murder, which collides with the Law they are supposed to teach, guard and demonstrate.

…it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."

Prophecy

Caiaphas was focused on expediency and shaming his colleagues into action to get rid of Jesus once and for all. The word used by him for expedient action, however, also has the meaning "to bring together." Based on these variations of use, John inserts an editorial comment to interpret the rebuke by Caiaphas,

⁵¹ He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, ⁵² and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.

He interprets that, unbeknown to Caiaphas, he was advocating more than expediency. He was simultaneously heralding more than the death of Jesus. He was also prophesying the beginning a new era of people drawn together by the Spirit of God from all nations as his children to into one fellowship.

Death plan

⁵³ So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

⁵⁴ Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

Again, Jesus makes himself scarce because his time had not yet come in his Father’s plan for him to give his life for the sins of the world.

⁵⁵ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. ⁵⁶ They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, "What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?"

⁵⁷ But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

Theodore Perkins (1831-1912) ↩︎
John describes the condition of sickness as astheneó which is to be feeble in any sense. He gives no more details. ↩︎
They greeted Jesus as kurios to denote supreme authority. Kurios is derived from kuros (supremacy). The sisters did not see Jesus as an ordinary man but as a controller of life.. ↩︎
The sisters use the term phileó denoting personal attachment with sentiment and feeling rather than the term agapao used for expressions of love that operate from the will as a matter of principle. ↩︎
Martha was likely raised by Lazarus in the Jewish faith of the time, which was influenced by apocalyptic literature pointing to end times of the age, e.g., Daniel 7-12, Isaiah 25:6-8; 26:19; 35:8-10 ↩︎
To describe the weeping John chooses to use the word κλαίω (klaó) meaning to sob, i.e., wail aloud ↩︎
John describes the reaction of Jesus with the powerful word ἐμβριμάομαι (embrimaomai), which originated from brimaomai meaning to snort with anger and indignation, groan audibly with melancholy and vexation. John couples it with ταράσσω (tarassó), which means to agitate back-and-forth, and therefore figuratively to become stirred up inside from emotional agitation. ↩︎
Embrimaomai meaning to sigh with chagrin. ↩︎
Jesus later had a similar burial in the cave provided by Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin ruling Israel at the time. ↩︎
Jesus signals that experiential knowledge from the long past by using the pluperfect tense ↩︎
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20) ↩︎
Συμφέρω (sum-pher-o) to bring together, be expedient for, be profitable for ↩︎

Introduction

In this chapter, John continues his interaction between Jesus and the authoritarian Pharisees recorded in Chapter 9. Now he records the shift in Jesus becoming direct and emphatic with them. Now was the time for Jesus to do so in his journey to the Cross.

¹ Very truly I tell you Pharisees…

"In other words, pay special attention to what I am about to tell you because it is authentic truth… "

Jesus is about to use a lengthy metaphor to frame the truth about their intentions as religious leaders, who had just disenfranchised the healed blind man with their self-righteous bullying. Their goal of control was more precious to them than Jesus’ goal of healing love. The metaphor contrasts the behaviour of a shepherd caring for his vulnerable flock of sheep with that of others who would do them harm. Jesus introduced it at a time that the Pharisees were split in their assessment of Jesus.

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others asked, "How can a sinner perform such signs?"

So they were divided. (9:16)

Just as the interaction of the Pharisees with Jesus had reached a crisis point, ours does also. We all come to a time of life development when Jesus confronts us head-on with the truth about the life affections we are choosing that are dividing, diminishing and displacing his desires for our life built on his truth and not deceptions. To whose "truths" am I submitted?

The timed confrontation of us by Jesus is a critical moment, after which we can never be the same again. When we hear Jesus confront us with his call to trust and follow him, this becomes a life turning point. However and whenever that comes, we face the most important decision we will ever face for our life on earth and forever.

Hence, we need to be honest with our self-assessment, "Have I heard that call, and how did I respond?" I urge you to stop and think about it. His call can never be distorted, minimised or trivialised without effecting our eternal destiny. That is a bold statement to make. Is it true? Where can one turn in the last moments of life after rejecting the Creator Jesus throughout one’s, through whom all things were made that have been made? (1:3) Calling out to our Creator expecting his favourable response immediately to address our need is equivalent to hailing a taxi expecting instant service on our terms. The created cannot control their Creator and make him jump to their agenda of what they want and when.

