John 12:12-19 (Save Us)

Introduction
John 11-12

Now today we are studying what is traditionally known as the triumphal entry. But its not triumphant at all. It’s actually tragic. It’s depressing. It’s grossly carnal. That may surprise you. Maybe you’ve only thought of this event as a high point, a ministry mountaintop for Jesus. Why are we using words like tragedy, depressing and carnal to describe an event in which the nation of Israel pours out of the city to welcome Jesus as King. Well, let’s take a closer look.

Now there’s no way to appreciate this passage unless we go back and build the drama leading up to this point. And what we need to do in particular is rehearse the ways in which the threat to Jesus’ life had been steadily growing over the past few months. This thread is very easy to trace in the book of John.

Now let’s just rehearse what’s happened so far. In John chapter 8, Jesus makes some very clear statements about who he was. Do you remember, “Before Abraham was, I am” and the Jews correctly hear that statement as blaspheme; Jesus, claiming to be God; so they pick up stones to stone him. Death threat #1

Then in John chapter 10, just a couple months later he preaches the good shepherd sermon during the feast of dedication. The religious leaders approach him and say, “Tell us plainly who you are.” I and the Father are one and they pick up stones to stone him. Death threat #2

Now Jesus is in danger, no doubt, but I want to make an observation about the type of danger. What was going in both of these passages was a reaction. In both these passages, a small group of religious leaders would have been on the scene. Their sentiments certainly would have been reflective of a much larger group but the larger group was not present. Had they succeeded in stoning Jesus, they almost certainly would themselves have been thrown in prison. There would have been consequences. The Jews were not given liberty to carry out capital punishment. That was a job reserved for Rome. John 8 and 10 was Pharisaical vigilante justice.

Now what happens after that second stoning attempt. Do you remember? Jesus flees to Perea to escape the area ruled by Pontius Pilate, to that area beyond the Jordan that was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas.

And I want to take you back there just for a moment to remind you of that event. The Pharisee approach Jesus while in that area and they are trying to lure him back into the domain of Pilate. Jesus isn’t buying it. And then he makes this startling prediction. Do you remember this?

Luke 13

That’s Psalm 118. This is a Messianic Psalm given to Israel to prepare Israel to welcome her Messiah. So essentially what Jesus tells these guys is you won’t see me again until the city welcomes me as Messiah.

Now the point is, if you had been standing there that day, you would have said, “There’s no way that is going to happen!” There is just too much hostility up there. The religious leaders rule that hill with an iron fist. They would never let that happen. Let me give you an analogy. After 9/11, Osama Bin Laden was the most wanted man on earth. George Bush, our president at the time, was trying to destroy him. Can you imagine Osama Bin Laden sending George Bush a message, “You won’t see me until I walk into the whitehouse as president.”

That’s overstated a bit, but you get the point. How in the world did this happen?

Now, it actually gets even worse. What happens next? While in Perea, Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick. And do you remember what the disciples say when Jesus says, “We are going to Jerusalem to wake him?”

Do you hear the fear? After their complaints are ignored, they agree to go and we read of Thomas’ remark.

Let us go with him that we may die to. In other words, its really dangerous. It’s deadly. But it gets worse still.

Now he never actually visits Jerusalem. Lazarus lived in Bethany which is just on the outskirts. And Jesus never actually sees the religious leader while he is there. He manages to avoid them. But word gets to the religious leaders that he has raised Lazarus and do you remember their response when heard of this indisputable proof had been performed?

There’s death threat #3. Now, you are starting to pick up on a theme. But its important to understand that this death threat #3 at the end of John 11 is of a different species than we have seen thus far.

This is almost certainly a reference to the Sanhedrin, that Jewish supreme court composed of 70 men.

You had 35 on each side and then the high priest in the middle. *So when we read of Caiaphas saying, “You know nothing at all.* It’s better that one man should die for the people than everyone die.” That’s Caiphas sitting in this seat addressing the Sanhedrin.

Now here’s the point: the key distinction is this official determination to try Jesus according to the legal processes available to them, legal processes that were of course highly greased. We need to try him in our courts. We need to drag him into Rome’s courts. And we need to convince Rome to nail him to the cross. That’s a much different animal than the reactionary rage we see in chapters 8 and 10.

The point is to illustrate the increasing seriousness of the situation. There is an escalation in the resolve to destroy. From Jesus’ perspective, it’s one thing to be in danger of death knowing that the law protects you. It’s another thing to be in danger of death knowing the law itself is after you.

