John 12:1

In these verses we have,

I. The kind visit our Lord Jesus paid to his friends at Bethany, Joh 12:1. He came up out of the country, six days before the passover, and took up at Bethany, a town which, according to the computation of our metropolis, lay so near Jerusalem as to be within the bills of mortality. He lodged here with his friend Lazarus, whom he had lately raised from the dead. His coming to Bethany now may be considered,

1. As a preface to the passover he intended to celebrate, to which reference is made in assigning the date of his coming: Six days before the passover. Devout men set time apart before, to prepare themselves for that solemnity, and thus it became our Lord Jesus to fulfil all righteousness. Thus he has set us an example of solemn self-sequestration, before the solemnities of the gospel passover; let us hear the voice crying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

2. As a voluntary exposing of himself to the fury of his enemies; now that his hour was at hand he came within their reach, and freely offered himself to them, though he had shown them how easily he could evade all their snares. Note, (1.) Our Lord Jesus was voluntary in his sufferings; his life was not forced from him, but resigned: Lo, I come. As the strength of his persecutors could not overpower him, so their subtlety could not surprise him, but he died because he would. (2.) As there is a time when we are allowed to shift for our own preservation, so there is a time when we are called to hazard our lives in the cause of God, as St. Paul, when he went bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem.

3. As an instance of his kindness to his friends at Bethany, whom he loved, and from whom he was shortly to be taken away. This was a farewell visit; he came to take leave of them, and to leave with them words of comfort against the day of trial that was approaching. Note, Though Christ depart for a time from his people, he will give them intimations that he departs in love, and not in anger. Bethany is here described to be the town where Lazarus was, whom he raised from the dead. The miracle wrought here put a new honour upon the place, and made it remarkable. Christ came hither to observe what improvement was made of this miracle; for where Christ works wonders, and shows signal favours, he looks after them, to see whether the intention of them be answered. Where he has sown plentifully, he observes whether it comes up again.

II. The kind entertainment which his friends there gave him: They made him a supper (Joh 12:2), a great supper, a feast. It is queried whether this was the same with that which is recorded, Mat 24:6, etc., in the house of Simon. Most commentators think it was; for the substance of the story and many of the circumstances agree; but that comes in after what was said two days before the passover, whereas this was done six days before; nor is it likely that Martha should serve in any house but her own; and therefore I incline with Dr. Lightfoot to think them different: that in Matthew on the third day of the passover week, but this the seventh day of the week before, being the Jewish sabbath, the night before he rode in triumph into Jerusalem; that in the house of Simon; this of Lazarus. These two being the most public and solemn entertainments given him in Bethany, Mary probably graced them both with this token of her respect; and what she left of her ointment this first time, when she spent but a pound of it (Joh 12:3), she used that second time, when she poured it all out, Mar 14:3. Let us see the account of this entertainment. 1. They made him a supper; for with them, ordinarily, supper was the best meal. This they did in token of their respect and gratitude, for a feast is made for friendship; and that they might have an opportunity of free and pleasant conversation with him, for a feast is made for fellowship. Perhaps it is in allusion to this and the like entertainments given to Christ in the days of his flesh that he promises, to such as open the door of their hearts to him, that he will sup with them, Rev 3:20. 2. Martha served; she herself waited at table, in token of her great respect to the Master. Though a person of some quality, she did not think it below her to serve, when Christ sat at meat; nor should we think it a dishonour or disparagement to us to stoop to any service whereby Christ may be honoured. Christ had formerly reproved Martha for being troubled with much serving. But she did not therefore leave off serving, as some, who, when they are reproved for one extreme, peevishly run into another; no, still she served; not as then at a distance, but within hearing of Christ's gracious words, reckoning those happy who, as the queen of Sheba said concerning Solomon's servants, stood continually before him, to hear his wisdom; better be a waiter at Christ's table than a guest at the table of a prince. 3. Lazarus was one of those that sat at meat. It proved the truth of his resurrection, as it did of Christ's, that there were those who did eat and drink with him, Act 10:41. Lazarus did not retire into a wilderness after his resurrection, as if, when he had made a visit to the other world, he must ever after be a hermit in this; no, he conversed familiarly with people, as others did. He sat at meat, as a monument of the miracle Christ had wrought. Those whom Christ has raised up to a spiritual life are made to sit together with him. See Eph 2:5, Eph 2:6.

III. The particular respect which Mary showed him, above the rest, in anointing his feet with sweet ointment, Joh 12:3. She had a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, which probably she had by her for her own use; but the death and resurrection of her brother had quite weaned her from the use of all such things, and with this she anointed the feet of Jesus, and, as a further token of her reverence for him and negligence of herself, she wiped them with her hair, and this was taken notice of by all that were present, for the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. See Pro 27:16.

1. Doubtless she intended this as a token of her love to Christ, who had given real tokens of his love to her and her family; and thus she studies what she shall render. Now by this her love to Christ appears to have been, (1.) A generous love; so far from sparing necessary charges in his service, she is as ingenious to create an occasion of expense in religion as most are to avoid it. If she had any thing more valuable than another, that must be brought out for the honour of Christ. Note, Those who love Christ truly love him so much better than this world as to be willing to lay out the best they have for him. (2.) A condescending love; she not only bestowed her ointment upon Christ, but with her own hands poured it upon him, which she might have ordered one of her servants to have done; nay, she did not, as usual, anoint his head with it, but his feet. True love, as it does not spare charges, so it does not spare pains, in honouring Christ. Considering what Christ has done and suffered for us, we are very ungrateful if we think any service too hard to do, or too mean to stoop to, whereby he may really be glorified. (3.) A believing love; there was faith working by this love, faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed, who, being both priest and king, was anointed as Aaron and David were. Note, God's Anointed should be our Anointed. Has God poured on him the oil of gladness above his fellows? Let us pour on him the ointment of our best affections above all competitors. By consenting to Christ as our king, we must comply with God's designs, appointing him our head whom he has appointed, Hos 1:11.

2. The filling of the house with the pleasant odour of the ointment may intimate to us, (1.) That those who entertain Christ in their hearts and houses bring a sweet odour into them; Christ's presence brings with it an ointment and perfume which rejoice the heart. (2.) Honours done to Christ are comforts to all his friends and followers; they are to God and good men an offering of a sweet-smelling savour.

IV. Judas's dislike of Mary's compliment, or token of her respect to Christ, Joh 12:4, Joh 12:5, where observe,

1. The person that carped at it was Judas, one of his disciples; not one of their nature, but only one of their number. It is possible for the worst of men to lurk under the disguise of the best profession; and there are many who pretend to stand in relation to Christ who really have no kindness for him. Judas was an apostle, a preacher of the gospel, and yet one that discouraged and checked this instance of pious affection and devotion. Note, It is sad to see the life of religion and holy zeal frowned upon and discountenanced by such as are bound by their office to assist and encourage it. But this was he that should betray Christ. Note, Coldness of love to Christ, and a secret contempt of serious piety, when they appear in professors of religion, are sad presages of a final apostasy. Hypocrites, by less instances of worldliness, discover themselves to be ready for a compliance with greater temptations.

2. The pretence with which he covered his dislike (Joh 12:5): "Why was not this ointment, since it was designed for a pious use, sold for three hundred pence" (8l. 10s. of our money), "and given to the poor?" (1.) Here is a foul iniquity gilded over with a specious and plausible pretence, for Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. (2.) Here is worldly wisdom passing a censure upon pious zeal, as guilty of imprudence and mismanagement. Those who value themselves upon their secular policy, and undervalue others for their serious piety, have more in them of the spirit of Judas than they would be thought to have. (3.) Here is charity to the poor made a colour for opposing a piece of piety to Christ, and secretly made a cloak for covetousness. Many excuse themselves from laying out in charity under pretence of laying up for charity: whereas, if the clouds be full of rain, they will empty themselves. Judas asked, Why was it not given to the poor? To which it is easy to answer, Because it was better bestowed upon the Lord Jesus. Note, We must not conclude that those do no acceptable piece of service who do not do it in our way, and just as we would have them; as if every thing must be adjudged imprudent and unfit which does not take its measures from us and our sentiments. Proud men think all ill-advised who do not advise with them.

3. The detection and discovery of Judas's hypocrisy herein, Joh 12:6. Here is the evangelist's remark upon it, by the direction of him who searches the heart: This he said, not that he cared for the poor, as he pretended, but because he was a thief, and had the bag.

(1.) It did not come from a principle of charity: Not that he cared for the poor. He had no compassion towards them, no concern for them: what were the poor to him any further than he might serve his own ends by being overseer of the poor? Thus some warmly contend for the power of the church, as others for its purity, when perhaps it may be said, Not that they care for the church; it is all one to them whether its true interest sink or swim, but under the pretence of this they are advancing themselves. Simeon and Levi pretended zeal for circumcision, not that they cared for the seal of the covenant, any more than Jehu for the Lord of hosts, when he said, Come see my zeal.

(2.) It did come from a principle of covetousness. The truth of the matter was, this ointment being designed for his Master, he would rather have had it in money, to be put in the common stock with which he was entrusted, and then he knew what to do with it. Observe,

[1.] Judas was treasurer of Christ's household, whence some think he was called Iscariot, the bag-bearer. First, See what estate Jesus and his disciples had to live upon. It was but little; they had neither farms nor merchandise, neither barns nor storehouses, only a bag; or, as some think the word signifies, a box, or coffer, wherein they kept just enough for their subsistence, giving the overplus, if any were, to the poor; this they carried about with them, wherever they went. Omnia mea mecum porto - I carry all my property about me. This bag was supplied by the contributions of good people, and the Master and his disciples had all in common; let this lessen our esteem of worldly wealth, and deaden us to the punctilios of state and ceremony, and reconcile us to a mean and despicable way of living, if this be our lot, that it was our Master's lot; for our sakes he became poor. Secondly, See who was the steward of the little they had; it was Judas, he was purse-bearer. It was his office to receive and pay, and we do not find that he gave any account what markets he made. He was appointed to this office, either, 1. Because he was the least and lowest of all the disciples; it was not Peter nor John that was made steward (though it was a place of trust and profit), but Judas, the meanest of them. Note, Secular employments, as they are a digression, so they are a degradation to a minister of the gospel; see Co1 6:4. The prime-ministers of state in Christ's kingdom refused to be concerned in the revenue, Act 6:2. 2. Because he was desirous of the place. He loved in his heart to be fingering money, and therefore had the moneybag committed to him, either, (1.) As a kindness, to please him, and thereby oblige him to be true to his Master. Subjects are sometimes disaffected to the government because disappointed of their preferment; but Judas had no cause to complain of this; the bag he chose, and the bag he had. Or, (2.) In judgment upon him, to punish him for his secret wickedness; that was put into his hands which would be a snare and trap to him. Note, Strong inclinations to sin within are often justly punished with strong temptations to sin without. We have little reason to be fond of the bag, or proud of it, for at the best we are but stewards of it; and it was Judas, one of an ill character, and born to be hanged (pardon the expression), that was steward of the bag. The prosperity of fools destroys them.

[2.] Being trusted with the bag, he was a thief, that is, he had a thievish disposition. The reigning love of money is heart-theft as much as anger and revenge are heart-murder. Or perhaps he had been really guilty of embezzling his Master's stores, and converting to his own use what was given to the public stock. And some conjecture that he was now contriving to fill his pockets, and then run away and leave his Master, having heard him speak so much of troubles approaching, to which he could by no means reconcile himself. Note, Those to whom the management and disposal of public money is committed have need to be governed by steady principles of justice and honesty, that no blot cleave to their hands; for though some make a jest of cheating the government, or the church, or the country, if cheating be thieving, and, communities being more considerable than particular persons, if robbing them be the greater sin, the guilt of theft and the portion of thieves will be found no jesting matter. Judas, who had betrayed his trust, soon after betrayed his Master.

