A Palm Sunday Meditation

John 12.1-26

*** Christians or 'followers of Christ'? The middle eastern conundrum, for muslim-background believers who acknowledge and embrace Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

Realising that being a Christian involves more than believing about Jesus; but also embraces involvement in the values and the ministry practices of Jesus Christ.

Credibility is a key issue, in mission within our Western culture. Pluralistic. Materialist. What is there that is different about us, that we have the right to claim we have 'Good News' to share?

I'd like to reflect on these issue in looking at this passage, at the outset of the final week of our Lord's life among us on this earth, before His crucifixion and resurrection.


1-11

Features of this passage:

1. Jesus' focus on the motive of Mary, rather than the value of the perfume.
1. Jesus' acceptance that he was about to face death.
2. The chief priests' and Pharisees preoccupation with killing Jesus (Jn 11.53)

- that what Jesus stood for, together with his way of resolving the problem of establishing the Kingdom of God, was in such utterly sharp contrast with the attitude and the plan of the Pharisees and the chief priests.

Jesus was focussed, in caring and showing compassion, upon the outworking of what Paul would later describe in these words:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:8-11 NIV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NIV)

12-19

15 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9 NIV)

A donkey's colt. Peace (not a war horse). Humility (not a sign of ostentation).

Jesus is not someone who blows his own trumpet.
He is not someone who is highly self affirming.
His manner is not confrontational or combative.



20-26

The call is to walk the same path with Jesus, towards our destiny with him; and the process of development and maturing that takes place through him.

awareness and compassion for people
bringing reconciliation
peace
humility

It is not uncommon for the 'Jesus rule' of Matthew 18.15-17 to be written into church constitutions:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17 NIV)

But in times of difficulty or disagreement among Christians, it is honoured more in the exception than in the practice.

Evangelical Christians need remember that the sharing of the Gospel in word is vital; but it must be punctuated by the practice of the Gospel in our lives. Huge harm is done by a failure to apply the teaching of our Lord with seriousness and intent:

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:23, 24 NIV)

This path is not easy. As Paul states:

I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10, 11 NIVUK)

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me. (John 12:26 NIVUK)

The Christian life begins with our self-emptying for service, our self-humbling for obedience:

rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:7, 8 NIVUK)

Self-emptying; humility; the pursuit of reconciliation: these are not options. Rather, these practices stand at the centre of Christian identity and witness.

Be attentive and obey.