Matthew 21:1-11 and Mark 11:1-11

Did you ever finally come to a realization of something that was totally obvious? This whole Palm Sunday scenario… My Study Bible pointed out that with Jesus’ actions in both Matthew and Mark Jesus is being Messianic Himself. He knows that His time has come and He knows that His end will come in Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders have been hounding Him for these many months/years, challenging Him with their Messianic tests. So finally this “Palm Sunday” Jesus Himself begins to proclaim His Messiahship by fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy when He sends His disciples on a “bring the donkey” mission: 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. (Zechariah 9:9) Jesus is offering the Jewish leaders His own visible claim to Messiahship, giving them their opportunity to take action against Him. That’s what this Palm Sunday procession is really about. This realization for me, hiding in plain sight…!!

See also: August 27 / Matt. 21:1-11; August 28 / Mark 11:1-11

John 12:1-19

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. (v. 16) During Jesus’ Last Supper discourse He tells His disciples about the Holy Spirit and that the Father will send the Holy Spirit to the disciples: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26) Here is one instance of that promise being fulfilled.

There are about a dozen items in that Last Supper discourse of Jesus explaining the Holy Spirit (John 14-16). Two years ago for Creative Arts Camp Kelly had asked me to speak on the Holy Spirit from those three chapters. I compiled the following list of Holy Spirit attributes and activities that Jesus mentions in those three chapters:

1. He abides with and in the disciples. (14:17)
2. The “world” cannot see Him or know Him. (14:17)
3. He will teach you, He will remind you (14:26)
4. The Helper proceeds from the Father. (15:26)
5. He is the Spirit of truth. (15:26)
6. He will testify about Jesus. (15:26) In and to our hearts…!
7. He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (16:8)
8. More specifically for the disciples (16:13-14)
   1. He will guide the disciples into all the truth.
   2. He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak.
   3. He will disclose to the disciples what is to come.
   4. He will glorify Jesus.
   5. He will take of Mine (My words) and will disclose it to you.

Later on I pondered those promises and sought to see instances in my life where the Holy Spirit had been active. It’s an excellent exercise – I’d encourage you to do the same!

See also: August 26 / John 12:1-11; August 30 / John 12:12-19

Luke 19:1-27

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” (v. 8) I was thinking of Zacchaeus in contrast to the incident of Jesus and the earlier young man, the “rich, young ruler”. Zacchaeus and the young man were both wealthy. Jesus had told the young man to go and sell all that he had and follow Him – and the young man went away dispirited. But Zacchaeus offers to give away half of what he has and the Lord honors him. So giving away half – good for Zacchaeus! Giving away all, not so good for the young man.

I think Jesus saw something in these two personalities. Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus – and not asking for anything more; the young man was seeking eternal life – a reward to be obtained. Jesus asked something of each of them – from Zacchaeus He didn’t ask much, from the young man He asked a lot. Jesus has full liberty to ask whatever He will. There is no expectation that He will ask the same from each of us. From those who have little, He may ask a little or a lot. Likewise, from those who have much He may ask a little or a lot. But whatever we do have, He wants it to be used for His Kingdom, not squirrelled away in a handkerchief.

See also: August 24 / Luke 19:1-10; August 25 / Luke 19:10-27

Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-52, and Luke 18:35-43

And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. (Luke 18:43b) Two years ago we read these three passages on three consecutive days, and on the second day, Mark’s version, I commented on the crowd’s reaction to Bartimaeus begging Jesus to be healed. See the second link below. What I had not seen back then was the third day, Luke’s version, where the crowd had a third reaction beyond rebuke and encouragement – that they gave praise to God when they saw Bartimaeus healed. Their reaction is a bit short of the blind man (men?) immediately following Jesus, but nonetheless is a really positive response.

