Countdown to Calvary

 

Chapter 12     The countdown to Calvary

·      12v1-11      Adoration in the home at Bethany

·      12v12-22    Acclamation in the streets of Jerusalem

·      12v23-36    Agony in the soul of Jesus 

·      12v37-50    Apathy in the hearts of the people

 

12v1-11  Adoration in the home at Bethany

“Six days before the Passover…”  chapter 12 represents a turning point in the gospel, as it moves us from the public ministry of Jesus, to His private instruction to His chosen apostles.  After this He will no longer address the public, except in His own defence.  Out of 89 chapters in the four Gospels, more than 20 are devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life.  In many ways it is a crisis chapter and the very word is used in the key verses 31-32 “Now is the judgment of this world.  Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out.  And I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, will draw all men unto me.”  The word for judgment is the Greek word krisis, and this chapter is a crisis for many, a significant event that will have permanent consequences.  It presents a crisis for Himself, because “the hour is come”.  This is the first time He has declared this-until now it was “the hour is not yet come”, or similar, but now the hour has come, and now is the countdown to the cross.  It is a crisis for the world for the cross will forever divide humanity; it is a crisis for Satan the prince of this world, as this will seal his doom; it is a crisis for the nation of Israel, for their rejection of Him will consign them, at large, to Divine judicial hardening which continues to this day; it is a crisis for the Roman Empire, for their part in this treachery will ultimately bring down an Empire which, hitherto, had seemed impregnable; it will prove a crisis for Judas Iscariot, for, at this time he will finally decide his intention to betray Jesus, leading to eternal ruin.

The chapter begins with a reference to the Passover and this is very significant.  The shadow of His pending death is over this chapter, and all its contents are against that background, as we can see from the following: “After six days the Passover…”-v1; “Against the day of my burying, has she kept this”-v7”; “…the hour is come”-v23; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into  the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”-v24; “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?  But for this cause came I unto this hour”-v 27;  “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me”-v32; “This, he said, signifying what death he should die”-v33.

On Passover day the lamb must be slain for the sins of the nation-the lamb is identified in John 1v29.  Jesus, now has before His mind, one supreme event-His death on Passover day.   It was in this context Jesus attended a supper in the home at Bethany.   Here we have a cameo of church gatherings of the future, when, in a world of hate and doubt and rejection, Jesus will rest with His beloved people. 

“…where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead.”   This scene is on resurrection ground!  All His beloved people have been raised from the dead in a spiritual resurrection.  Resurrection ground is the ground of change, it is based on newness of life, it is a new creation, a new humanity.  We have died with Christ, buried out of sight from the world and living a new and changed life. 

Romans 6v3-5- “Know ye not that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death?  Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For, if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”  Church gatherings consist of those who have died with Christ, who are buried with Him, and raised to newness of life.  2^nd Corinthians 5v17 “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away behold all things have become new.”   The picture is clear, those people who gather with Christ are changed people in power of resurrection life.  Now we are going to see this working out in the lives of three people,   Lazarus, His sister, Martha and his sister, Mary.   Together they represent the sum total of the exercises in a gathered church.  In Lazarus we have a witness; in Martha we have a worker; in Mary we have a worshipper.  All three are functions in the church.  Before He goes to the cross, He gathered with His people in the home at Bethany, which had been a haven for Him and His disciples in His public ministry.  How this brings to us in the present, that in an antagonistic and hateful world, the gatherings of His people are havens of rest for Him.