V. Christ's justification of what Mary did (Joh 12:7, Joh 12:8): Let her alone. Hereby he intimated his acceptance of her kindness (though he was perfectly mortified to all the delights of sense, yet, as it was a token of her goodwill, he signified himself well-pleased with it), and his care that she should not be molested in it: Pardon her, so it may be read; "excuse her this once, if it be an error it is an error of her love." Note, Christ would not have those censured nor discouraged who sincerely design to please him, though in their honest endeavours there be not all the discretion that may be, Rom 14:3. Though we would not do as they do, yet let them alone. For Mary's justification,

1. Christ puts a favourable construction upon what she did, which those that condemned it were not aware of: Against the day of my burying she has kept this. Or, She has reserved this for the day of my embalming; so Dr. Hammond. "You do not grudge the ointment used for the embalming of your dead friends, nor say that it should be sold, and given to the poor. Now this anointing either was so intended, or at least may be so interpreted; for the day of my burying is now at hand, and she has anointed a body that is already as good as dead." Note, (1.) Our Lord Jesus thought much and often of his own death and burial; it would be good for us to do so too. (2.) Providence does often so open a door of opportunity to good Christians, and the Spirit of grace does so open their hearts, that the expressions of their pious zeal prove to be more seasonable, and more beautiful, than any foresight of their own could make them. (3.) The grace of Christ puts kind comments upon the pious words and actions of good people, and not only makes the best of what is amiss, but makes the most of what is good.

2. He gives a sufficient answer to Judas's objection, Joh 12:8. (1.) It is so ordered in the kingdom of Providence that the poor we have always with us, some or other that are proper objects of charity (Deu 15:11); such there will be as long as there are in this lapsed state of mankind so much folly and so much affliction. (2.) It is so ordered in the kingdom of grace that the church should not always have the bodily presence of Jesus Christ: "Me you have not always, but only nor for a little time." Note, We need wisdom, when two duties come in competition, to know which to give the preference to, which must be determined by the circumstances. Opportunities are to be improved, and those opportunities first and most vigorously which are likely to be of the shortest continuance, and which we see most speedily hastening away. That good duty which may be done at any time ought to give way to that which cannot be done but just now.

VI. The public notice which was taken of our Lord Jesus here at this supper in Bethany (Joh 12:9): Much people of the Jews knew that he was there, for he was the talk of the town, and they came flocking thither; the more because he had lately absconded, and now broke out as the sun from behind a dark cloud. 1. They came to see Jesus, whose name was very much magnified, and made considerable by the late miracle he had wrought in raising Lazarus. They came, not to hear him, but to gratify their curiosity with a sight of him here at Bethany, fearing he would not appear publicly, as he used to do, this passover. They came, not to seize him, or inform against him, though the government had prosecuted him to an outlawry, but to see him and show him respect. Note, There are some in whose affections Christ will have an interest, in spite of all the attempts of his enemies to misrepresent him. It being known where Christ was, multitudes came to him. Note, Where the king is there is the court; where Christ is there will the gathering of the people be, Luk 17:37. 2. They came to see Lazarus and Christ together, which was a very inviting sight. Some came for the confirmation of their faith in Christ, to have the story perhaps from Lazarus's own mouth. Others came only for the gratifying of their curiosity, that they might say they had seen a man who had been dead and buried, and yet lived again; so that Lazarus served for a show, these holy-days, to those who, like the Athenians, spent their time in telling and hearing new things. Perhaps some came to put curious questions to Lazarus about the state of the dead, to ask what news from the other world; we ourselves have sometimes said, it may be, We would have gone a great way for one hour's discourse with Lazarus. But if any came on this errand it is probable that Lazarus was silent, and gave them no account of his voyage; at least, the scripture is silent, and gives us no account of it; and we must not covet to be wise above what is written. But our Lord Jesus was present, who was a much fitter person for them to apply to than Lazarus; for if we hear not Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles, if we heed not what they tell us concerning another world, neither should we be persuaded though Lazarus rose from the dead. We have a more sure word of prophecy.

VII. The indignation of the chief priests at the growing interest of our Lord Jesus, and their plot to crush it (Joh 12:10, Joh 12:11): They consulted (or decreed) how they might put Lazarus also to death, because that by reason of him (of what was done to him, not of any thing he said or did) many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus. Here observe,

1. How vain and unsuccessful their attempts against Christ had hitherto been. They had done all they could to alienate the people from him, and exasperate them against him, and yet many of the Jews, their neighbours, their creatures, their admirers, were so overcome by the convincing evidence of Christ's miracles that they went away from the interest and party of the priests, went off from obedience to their tyranny, and believed on Jesus; and it was by reason of Lazarus; his resurrection put life into their faith, and convinced them that this Jesus was undoubtedly the Messiah, and had life in himself, and power to give life. This miracle confirmed them in the belief of his other miracles, which they had heard he wrought in Galilee: what was impossible to him that could raise the dead?

2. How absurd and unreasonable this day's vote was - that Lazarus must be put to death. This is an instance of the most brutish rage that could be; they were like a wild bull in a net, full of fury, and laying about them without any consideration. It was a sign that they neither feared God nor regarded man. For, (1.) If they had feared God, they would not have done such an act of defiance to him. God will have Lazarus to live by miracle, and they will have him to die by malice. They cry, Away with such a fellow, it is not fit he should live, when God had so lately sent him back to the earth, declaring it highly fit he should live; what was this but walking contrary to God? They would put Lazarus to death, and challenge almighty power to raise him again, as if they could contend with God, and try titles with the King of kings. Who has the keys of death and the grave, he or they? O caeca malitia! Christus qui suscitare potuit mortuum, non possit occisum. - Blind malice, to suppose that Christ, who could raise one that had died a natural death, could not raise one that had been slain! - Augustine in loc. Lazarus is singled out to be the object of their special hatred, because God has distinguished him by the tokens of his peculiar love, as if they had made a league offensive and defensive with death and hell, and resolved to be severe upon all deserters. One would think that they should rather have consulted how they might have joined in friendship with Lazarus and his family, and by their mediation have reconciled themselves to this Jesus whom they had persecuted; but the god of this world had blinded their minds. (2.) If they had regarded man, they would not have done such an act of injustice to Lazarus, an innocent man, to whose charge they could not pretend to lay any crime. What bands are strong enough to hold those who can so easily break through the most sacred ties of common justice, and violate the maxims which even nature itself teaches? But the support of their own tyranny and superstition was thought sufficient, as in the church of Rome, not only to justify, but to consecrate the greatest villanies, and make them meritorious.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh_12:1-16

Then Jesus six days before the Passover.

--The following calendar of the Passover week is taken from Lightfoot (2.586):

NISAN IX; The Sabbath. Six days before the Passover, Jesus sups with Lazarus at the going out of the Sabbath, when according to the custom of that country their suppers were more liberal.

NISAN X; Sunday. Five days before the Passover, Jesus goes to Jerusalem on an ass, and in the evening returns to Bethany (Mar_11:11). On this day the lamb was taken, and kept till the Passover (Exo_12:1-51), on which day this Lamb of God presented Himself, who was the Antitype of that ride.

NISAN XI; Monday. Four days before the Passover, He goes to Jerusalem again; curseth the unfruitful fig tree (Mat_21:18; Mar_11:12); in the evening He returns again to Bethany (Mar_6:19).

NISAN XII; Tuesday. Three days before the Passover, He goes again to Jerusalem; His disciples observe how the fig tree was withered (Mar_11:20). In the evening going back to Bethany, and sitting on the Mount of Olives, He foretelleth the destruction of the Temple and city (Mat_24:1-51), and discourses those things which are contained in Mat_25:1-46.

NISAN XIII; Wednesday. This day He passeth away in Bethany. At the coming in of this night, the whole nation apply themselves to put away all leaven.

NISAN XIV; Thursday. He sends two of His disciples to get ready the Passover. He Himself enters Jerusalem in the afternoon. In the evening eats the Passover, institutes the Eucharist: is taken, and almost all the night had before the Courts of Judicature.

NISAN XV; Friday. Afternoon, He is crucified.

NISAN XVI; Saturday. He keeps the Sabbath in the grave.

NISAN XVII; The Lords Day. He riseth again.

Came to Bethany

The arrival of the Passover caravan

Coming into Bethany, the nearest point of the great road to Galilaeans Hill, the caravan broke up; the company dispersed to the south and north, some seeking for houses in which they could lodge, others fixing on the ground where they meant to encamp. Those marched round Olivet to the south, following the great road, crossing the Cedron by a bridge, and entering the Holy City by the Sheep Gate, near Antonio; these mounted by the short path to the top of Olivet, glancing at the flowers and herbage, and plucking twigs and branches as they climbed. Some families, having brought their tents with them from Galilee, could at once proceed to stake the ground; but the multitude were content with the booths called Succoth, built in the same rude style as those in which their father Israel had dwelt. Four stakes being cut and driven in the soil, long reeds were drawn, one by one, round and through them. These reeds, being in turn crossed and closed with leaves, made a small green bower, open on one side only, yielding the women a rude sort of privacy, and covering the young ones with a frail defence from both noontide heat and midnight dew. The people had much to do, and very little time in which it could be done. At sundown, when the shofa sounded, Sabbath would begin; then every hand must cease its labour, even though the tent were unpitched, the booth unbuilt, the children exposed, the skies darkening into storm. Consequently the poles must be cut, the leaves and branches gathered, the tents fixed, the water fetched from the wells, the bread baked, the cattle penned, the beds unpacked and spread, the supper of herbs and olives cooked before the sofa sounded from the Temple wall. But everyone helped. While the men drove stakes into the ground and propped them with stones, the women wove them together with twigs and leaves, the girls ran off to the springs for water, the lads put up the camels and led out the sheep to graze. In two or three hours a new city had sprung up on the Galilaeans Hill--a city of booths and tents--more noisy, perhaps more populous, than even the turbulent city within the walls. This Galilaeans Hill made only one field in a great landscape of booths and tents. All Jewry had sent up her children to the feast, and each province arrayed its members on a particular site. The men of Sharon swarmed over Mount Gideon, the men of Hebron occupied the Plain of Rephaim. From Pilates roof on Mount Zion the lines and groups of this vast encampment could be followed by an observers eye down the valley of Gihon, peeping from among the fruit trees about Siloam, dotting the long plain of Rephaim, trespassing even on the Mount of Offence, and darkening the grand masses of hill from Olivet towards Mizpeh. All Jewry appeared to be encamped about the Temple Mount. From sundown all was quiet on the hillsides and on the valley, only the priests and doctors, the Temple guards, the money changers, the pigeon dealers, the bakers of shewbread, the altar servants being astir and at their work. There was no Sabbath in sacred things. But everywhere, save in the Temple Courts, traffic was stayed, movement arrested, life itself all but extinct. (Hepworth Dixon.)

There they made Him a supper

Jesus honoured

I. BY IMPROMPTU ACTS. One of the plainest proofs of the inspiration of the Bible is its selection of facts for the worlds instruction. Its standard of utility is not ours. Acts to us unimportant are given a prominence that arouses our curiosity and lead to profitable study. Thus the single act in Jacobs life, which is used as a proof of his faith in Heb_11:1-40, is his blessing the sons of Joseph on his dying bed. We should have selected the scene at Bethel. Nothing gives such a solemnity to the last judgment as the picture of the separation of good and bad. On what ground? Not on that of an intelligent and determined rejection of Christs claims or of pronounced and heroic service, but upon what we should call the waste and forgotten materials of life--things done so naturally and thoughtlessly that both cry out, When saw we Thee, etc. And so, according to the common standard, these two acts here of unpremeditated honour are given undue importance. The anointing was done in a few moments, yet Jesus selected that one act as a service never to be forgotten. The scene on the day following had no great utility. A modem reporter would have called it a simple outburst of popular enthusiasm. But Jesus needed these songs of welcome and prized them.

