God in the midst

John 12

In John 12 I want to draw your attention to a few points rather than connect the narrative as before.

As we begin chapter 12 we find that Jesus has just arrived back in Bethany, the place  where he had raised Lazarus, and back with his friends, Martha, Mary and Lazarus. He is attending a meal that has been prepared in his honour. John, the writer, takes great care in telling us exactly what each of his hosts are doing. Martha is busy making sure that everyone of the guests are fed and watered, ensuring that everything is happening, she is so preoccupied with service, appearance and protocol that she misses out on the presence of Jesus. Lazarus was reclining at the table that Martha was busy waiting at, I want you to note that this was quite normal and not out of place at this time in history, but more importantly he was revealing how steeped in tradition he was and therefore blind to the real person of Jesus, that of “God in their midst”. Mary, on the other hand, was preoccupied with Jesus, to the extent that she took an expensive oil and anointed the feet of Jesus. Mary had recognised that this Jesus was both Saviour and Lord and He was worth making this sacrifice for. It appears she was oblivious to the fact that this ointment could have been sold and the money donated to feeding the poor, a point that Judas Iscariot made and in so doing revealed his heart, he was more inclined to appearance and self pretence rather than worship. We read that he stole from the money purse for his own ends, he was living a lie, a lie that ultimately cost his sanity, peace and his life.
The point is that before any of us can serve the poor, who will always be there, we first have to fall at the feet of Jesus and recognise Him in our midst.

Martha was pre occupied with serving, Lazarus was content to recline and eat what was served but Mary went straight to the heart of the matter and anointed the feet of Jesus and demonstrated her love, respect and reverence for a man who she realised was the Messiah, the “God in the midst” who’s life was sent to demonstrate another way.

As we move through this chapter we find many things to pass comment on and in John 12:9-11 we read that many Jews knew he was in the house with Lazarus and so dropped by in order to observe Lazarus, a man raised from the dead, a phenomenon worth seeing. We read that many people believed in Jesus on account of Lazarus and this angered the chief priests, those in authority in the synagogue. How sad it is when one great act of mercy on a fellow human becomes the object of division and destruction and in this story results in a plot to even kill Lazarus. Surly the answer is to explore and accept that “God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform” and to acknowledge that Jesus is the messiah and has come to save us all and requires us to bear witness to who he is.

As we move into John 12:12-19 we encounter a very familiar story, the account of Jesus making a triumphal entry on a donkey’s colt, a colt that had never been ridden before.

Bethany is two miles outside Jerusalem, word had spread that Jesus was coming, the man who could raise dead men from their tombs. We see from this section that those people who had witnessed the miracle of Lazarus were the ones who bore witness (v17); that is what each and everyone of us has to do “bear witness” to the goodness and greatness of “God in the midst”. When we do that many will follow Jesus just like it is reported in v19, causing the Pharisees to question what they were actually doing who came to the conclusion that they were doing nothing and acknowledged that the “world had gone after Him”. The Pharisees, those who were supposed to be able to bring people to God, had recognised their failing in being able to “show the way” mainly because they had not witnessed or encountered “God in the midst” and had hardened their hearts to what God was doing in their vicinity. We all have to acknowledge what God is doing in our vicinity, it may not be to our liking, but we need to change our heart and attitude and discern with spiritual wisdom “God in the midst” and then give support and become a witness to the great outpouring of God’s  Grace and Mercy.

As we move on into John 12:20-26 we are presented with some Greeks who want to see Jesus. They are in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They would have been Jews or of Jewish decent who had been scattered at some point in Israel’s history and were now Greek. They would not have been in Jerusalem celebrating Passover unless they knew what Passover was and it’s significance to them as Jews.
They approached Philip with the question “sir we want to meet Jesus?” These Greeks had heard about Jesus, His fame had spread as far as Greece. I want you to notice what Philip does, he goes to find Andrew, another disciple, and together they go and ask Jesus if these Greeks can have an audience with him. Jesus answer appears somewhat strange, rather than say “yes no problem”  he replied with “now the time has come for the son of man to come into his glory”. In other words its not me the man you need to seek it is God my Father who you really should be seeking. This is true for us all, in the absence of the physical man Jesus we all need to seek the spiritual man God the Father. Jesus recognised and knew that everything is spiritual and true life comes from the source, God the Father, “God in the midst”.