Jesus had not confronted the Pharisees’ behaviour at the Feast of Tabernacles until now, even though they had aggressively shut down freedom of expression at the holiday event with threats of banishment for any Jew who interacted with him, should he come. Their plan was to kill him. They blanketed the Feast with fear of having any perceived association with Jesus as they searched for him among the attendees. Their strategy was to maintain their popularity and authority, and squash his threatening claim of deity by removing Jesus from the populace, just as they had John the Baptist.

Jesus, however, caught them off-guard with an ‘attention-grabber’ for the Festival crowds that the Pharisees could not have predicted. He healed the sight of a vocal, middle aged man, who had been blind from birth. Who could ignore or upstage that? The Festival attendees could not ignore it, and the Pharisees could not upstage it. Furthermore, the healed man was not going to let them brush him aside. His response was vocal, public and irrepressible. Yes, Jesus had arrived unmistakably at the Festival, and in miraculous style!

How did the Pharisees handle this critical moment? What do we learn observing them?

The treatment of the healed blind man by the Pharisees and later by Jesus stood in stark contrast. The Pharisees threw the healed man out of the Temple to disenfranchise him as a Jew. They had to sever any and every association of Judaism with Jesus, the "Messianic imposter", and with his spectacular healing miracles. They attempted to strip the healed man’s identity as a Jew. Other Jews present in the Temple at the time would have known it and spread the word. The Pharisees considered the healed blind man no longer qualified for religious association with the God of Moses. A bizarre and unsustainable rejection!

Whereas in contrast, Jesus sought out the healed blind man, in order to bring him to self-awareness of his full acceptance as a child of God. The Pharisees showed they were driven by their own self-interests and would use their power to strengthen their authority by robbing the status of anyone. Jesus, on the other hand, demonstrated that his love for the healed man went beyond his spectacular physical healing to the affirmation and full acceptance of the healed man’s whole identity by God. Jesus assured him that His blindness was not caused by the sin of his parents or himself.

³ "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

Jesus affirmed that the man was born blind to demonstrate the higher purpose of God’s plan for humanity only to be seen in him. He is the light that enlightens our world. Jesus seeks out every individual for the same reasons as he did the healed man:

to help us discover our full identity conceived by God before creation, and
to understand that God created us for an exalted purpose chosen by him to be carried out during our lifetime.

Jesus sought out the healed blind man to complete such an understanding of the fullness of the love of God for him. He gave the healed man a whole new understanding of his pre-planned exalted identity. He was to become a living simile of Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world.

The healing of this middle-aged blind man centuries ago continues to beckon each person today to seek Jesus to enlighten their life by shining his light into their every situation and relationship. There is no greater need for the world today than for each person to see Jesus as the light for their world and have their plans and affections enlightened by him and aligned with him. The question is, "How will our ego handle our emotional reactions and consequential choices in life when confronted by Jesus shining his light into our whole person?" His light is pure light! It cannot mix with darkness clothed in moral compromise of any kind or with any other fraudulent fabricated god.

What a stark contrast for the healed blind man having just been discarded by the Pharisees as conniving thieves and robbers of what remained of his life in Jewish society! With no sign of a conscience, they plundered the defenceless healed man of his newly found dignity. All sizes and shapes of religious and community leaders ever since have plundered countless thousands of seekers of a higher life. Jesus came looking for him as his sheep to secure him in his sheep pen with his other sheep. That is where each of us belong.

John followed, listened and watched this restoration journey of the healed blind man with Jesus and recorded it as he had done so with previous encounters.

The Shepherd and his sheep metaphor

Jesus used an extended metaphor to restore the dignity of the healed blind man built around the role of a shepherd with his sheep. The metaphor compares the role of Jesus, as a good shepherd, with the behaviour of the Pharisees as robbers of life, and how true followers of God recognise him and follow him wherever he journeys by listening to his voice, just like John was doing and the healed blind man could.

¹ "Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the hep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice." ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

This is the beginning of a touching and highly relational lengthy metaphor of a shepherd’s care for his sheep in a hostile environment. It presents timeless truth. John hints at a potential reason Jesus used it to expand his confrontation of the Pharisees, viz., they were blind to the symbolism behind its main identities and their behaviours. Understanding it was beyond the realm of their spiritual capability as official teachers of their religion. Tragically, they did not have a clue what Jesus was talking about! They did not see themselves, the healed blind man, nor Jesus in the metaphor of a sheep pen with sheep, thieves, robbers, a shepherd, gatekeeper, gate, and voice. It probably sounded like jibberish and having nothing to do with their attempts to clarify how a blind man could now see. Nevertheless, most likely Jesus did not want to place before the Pharisees a clear presentation of the path to healing and salvation, because they would twist and demean it for their own ends.