II. BY UNCALCULATED LOVE. Paul declares that without love we and our works are unprofitable, and John makes it the sum of all virtues. We live in times of great religious activity. The poor in body are with us--the poor souls of heathens are yonder. We do a good deal for both, and we do well. Yet because Christian work is so highly organized and reportable we need the lesson of Marys uncalculating love. We may be inside the great circle of Christian beneficence, and yet lack Marys good part. The institutions of Christianity open avenues to pride and ostentation never known before. The machinery of benevolence may exhaust the soul until all its sweetness and grace are wasted. We may shine in use and yet lack the ineffable charm and grace of a life hid with Christ in God. (Monday Club Sermons.)

Bethany and its feast

The house in which we find ourselves is that of Simon the leper (Mat_26:1-75; Mar_14:1-72). The feast is a great one; but Christ is the centre, and gives to it and the guests all their significance. Let us consider the latter in their relation to Christ.

I. SIMON ENTERTAINING. He had known Christ before, probably first through his leprosy. Our first interview with Christ is respecting our moral leprosy. But Simon finds that he has much more to do with Jesus than merely for His cure: therefore he must have Him under his roof. So our acquaintanceship must be a companionship, and Christ must sit at our table. This is the sinners side of the gospel. Here it is, not Christ receiving the sinner, but the sinner Christ. We must not overlook either side.

II. LAZARUS FEASTING. What a feast, what a company! Simon healed, Lazarus raised, dipping into the same dish, drinking of the same cup with Christ the Healer and Raiser. How Lazarus first became acquainted with Christ we know not; but it was his death that had brought about the special closeness of contact--type now of risen saints who are to take their places at the marriage supper of the Lamb. What has Lazarus now but to gaze and listen? This is our true posture who have died and risen with Christ--listening, not bustling and talking. There is a time for both.

III. MARTHA SERVING. Her usual employment, lowly but not least blessed; like His who came to serve. Angels might covet service to Christ in any form, were it for nothing else than near contact with Him. Inasmuch as ye have done it, etc.

IV. MARY ANOINTING--not entertaining, feasting, serving, but doing what some would consider a useless thing. Yet her act gets most notice. Christ says nothing to Simon, etc. It is no labour, suffering, etc., that gets the fullest commendation but love. (H. Bonar, D. D.)

The supper at Bethany

Note

I. THE ABOUNDING PROOFS OF OUR LORDS GREATEST MIRACLES. Here was Lazarus. No one could pretend that his resurrection was an optical illusion. The same proofs attend the mightier miracle of Christs resurrection (Luk_24:42). We do well to remember this in this sceptical age.

II. THE UNKINDNESS AND DISCOURAGEMENTS CHRISTS FRIENDS RECEIVE. Mary thought nothing too great and good to expend on such a Saviour. Greatly loved, she thought she could not show to much love in return. But she was blamed by those who had lesser views than hers of the dignity of Christs person and of their own obligations to Him. There are only too many of the same spirit, who begrudge nothing to push trade or advance science, but count it waste to spend money on Christs cause. We must not allow ourselves to be moved from well doing by such. It is vain to expect men to do much for Christ who have no sense of debt to Him. We must pity them, but work on. He who pleaded the cause of Mary will not forget the cup of cold water.

III. THE DESPERATE HARDNESS AND UNBELIEF OF THE HUMAN HEART.

1. Unbelief in the chief priests (Joh_12:10-11), who would rather commit a murder than confess themselves in the wrong.

2. Hardness in Judas, who after this could betray Christ (1Co_10:12). (Bp. Ryle.)

The true Church

I. ITS INTERNAL ASPECT.

1. Christ as the central figure, They made Him a supper. Lazarus was conspicuous, but Christ was the centre of attraction. In the true Church Christ is in the midst, and in all things has the preeminence.

2. A variety of guests. Lazarus silent, Martha busy, Mary tender, Simon healed and grateful. The true Church embraces all shades of character.

3. The presence of an incongruous character. Judas partaking of the feast, but unsympathetic. He shows three base things

(1) A false estimate of property. Money is not wasted on Christ, but on houses, apparel, fare, etc.

(2) A hypocritical philanthropy--Judas cared little for the poor, as his history shows.

(3) A heartless intrusion. No man has a right to trouble another on account of his religious services. Iscariotism is very prevalent.

4. The display of genuine devotion. Marys act was

(1) Generous--the ointment was costly.

(2) Spontaneous. It was unsought.

(3) Open. It was done in the presence of all.

(4) Right

(a) In principle. She wrought a good work

(b) In extent. She did what she could.

(c) In reason--against the day of Christs burying.

II. ITS EXTERNAL INFLUENCE.

1. Some were attracted by curiosity (Joh_12:9). The wonderful fact on which the Churchs theology is founded, as well as the moral revolutions it is constantly effecting, have a natural tendency to rouse inquisitiveness. Hence the questions, criticisms, and discussions in society, public halls and literature.

2. Some men attracted by malice (Joh_12:10). The determination of the priests was

(1) Wicked.

(2) Foolish. Truth cannot be struck down by physical force. The true Church has always been the object of malice, (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Prodigality praiseworthy

In the practical working of good agencies, there must almost always be a certain prodigality. The light which illuminates this speck of a world is but a single beam in comparison with that immense body of light which passes off, to be lost, apparently, in endless space. Nature produces a hundred seeds for everyone which comes to maturity; and at every sculptors feet there is an unheeded pile of marble chips which have been sacrificed to the fulfilment of the artists design. If this is waste, then what the world wants is waste--waste of precious seed in sowing it, late and early, by the wayside, in thorny places, beside all waters. And what many a Sunday School wants is more waste like this--waste of money and time and effort over an apparently hopeless enterprise, waste of thought and speech and prayer in behalf of those for whom these seem to be spent in vain. (H. O. Trumbull, D. D.)

The fragrance of true piety

When I was in Paris, I used to rise early and sit at my open window. I always knew when the stores beneath me were open; for one was a flower store, and from its numberless roses, and heaps of mignonette, arose such sweet, sweet fragrance, that it proclaimed what was done. It seems to me that Christians should be as a flower store, and that the odour of sanctity should betray them wherever they are. Not that they should go about obtruding themselves and their actions on others, with the cant of usefulness, but that they should live the purity and joy of religion, so that men might see the desirableness of it, both for the sake of nobleness, and for the enjoyment both of this world and that which is to come. (H. W. Beecher.)

Power of perfumes

Lieutenant Conder, in his Tent Work in Palestine, mentions that the perfume of the orange groves is detected many miles from Jaffa. (H. O. Mackey.)

The lasting perfume of pious deeds

It has been shown that the odoriferous molecule of musk is infinitesimally small. No power has yet been conceived to enable the human eye to see one of the atoms of musk, yet the organs of smell have the sensitiveness to detect them. Their smallness cannot even be imagined, and the same grain of musk undergoes absolutely no diminution in weight. A single drop of the oil of thyme, ground down with a piece of sugar and a little alcohol, will communicate its odour to twenty-five gallons of water. Haller kept for forty years papers perfumed with one grain of ambergris. After this time the odour was as strong as ever. And so the perfume of this generous gift to Christ will last throughout all time, and be carried over the whole world.

The philosophy of beneficence

He who selfishly hoards his joys, thinking thus to increase them, is like a man who looks at his granary, and says, Not only will I protect my grain from mice and birds, but neither the ground nor the mill shall have it. And so, in the spring, he walks around his little pit of corn, and exclaims, How wasteful are my neighbours, throwing away whole handfuls of grain! But autumn comes; and, while he has only his few poor bushels, their fields are yellow with an abundant harvest. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth.

Motive for great gifts

A poor Protestant congregation in Lyons was trying to build a small house for their public worship. An old soldier brought all his three months earnings. Can you spare so much? asked the minister. My Saviour spared not Himself, he answered, but freely gave His life for me; surely I can spare one quarter of a years earnings to extend His kingdom on earth. Then saith one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot.

Here is

I. A FOUL INIQUITY gilded over with a specious pretence.

II. WORLDLY WISDOM passing censure on PIOUS ZEAL.

III. Charity to the poor made a colour for opposing an act of piety to Christ. (M. Henry.)

Marys offering: criticised and vindicated

I. THE BETRAYERS CRITICISM OF MARYS OFFERING. An eminent statesman once said that critics were men who had failed. What a lurid light this definition casts over the conduct of Judas at this hour! Moreover, criticism is too often the outcome of an utter incapacity to appreciate, arising from inferiority on the part of the critic. Judas, too, was not only too prosaic, but was also too official to be touched by the beauty of this deed. It is a hard thing for any man to be the treasurer of one society and maintain the breadth of his humanity. Judas felt that his bag had greater claims than his Saviour. Then, again, as a thief he could not understand that there are some offerings which cannot be sold, but which lose all their sacredness the moment you put them under the auctioneers hammer; that in this instance the alabaster box must be broken in the giving, and that there are offerings the value of which the giver never counts.

II. OUR LORDS VINDICATION OF MARY AND HER OFFERING.

1. He bade Judas and the other disciples whom he had induced to repeat his cry (Mat_26:8; Mar_14:4) to let her alone.

2. He not only vindicated the deed, but also explained its meaning. What a gracious construction He puts upon our poor services when they are prompted by love! That little child of yours wants to give you a present on your birthday. She buys it a week or so before the day. You notice some mysterious movements and looks, and there are little whispers heard all over the house. She confides in her little brother; and he, too, looks very wise and then very excited. At last the pressure is too great, the safety valve of speech gives way, and out comes the secret; then there is a rush out of the room and back again, and then the disclosure of a present which all the cupboards in the house could not conceal a moment longer. The present is thrust on your lap, and young eyes shoot light and love into yours. It has come before the proper date but it is all the better for that. Mary, on this occasion, was like that little child, she could keep her alabaster box of ointment no longer; and what had been intended for the dead body was now poured, in the prodigality and impatience of an overflowing love, over His living form. Jesus knew all, and rejoiced over a love which had ante-dated its purpose, and given to the living Lord what had been kept for His burial.

3. Having done this, He emphasized the urgency for such an act as compared with the duty to the poor, who would remain when He had vanished from their sight and this act would be no longer possible. What they desired to do to Him, whether it were Mary to anoint, or Judas to betray, must be done quickly. (D. Davies.)

The self-sacrificing woman and the covetous apostle

The self-seeking heart in the Church makes balsam into poison. It turns

I. A JOYOUS FEAST INTO AN HOUR OF TEMPTATION.

II. THE PUREST LOVE OFFERING INTO AN OFFENCE.

III. THE SACRED JUSTIFICATION OF FIDELITY INTO A MOTIVE FOR EXASPERATION.

IV. THE MOST GRACIOUS WARNINGS AGAINST DESTRUCTION INTO A DOOM OF DEATH. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Mary and Judas

The parts of Mary and Judas in respect to the death of Christ are brought into sharp contrast. Mary in her devotion unconsciously provides for the honour of the dead. Judas in his selfishness unconsciously brings about the death itself. (Bp. Westcott.)

Alabaster box and money box

Mark the striking contrast between the money box of Judas and the alabaster box of Mary, his thirty pieces of silver and her three hundred denaries, his love of money and her liberality, his hypocritical profession of concern for the poor, and her noble deed for the Lord, his wretched end and her noble deed for the Lord. (P. Schaff, D. D.)

Judas and the disciples

In the synoptists it is His disciples (Matthew). Some (Mark), who remonstrate. It seems that on this as on many other occasions, Judas played among his fellow disciples the part of the leaven which raises the flour. (F. Godet, D. D.)

