As I take this blog towards the 1000 mark, I want to thank readers who been here from the start and those who’ve joined since and those who visit occasionally. The sense of community is important in this as in any venture. Although the only order in the near 1000 blogs is that of the Lectionaries of the Church, I hope it may be a help to anyone who loves the bible or wants to explore a Christianity which is neither fundamentalist nor I hope, trendy.
Today’s blog reflects on the story of Jesus’ enrty to Jerusalem as reported in John’s gospel.
Headline for the day: Musharraf thinks he’s a Messiah for Pakistan:
Pervez Musharraf back in Pakistan
John 12:9-19
The Plot to Kill Lazarus
9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.10So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well,11since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.<!– 12 –>
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
12 The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.13So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!’
14Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:
15 ‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’
16His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.17So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify.*18It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him.19The Pharisees then said to one another, ‘You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!’
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John treats this incident differently from the other evangelists in that he puts the “cleansing of the temple” at the start of his gospel, and links the entry to Jerusalem primarily with the raising of Lazarus from the dead. For John, Lazarus was evidence of the real purpose of Jesus ministry: to give life to the dead through his own (victorious) death on the cross. John doesn’t doubt that Lazarus was really dead and that Jesus really raised him. The modern reader will note that this story is not present in any other gospels, and that it seems to make Jesus into a miracle man who could use the death of one friend to exercise a power he chose not to use for anyone else.
Be that as it may, John thinks of Lazarus simply as a symbol of Jesus’ life-giving power which will be available to all people through his cross and resurrection.
Here in this passage Jesus enters the city, as the one who has put himself in mortal danger by giving life to Lazarus. He is the true Messiah promised by Zechariah, a king of peace , humility and gentleness. John expresses a profound irony here: the One who gives life to the dead has
The face of the destroyer
come to his own, “and his own do not receive him” but plan his death. John’s story reaches into the nature of evil. Behind the garish rewards that evil strews in the path of its devotees, this is its hollow heart: hatred of all that lives and moves and has being, hatred of life itself. Behind the contemporary masks that evil wears, the gospel of Jesus can help us see the face of the destroyer and hear his uncreating word. Especially when the evil is in us.
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