Why so? Because their plan to capture and crucify Jesus was still very active. They were on an adversarial path with their power ambitions and not a welcoming and serving path. They could not allow his demonstrations of deity, or any claims of it, to reach, distract and diminish their power-base of devout adherents. They were not ready in any way to entertain the possibility of Jesus being divine and submit to him. They had wilfully positioned themselves as the enemy. That continues to be the chosen position of many opposed to any involvement with Jesus. He would not open up to such rigid wills and scheming minds his priceless way of salvation, which he would establish one day at great personal cost on a Roman Cross, while his enemies stood by mocking in their ignorance, assuming they had achieved their goal of his annihilation. These were intelligent leaders who had become fools. They had no answer to his resurrection and ascension 40 days later.

The path of salvation still remains unseen to those who place their ego interests above those of God, and criticize his works, and therefore his identity, privately in their mind or publicly. If we can’t see the path of salvation clearly provided by Jesus, we need to examine our ego. Such persons commonly consider that God’s plans are not good enough for them and reject Him. That is a dangerous place to be. It is the stance of a fool.

Therefore, it is life-critical for each one of us to reflect honestly on our current attitudes when standing figuratively with a meditative posture before the Cross. Otherwise, we will never see the spiritual collision that occurred there for us between good and evil, God and Satan. This collision continues in our present as we choose our personal orientation to what happened there, but now the collision continues within us on our journey in life.

The Sheep Pen

¹ "Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.

This was country speaking to city in Jerusalem. Jesus was from country Galilee. He knew about the domestication of sheep across the Middle East and how shepherds fed and protected them to gain income from their sale for food, textiles, sacrifices, and more. Sheep had become so central to daily life that both gods and kings were often referred to as shepherds.

The Festival crowd could relate instantly to the image of a sheep pen with walls built of rocks and a narrow gate access where the shepherd would lie down for his night’s sleep to protect his investment in the flock he nurtured. Because the shepherd slept at the entrance of the pen to protect his sheep, thieves and robbers had to climb in another way.

Some flocks were large enough to support a gatekeeper. In this case, the gatekeeper controlled who had access to the pen. He kept the gate closed to anyone he suspected as wanting to harm or steal the sheep. When the shepherd arrived, he gave him direct access to his flock.

² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice

The Voice

Jesus used this metaphor to enable the devout Jews to understand the listening relationship he wanted with them and compare it with the current status of the relationship they had with the Pharisees.

The central measure of our relationship with Jesus is our response to his voice. It is not how consistently we carry out religious rituals led by religious leaders, while our will is closed tight to any challenge of love and honesty that his Voice is beckoning us to address. A closed will cannot hear the beckoning Voice of love and is not listening for it, e.g., a closed will that refuses to extend forgiveness to another person. What is the posture of my will towards the Voice of Jesus? Openness or closedness?

"He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."

Myriads of voices run continually through our minds like a river, or like a boisterous parade that drowns out any gentle voice. Therefore we each have to learn how to stop and observe the voices constantly vying for our attention and obedience.

What voices in your head are drowning out the voice of the Good Shepherd? Have you ever heard the Voice of Jesus pierce to the depth of your being and interrupt the continual flow of other voices? It does not come through a megaphone on a high place reaching as many as possible. It usually does not come through our ears. Instead we hear it come clearly from deep within. We instantly know it is not the voice of our conscience, which we may have suppressed too often to become distorted, or weak and ineffective. The Voice of the Spirit of Jesus is stronger and more certain than that. When we hear it, we immediately know it is him calling us to change our direction and follow him into making him known to those persons he knows are also open to hear his Voice, trust him and follow.

…and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

We embark on listening for his Voice speaking through meditation in our circumstances, through his words in the Bible, a hymn, or a teaching from a chosen teacher of his. The more we follow this Voice, the quicker we recognise Satan’s voice in its many forms beckoning us to try out an alternative appealing path, just like he lured Eve with promised rewards. If we have disciplined our time to listen regularly to the Voice of Jesus, we quickly recognise Satan’s luring voice, and quickly dismiss it. Jesus states it this way,

⁵ "But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."