Because he was a thief and had the bag

Judas and the bag

Why Jesus should have allowed Judas to carry the bag, when He knew that he could not resist the temptation to which it exposed him, is one of those mysteries which we shall only be able to answer when we understand why God allows any man to be exposed to temptation which He knows he will not be able to resist. It may be that Judas was first selected for this purpose, because he showed an aptitude for making such arrangements as were required for supplying the daily wants of the disciples, and for relieving the poor, and that the opportunity--the possession of the bag--had developed in him the hitherto latentfeeling of avarice. His sin consisted in appropriating to his own individual use some of the money which was given to him for the general good of Jesus and the disciples and the poor. That Judas was not an unblushing peculator, that he did not practise his thefts openly, but with the utmost secrecy, and with every outward appearance of upright dealing, is plain from the fact that the disciples do not seem to have suspected his motives on this occasion. They join with Judas in representing, that the value of the ointment might have been better spent in distributing to the poor, because they had not the slightest suspicion of his honesty. The fearful lesson, which the conduct of Judas teaches us, is the intimate relation which, in the nature of things, exists between appropriating to oneself the goods given to us in charge for Christ and His poor, and the betrayal of Christ Himself, between avarice and treason to Christ. The latter of these is the necessary consequence of the former, not the accidental but the moral consequence, not in Judas only, but in every man. Betrayal of Christ, in some form or other, follows the love of money as regularly and as certainly as night follows day. (F. H. Dunwell, B. A.)

Christ and utilitarianism

It is easy enough to give an ill name to that which lies beyond the range of our sense or our sympathies. Thus the refinement and culture which give a tone of ease and elegance to higher social circles are regarded by many with contempt. The rare and costly products of skilled labour, which our modern civilization demands, are despised as trivial luxuries. Education in whatever cannot be turned to account in a merchants office, or in passing an examination, is deemed superfluous, however much it may enlarge and ennoble the scholars mind. Even the moral delicacy of pure and sensitive natures is scorned as squeamishness. Men steeped in one class of religious ideas seem incapable of doing justice to those who hold other opinions. Mystical devotion sees profanity in thoughtful inquiry. The aesthetic ceremonial of a stately service is but mummery to those whose worship is of a simpler form. Of the purest, noblest, and most generous actions, which are veiled by their own grace, there is little comprehension by the world that toils and struggles all around for its daily bread. Its value in the market gave to the spikenard its only worth in the eyes of Judas. The manufacturer and retailer of it could be justified, for they made it only a means of gain; but not Mary, who poured it out like water in the mere gratification of sentiment. Yet surely if the dignity of human existence is recognized we may plead for a generous while just expenditure upon all that can sweeten and lend grace to life. Painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, have a rightful claim to be fostered. Foreign travel, social hospitality, instead of being forms of selfish indulgence, should enter into the education of whatever is best within us. Still more may we contend that the gifts of friendship, and the consecrated offerings of devotion, but fittingly express the reaching forth of the spirit after fuller and higher being. To value only what can be sold is to appreciate least what in nature and man is most glorious, and most capable of affording exquisite and perfect satisfaction. The gold and purple of the sunset, the flushing tenderness of the dawn, the rippling songs of birds, the full-voiced chorus of breaking billows, the pure air fresh with the fragrant breath of wild flowers, the rain pouring its living draught into every arid blade and leaf, are Gods free gifts to men. The innocent joy of childhood, the generous enthusiasm of youth, the strength of wisdom, the serenity of a holy trust in God--in what earthly market can these blessed things of the Spirit be bought or sold? With what coin can you purchase the tenderness of sympathy, the confidence of friendship, the devotion of love. The things that cannot be bartered, the price of which no merchant quotes, the value of which no figures can express, which no thief can steal, and no moth and rust corrupt, alone form the wealth of the soul. (J. R. S. Harrington.)

Utility not the highest test

The question cui bono, to what practical end and advantage do your researches tend? is one which the speculative philosopher, who loves knowledge for its own sake, can seldom hear without a sense of humiliation. He feels that there is a lofty and disinterested pleasure in his speculations which ought to exempt them from such questionings. The great minds of the past who thought and laboured for pure truth did not trammel themselves with the question of utility; yet many of the truths they discovered have, in after ages, found a use, and contributed even to mans material progress. (Sir J. Herschell.)

Then said Jesus, let her alone.

Marys passionate love accepted

1. Christ often put aside enthusiasm. When men and women brought Him what looked like lovely flowers, He asked for sterner things. When the woman said, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee; when men brought Him a crown, and when the rich young man fell down and worshipped Him, He put their enthusiasm aside, chilled and damped. He would accept no sudden emotions and thoughtless impulses--flowers without roots soon to wither.

2. How different here. Who is to supply ice now? Judas the proper person. Jesus gathered this passion flower and put it forever into the garland of God--because

I. MARY HAD BEEN GROWING IN LOVE. At first what joy it was to her to sit at the Masters feet; then when her brother came back, her joy and gratitude were overwhelming. She had good grounds for her love; and at last, with a fine impulse, she pours out her choicest gift at His feet. How many years had it been kept, too precious to be used!

II. MARYS LOVE WAS HOLY. She had grown at His feet, and learned by His teaching. Now she could sit there no longer, she must render her tribute. To know what and how to give is one of the last achievements of good manners, one of the most delicate of tasks, and when successfully done, one of the most gracious of acts. It is also one of the greatest victories of the soul to properly receive a gift. Christ does not put by her gift. It is Judas who interferes now; and with his beggarly economics brings in the dirty scales of this world. Let her alone, said Christ, she has done well. Why? Because her whole soul was in it, and when the whole soul is in anything arithmetic has nought to do with it. When a little child offers its caresses to some cold-blooded woman, There, there, there, she says, you have kissed me once, thatll do. So the little mouth is put back, and the little heart chilled. Yes: it will do for her, for a second kiss wasted on that icicle would freeze the heart from which it came.

III. MARYS GIFT CAME LAST. She had been contemplative, had heard His word, sat at His feet, and last, not first, came the spikenard. Because this passion flower was rooted in the heart and conscience and intellect of the woman, Christ rebuked Judas. Of all things in the house, these are the saddest--greetings where no friendship is, honeyed words which everybody gets, the same welcome for every fool, everybodys hand shaken alike. These things are hateful. But when the fair water lily, rising from the very bottom of the pool, deep rooted, slow climbing, at last reaches the light, and bursts forth into glory, Christ loves the flowers. Conclusion: What about the three hundred pence? The chances are that those who give to beggars do it without much heart interest; but to kiss those sacred feet, what were three hundred pounds! What has money to do here? Listen to the justification, I am going to die: there will be no more chance for her. These are flowers thrown on My grave. (G. Dawson, M. A.)

The recognition of a noble act

I. CHRISTS MIND REGARDING HIS DEATH

1. He looked forward to it. It was never absent from His mind. Here it emerges in a scene, the last apparently that could have suggested it.

2. He looked forward to a life above it, and Marys act was grateful as revealing a love over which death had no power.

3. He had a pleasant view provided Him in regard to it. How cheered He must have been by this act with the cross imminent, and amid the murmuring and unbelief of His friends.

II. CHRISTS MIND REGARDING OUR SERVICE.

1. The timeliness of service. A word spoken, an act done in season, how good it is I There is a time to speak and to be silent, to work and to be still. We need to pray for wisdom.

2. Christs recognition of our service. He knows what we do, and accepts the service, however trifling, because of the motive.

3. Christs defence of freedom in our service.

4. Christs loving construction to quicken our service. (J. Duthie.)

The poor always ye have with you

The claims of poverty

This word extorted by the rapacity of Judas teaches us that poverty has its claims upon us which we must not neglect. From our definition of the poor we exclude the systematic idler and professional beggar. The claims of the real poor are based on

I. THE POSSESSIONS OF A COMMON NATURE. The rich and the poor the Lord is the Maker, etc. A community of nature should

1. Awaken interest.

2. Stimulate sympathy.

II. THE RELATIONS OF HUMAN SOCIETY. St. Pauls imagery of the body and the members (1Co_12:14-22) will illustrate this. The poor have their place in the social economy, and cannot be safely neglected.

III. THE RELATIONS OF CHRISTS CHURCH

1. The Church is a body of which Christ is the Head.

2. The Church is indebted to the poor for some of the brightest testimonies to the power of Divine grace. It owes a debt in return.

IV. THE SANCTIONS OF HOLY WRIT. (Deu_15:11; Lev_23:22; 1Sa_2:7; Job_29:11-13; Psa_41:1; Pro_14:31; Pro_17:5; Pro_20:2; Pro_21:31; Isa_25:4; Isa_58:7; Mat_19:21; Mat_25:36; Jam_2:14-16). The Bible is thus the poor mans book. (Clerical World.)

The Church and the poor

When the deacon St. Lawrence was asked, in the Decian persecution, to show the Prefect the most precious treasures of the Church at Rome, he showed him the sick, the lame, the blind. It is incredible, said Lucian, the pagan jeerer and sceptic, to see the ardour with which those Christians help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first Legislator has put it into their heads that they are all brothers. These Galileans, said Julian the Apostate, nourish not only their own poor, but ours as well. In the year 252 a plague raged in Carthage. The heathen threw out their dead and sick upon the streets, and ran away from them for fear of the contagion, and cursed the Christians.

St. Cyprian, on the contrary, assembled his congregation, told them to love those who cursed them; and the rich working with their money, the poor with their hands, never rested till the dead, were buried, the sick cared for, and the city saved from destruction. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

The poor represent Christ

A rich youth in Rome had suffered from a dangerous illness. On recovering his health his heart was filled with gratitude, and he exclaimed, O Thou all-sufficient Creator I could man recompense Thee, how willingly would I give Thee all my possessions! Hermas the herdsman heard this, and said to the rich youth, All good gifts come from above; thither thou canst send nothing. Come, follow me. He took him to a but where was nothing but misery and wretchedness. The father lay on a bed of sickness; the mother wept; the children were destitute of clothing and crying for bread. Hermas said, See here an altar for the sacrifice; see here the Lords brethren and representatives. The youth assisted them bountifully; and the poor people called him an angel of God. Hermas smiled, and said, Thus turn always thy grateful countenance, first to heaven, and then to earth. (J. Krummacher.)

A motive for care of the poor and depraved

A few miles above Montreal, the two great convergent rivers of British America, the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, meet. The St. Lawrence is a pure stream, of a peculiar, light-blue colour: the Ottawa is dark, as if it were tinged by moss in its way. After their meeting the two rivers run side by side a few miles, each occupying its own half of one broad bed; but gradually the boundary line disappears, and all the waters are mingled in one vast homogeneous flood. Although the life of the inhabitants below depended on preserving the pure cerulean hue of the St. Lawrence, it could not possibly be preserved. All the might of man cannot prevent the Ottawa from tingeing the united waters with its own dark shads. Unless the darkness can be discharged from its springs, that great affluent will effectually dye the main river in all its lower reaches. Behold the picture of the process by which the neglected children of our unsaved brother, meeting our own at a lower point in times rolling current, will blot out the distinction which is now maintained. Behold the rod lifted up in our sight to prevent the neglect now, or punish it hereafter! The dark cellars in which ignorant, vicious, godless parents, now pen their hapless brood, are the springs which feed a mighty river. Our little ones rise in cleaner spots, and in the meantime a solid bank separates the streams. But that turbid river lies within the same basin, and by the laws of nature must converge towards the central channel of society. It is an affluent. We must accept the fact, for we cannot change it. We dread that dark stream which, at a little distance, is flowing parallel with our own. Over the embankments, now not very lofty, we hear sometimes the ominous gurgle of its rapid flow. There is only one way of subduing that terrible enemy. If we cower timidly in our own hiding place, the destruction which we thereby invite will quickly overtake us. In this warfare there is no armour for the back of the fugitive. Safety lies in facing the danger. The evil which in its issue is a deluge, may in its origin be success fully neutralized. Below you cannot keep the gathered volume out: above you may do muck to purify the rising spring. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Me ye have not always

Christ absent and present

(For a Communion: text and Mat_28:20):--Like many passages these seem in contradiction; but if we grasp their deeper meaning they harmonize. Christ has given us a memorial of Himself in the Lords Supper--a gem with two facets; on the one is written Me ye have not always; on the other, Lo, I am with you alway. They remind us that we have in Christ

I. ONE WHO IS HUMAN AND DIVINE.

1. Me, etc. There is something very human and touching in this farewell, which comes at first like a hint, and afterwards became more plain. And the absence of the personal Saviour from our Communion reminds us always of His death, and therefore of His true humanity. Forasmuch as the children, etc. Let not the thought of His Divinity take away from our view of Him a single fibre of His true humanity. In this memorial of His death, Behold the sign.