Jesus is not merely an unliked person. He’s now a criminal target. They’ve stapled up wanted posters. To put it in modern terms, everyone’s phones go off in unison and there’s an Amber alert with a description of Jesus.

So Jesus gets word of this and he flees this time to a city to the North called Ephraim.

Politically, everything is charged. Everyone knows he’s in deep trouble. And you feel that tension, so-thick-you-could-cut-it-with-a-knife tension in the next three verses.

Do you see the suspense? Everybody is so intrigued by Jesus. Word is circulating like crazy that this miracle worker raised Lazarus from the dead and Lazarus is walking around (go talk to him yourself). And there’s frenzy and excitement and curiosity. But the politics are clearly felt by everyone. For some reason the religious leaders hate this guy and want him dead. And if your an average Joe, you say, "This is going to be interesting. Passover is the most important pilgrimage feast and we’ve never seen Jesus miss one? But man, he is not liked by these guys. Do you think he’ll risk his neck and come up to Jerusalem at all? If he does, there’s going to be fireworks.

So that was all setting the stage. Do you see the problem. How is Jesus going to ride into Jerusalem to the shouts of the people, to the wide-eyed amazement of the crowds when he’s the most wanted man in Jerusalem?

You ready for this? We are going to turn to Luke 17:11 and I’m going to show you something. Now this verse you might just blaze right over in your Bible reading. It seems nearly inconsequential on the surface. This verse describes Jesus going up to Jerusalem for passover to see Mary, Martha and Lazarus for the meal we talked about last week.

Now we would think nothing of that whatsoever except for the fact that we were told from John’s gospel that prior to making that journey Jesus was in Ephriam. Let’s get our bearings.

Now if Jesus was in Ephraim and his destination was Jerusalem Why in the world would Jesus choose a route that goes north through Samaria and Galilee? That the opposite direction. Well, there’s a reason and it’s really interesting.

Most of the population of Israel in Jesus’ day was in Galilee, by far. The reason is obvious. Galilee was pleasant.

Galilee is well-watered. It’s flat. Easy to plant crops. Compare that to Judea.

It’s hilly. It’s rocky. It’s harder to find water. The only reason to live in Judea is because that’s where the temple was.

So three times a year for the pilgrimge feasts you’d have these migrations from Galilee to Jerusalem. And they would meet up in this valley here. Now there were two routes. By far the easiest and most direct route would have been on what’s called the ridge route. Back to our map here

But the problem is it goes through Samaritan territory. And because Jews either didn’t want to defile themselves by going through Samaritan soil or because they wanted to avoid any danger or conflict, they would opt to go this other way via the rift route that follows this syro-african rift. It’s way, way harder because you have descend deep into this rift and then haul yourself out of it. And let me show you with a topigraphical map what I mean by much more difficult.

This is what Jesus was doing. He was going up and joining these bands of traveling pilgrims. And the record is really detailed at that point. Jesus is not sneaking into Jerusalem. He’s charging. He’s leading a band of pilgrims boiling over with excitement. All along the way he’s healing people. He’s teaching. This is where he cleanses the ten lepers and only one of them comes back. When he gets to the city of Jericho we are told that he heals the blind Bartameus. He’s teaching on divorce.

So the journey would have taken around a week. And you can imagine that with all this excitement, the commotion is building. The traveling band of pilgrims is growing as word spreads.

Now this basically brings us up to last week.

Jesus is heading up to Jerusalem but where does he stop first? This is what we preached on last week. First he’s going to stop in at Lazarus’ house in Bethany. And when did he get there? Six days before the passover.

Now if you put that time, together with that place, the drama of the narrative jumps to life. Why? Because Bethany was just outside the Sabbath zone. Do you remember, one of the stipulations of the Sabbath is that you couldn’t walk more than a Sabbath days journey. A Sabbath’s day’s journey was something like 1.2 miles. And it wasn’t like you only had 3000 steps that day and then you had to sit down. It was a zone. So the rabbis would go out all the major gates and put these markers on the road to let you know you had reached the Sabbath zone for that city.

Here’s an example of one of those markers found in a city in Galilee. It’s three Hebrew letters that spells Shabbat or Sabbath. So Bethany was just outside that Sabbath zone. So if you are traveling with Jesus and you are hoofing it into Jerusalem Friday night because as soon as it’s sundown Sabbath begins and you see Jesus peel off into to Bethany and he’s waving at you. And on the way into the city you see the Sabbath marker.

