Part 19b – John 12
In John 12:12-19 we encounter a very familiar story, the account of Jesus making a triumphal entry on a donkey’s colt, a colt that had never been ridden before.
Bethany is two miles outside Jerusalem, word had spread that Jesus was coming, the man who could raise dead men from their tombs. We see from this section that those people who had witnessed the miracle of Lazarus were the ones who bore witness (John 12:17); that is what each and everyone of us needs to do; “bare witness” to the goodness and greatness of “God in the midst”. When we do that, many will follow Jesus just like it is reported in John 12:19 which causes the Pharisees to question what they were actually doing and who came to the conclusion that they were doing nothing and had to acknowledge that the “world had gone after Him”. The Pharisees, those who were supposed to be able to bring people to God, were not able to “show the way” mainly because they had not witnessed or encountered “God in the midst” and they had hardened their hearts to what God was doing in their vicinity. We all have to acknowledge what God is doing in our vicinity, it may not be to our liking, we may need to change our heart and attitude, we may need to discern with spiritual wisdom “God in the midst” and we then need to give our support and become a witness to the great outpouring of God’s Grace and Mercy.
In John 12:20-26 we are presented with some Greeks who want to see Jesus. They are in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They would have been Jews or of Jewish descent who had been scattered at some point in Israel’s history and were now Greek. They would not have been in Jerusalem celebrating Passover unless they knew what Passover was and its significance to them as Jews.
They approached Philip with the question “sir we want to meet Jesus?” These Greeks had heard about Jesus, His fame had spread as far as Greece. I want you to notice what Philip does, he goes to find Andrew, another disciple, and together they go and ask Jesus if these Greeks can have an audience with him. Jesus’ answer appears somewhat strange, rather than say “yes no problem” he replied with “now the time has come for the son of man to come into his glory”. In other words it’s not me, the man, you need to seek it is God my Father who you really should be seeking. This is true for us all, in the absence of the physical man Jesus we all need to seek the spiritual man, God the Father. Jesus recognised and knew that everything is spiritual and true life comes from the source, God the Father, “God in the midst”. We will continue to explore this theme of the reality of “God in our Midst” in the next blog post.
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