2. But Lo, etc., reminds us that we have a Saviour who is Divine. So in the memory of His death we must realize His Divinity. The promise is not completed in the continuance of His words, example, influence, death, memorials going down from age to age. It is the promise of a presence which implies an omnipresence: so that at every Communion He is Divinely repeating the words, This is My body. And if here, then everywhere--to protect, guide, comfort to the end.

II. ONE WHOSE DEATH AS OUR SAVIOUR IS ALL-IMPORTANT AND NOT LESS HIS LIFE.

1. His death is the first truth which meets us in the Supper, Me, etc. He instituted it that His death might be kept in memory, and the manner of it--broken body and shed blood--the memorials twice put into our handsthat by two witnesses every word might be established. It is impossible to account for this without believing that His death was of supreme importance. Nor can we read the Bible without seeing this. The Old Testament points forward, and the Apostles point back to this. The Incarnation may serve other ends, but the first end to us is that Christ was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death, etc.

2. But the other word must be spoken by one who is to be a complete Saviour. The Resurrection is connected with the death as the seal and assurance of its success. We have a monument of each--the Lords table and the Lords day, Who was delivered for our offences, etc.

III. ONE WHO PRESIDES OVER THE WORLD WHERE WE ARE GOING AND OVER THE WORLD IN WHICH WE NOW ARE. It is expedient for you, etc. Christ goes up before, that He may lead the way and say, Come; but He comes to guide and guard on the journey to the place He has gone to prepare. If we had a Saviour only in heaven, we might doubt if ever we should reach heaven. So we have Him there in the noonday, here in the twilight; there amid the palms of victory, here in the heat of battle. For to this end Christ both died and rose, etc. (J. Ker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 12:1-2. Six days before the passover — Namely, on the sabbath; that which was called by the Jews, The great sabbath. This whole week was anciently termed, The great and holy week; Jesus came — From Ephraim, whither he had retired with his disciples, to preserve his life for a time from the murderous designs of the Jewish rulers; to Bethany — The village where he had lately (Calmet thinks about two months before) raised Lazarus from the dead. There they made him a supper — In testimony of their high esteem and great affection for him. It is not said that this supper was made at Lazarus’s house. For if, as is probable, this be the same story that is recorded Mat 26:6, and Mar 14:3, the supper was made at the house of Simon who had been a leper. “Few passages,” says Dr. Doddridge, “in the harmony [of the gospels] have perplexed me more than this. I was long of opinion, with Origen and Theophylact, defended by Le Clerc and Dr. Whitby, and especially by Dr. Lightfoot and Mr. Whiston, that the story recorded by Matthew and Mark is different from this in John: but on maturer consideration, it appears to me more probable that Matthew and Mark should have introduced this story a little out of its place; that Lazarus, if he made this entertainment, (which is not expressly said by John,) should have made use of Simon’s house, as more convenient for it; and that Mary should have poured this ointment on Christ’s head and body, as well as on his feet; than that, within the compass of four days, Christ should have been twice anointed with so costly a perfume; and that the same fault should be found with the action, and the same value set on the ointment, and the same words used in defence of the woman; and all this in the presence of many of the same persons: all which improbable particulars must be admitted, if the stories be considered as different. But, after all, I can assert nothing confidently; for there is no impossibility in the thing, taken either way.” Dr. Macknight, however, who supposes this story is not the same with that recorded by Matthew and Mark, thinks “It evidently appears that our Lord was anointed with spikenard three different times in the course of his ministry; once in the house of Simon the Pharisee, (Luk 7:37, &c.,) once in the house of Lazarus, and once in the house of Simon the leper. That this honour should have been done him so often,” adds he, “needs not be thought strange, for, in those countries, it was common at entertainments to pour fragrant oil on the heads of such guests as they designed to distinguish with marks of extraordinary respect; a custom alluded to Psa 45:7 : God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” And Martha served — It seems Martha was a person of some figure, from the great respect which was paid to her and her sister, in visits and condolences on Lazarus’s death, as well as from the costly ointment mentioned in the next verse. And probably it was at their house our Lord and his disciples lodged, when he returned from Jerusalem to Bethany, every evening of the last week of his life, on which he now entered. But Lazarus was one that sat at the table — Lazarus’s sitting at the table showed still more the reality of the miracle wrought at his tomb; that it was not a spectre or illusion which then presented itself to the sight; and that Lazarus was not only restored to life, but likewise to perfect health.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 110.—ARRIVAL AT BETHANY, Joh_12:1.

1. Then—After leaving Ephraim. See Joh_11:54. He went from Ephraim, on the border land between Samaria and Galilee, to join the caravans going down by the Jordan, through Jericho, to the Passover at Jerusalem. See Harmony, p. 101.

Six days—The Passion week. See note on Mat_20:34.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh_12:1. See Homiletic Note, p. 341.

Joh_12:2. The Synoptists inform us that it was in the house of Simon the leper (Mat_26:6; Mar_14:3). It has been suggested that Simon was a relative of the family of Lazarus, or that Martha was the wife of Simon. There is no ground for such conjectures. It seems more in accordance with verisimilitude that Simon and Lazarus, being both subjects of Jesus’ healing power, resolved to honour their Benefactor, and that the feast was held in Simon’s house as being the most commodious. The special mention of the part taken by Martha, and the position of Lazarus at the board, favour this view.

Joh_12:3. A pound (λίτρα).—In Matthew and Mark “an alabaster” (cruse) is the term employed, i.e. a box or flask made of this beautiful spar, in which the ointment was hermetically sealed. Ointment of spikenard (μύρου νάρδου πιστικῆς).—I.e. either genuine or pure nard; or Pistic Nard, which is perhaps, as Westcott suggests, “a local technical term.” John does not mention, with Matthew and Mark, that Mary first anointed the head of Jesus, which was an ordinary mark of honour (Psa_23:5; Luk_7:46). It is the extraordinary feature of the occurrence that this Evangelist records—Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair.

Joh_12:4. Simon’s son.—These words are omitted in all the best MSS.

Joh_12:5. Three hundred pence.—A little over £10 in our money.

Joh_12:6. Bag (γλωσσόκομον).—Chest or box. Bare (ἐβάσταζεν).—It means here, perhaps, bare or took away.

Joh_12:7. Let her alone, etc.—The best MSS. read “in order that she may keep this against the day,” etc.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_12:1-8

The anointing at Bethany.—It was eventide at the close of the Jewish Sabbath, the last Sabbath before the final passover of our Lord’s ministry, the passover at which He was to be offered up as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The restful close of a restful day, bright with the sunshine of spring, beautiful and fragrant with the fresh greenery and the profusion of flowers of that season in Palestine, was this Sabbath evening. In the rural retreat at Bethany, hidden from the city by the brow of Olivet, Jesus and His disciples had passed the peaceful day. And now, when the rosy tints of sunset had faded from earth and sky, the little company was found under a hospitable roof for social cheer and intercourse. It was at the house of Simon the leper, probably one of those who had been healed by Jesus, that the guests had met (Mat_26:6). Among them were the members of that family whose connection with it has made Bethany ever memorable. Martha, true to her character as depicted in Luke’s Gospel (Luk_10:40), was present, busied with needful and congenial household duties. Thus at the board were seated Jesus Himself and two of the trophies of His redeeming might: Simon, the host, who had been delivered from a double death in life; and Lazarus, “strange guest,” who but a short space before had been laid in the tomb with almost despairing sorrow, and had been summoned forth by the Life of men anew to see the light of mortal day, and to witness to the divine glory in the action of the Son of God. But this feast is memorable for the circumstance here related as having occurred at it.

I. The offering of loving devotion.—

1. After the signal miracle of the raising of Lazarus, Jesus had left the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, thus giving to His enemies a last opportunity for repentance (Joh_11:53-54). Since that time He had not been in Bethany, and Mary had had no opportunity of showing her affection and gratitude to Him.

2. But now, as she sees Him sitting at the table in Simon’s house, there rushes in upon her soul a sense of all the preciousness of Christ. What had He not been to her and hers during those years of intercourse! How blessed had those hours been when she had listened to His heavenly teaching, sitting like a disciple at the Master’s feet and learning of Him, drinking in His words of heavenly wisdom, with all their comfort and hope and promise!

3. Above all, there was Lazarus, her brother, seated there in health and vigour, whom Christ had snatched from the prison-house of the grave. Whichever way she turned, indeed, were evidences of the blessedness Jesus had brought to her home and to her own life. How shall she display all the gratitude and love that are welling up in her heart? Words! how poor they are to express love! Gifts! are they not even poorer?

4. There was one way in which she could in a measure express her feeling better than by costly gift, or even fervent speech. She possessed an alabaster box of an esteemed and precious unguent (Mar_14:3)—spikenard, or pistic nard; and approaching the Saviour, she broke the flask, and then poured the unguent on His head. This was in the East “an ordinary mark of honour” (Psa_23:5). But passing beyond that, she showed a further token of her love and esteem in anointing His feet and wiping them with her hair.

5. Further than that, there may have been in Mary’s heart the idea, gathered not alone from Jesus’ own words, but from the hate and fury of His foes, that He might not be long here to receive such tokens of gratitude and affection. Mingled with this would be the feeling also that our Lord would be cheered in the midst of so much opposition by the consciousness of the deep love and devotion of those who knew Him best.

6. Thus she poured forth the precious oil, unconsciously as it were anointing the great kingly Priest after the order of Melchisedec, as He went forward on His path to conquer and redeem.

“Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,

Nor other thought her mind admits

But, he was dead, and there he sits,

And He that brought him back is there.

“Then one deep love doth supersede

All other, when her ardent gaze

Roves from the living brother’s face,

And rests upon the Life indeed.

“All subtle thought, all curious fears,

Borne down by gladness so complete,

She bows, she bathes the Saviour’s feet

With costly spikenard and with tears.

“Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers,

Whose loves in higher love endure;

What souls possess themselves so pure,

Or is there blessedness like theirs?”

In Memoriam, xxxii.

II. The worldly judgment of this offering.—

1. Acts of spiritual devotion are not to the world’s liking. The world cannot understand them, and dubs them with the epithet “enthusiastic,” or “fanatical,” or “foolish.” And thus it was here. From the Synoptic narratives we learn that the disciples of our Lord generally murmured at what they called the waste of the ointment.

2. But we further learn from this Gospel who it was that instigated this feeling. It was the traitor—the son of perdition. The sweet and penetrating odour of the nard actually stank in his nostrils. It awoke into active and hateful activity the avarice, the meanness, the duplicity, of his poor, degraded nature. A pound of spikenard—so costly—worth at least three hundred pence (about £10), which might have done so much for the poor by going into the bag, which was lean enough! Such whispers, circulated among the disciples, made them, at first view of the matter, indignant at the apparently wasteful act. And this feeling was readily expressed by Judas Iscariot.

3. But it was an altogether false and evil judgment; and the Evangelist, looking back on the scene, discovers for us the true meaning. Even at that very moment, Judas, that man of dark soul, was meditating the betrayal of Jesus. His plausible sympathy for the poor was altogether hypocritical. Much the poor would have got from him, even had the ointment been transmuted into gold; for “he bare the bag, and was a thief.” And as the time of betrayal was near, which would leave the bag entirely in his hands, he boiled over with avaricious rage to think how much more might have been in it had he had the disposal of this ointment.

4. It is very significant to read in Matthew’s Gospel (Mat_26:14-15) that immediately after this incident Judas went to the chief priests and said, “What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.” He has lost the three hundred pence, but He will have something to swell the small sum in that common purse, which, depend upon it, he will cling to when the end comes. What a contrast! The love and devotion of Mary side by side with the avarice, hatred, and hypocrisy of Judas. Here on earth they may be seen together, and may be misjudged—the avarice counted prudence, and the free-handed devotion waste. And yet even here there is fixed between a gulf as great—nay, that same gulf—as that which separates heaven from hell.