The Pharisees were listening to a competing voice with its objective to kill Jesus. They could not recognise his Voice, while they clasped their objective to kill him. Consequently, the metaphor of the Shepherd was meaningless to them.

⁶ The Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

They could not see themselves as the thieves and robbers in the metaphor seeking to capture for their own sake the devotion of as many of their race as possible.

The Gate

Jesus now expands on his metaphor from a different perspective. In his first iteration of the metaphor, he is the shepherd who has a gate keeper controlling who can enter the pen of the sheep. In this second iteration, Jesus describes himself as the gate providing a secure two-way access for the sheep to find safety in the pen when needed, and food in the pastures outside of the pen for timely sustenance when needed.

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, "Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Jesus now makes his purpose clear. He has come not merely to give spiritual life to us who are incapacitated in sin from birth. He has come to give us the full measure of his life, which we can live to the full. Incredible!

The person who hears the Voice of Jesus, and who welcomes, trusts and obeys it, lives a life filled with the qualities of life which Jesus displayed continuously in the face of great opposition. Those qualities as observed by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in their biographies of Jesus are: love, joy, peace, patience, forgiveness, meekness, gentleness and self-control. Because these qualities of life are the very life of Jesus, they are dynamic and not static. They collectively describe the quality of life displayed by Jesus. They are destined to enrich us forever. No amount of money can buy them, but Jesus offers them freely to the person who hears his Voice and follows him with full trust and obedience.

For our own sake, therefore, it is imperative that we stop and consider the honest answer to the question, "Have I heard this Voice of Jesus and now have his life energising me and directing me to the full? Have I entered into salvation through Jesus the gate? Or is my life governed by a myriad of other voices and my own that have crowded out any capacity to hear the Voice of Jesus? What certainty are those voices giving me for my future in this life and the nature of my future ever-lasting destiny?"

The Good Shepherd

Now Jesus moves into a third iteration of his metaphor focusing on how he protects those who follow him as their Shepherd.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Jesus presents himself as a shepherd who will go to maximum limits to protect his flock of sheep. He wants every sheep to know that, from the strongest to the weakest. Accordingly, Jesus states clearly the extent to which he is prepared to go as a shepherd to protect the sheep in his flock.

¹¹ "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

How would the Pharisees and other listeners understood this statement? They would have been familiar with the everyday use of the word Jesus used for laying down.^[1] It was used to describe intentional acts of placing or laying down an object in a precise position, such as:

in home decoration, e.g., placing a lamp on a stand for visibility and not under a bed (Luke 8:16);
for comfort e.g., Jesus placing children in his arms and blessing them (Mark 10:16);
placing prisoners in detention to protect the general public (Acts 12:4);
placing the sick on cots in strategic places hoping Peter’s shadow would touch and heal them as he passed by (Acts 5:15);
laying aside the dead until buried (Mark 15:47);
permanently laying the dead to rest (Matthew 27:60).

There are many ways a person can choose to lay down their life for another as an act of serving them. The Daily News coverage provides a range of examples from the actions of various government servants doing their job such as family carers. police, firefighters, and young people choosing to place themself in the dangers of war to protect the masses at home and be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice of their own life for the sake of another.

Was Jesus foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice he later made on the Cross for his sheep? He may have been. Was he signalling to the Pharisees how far he was prepared to go in challenging their status quo to bring salvation to many, just as prophesied in their scriptures? Did any of them consider that he was staring down their plan to kill him?

Ownership

Jesus further clarifies his use of "laying down his life" by illustrating with the vivid example of a wolf attacking the flock and the shepherd not running away like a hired hand would. He identifies ownership as the defining motivation for care and protection.

¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

The aim of Jesus for every life created by his Father is his ownership. Without it, there are no guarantees of God’s care and protection of our life in this life and the one to come. John later records how Jesus won the ownership of his flock by paying the price of his physical life at the Cross. All sheep in his flock have been bought for a price using his own blood poured out on the Cross. They no longer belong to Satan but him. They have been set free by Jesus as their new owner, in order to listen to his Voice and follow. Those who choose not to follow remain scattered.

Would some of the Pharisees have seen themselves anywhere in this metaphor of the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep?