They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” (Matthew 20:33) In addition to “Your will be done”, maybe this quotation from the two blind men should be an additional part of our prayer response to decisions that need to be made. Yes, we want what God wants, but it’s more helpful for our faith if we can see His preferred outcome from His perspective. And even though we may not see His perspective at decision time, we need to continue to watch His outcome unfolding so that our eyes can be opened to His work. For example, let’s look at our last two U.S. presidential elections. Do we really believe Romans 13:1? Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Christians are divided between Trump and Biden support. Those who support Biden need to look backward from Trump’s victory in 2016 and his four years in office to see God’s will unfolding during that time. Likewise, Trump supporters need to look forward from Biden’s 2020 victory to see where God’s hand is on his administration. Neither side agrees with everything that their preferred “leader” has done or will do, but in the end God sees and allows both good and evil, and it’s His call, not ours, to mourn or to rejoice. Lord, let our eyes be opened.

See also: August 21 / Matt. 20:29-34; August 22 / Mark 10:46-52; August 23 / Luke 18:35-42

Matthew 20:17-28, Mark 10:32-45, and Luke 18:31-34

We have some chronological problems with today’s setting. From yesterday’s reading, John 11:54 puts Jesus in a city called Ephraim; scholars put that city some 15 miles north or northwest from Jerusalem. So what is the mother of James and John doing this far south from Capernaum (some 50-60 miles): Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to Him with her sons… (Matthew 20:20a) But let’s put that verse together with Mark 10:32, And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. The key phrase here is “those who followed”. I presume that Jesus and His disciples had joined a group from Galilee that was going to Jerusalem for the upcoming Passover celebration. James and John found their mother in that group and the story unfolds. Reading between the lines…!

I just returned from taking some table scraps to our chickens. It’s always interesting to watch them fighting over the best of the scraps – choosing the cut-up strawberries over the lettuce pieces. And no matter what I give them every morning they try to be first in line and are fighting over table scraps or feeder pellets or cracked corn. So this morning, having read today’s readings, I saw the chickens with names James and John, fighting over those table scraps. Now we know and they knew that it was not table scraps they were seeking, but the glory that would be Jesus in His Kingdom. But still, they wanted to be first and they wanted the best seats.

And I wondered about our choosing the best seats – but I just don’t see it in our congregation. Avanza ended this past week and even through the pandemic Kelly and Abigail and a dozen or more parishioners and outsiders were serving (and loving!) these Hispanic kids. I see a staff that rarely complains about what they are asked to do. I see people stepping up whenever there is some particular need. You can always find a dozen or more people helping to clean up after a potluck. (I trust you can remember potlucks, pre-pandemic!) But still, in our own lives, are we seeking the best seats? Again, wanting to be recognized for what we do…? But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be servant of all. (vv. 43b-44)

See also: August 18 / Matt. 20:17-28; August 19 / Mark 10:32-45; August 20 / Luke 18:31-34

John 11:38-57

Many of the Jews therefore … believed in Him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. (vv. 45a,46) In my posts two days ago my comments from 2019 had included a discussion of who “the Jews” were. All along I’ve suggested that when John refers to “the Jews” he is speaking of the Jewish leaders, not the overall Jewish population. In the case of Lazarus, these Jews could have been local Jewish leaders in Bethany (Lazarus’ home), but they could also have included Jewish leaders from Jerusalem and even some of those more active in the temple worship.

Either way, some of these Jews returned to Jerusalem to tell the Pharisee leaders of this miracle – and I’m wondering, for some of them, at the extent of their new belief in Jesus. Some of them, especially those from Jerusalem, would probably have remained skeptical – though I can’t imagine how! But others, especially those from Bethany could have been overtaken by this latest miracle and asked the Pharisees genuinely if this Jesus could be the Messiah? So there could have been a healthy discussion about Jesus – until Caiaphas interrupted with his proclamation and death sentence. Then any of those Jewish leaders who may have been prone to believe in Jesus would have been shouted down! But my sense is that those new “believers” would have been strengthened in their faith. That is, if these “lesser” Jewish leaders had been shut down for what they were now believing, my sense is that human nature would lead them to be more firm in their belief, that their resolve would have been strengthened, that they would have gone back to Bethany, met up with Lazarus and his family and become active believers. Or is my natural optimism misguided?