III. Our Lord’s appreciation of Mary’s act.—

1. The sensitive nature of Mary must have been deeply wounded. She was “troubled.” Had she done wrong? Not long was she permitted to be in suspense. The Lord spoke, and He spoke not directly to Judas, but generally to all the disciples: “Let her alone, that she may keep it for the day of My burial.” The other Gospels tell what the meaning of the deed was at that time. But it was preliminary to a further anointing, for which part of the costly unguent was preserved.

2. It was the beginning of a good work done on the Saviour, and having a double significance. Not only was it the anointing of our High Priest and King, who was to be hailed with hosannas on the coming day—the High Priest was also to be the sacrifice; and thus it was a beginning of His embalming, a preparation for the supreme act of His self-sacrificing and redeeming love.

3. The house was filled with the odour of the ointment; but it has gone forth also beyond the house at Bethany, and the world has been filled with the fragrance of this loving deed. It clings to this woman’s memory as an imperishable perfume; and as the gospel spreads, the sweet odour of this loving act spreads with its advance, teaching men the spirit of consecrated service, the spirit of true devotion to the Saviour. Mary had anointed Jesus; but His words, like a rich anointing, have imperishably embalmed the memory of her gentle, loving deed.

In this beautiful and touching episode, standing out more clear and beautiful against the dark background of the treachery of Judas, there are lessons of life and conduct.—

1. We cannot now imitate Mary’s act of love and devotion by doing what she did, but we may manifest the same love and do homage to Him in other ways. There are many gifts we may bring directly to Christ, many an act of service specially designed to honour Him. Love in every new age, and in every new combination of circumstances, will find and grasp the opportunity.

2. And such service done specially for Christ will never conflict with duty to the poor and indigent. What is really spent in honouring Him can never be “waste.” It is only the grasping, covetous mind that will ever grudge such manifestations of love. For in reality all that is done for His sake, and in advancing His kingdom, is in a broad but true sense done for the poor. For wherever His kingdom comes with power, there comes with it a greater care for the poor, a deeper sympathy for the wretched, a wider humanity.

3. A frequent objection to the cost of foreign missions, e.g., is that we have enough to do with home missions, the care of the poor, etc., as if the doing of one duty could absolve us from another specially commanded by Christ! If the believers of the apostolic age, and of the early Christian centuries, had acted thus, how would the gospel ever have been made known? And if we are to wait till every one at home is converted before going abroad, we shall have to wait till doomsday.

4. Beware of the sin of Judas! Temptation comes often to us in that very work for which we are best fitted. Judas was the accountant of the infant Church, perhaps because his gifts inclined him that way. His temptation lay in this very direction, that love of money which is a root of all evil. Hypocrisy and temptation made him a thief, and at last a criminal, who basely betrayed his Lord. “Lust, when it hath conceived,” etc. (Jas_1:15).

Joh_12:8. The Christian care of the poor.—The meaning of our Lord’s words is evidently this: “The poor,” etc.—As Moses wrote, “The poor shall never cease out of the land.” “But Me ye have not always.” But My person, My bodily presence, will be soon removed beyond immediate communion. The poor are always around you, but opportunities of personally ministering to My wants will soon be at an end.” Him they would have always in a spiritual sense (Mat_28:20); but soon as the despised and rejected Emmanuel, who had not where to lay His head, He would no longer be known to them. And opportunities of thus showing their faith, homage, devotion to Him in His state of humiliation would no longer be afforded. In these words our Lord lays down the duty of Christians toward the poor in conjunction with special devotion to Christ.

I. The poor will always remain.—

1. There have been, and are, dreamers who imagine that if in some way or other all capital and property were, so to speak, commuted, then all men would be equally wealthy, that poverty would cease, and a sort of lotus-eater’s heaven begin on earth.

2. It is a vain dream, for men cannot commute and bring into one common fund health, intelligence, industry, skill, etc. These will always regain unequal, and thus some men will always rise higher than others.

3. Opportunity and position of course go for something, but they do not explain all social differences. I may be poor to-day, but my son may be rich to-morrow, having more faculty or greater skill in acquiring means. Or my neighbour may be rich to-day and his child poor to-morrow, because the latter had neither the health, nor skill, nor ability to retain and add to what has been bequeathed to him. There is a perpetual fluctuation, a rising and falling in the social scale, in so far as wealth is the standard.

4. And it is good that it should be so, otherwise humanity would stagnate. It is good for our common weal that few are absolutely idle, that all have to labour with hand or brain. And “honest poverty” that does not fall to utter destitution, but which permits the satisfaction of its simple wants, need make no man “hang his head.” It is the field on which grow many of the flowers of national virtue, and from it come forth many who are strong to endure and act for the good of the whole community.

5. But from this class, and from all classes, there come, part by force of circumstances, part through weakness of nature, and part through their own folly, a number who reach the lowest deeps of poverty, who are indigent and in want of things needful. It is to these our Lord specially referred when He said, “The poor,” etc.

II. In these words our Lord commits the care of the poor to His Church.—

1. He had made it His care while here to relieve the indigent. That was the reason partly of the existence of the “bag,” the common purse in the charge of Judas. And now our Lord made over this charge to the representatives and original members of the New Testament Church that stood around Him.

2. And certainly from what is recorded of the example of the early Church, and indications in the Gospels themselves and in our Lord’s teaching, there is much which would lead us to conclude that there should be a greater general distribution of the world’s wealth than there is. There is nothing in the New Testament to incite men to the interference with property which is a too common feature of socialistic panaceæ. But there is a warning against the accumulation of too great wealth, and the inculcation of a wider and freer spirit of benevolence.

3. “With Christianity began the organised and individual charity of modern Europe” (Loring-Brace). And it is a question whether it would not be better in a professedly Christian land to continue to permit the Church—all sections in this working in unity—to undertake the care of the poor. It is admitted by most that the present state-devised and worked method of relieving indigence is not the best; for it is neither the least expensive nor the most effective, in that it tends to break down the spirit of independence, whilst many of the most deserving indigent poor receive no benefit.

4. Hence there are still many charities in existence, having for their end the care of the poor. But never will this work be rightly done and this duty properly discharged until the Church as a whole, filled with the Spirit of her Master, realises the claims of the poverty-stricken and distressed, and, in the words of the Redeemer, “The poor,” etc., recognises the fact that these are committed to her care.

III. The cost of honour and devotion to Christ will never lessen care for and succour of the indigent and poor.—

1. Often the best way to help the poor is to help them to labour, or so to strengthen and support them that they may by-and-by be able to support themselves. So that even the pouring out of this ointment was no waste. There were poor men and women employed in the making of it and its costly case, and also in the various avenues of trade through which it came to the last buyer.

2. Thus many poor had food provided for them, and every new supply of spikenard meant bread and to spare in some humble home.

3. And especially if what is spent is dedicated with loving heart to the divine honour and glory, it will not lead to less being spent for the relief of the poor and indigent. The man who builds a church, e.g., to the glory of Christ, and who has it fitted up, with some true sense of the “beauty of holiness,” as a fitting place in which men may worship thankfully their God and Saviour, is not the man whose heart will be untouched by the tale of human misery, or whose hand will be slack in doing what the heart prompts, etc.

HOMILETIC NOTES

Joh_12:1-8. Jesus came from Ephraim, whither He had gone after the raising of Lazarus (Joh_11:54), on His way to the last passover at Jerusalem. He arrived at Jericho, in company, doubtless, with the pilgrim bands going up to keep the feast (Mat_20:29). Resting at Jericho in the house of Zaccheus for a time, He then went on to Jerusalem (Luk_19:5; Luk_19:28), and came, as St. John records, to Bethany. The Synoptic Gospels place the incident of the anointing after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem; but that is for the purpose of bringing it into connection with the betrayal by Judas and the history of the passion generally. If we consider that the crucifixion took place “between the two evenings” of the 14th and 15th Nisan (see note, ch. 13), then the anointing took place in the evening at the close of the Sabbath, the day of rest which followed the journey to Bethany. On the following day (our Sunday) Jesus made His entry into Jerusalem amid the shouts of Hosanna. He would therefore reach Bethany on the eve of the Sabbath (the 8th Nisan).

Bethany (now called El-’Azrîyeh—El-’Azîr, i.e. Lazarus) is at present a small, poor village on the east slope of Olivet, about two miles from Jerusalem. The name signifies “house of dates.” The traces of ancient buildings, and the fact that even the houses of the present day are built out of old and somewhat heavier stones than we should expect to find villagers’ houses built of, show that at one time the place was of more importance than it is now. But almost no place in Palestine fills a greener spot in memory. It was apparently a place of rest and refreshing for the Redeemer (Mat_21:17; Luk_10:38-42; Joh_11:1, etc.). And the recollection of the home there is a sunny one, with one night of darkness (Joh_11:17), and one passing cloud (Joh_12:4-6).

ILLUSTRATIONS

Joh_12:6. The love of money.—In every nation there are, and must always be, a certain number of those fiends’ servants who have it principally for the object of their lives to make money. They are always more or less stupid, and cannot conceive of anything else so nice as money. Stupidity is always the basis of the Judas bargain. We do great injustice to Iscariot in thinking him wicked above all common wickedness. He was only a common money-lover, and, like all money-lovers, didn’t understand Christ; couldn’t make out the worth of Him, or meaning of Him. He didn’t want Him to be killed. He was horror-struck when he found that Christ would be killed; threw his money away instantly, and hanged himself. How many of our present money-seekers, think you, would have the grace to hang themselves, whoever was killed? But Judas was a common, selfish, muddle-headed, pilfering fellow; his hand always in the bag of the poor, not caring for them. He didn’t understand Christ; yet believed in Him, much more than most of us do; had seen Him do miracles, thought He was quite strong enough to shift for Himself, and he, Judas, might as well make his own little bye-perquisites out of the affair. Christ would come out of it well enough, and he have his thirty pieces. Now, that is the money-seeker’s idea, all over the world. He doesn’t hate Christ, but can’t understand Him—doesn’t care for Him—sees no good in that benevolent business; makes his own little job out of it at all events, come what will. And thus, out of every mass of men, you have a certain number of bagmen—your “fee-first” men, whose main object is to make money. And they do make it—make it in all sorts of unfair ways, chiefly by the weight and force of money itself, or what is called the power of capital; that is to say, the power which money, once obtained, has over the labour of the poor, so that the capitalist can take all its produce to himself, except the labourer’s food. That is the modern Judas’s way of “carrying the bag,” and “bearing what is put therein.”—Ruskin.

Joh_12:8. The rise of organised Christian charity.—With Christianity began the organised and individual charity of modern Europe, which for these eighteen centuries has wiped away so many tears, softened so much suffering, saved so many young lives from misery and sin, ministered at so many deathbeds, made the solitary evening of life sweet to so many forsaken ones, and the morning glad to so many who would have been born to sorrow and shame; which in so many countries has cared for the sick, the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the outcast and tempted; the young, the orphan, the foundling, and the aged. Surely, if anything is a fore-gleam of that kingdom of heaven which is yet to shine over the earth, it is the brotherhood of spirit, shown in the charity of the modern world. This is most distinctly the fruit of Christ’s teachings. And yet the Master did not lay any extraordinary weight on alms-giving. He simply taught the love of man through love to Himself, that the poorest and lowest of the human race represented Himself, and what was done to them was done to Him. The equal brotherhood of man came forth from His teachings, and all human beings, of whatever rank, or under whatever disabilities of misfortune, became of equal value in the eyes of His followers, as being those for whom He lived, and in behalf of whom He felt it not unworthy to die. The unfortunate had henceforth around them the halo of the great Sufferer, and a very different place in the sympathies of the new world of Europe.—C. Loring-Brace.