Their pressure on Pilate and mocking at the Cross shows they had learned nothing as a group, even though some individuals were in the process.

The Ultimate Knowledge

Jesus now describes the eternal reality on which his relationship with any of his sheep is built. The eternal reality upon which our relationship with the shepherd is built is the same indivisible unity of the Father and the Son of God that has continuously empowered and informed their relationship from eternity past. Jesus establishes his relationship with his sheep on the same footing. Just as the Father and the Son know each other intimately, based on their sacrificial love for each other, so also God has designed the functioning characteristics of the relationship he builds with any person prepared to trust him and obey his every request. With this statement Jesus made it clear that he did not come to earth to create the religion of Christianity but a living unified flock of sheep, who recognise his Voice as their shepherd, who lays down his life for them and desires to know them to the same extent of intimacy that he knows his Father.

¹⁴ "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep.

This is coming to know spirit empowered love by living in it and it living in self. It is the knowing that comes from experience and not solely from text books. It is the knowing of relationship and not the result of academic qualifications. Jesus said that most reject it preferring their will over his.

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

(Matthew 7:14)

The tragedy of lives lost forever continues to this day!

The United Flock

¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Jesus heralds the expansion of his flock beyond Jewish nationhood to the inclusion of an undefined and unified number of foreigners. Every practicing devotee of Jesus, who is not Jewish by birth, will be brought into the original Jewish flock by the same means as them, i.e., by listening to the Voice of Jesus and fully entrusting their life to what he promises and claims about his identity and purposes. They become empowered by the same unifying Spirit of God. The resulting global network of relationships, with Jesus at its core, is not nationally, organisationally or theologically defined. It is spiritually enlivened by the Holy Spirit of Jesus in cleansing, teaching, strengthening, empowering with his life until he returns for his 1,000 year rule and the judgement of every human.

They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

The Ultimate Authority

Jesus now elaborates on what might possibly be the most significant command that he ever received from his Father. Had this command not been given, Jesus would not have been able to lay down his life for my sin. He would not have been able to take my judgement.

Without the Father’s intention behind his command to sacrifice his sinless Son for sinful me, the death of Jesus would have had no salvation effects for me. The Father’s desire, however, was to provide a universal sacrifice for every sin of every human in every age. From his heart of love came this command to his Son to lay down his life for every human. Without the Father’s expansive heart of love, there would not have been the command. There would not have been the uniting of the Spirit of Jesus with a human egg cell. Jesus would not have come as an embryo developing through the stages of pregnancy in Mary of Nazareth, or been born in a manger. Nevertheless, the command did come from the Father to the Son, paraphrased as, "Lay down your life and then take it up again. Do it on your own accord. I will love you for it!"

¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

The scene of this command was heaven. Jesus explains that the Father loves the Son for fulfilling his command completely on earth including his resurrection and ascension both witnessed by his followers as the culmination of the purpose for his death. He laid down his life and took it up again. That is where his gift of eternal life originated for each of us. The essential question it leaves each reader is, "Has the command in heaven, faithfully executed by Jesus on earth, brought any eternal heavenly effects for me? Or has it been wasted?"

Jerusalem crisis point

It was wasted on the right-wing members of the Pharisees and their followers.

¹⁹ The Jews who heard these words were again divided.²⁰ Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?"

The confrontation of the Pharisees by Jesus resulted in a split group. Some became dismissive of Jesus to the extreme by labelling him as a raving maniac^[2]. Similar dodges are used today in order to avoid giving any claim of authority to Jesus.

²¹ But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

Others sought to modify crowd opinion by questioning the logic of the extreme right-wing categorisation of Jesus as a maniac.

In the face of so many miracles by Jesus of various kinds confronting the right-wing Pharisees, were they not in fact the ones who were acting mad? Is the denial of provable and measurable evidence madness, no matter how intellectually or emotionally the denial is framed?

Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

Are the biographies of the life of Jesus written by those who lived with him for three years fictitious? Would any one of these followers have been prepared to be executed for promoting what they knew was a lie? John’s friends journeying with Jesus chose to be.

The winter festival

Who are you?

John progresses his account of Jesus journeying from summer to winter, from the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’, full of the celebrations of bountiful agricultural harvests, to the eight-day ‘Festival of Lights’ that had originated over a century before to celebrate the restoration of Jewish control of Solomon’s Temple.

