Expecting Jesus

Matthew 21:1-11 / Mark 11:1-11 / Luke 19:28-40 / John 12:12-19…

As Jesus made His entry into Jerusalem, He was fulfilling prophecy by riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). The excited people were waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna, publically proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

This was a tradition which had its roots some 200 years previously, following the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, who was prophesied about (Daniel 7:8, 20, 24-25, 8:9-12, 23-25, 9:26-27, 11:21-39). He was a type of the Antichrist. He placed a statue of Zeus in the temple, and slaughtered a pig in the Most Holy place. Epiphanes beat the Jews into submission, but after several years of this, a man named Judas Maccabee, whose name meant “hammer”, his brothers, and his band of renegades miraculously overcame and drove Epiphanies from Jerusalem.

The people spontaneously celebrated by waving palm branches. From that time on, the back of Jewish coinage depicted a palm branch as a symbol of deliverance from oppression. This is what Hanukkah is all about. So Hosanna is a cry for salvation (deliverance), while at the same time is a declaration of praise.

Now the Jews find themselves oppressed again, by the Romans. When the people cried Hosanna and waved palm branches as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, they were essentially saying, “Be Judas Maccabee. Deliver us from the Romans.” But when they realized Jesus had a different agenda than a political one, a different agenda than a national one, and a different agenda than a material one – some changed their cry from “Hosanna” to “Crucify Him.”

The same is still true. Christians individually and churches corporately will mobilize politically, aiming to change our government, to change our economy, and to change society. That isn’t all bad, but it is one thing to shout at a parade or sign a petition, and something else altogether to stand at the foot of the Cross. It is one thing to cry out against the sins of others, but quite another to suffer the death of your own self and your sin. The Jews wanted religious and political freedom, and prosperity, just like many of the leaders of today. However, Jesus did not come to save us from our social situation; He came to save us from our sinful situation. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The hardest thing in the world

John 12:9-11…

The Jewish hope for the Messiah was especially heightened during Passover, when the population of Jerusalem multiplied four to six times and people would be camping all around the area. Imagine the excitement when the people who had come learned that Jesus has recently raised a man from the dead. Lazarus was the living proof of His Messianic claims.

As a result, many Jews were leaving the religion of the Pharisees and going after Jesus. As word gets out that Jesus is near, a large crowd heads toward Bethany to meet Him. They also want to see Lazarus. But while Jesus inspires the messianic hopes of some, the chief priests, who had determined earlier that Jesus must die, now decide that Lazarus must die as well. The hatred aimed at Jesus boils over against Lazarus. One sin so quickly and so easily leads to another.

How can people be so blind? For the chief priests, it was because they cared less about the truth than they did their own positions and power, which Jesus threatens. This is what happens when people no longer pursue the will of God, self-denial, and settle for the will of man, self-preservation. When we find ourselves imagining harm to our brothers and sisters and also imagining that we are somehow justified in thinking it, we are in the wrong place.

The hard heart has no real peace. It refuses to be broken and so it must always look for other things to break. It is only when we learn to sacrifice our sacred pride that we pay the price of peace. God must bring us to that place, because the hardest thing in the world is the hardened heart. Only God can break that. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Extravagant love

Matthew 26:6-13 / Mark 14:3-9 / John 12:1-8

Mary’s ointment was worth approximately a year’s salary. Yet she had no intention of slowly using it for herself. She breaks the container and pours the entire contents on our Lord, starting with His head, and ending up at His feet. By sacrificing the most precious thing she owns, she is pouring out her love on the Savior. This beautiful act blesses everyone with the sweet smell of the perfume filling the house.

But the sweet smell was a stink in the nostrils of the ignorant. In rebuking Mary they are also rebuking Jesus. If this is truly a “waste,” then Jesus must not be worth the value of the perfume. If anointing Jesus is unnecessary, He should make her stop. However, extravagance to and from a king was expected and praised (2 Chronicles 9:1-22 / Esther 2:12). The gift which Mary lavishes upon our Lord is extravagant for her worth, but not for His.

We see that it was Judas who incited the disciples. They didn’t really understand Jesus yet and so they didn’t understand Judas yet either. Judas appeals to the pious notions of his peers in a way that masked his own greed. For Mary to pour the perfume out meant that part of what might be his was “wasted” on Jesus. This puts the whole picture of who Judas was into place. He wanted to get what he could for his own little kingdom.

How awful it must have been for Mary to hear the scorn poured out on her after pouring her love out on Jesus. Of course, her Savior was her defender here as well. Her heart was right, and Jesus even gives her credit for something she might not have fully understood at the time. Consider this incident and the weight Christ places on it, later reinforcing it by example (John 13:1-15). Mary has a greater “sense” of what is about to happen than do the Lord’s disciples.

Unbelievers and apostates sometimes claim to be on a higher moral ground than the Bible. Jesus does not minimize caring for the poor. He simply points out that this was the opportunity Mary had to show her love as she desired. One of the implications of, “the poor you always have with you” is that we can’t pay everyone’s debt, only the extravagant love of Christ can do that. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©