Joh_12:8. The effect of Christianity on pauperism.—It has been alleged, with some apparent justice, that this spirit of Christian charity, which has made modern society so different from ancient, has cultivated dependence, and increased pauperism or that kind of poverty which is without hope or energy. But it should be remembered that there is nothing in the teachings of Christ or the apostles which favoured indiscriminate alms-giving, or the supporting the poor without labour. “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat,” is evidently a favourite proverb with the great apostle. He himself laboured with his own hands. The disciples were working people; and Christ, in human relations, belonged to the working classes. The type of character He stamped on men was the very opposite of the idle and dependent kind; it was earnest, self-controlled, under a deep sense of responsibility, looking continually to Him to whom men should give an account of every word and work, with the conviction of being the child of God, and therefore calling no man master.… The influence of the great Master is directly to lessen one of the greatest of human ills—pauperism. The self-control, sobriety, temperance, and moderation He teaches tend to a certain control over circumstances. The good-will He encourages brings sympathy and help from others. The great sources of poverty are idleness, intemperance, and vice. The Christian, other things being equal, is less likely to be very poor and a pauper he cannot easily be—that is, he cannot have that spirit of dependence, idleness, and dishonesty which are the essentials of pauperism. If by misfortune he come to the lowest depths of human ills, be bears as a greater One hath taught him to bear, and does not become degraded in spirit. Having a sense of his great dignity as a child of God, and one for whom Christ hath lived and died, he is less likely to become a parasite on society. And ever being in the mental habit of looking forward to the judgment of another life, he will be the more apt to provide for the ills of this; so under Christianity society tends, as has often been seen on the rugged soil and under the harsh climate of New England, to throw off pauperism and eliminate poverty. Many villages are known in that region, apparently so little favoured otherwise by Providence, where not a pauper and scarcely an abjectly poor person can be found for miles around—the causes of this good fortune being mainly moral.—Idem.

Joh_12:8. The manner in which Christianity may mitigate poverty in the future.—It is not claimed that religion alone in future ages can remove pauperism from the world, but the Christian belief will tend towards a more just distribution of property; it will promote temperance and good morals; it will stimulate co-operation between labourers and between labour and capital; it will encourage many forms of insurance, and above all elevate and train the character, so that the human being, though unfortunate, cannot be degraded; and thus under the influence of Christ on the world the labouring classes will be less likely to fall into extreme poverty, and if they do, will be more readily assisted, or will not sink morally. Cabet, a socialistic writer, well says: “If Christianity had been interpreted and applied in the spirit of Jesus Christ, if it had been well known and faithfully practised by the numerous portions of Christians who are animated by a sincere piety, and who have only need to know truth well to follow it, this Christianity, its morals, its philosophy, its precepts, would have sufficed, and would still suffice, to establish a perfect society and political organisation, to deliver humanity from the evil which weighs it down, and to assure the happiness of the human race on earth.”—Idem.

Joh_12:8. Sympathy with the poor.—Nothing seems much clearer than the natural direction of charity. Would we all but relieve, according to the measure of our means, those objects immediately within the range of our personal knowledge, how much of the worst evil of poverty might be alleviated! Very poor people, who are known to us to have been honest, decent, and industrious, when industry was in their power, have a claim on us, founded on our knowledge, and on vicinity and neighbourhood, which have in themselves something sacred and endearing to every good heart. One cannot, surely, always pass by, in his walks for health, restoration, or delight, the lone, wayside beggar, without occasionally giving him an alms. Old, careworn, pale, drooping, and emaciated creatures, who pass us by without looking beseechingly at us, or even lifting up their eyes from the ground, cannot often be met with, without exciting an interest in us for their silent and unobtrusive sufferings or privations. A hovel, here and there, round and about our own comfortable dwelling, attracts our eyes by some peculiar appearance of penury, and we look in, now and then, upon its inmates, cheering their cold gloom with some small benefaction. These are duties all men owe to distress; they are easily discharged; and even such tender mercies as these are twice blessed.—Chalmers.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

III

Antithesis Between Faithfulness And Apostasy In The Circle Of Disciples Itself. The Life Feast Over Lazarus An Anticipatory Celebration Of The Death Of Jesus. The Anointing (Of The Messiah, At The Beginning Of The Six Days’ Work Of His Passion, The New Six Days’ Work For The Redemption And Glorification Of The World)

Joh_12:1-8

(Mat_26:6-16; Mar_14:3-11; Luk_22:3-6.)

1Then Jesus [therefore], six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which [who] had been dead,1 whom he [Jesus]2 raised from the dead. 2There they made him a supper [dinner];3 and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat [reclined] at the table with him. 3Then took Mary a pound of ointment of [pure] spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped [dried]4 his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of 4the ointment. Then saith [Judas Iscariot] one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son [omit Simon’s son],5 which should betray him [who was about to betray him], 5Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence [denâries],6 6and given to the poor? This [however] he said, not that [because] he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag [kept the purse], and bare 7[laid hold of, took away] what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone; against the day of my burying hath she kept this [Suffer her that she may keep this for (or, until) the day of my burial].7 8For the poor always ye have [ye have always] with you; but me ye have not always. 8

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Joh_12:1. Jesus therefore came.—The οὖν is certainly not designed merely to resume the story of Jesus (Meyer); neither does it declare simply that Jesus went consciously and freely to meet death (Luthardt). It is preparatory to the fact that Jesus Himself showed Himself to the Sanhedrists in the most public manner. The edict commanding that information should be given of the hidden Jesus, was answered by Him with the palm-entry. (Starke, from harmonistic interest, supposes two anointings in Bethany, one at the house of Simon, two days before the Passover, the other at the house of Lazarus, six days before the Passover.)

Six days before the Passover.9—See Comm. on Matt., John 26 [Am., ed, p. 454 ff., and Robinson’s Harmony, pp. 207 and 212 ff.—P. S.] The 15th of Nisan was the dying day of Jesus, a Friday; six days before, therefore, was the Sabbath (the 9th of Nisan). We learn here that a day intervened between the departure of Jesus from Ephraim (and Jericho) and the palm-entry on Sunday; this day is passed over by the Synoptists, who place the palm-entry in immediate connection with the departure from Jericho. In accordance with the more exact statement of John, we must suppose that Jesus left Jericho on Friday, in company with the festive caravan, and arrived in the neighborhood of the Mount of Olives. Here they rested during the Sabbath. On the evening of that day, after the legal Sabbath time, the meal was prepared for Him at which the anointing occurred.10

Upon the difference which Meyer and others pretend to discover between John and the Synoptists see the Comm. on Matthew; see the same on the motives which induced the Synoptists to transpose chronologically the story of the anointing, and make it introductory to the history of the Passion.

Meyer reckons with Ewald from the 14th back to the 8th of Nisan; he also asserts, however, that it was a Sabbath, in accordance with the false assumption that Jesus died on the 14th of Nisan, and yet on a Friday. Grotius, Tholuck, Wieseler and others fix upon Friday, because the law regulating a Sabbath day’s journey forbids the arrival in Bethany on the Sabbath. Hence, according to Tholuck, the feast was on Friday evening. But certainly the caravan of pilgrims to the feast might be encamped on the Sabbath around the Mount of Olives, and thus extend itself into the vicinity of Bethany. Theophylact and Lücke are in favor of the 9th Nisan. Others reckon it to have been Sunday (De Wette) others Monday (Baur). The matter is confused by prejudice respecting the difference between John and the Synoptists, and by the different ways of reckoning,—from the 14th or 15th Nisan. (Upon the calculation of this date see Jacobi, Stud. u. Kritik. 1838, No. 4; Wieseler, Chronol., p. 377; Wichelhaus, Leidensgeschichte, p. 147.)

The trajectio verborum πρὸ ἓξ ἡμερῶν instead of ἓξ ἡμέραις πρό seems to have been made for the sake of emphasis: perchance, before the great six days’ work or Hexaëmeron of this passover.

Where Lazarus was.—Made prominent as a continual living sign of the glory of Jesus; also in particular as a motive for the anointing of Mary, for the palm-entry, and for the hatred of the Sanhedrin.

Joh_12:2. There they made Him a dinner (feast).—See the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark. The Jews were fond of giving entertainments at the close of the Sabbath. The following points in John’s statement are characteristic:

1. The representation of the feast as a festive celebration of the raising of Lazarus in the circle of the brother and sisters of Bethany.

2. The distinct delineation of the three,—Lazarus sits with the guests; he is therefore perfectly well; Martha serves at table, in accordance with her way, and as hostess; Mary glorifies the feast by the extraordinary anointing.

3. The manner of the anointing. “A vase of precious ointment,” says Matthew; “of pure, precious nard,” says Mark; “a pound of ointment of pure precious nard,” says John (comp. the precise mention of the one hundred pounds of spices, Joh_19:39, and other precise accounts; for instance, Joh_21:11). According to Matthew, she anoints the head of Jesus; likewise according to Mark,—breaking the flask, however; according to Matthew, she pours it on his head,—so, too, according to Mark; John gives prominence to the fact that she anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair. Manifestly this latter item does not exclude the former ones; to John, however, this strong expression of adoration and devotion is the main point.

The trait reported by John reminds us of the anointing of the feet of Jesus by the great sinner; from this similarity, as well as from the name of Simon in Luke, some have taken occasion, utterly without ground, to identify this history with that related by Luke Joh_7:37 ff. Furthermore John mentions that the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

4. John, who gives the most explicit account of the act of Mary, pursues the same course with regard to the censure encountered by that act. According to Matthew, the disciples were angry,—according to Mark, some had indignation,—according to John, one of the disciples, Judas, Simon’s son, the Iscariot, lifted up his voice. It is John alone, too, who distinctly characterizes Judas as a thief. We arrive at the conclusion that the murmuring originated with Judas, that it infected some of the disciples; but that the disciples generally were, by their silence, more or less concerned in this sin. John seems best to have understood Mary who, in her feeling, was in advance of the entire circle of disciples. On the other hand, John omits the promise for Mary, that her deed should be proclaimed in all the world; he mentions, however, the exceedingly significant saying: she hath kept the ointment for this day.

Joh_12:3. A pound.11—According to Olshausen, this unwonted measure of ointment employed by her was an expression of love; Meyer corrects him: she did not anoint with the pound, but from it. But John writes,—she took the pound and the house was filled with the odor; Mark writes that she broke the vase. Had not the anointing in its heroic measure given rise to the appearance of prodigality, Judas would hardly have ventured to speak, and would have still less met with assent among the disciples. “Who knows whether it was a Roman or a Greek pound? And the ancient Greek pound was but half as large as the Roman pound, while that, again, does not equal our pound.” Braune. Comp. Comm. on Matthew. p. 463, Am. Ed.

Anointed the feet.—“The anointing of the head at feasts was a customary thing, and might have been passed over by the Evangelist in order to mention the unusual demonstration of love for which the remainder of the ointment might be employed. To wash the feet with tepid water, and then to anoint them with costly oil, is mentioned in the Talmud tr. Menachoth as a duty of maid-servants.” Tholuck. Braune gives prominence to the fact, that the anointing of the feet was also particularly noticeable to John, since he reclined by the side of Jesus and the anointing of the feet took place close behind him

Joh_12:5. For three hundred denâries [i.e., between forty-five and fifty dollars gold. See Text. Note 6.—P. S.]. See Comm. on Matthew. The precise estimation is characteristic. Indicative of the wealth of the family. [Utterly inconsistent with Hengstenberg’s hypothesis of the identity of the historic Lazarus with the poor Lazarus of the parable.—P. S.]