²² Then came the Festival of Dedication (i.e., Hanukkah) at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.

²⁴ The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

The devout Jews who had previously sought him out were wanting resolution to his identity. John describes these Jews as surrounding or encircling Jesus. This aggressive picture could imply that in this case he is using the term "Jew" (Ioudaia) to represent the Pharisees. At a minimum, they would have been devout Jews in the Temple pushing for resolution to the identity of the posturing "prophet" who was challenging their current leadership.

It is not uncommon for devout seekers of truth to want to arrive at conclusions to their search quickly, particularly if they sense their status quo is under threat. In their speed, they miss the truth. Often Jesus is superficially dismissed by conveniently linking him to obvious examples of religious malpractice. How often have you heard an example of hypocrisy or maltreatment by a church official quoted as a reason to dismiss what Jesus represented? The history of the visible Church throughout the world across many ages is full of such examples of human frailty that is easy to criticize. However, worthy research of a topic like Jesus requires patience, particularly when the research of him must reach out beyond time as we know it.

Frustration and impatience can push for short-cuts. However, there is no short-cut to understanding the unique identity of an individual, particularly one who claims to have existed eternally. The intricate identity of any person is more than a label of judgement quickly stuck to their name like the label on a bottle. Taking short-cuts to make snap judgement of what is driving a person’s behaviour leads to false conclusions and distrust. How do they perceive themselves and others? What prior experiences have led to this position? In sharp contrast, the constant focus of the verbal and demonstrated teaching of Jesus to his disciples was to extend love to all, to the least and even to our enemies.

His commandment to love God was based on trust, i.e., belief. I cannot love God without trusting him fully as seen in Jesus.

Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes (trusts) him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (5:24)

Is that why Jesus came? To see my Creator more clearly and trust him with my destiny? To enjoy the confidence now that I have already crossed over from death to life? More specifically, is that why Jesus was sent by the Father as he claimed? Who is this Father Jesus instructs me to trust, and does that make Jesus an eternal Son? How can there be a Father and a Son, if there is only one God and Creator of all?

One with the Father

Jesus instantly put the responsibility for their lack of understanding where it belongs. Their problem was not in his telling but in their believing. Why would they not believe? Every unbeliever needs to examine for themselves the reasons for their unbelief. Admittedly, it would be difficult for any human familiar with observing and acting in a four dimensional space-time environment to comprehend a Creator, who is comprised of an unseen eternal Father and a visible Son with a human mother, and who is not one without the other. That task is above and beyond the smartest philosopher. So is there any avenue we can take in order to comprehend these claims of Jesus?

²⁵ Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me…"

Jesus points to his works as the visible endorsement on earth of his claims. Each genuine enquirer about Jesus has to make an objective assessment of the behaviours and miracles of Jesus, in order to arrive at an authentic acceptance or rejection of his claims. When the assessment is not objective then the enquirer is not genuine. Jesus confronted the Pharisees with the reason their relationship with him was ingenuine,

²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.

These religious enquirers pressuring Jesus would never follow, while seeking to maintain the grip of control on their life and the lives of the devout adherents to their laws. They could not afford to listen to his spiritual instructions and follow him when at the same time they were vying with him for followers to control and expand their power. Their enquiries about his Messianic identity were therefore ingenuine and leading nowhere but to opposition. Consequently, Jesus proceeded to make the relationship between himself and his sheep clear in terms that are eternal and applicable to every seeker today.

One with the sheep

²⁷ "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one."

The sheep of Jesus listen and follow. In other words, they are open and attentive to him. On his part, Jesus claims to know them, and consequently knows imposters who do not receive what he gives to his sheep. They receive the gift of eternal life, which is permanent once given, and protected by the power of the Creator of all in unity with Jesus. I am guaranteed eternal life within the dual clasped hands of the Father and the Son. It is in fact their life from eternity with no division. They were Spirit before created physical distinctions existed.

…no one will snatch them out of my hand… no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand (who is greater than all)

³⁰ I and the Father are one."

Blasphemy needing eradication

At this point, the confrontation of Jesus with those surrounding him in the Temple reached its zenith. His claim to be one with the Father was intolerable to a devout monotheist, who exalted the Laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai by the God who governed all his creation and miraculously set their forefathers free from slavery in Egypt. Such blasphemy needed instant eradication.