See also: August 16 / John 11:38-44; August 17 / John 11:45-57

John 11:17-37

So now I can’t see the name “Lazarus” without thinking about John S.’s argument that Lazarus may have written the Gospel of John. Further support for that argument has to do with the amount of time that John’s Gospel has Jesus in Judea and the fact that Lazarus was from Bethany, only two miles from Jerusalem. In fact, it’s easier to mention how little time John’s Gospel has Jesus in Galilee. The first half of chapter 2 has Him at the wedding in Cana, then in Jerusalem for a cleansing of the temple. Then chapter 4 has Him in Samaria with the woman at the well, followed by nine verses of Him in Galilee, then back to Jerusalem in chapter 5. Chapter 6 has Him in the region of the Sea of Galilee before He returns for a feast in Jerusalem in chapter 7. An argument could then be made that, except for a few verses and incidents, everything from chapter 7 to the end of the Gospel has Jesus in Judea. So John is on solid ground in arguing for Lazarus as the author of the Gospel of John. Interesting …!!

So today… I’m intrigued by Martha and Mary and their interactions with Jesus. They have been with Jesus before, probably on many occasions; it’s likely that He often stayed with them when He visited Jerusalem. But in today’s reading both of them go to meet Jesus quietly before He even enters the village. They both have witnessed Jesus’ power in the past, so much so that in verses 21 and 32 each of them says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Then when Jesus saw Mary weeping, …He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled…, to the point of weeping Himself (vv. 33, 35). Finally, there is an interesting item from verse 28 where Martha says to Mary, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” My Study Bible mentioned that women were not taught by the Jewish rabbis, but that Jesus’ special relationship with Martha and Mary led them to be able to call Him “the Teacher”. All in all, Jesus has a special relationship with this entire family!

See also: August 14 / John 11:17-27; August 15 / John 11:28-37

John 11:1-16

I’ve always seen Jesus’ raising of Lazarus as the beginning of the end. After this miracle we’ll only have a few more days’ readings before Palm Sunday.

Geography: Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” (v. 7) Yesterday we had Jesus in Jerusalem arguing with the Jewish leaders; then He went away “beyond the Jordan” (John 10:40). Bethany is near Jerusalem, basically a valley/ravine between the two cities. So when Jesus gets the news of Lazarus He is across the Jordan, basically a day’s journey away. In tomorrow’s reading Jesus will make that trip back to Bethany.

So, when He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. (v. 6) So why did Jesus stay two days longer? We know that Lazarus died while Jesus stayed those two days and Jesus explains to the disciples that He already knew of Lazarus’ death: Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe…” (v. 14) So the question – what did Jesus do during those two days? – is less important than that He knew of Lazarus’ death. That is, we see Jesus clearly in touch with His Father. My conclusion is that Jesus spent a good part of those two days in prayer, communing with His Father. His cross was now just weeks away and He needed His Father’s guidance, love, and support to prepare for this ordeal. Jesus sets a good example for us as we seek to move forward in whatever is His will for us.

See also: August 13 / John 11:1-16

John 10:22-42

I’ve never understood this verse: Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” (v. 34) So I went back and read Psalm 82; its verse 6 contains the line that Jesus is quoting. After an opening verse, God is the One speaking in this entire Psalm. He is looking down and castigating the leaders and judges of Israel, beginning with His first words: How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? (v. 2) He continues that charge in the next two verses. Then He describes the “mental/ethical condition” of these judges: They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness… (v. 5) It is at this point that God speaks the words that Jesus quotes: I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” (vv. 6-7) He is speaking to these judges and calling them gods, a not uncommon claim by political and religious rulers in these Old Testament times, even though they are clearly human beings. So Jesus applies these words from the Psalm to Himself, but He claims that His calling (as a Son, v. 36) is at a much higher level than were the judges in old Israel. It’s still a bit confusing to me how Jesus makes the leap from the human gods to Himself being the Son of God, but at least I understand the quote a bit better.

See also: August 12 / John 10:22-42