The Jesus Controversy: Jesus The King
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning, brothers and sisters. Victor Chong is my name. It’s Palm Sunday today, the Sunday before Easter, and the message today is entitled The Jesus Controversy: Jesus the King. We will be looking at John 12 this morning.
Prayer
Prayer
Before we start, let us begin with a word of prayer.
Background
Background
It’s Palm Sunday today. The events of John 12 started 6 days before Jesus’ final Passover on earth on John 12:1, what we today commemorate as Palm Sunday. So John 12 in a way, records what happened exactly this day almost 2000 years ago - on the very first Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Jesus’ crucifixion. I will be using the ESV today.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
Now just a bit of background of Passover in the ancient Israel. The Jewish Laws stipulate that 3 times a year, the people of God must appear before the Temple; in Deuteronomy 16:16
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.
The Jewish Passover is also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, to commemorate the Jews’ Exodus from slavery in Egypt. Many Jews would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, at least once a life time, if not more often. And they stay for at least 7 days in Jerusalem, observing the Law in Leviticus 23:5-8
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
Josephus, the first century Jewish historian reported that up to 2 million made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the yearly Passover. Historians today estimate the number to be about 150-300 000 Jews. This contrasts the city usual population of 20-30 000 people. The city would swell to 10 times its normal population, and became crowded, busy, and in festive mood. And for days before the actual Passover, there would be pilgrims from all over the Middle East travelling to Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples would be among them.
John chapter 12 is one of the major pivotal junctures of the Gospel of John. This chapter marks the end of the ministry of Jesus, and transitions over to the the final days of Jesus’ life on earth and his crucifixion and resurrection. And in a way, this is the final statement of the results of Jesus’ 3 years of ministry on earth before his death and crucifixion; or put it another way, this is the response of the people to Jesus’ 3 years of ministry of teaching, healing, signs and wonders. And as the Apostle John described how the people responded to Jesus, you could sense that he is also asking us in turn; how would we have responded?
Here in the gospel of John chapter 12, John recorded the responses of 4 groups of people to Jesus’ 3 years of earthly ministry - Mariam, Jesus’ own disciples, the Pharisees, which includes the members of the Sanhedrin, and the general population, whom John calls the “crowd” - some of whom were Jews, and others were Gentiles. Now, it is telling that out of the 50 verses in the entire chapter, the Pharisees were only mentioned in 3 verses - verses 10-11 and 19; the disciples were mentioned in 5 verses, 5-6, 16, 22-23. Mary and her siblings, 8 verses, 1 to 8; and the rest, 34 verses, or 2/3 of the chapter, were about the “crowd”. Obviously, John’s primary focus is the crowd, and his intend is to contrast the crowd’s response to Jesus’ ministry to that of Mary’s.
1. The Anointing of Jesus - The Faith of Mary (vv 1-8)
1. The Anointing of Jesus - The Faith of Mary (vv 1-8)
The 12th chapter of the Gospel of John follows from the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John; and the final event in John 11 is the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11:41-44
So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 12 starts with Jesus’ arrival at Bethany, Lazarus’ home town, which is a small town on the eastern slope of Mount of Olive, while Jerusalem is 3 km away on the other side of Mount Olive. Here, Jesus met up with Martha, Mary and Lazarus; and they invited him and his disciples to dinner.
During dinner, Mary took a jar of expensive perfume made from pure nard, worth about 300 denarii, or more or less equivalent to a year of wages for a labourer, and anointed Jesus’ feet in John 12:3 .
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
When Judas Iscariot discouraged her, Jesus has this to say in John 12:7-8
Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Now, it is not clear how much Mary knew about Jesus’ impending death; even though Jesus spoke about this to his disciples (Matthew 17:22-23, Mark 9:30-32 and Luke 9:21-22), there is no record that he told Lazarus, Martha or Mary.
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.
Nonetheless, regardless of how much Mary knows, this act of devotion tells us at least 2 things about Mary - her love for Jesus and humility before him; firstly, she must loves Jesus very much to pour such an expensive jar of perfume on him; secondly, she was humble before Jesus; it would be the common practice to pour the perfume on Jesus’ head or body, but here, she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wipe it dry with her hair, probably believing herself not worthy to touch Jesus’ head or body.
2. The Crowd, the Disciples and the Pharisees (vv 12-19)
2. The Crowd, the Disciples and the Pharisees (vv 12-19)
John then records the crowd’s responses. Firstly, they came to Bethany to see Jesus and Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, in John 12:9
When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
And the next day, after the dinner at Lazarus’ house, when Jesus travelled to Jerusalem, they welcomed him in John 12:12-13
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
What the crowd crying out in verse 13 is in fact a quote from Psalm 118: 25-26; the word “Hosanna” is Hebrew for “save us”:
Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
Psalm 113-118 are called the Psalms of Praise, the word “praise” comes from the first word in Psalm 113:1
Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord!