Blinded by their religious status and its feeding of their pride and pocket, these Pharisees ignored the prophecy of Isaiah, which heralded a divine Son as the Mighty God, who would be sent by human birth by his everlasting Father, yet himself be called Everlasting Father.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

(Isaiah 9:6)

Blasphemy by Isaiah?

³¹ Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, ³² but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"

³³ "We are not stoning you for any good work," they replied, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

Their pride could not entertain the thought that the God they claimed to serve was standing before them. They sought to kill him. John listened and learned until he saw. He later wrote,

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

(1 John 5:20)

The corollary to this claim is that in rejecting Jesus and remaining outside of him, there is no eternal life. There is no everlasting love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness and self-control. The absence of these is everlasting hell. This is so critical that Jesus urged those doubting his identity to at least look at the multiple works he did as evidence of his identity.

Believe the works!

³⁴ Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods"? ³⁵ If he called them ‘gods’, to whom the word of God came — and Scripture cannot be set aside — ³⁶ what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 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."

To cut through the deception of self-interest founded solidly on pride and its fear of loss, Jesus throws out the ultimate challenge. It cuts through every excuse given today that attempts to dismiss him as the Son of God. "Believe my works. Who else do you know has walked on water, multiplied a small boy’s lunch to feed 5,000, raised the dead, and healed the deaf, blind and crippled multiple times? Who?" This requires an honest answer by the person seeking to understand his identity with integrity. We can now add, "Who has, returned from the dead, showed the marks of his crucifixion, then spent 40 days in person teaching his followers about his identity recorded in prior history, ascended visibly through the clouds with angelic testimony that he would return again in the same manner? Who?" Believe these physical actions of Jesus, witnessed by many, to gain certainty. What other spiritual leader or mystic has such physical miracles as evidence to back up their claims?

The fisherman, Peter, gained his certainty after watching the many works of Jesus over three years. In his appeal to listeners of his first sermon to follow Jesus, he points out that God’s method of accrediting Jesus as his Son was his miracles, wonders and signs. They were well known. They move our personal conclusion of the identity of Jesus from the trap of the flawed subjective attributes of our personality and knowledge formation to an assessment based on easily observed physical facts. Therefore, Peter began his first sermon to a gathering crowd by referencing the undeniable physical works of Jesus.

²² "Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. ²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

(Acts 2:22-24)

Peter was clearly continuing to challenge the Pharisees with the identity of Jesus as accredited by his witnessed supernatural physical works driven by love, yet they crucified him. The response to this challenge was entirely different. For Jesus, the subjectively driven response of the Pharisees was,

³⁷ Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

This reaction made clear their unyielding motivation to control and silence Jesus.

To Peter, the response of the Pentecost crowd was vastly different, however, when he pointed to the public reality of the crucifixion they had demanded. Now the response of the attending crowd came from open hearts rather than frozen wills,

³⁷ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

⁴⁰ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Sav yourselves from this corrupt generation." ⁴² Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Save yourself! No one else can make your choice. At the very least, believe in the works and follow where that takes your mind and heart. Belief in the works will save you from the blindness of subjective responses and take you forward with certainty to baptism.

Departure

There comes a time when Jesus chooses to move on to a more productive use of his presence. In this case he moved from hostile resistance to welcoming belief. He moved back across the Jordon. The result? Luke is clear – many believed.

⁴⁰ Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had beenbptizing in theeary days. There he stayed, ⁴⁰ and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true." ⁴² And in that place many believed in Jesus.

Many have continued to believe since then. Nevertheless, the ratio given by Jesus of those saved from destruction to those who are not, tragically remains.

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

(Matthew 7:14)

Even with hundreds of miracles witnessed in the lifetime of Jesus, they would be wasted on the majority. Each person chooses how they will treat each miracle recorded by John as he journeyed with Jesus to his ascension via his crucifixion and resurrection. The next miracle witnessed and recorded by John is raising Lazarus from the dead four days after his burial. The miracle had many witnesses and sparked a groundswell of support for Jesus that caused the ruling class to put national political wheels in motion to remove him.

⁴⁷ Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

Dispossession

"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation."

Each person has to confront for themselves whether or not their fear of dispossession of their future comfort, material possessions and social relationships will finally cause Jesus’ departure from them.

Τιθέω was used to set, put, place, lay carefully an idea, plan, article or person. ↩︎
Mainomai, from which English derives "maniac" ↩︎