Put all that together in your mind.

What is everyone in the city asking? Jesus is a wanted man. Do you think he will come to Jerusalem at all? You are traveling into the city and you have an answer that comes in two parts. Jesus is coming. And He’ll be here Sunday morning.

Now this isn’t conjecture. We know this frenzy was happening based on the record. Remember how last week ended. After Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with oil.

When the large crowd learned that Jesus was there. Learned that Jesus was there? How did they learn? That traveling band of pilgrims that came in with Jesus spread through the city like spilled ink on a map. And the news leaks into every home into every ear. And whether your destination was Bethany or Jerusalem or Bethlehem which is just a short distance away, the news is spreading.

And so everyone is waiting for Sunday morning when they know he will come into the city. And look at what the text says!

Now first off, when the Bible says large crowd, it’s not kidding around. Josephus was a historian and he records the number of lambs slain during the passover of 66AD as being 256,500 lambs. And the minimum number of people you could have per lamb was 10 so that would be 2.5 million people. Maybe those numbers are exaggerated. Maybe they are accurate. Either way we are talking just throngs and throngs of people shoulder to shoulder spilling out into the city.

And these are all Jews. Like all 2.5 million of them. And what are all 2.5 million Jews shouting. Hossana, which is Hebrew for, “Save Us!”

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. KING. Are you hearing this correctly. These are words of sedition.

Guys, there is so much drama here. What did Passover celebrate? It celebrated God raising up a deliverer Moses who, through miraculous signs and wonders, overthrew their Gentile overlord in Egypt. Well, there’s a Gentile overlord they’d like to overthrow, Rome. And who is Jesus? Well, he’s a miraculous deliver. His name is Jesus which in Hebrew is Joshua which means Savior. He’s here to save us.

If that’s not enough, you have the Daniel 9 prophesy which is ticking.
Daniel 9 prophesy. That clock had been ticking.

So all this commotion. People are laying down Palm branches. Let’s talk about these palm branches for a moment. Remember back in John chapter 10 we learned about the origins of the feast of dedication. If you attended Benj Foreman’s NT backgrounds class you learned all about this along with Judas Maccabeus.

The quick version, is that about a 150 years before Jesus’ day, the Syrian ruler, Antiochus, had stormed into Jerusalem and killed thousands of Jews and desecrated the temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar, forcing the priests to eat its flesh. Talk about seething with anger. Talk about just pure hatred for your Gentile overlords.

The Jews needed a Savior. They needed a deliver. And Judas Maccabee was their man. His nickname was the hammer. He led them in a successful revolt and they were able to reclaim the temple. And get this, the crowds celebrated his victory by waving palm branches. They stamped the image of palm branches into coins to commemorate the victory.

And what is everyone shouting. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. What did Jesus tell the Pharisees 3 months previous while he was in Perea. You will not see me again until the city of Jerusalem welcomes me with the chant, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

What they are doing? They are quoting Psalm 118.

So put it all together:

It’s passover which commemorates Moses and deliverance from Egypt.
They are quoting Psalm 118 which is a Messianic Psalm that anticipates the coming Messiah.
They are laying down palm branches which remembers Judas Maccabees.
They are calling him KING (there’s only one king).
They are shouting out SAVE US.

You have revolutionary energy on your hands here. Now stop RIGHT THERE.

Remember we said that John chapter 12 is written to show us this massive divide between who people perceive him to be and who he really is.

Remember last week. To Mary Jesus was worth Everything all the way to Judas who believed Jesus was worth nothing. How much more opposite can you get.

And here we have that same phenomena played out in dramatic 3D color.

We call this TRIUMPHAL entry.

What did Jesus want? He wanted repentance. Wasn’t that the message of John the Baptist? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But that’s not what he got. He got the rock star adulation of a crowd that really wanted to use him.

Think about rock star. He’s got 100,000 fans but they are all there using him. Entertain me. And the second they can’t do that, they kick him to the curb.

That’s what’s going on here. And it breaks the heart of Jesus. It just absolutely crushes him. Because he can see what’s going on. What is their solution to the problem. War. Insurrection. Military action.

Luke 19

Now in rides Jesus. Not on a stallion but on donkey.

Jesus has was the Pharisees want (the admiration of men). And yet it’s the possession of that very thing the Pharisees want that causes Jesus to weep.