The Jews in the first century would have sung this 6 psalms when they travelled to Jerusalem 3 times a year; and the final Psalm of Praise, Psalm 118, is understood by the Jews to be a messianic psalm.
Jesus reinforces this by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey in John 12:15, as prophesied by Zechariah 9:9
“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
So you could understand why the crowd shouted as they did in John 12:12-13
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
Having seen the miracle that Jesus performed, or at least heard of the miracle and seeing the main character of the miracle - Lazarus, the crowd welcomed Jesus as the king and Messiah. We shall return to this later.
The disciples did not understand what all this meant, as John recorded in John 12:16
His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
The pharisees on the other hand, were alarmed, John 12:19
So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
They were alarm because they worried that the crowd may forcefully made Jesus king, as they did before, in John 6:15
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
And the feverish crowd may end up raising a rebellion against the Romans, and therefore, triggering a forceful Roman retaliation and suppression, as they discussed at the end of the previous chapter, in John 11:48
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
And so they made plan to murder Jesus, in sharp contrast to Mary, a woman and unschooled in the studies of religions, John 11:53
So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
3. The Crowd (vv 20-50)
3. The Crowd (vv 20-50)
The crowd, who is John’s focus, on the other hand, was only interested in the spectacle; in the miracles, John 12:9, 18, 20-21
When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.
Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
And when the crowd welcomed Jesus as king and Messiah earlier, Jesus challenged them to follow him, to serve him, to be his disciples in John 12:26
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
He did warn them that his discipleship is costly, but at the same time, he also promises them eternal life as his disciples in John 12:24-25
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
And Jesus assured the crowd by calling on God to confirm this promise by speaking to Jesus before the whole crowd when Jesus prayed, in John 12:28-30
Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.
Some among the crowd did not understand, John 12:34
So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
Those who understood did not believe, John 12:37
Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,
And those who believe did not love God or Jesus enough to follow him, John 12:42-43
Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
And as we see, only a few days later, the crowd would have shouted for Pilate to crucify Jesus, John 19:14-15
Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
Jesus responded to their unbelief by giving his last public speech, which also summarises his message and his ministry - the key words of the entire Gospel of John are repeated here, “light”, “darkness”, “word”, “save”, “life”, and Jesus being with God, John 12:44-50
And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
Jesus has summarised his message and ministry in these 7 verses; which is an invitation to eternal life and a warning of judgment, and which is the essence of John’s gospel message.
We can summarise Jesus’ message in 3 points:
Jesus’ divinity - Jesus repeated 3 times here, drawing equality with God - believing in Jesus is the same as believing in God; seeing Jesus is seeing God; and what Jesus says is what God says.
Jesus comes to save us, to be our light, our guidance, leading us to God; not to judge us.
Jesus is the light and life; through whom God reconciles the world to himself.
Summary
Summary
Now, some of you may have been sleeping, getting distracted or looking at your mobile phone thus far; you probably haven’t missed very much. Can I ask for a few minutes of your attention? I will just wrap up today’s message with a few points.
We live in a messed up world today; there are wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar; there are global tariffs and trade wars; risks of looming worldwide economic recession, inflation and deterioration of living standard; earthquakes, floods, worldwide pandemics and ever-rising health care costs. Worsening pollution, global warming, declining living condition worldwide. You don’t need me to remind you, just read the news headlines today. And you might wonder, how all this about Jesus and eternal life is even relevant today?
The crowd who welcomed Jesus were in far worse position that most of us today. Ninety percent of them lived below the poverty line, compared to, let’s say, 82% in the country with the highest poverty rate in the world today. There was no medical care or facility, and no welfare system. The poor, which is 90% of the population, lived from hand-to-mouth daily, and if they fell sick, which they often did, there was no help at all. On top of that, there were multiple taxes they had to pay the Romans - land tax, head tax, sales tax, tolls and duties on transported goods, in addition to the temple tax. There were frequent warfares and large scale social unrests. It is not difficult to imagine why the crowd wanted a political leader, especially one with miraculous power, to save them.
And it is easy to point a finger at them, at their spiritual blindness of wanting a spiritual leader and therefore, rejecting and crucifying Jesus when he did not do as they wished and hoped for.
But take a look at ourselves, we are no different, really. Many Christians in modern times still believe that a militant, combative, shrew political leader, a political saviour, a political messiah, is what we need, and so we would vote for a leader for nationalistic reason. This is what happened in Germany in the 1930s, when the single most reliable indicator of support for Nazism was, you guessed it, being a Protestant in Germany (Wikipedia, Religion in Nazi Germany, accessed 6th April 2025); and the reason was the same today as 2000 years ago - just like the Jews in Jesus’ day, we believe we are fighting a cultural war and so we need a powerful, combative political messiah for that. Look at these words:
“It was believed that "the true German is a Protestant", and as such, "the narrative of national identity in Germany was written in a distinctly Protestant language". Protestant theology focused on German nationalism and showed Germany as a nation favoured by God itself.”
References:
(Steigmann-Gall, Richard (October 2000). "Apostasy or Religiosity? The Cultural Meanings of the Protestant Vote for Hitler". Social History. 25 (3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd: 267–284.
Andrzej Chwalba - Historia Polski 1795–1918 pp. 175–184, 461–463)
But what alternative do we have? Yes, the ideals that the Bible preaches sound great - empathy, sympathy, grace, mercy, forgiveness, going the second mile, turning the other cheek. Does this even work today - in our dog-eat-dog, back stabbing, war mongering world today? And what Jesus preaches, and what John wrote in his Gospel, how would any of these work today?
It is not that Jesus did not know the poverty, the oppression, the depressing back breaking and heart breaking lives of 90% of the people in the Promised Land - and now even the name “the Promised Land” sounds ironic, doesn’t it? He lived as one of them all his life - below poverty line, every day of his 30-year life on earth. Yet, he comes proclaiming this out-of-the-world, by-and-by-pie-in-the-sky gospel? Is he really that out of touch with the grinding painful poverty of his day?
Does the gospel even work? And is what Jesus says in Mark 10:29-30 even true? And if not, what alternative do we have?
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
And who leaves his or her “houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands”, if not the missionaries?
I want to introduce a guy call Robert Woodberry to you, a political scientist, and a son of missionary. His landmark study, published in one of the most prestigious political science journal shows the following:
People from countries with one or more Protestant missionary per-10 000 people 90 years ago currently have 1.5 years more education and live 1.3 years longer.
For each year that the Protestant missionary stayed, the countries have USD 25.72 (AUD42) higher GDP today
10% of GDP variation in non-Western countries is due to Protestant missions
51% of the variation for the existence of liberal democracy in non-western countries is due to Protestant mission
Real life example: Botswana “To prevent white settlers from confiscating Tswana land, missionaries brought chiefs to England to bolster petition campaigns and meet Queen Victoria, forcing the government to create a protectorate. Missionaries repeatedly intervened to prevent the British from removing local chiefs and giving power to whites. Before independence missionaries provided virtually all the education and medical work. After independence the prime minister appointed missionaries as speaker of parliament and leaders in bureaucracy. Another was elected mayor of the capital city. Although many deserve credit, Botswana became the most stable democracy in Africa, with the fastest economic growth rate in the world.” Botswana sustained one of the longest economic boom in the world, on par with the strongest Asian economies since 1960s; the government has maintained consistent budget surpluses and a large foreign exchange reserve.
Reference: https://religiousfreedominstitute.org/2016-7-14-how-missionaries-have-quietly-transformed-the-world/. Accessed 6th April 2025.
We don’t the time to go through examples in various countries, such as Togoland and Nigeria. But this is scientific proof that the Gospel works.
There you have it, scientific proof that the Gospel works. If merely having Christian missionaries made such a difference to a community; if merely having fervent Christians as bureaucrats makes such a difference to a country’s governance; imaging what difference it would make if the majority of the people in the community are fervent Christians?
And when Jesus says in Mark 10:29-30
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
He means what he says; if only we could keep to our side of the bargain - to leave our houses and families and lands for his sake and for the sake of the Gospel; we will receive not only eternal life to come, but an abundant life even today, John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Lesson
Lesson
In conclusion; yes, we do live in a broken, messed up world today. But we truly need, is not another political messiah; the first time we did this, we ended up crucifying the Son of God, our Saviour on the Cross. The Jews did have their political messiah after the crucifixion of Jesus - in a man called Simon Bar Kokhba about 100 years later. This led to the Bar Kokhba revolt; the Romans brought in 6 legions and totally destroyed, devastated and depopulated the entire Jewish nation. The next time we did this, we ended up triggering the Second World War, and 70 million people died in 6 years, with unspeakable atrocities in concentration camps and ended only with the only times the atomic weapon was used on civilians. Every time it ended disastrously. Yet, history has a habit of repeating itself. What would happen if we do it yet again?
What we truly need, instead, is the Gospel, not a political messiah. And it works; the Gospel works in transforming our society, our country, as Robert Woodberry’s work has shown us; with scientific proof to back up the claim that the Gospel works.
Closing prayer
Closing prayer
Let us close with a word of prayer.