Joh_12:6. He kept the purse, γλωσσόκομον, cash repository.12 Luther, significantly and expressively: the purse (Beutel). The common cash-box, made up by male and female disciples (Luk_8:3), to supply the common wants. Alms for the poor likewise (Joh_13:29) were of course taken from this coffer. This keeping of the cash must have been connected with a corresponding talent possessed by Judas; that talent, however, was, in its turn, connected with the temptation that made him a thief; and thus a connection exists between his chiliastic views of the kingdom of Christ and the despondency which led him to turn traitor (see Comm. on Matthew, John 10). He proved himself a thief by his management of the coffer. He laid hold of what was put therein. He put aside for himself a portion of what others offered. Βαστάζειν may mean: he bore, kept (portabat) what was donated (Vulgate, Luther, Lücke, etc., Luthardt), [De Wette, Alford, Ebrard, Hengstenberg, Ewald, Godet], and he bore away, stole (aufcrebat), he abstracted the deposits (Origen, Nonnus and others, Meyer). Stress has been laid upon the article, as opposed to the latter view. It is inconceivable that Judas should have purloined everything. Be it observed that βαστάζειν also means to lay hold of, to touch, to handle.13 We adopt this intermediate signification: he laid violent hands on the money and especially on the alms. His lusting after the three hundred denâries renders him not simply heartless towards Mary’s beautiful act, but it also makes him a hypocrite.

With reference to the apparent singularity of his being intrusted by Jesus with the purse, the following considerations are to be pondered:

1. The common purse itself, doubtless, did not acquire considerable importance before the final departure from Galilee; 2. the appointment of the cashier was probably a general determination of the disciples rather than a matter with which Christ particularly concerned Himself. Compare the institution of deacons, Act_6:3. 3. The disciples must learn by experience that their reliance upon the brilliant talent of Judas—in accordance with this trust, doubtless, he was introduced by their intercession into the circle of the apostles (see Comm. on Matthew)—was even in this point premature. 4. Jesus committed the bag to him, not indeed to deprive him of all excuse for his treason (Chrysostom and others), but He committed it to him having respect to his destiny, and because such a character might better be cured by confidence than by mistrust. 5. We are guilty of a wondrous over-estimation of the cashiership in relation to the apostolic dignity, if we think that a man intrusted with the former is beset with greater difficulties than one upon whom the latter is conferred. The Lord in a measure intrusted Judas with Himself and His life; it was a small thing for Him to commit the money-bag to his keeping. So the grand question would again be: wherefore He called him (hereupon comp. Leben Jesu, II. p. 693 and 700). Since Jesus could venture to have Judas for His apostle, He might well risk having him for His cashier. 6. The history, it is probable, was also intended to be expressive of the standard by which the purse was here estimated in relation to higher good things, and it should be a significant warning to the Church not to reckon upon the security of an accumulation of external church-property.

Joh_12:7. That she may keep this [τηρήση, spoken proleptically, and therefore, like all similar expressions of our Lord, somewhat enigmatically] for the day of my burial.—See the Textual Notes. We do not understand the reading of Lachmann as Meyer does: Let her alone that she may (not give this oil, a portion of which she has just used to anoint My feet, to the poor, but) keep it for the day of My embalming. Meyer means, namely, on the actual day of burial. In this we can detect nought of the “odor of the ointment.” The sense is: Permit her to keep the ointment (which she might already have used at the burial of Lazarus and which would not keep well in thy bag) for the day of My burial (which is now ideally present with the outbreak of thy malignity). In this we, at the same time, read the declaration that she, though without being clearly conscious of His approaching death, did entertain a foreboding presentiment of it and offered this great sacrifice of love as her farewell to Him. Baumgarten-Crusius: Suffer her, that she may have kept; Luthardt: that she has reserved. These explanations too are grammatically proper in the sense: leave her this, do not grudge her this,—that she has kept it and is even now saving it from your bag for the anointing of My body unto death. We are of opinion that the τηρεῖν also contains an allusion to the infidelity of Judas; a reference which, as well as the numerous authorities, recommends this reading; and we deny the need for the explanation that the reading originated in the necessity for meeting the objection urging the later occurrence of the embalming (Lücke.)

Joh_12:8. For the poor, etc. See Com. on Matthew on the same passage.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See the Comm. on Matthew and Mark. The anointing of the Messiah, the Anointed One, previous to His public procession as the Messiah and entry into Jerusalem: (1) By whom anointed? The Christ by a grateful, presageful Christian woman. (2) Wherewith anointed? With flowing ointment, with precious balm, the offering of devoted love. (3) How anointed? On the head and feet. The hair which adorned the head of His disciple, appropriated to His service. (4) Whereunto anointed? To His high-priestly sacrificial death as the completion of His life-work (to the six days’ work of His Passion, as the preliminary condition of His Sabbath). With a foreboding presentiment, half consciously, half unconsciously, well known to the Spirit of God.

2. The six days before the Passover (until the death of Jesus) the six days of Christ’s great toil and labor. Comp. Isa_63:1 ff. and the symbolism of the number six in Joh_2:6.

3. The post-celebration of the raising of Lazarus at the same time the pre-celebration of the death of Jesus. This connection makes the death of Jesus appear in a peculiar sense a sacrifice for His friends and His friend in Bethany.

4. The festive celebration of the Bethanian family in honor of the Lord a symbol of the feasts of the living communion in the Church, and of the heavenly feast.

5. The involuntary similarity in the anointing of the great disciple and that of the great sinner [Luk_7:36.—P. S.] The contrast and its equalization. The disciple as a sinner,—the sinner as a disciple,—at the feet of Jesus.—If the washing of a pilgrim’s feet denoted the termination of the little journey of a day, so the anointing of the feet of Jesus with oil might be indicative of the end of His glorious life-pilgrimage. Thus too did the great sinner anoint the feet of Jesus, wetting them with her tears—those feet which had drawn near to rescue her. But in our anointing there is a predominant reference forwards, to the death of Jesus, in accordance with His explanation.

6. The contrast between the heavenly offering and life-portrait of Mary and the hellish malice and death-portrait of Judas. Faith’s half-conscious presentiment of the death of Jesus and of its import, within the breast of Mary. The already half-conscious thought of the betrayal to death in the soul of Judas. The evangelic hearty acquiescence of Mary in the Passion of Christ. The anti-christian self-will of Judas in his obduracy. The deed of the innermost heart and the words of the outermost hypocrisy. Over against the first ripe Christian woman stands the first ripe anti-christ. Heaven and hell in their manifestations drawn up in close opposition.

7. The silence of Mary, the speech of Jesus.

8. Christ suffers no sort of hypocrisy to obtain dominion in His Church; neither hypocrisy of prayer nor of fasting, nor humanistic eleemosynary hypocrisy.

9. The doctrine of Judas is at bottom self-destroying. If every one should sell the precious ointment, in order to give it to the poor, it would be rendered worthless. Judas must therefore assume: the ointment is too good for Christ; it is for people of higher rank, or the moment is not one of sufficient importance. Pauperism.

10. Antithesis between the fixed affairs and exercises in the kingdom of God and the unique, irrecoverable moments; and the subordination of the former to the latter.

11. An evangelic flash of light, illuminating the subject of church-property, the temptations of administration and the dangers of an increase of property in the common treasury (see Act_5:1).

12. The gradual hardening of Judas at the two feasts of the glory and grace of Christ. Great operations of grace are succeeded in false minds by a great reaction of wickedness.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

In what way Jesus, upon the edict of the Sanhedrin commanding that information should be given against Him, Himself appears by making the palm-entry into Jerusalem.—The six workdays or Passion-days of Christ until Easter.—The feast at Bethany or the trio (Lazarus and his sisters) in three different meetings with the Lord: 1. The visit of Jesus: Lazarus probably at his business, Martha serving, Mary learning at Jesus’ feet [Luke 10]. 2. The return of Jesus: Lazarus in the grave, Martha busy about the grave of Lazarus, Mary with her tears at the feet of Jesus [John 11]. 3. The departure of Jesus: Lazarus at the table, participating in the feast, Martha the festive hostess, Mary with the costly ointment at Jesus’ feet [John 12]. Or: 1. The school of the word; 2. the battle-ground of distress; 3. the feast of salvation.—The festival in Bethany compared with the festival of the Lord’s Supper. Agreement, difference.—The house was filled with the odor of the ointment.—The anointing in its signification: 1. The expression of the most heartfelt gratitude, 2. of the most solemn veneration and homage, 3. of the deepest humility, 4. of the most devoted love, 5. of the holiest sorrow, 6. of the boldest confidence.—How Mary by her spirit of sacrifice manifests her budding courage in the face of the cross and death.—The discipless, a ripe Christian heart, uncomprehended even in the circle of the disciples, and in advance of most of the disciples.—Mary and Judas.—The two in their participation in the death of Jesus.—Self-denial, in its heavenly brilliance, over against selfishness, in hellish darkness.—The connection of fanaticism and avarice in the soul of Judas (after the prelude of Balaam).—How the secrets of hell come to light face to face with the secrets of heaven.—The Lord’s defence of Mary in its eternal signification: 1. A defence of a festive spirit in opposition to hypocritical sadness, 2. of great love-offerings in opposition to a hypocritical reckoning, 3. of holy spending (prodigality) in opposition to a hypocritical pauperism.—The perception of the unique moments of life.—The censure of Judas, merely as a rude disturbance of the feast, immoral and reprehensible; on the other hand, the reproof of Christ gentle, mild, in accordance with the festive spirit and intelligible in its hidden sharpness to the disturber of the peace alone.—The separation between Christ and the poor made by Judas, was opposed to the spirit of Christ (see Mat_25:35). For: 1. In the true veneration of Christ consists the most effectual caring for the poor; 2. true care for the poor ministers to Christ in the poor.—While, therefore, Christ accedes to the separation of Judas, He at the same time pronounces His judgment upon the false, externalized care of the poor. (Externalized poverty itself is forever at your heels; it is inexterminable; but Christ, meanwhile, is vanishing from you).—The contradiction in the censure of Judas. If Christ should not be anointed with the precious ointment, who then should? People of rank? Manifestly, the Lord has grown small and poor in his sight, and the polite world rich and great.—The offence of Judas: 1. The fair, festive joy augments his gloom, 2. the celebration of the honor of Jesus his envy, 3. the princely munificence his avarice, 4. the mild reproof his exasperation against Him, 5. the heavenly calmness with which Jesus saw through him the dark self-confusion in which he surrendered himself to the influences of Satan.—The false antithesis which Judas makes between Christ and the poor: 1. It asperses the Lord; 2. it asperses poverty.—A prelude to pauperism.—The judgment upon this pauperism: 1. It loses the Christ; 2. it retains the poor.—How the spirit of Christ is victorious over the disturbances of the feast.

Starke: Zeisius: Though Christ gave place for a time to the rage of His enemies, He, nevertheless, returns in accordance with His divine vocation; duty, therefore, must not be abandoned by a teacher or by any Christian on account of danger.—Hedinger: Love spares no expense.—Canstein: All Christ’s friends, when they have been awakened by Him, sup with Him in the kingdom of grace (Rev_3:20), and when He shall have aroused them from bodily death at the last day, they shall sit with Him at His table in the kingdom of glory, Luk_16:22; Luk_22:30.—That which is spent on Christ is not wasted but well employed.—Cramer: Even in extreme persecution God does not leave His own without comfort and refreshment.—A friend of Christ gladly lays out all that he has, even to the very choicest of his possessions, in testimony of his love to his Saviour.—Nothing more shameful than ingratitude.—Zeisius: Hypocrites always find something to censure in the works and conduct of honest Christians.—Ibid.: Judas is a true type of wicked church-patrons, directors, managers of ecclesiastical estates, who, under cover of all sorts of specious reasons, secure to themselves the funds, benefices and revenues and do not restore them).—Christ espouses the cause of His people and defends them faithfully.—Piscator: Men, impelled by the Holy Ghost, frequently perform an important action without comprehending its significance.

Braune: What a feast was that where the noble Simon, gratefully rejoicing in his health, was host; Lazarus, the visible trophy of life’s triumph over death; friend Martha, personating business-like alacrity, is the waitress; but where Mary, as thoughtful love, brings precious oil, and Jesus, the Son of God, going to a death upon the cross, appears as guest, to refresh Himself on the way! Here is a table prepared for Him in the presence of His enemies, and His head is anointed with oil, Psa_23:5.—To John, Bethany is as one house, and families friendly to Jesus (the house of Simon the leper, the house of Lazarus and his sisters) are as one family.—1Ti_6:10.—Like Mary, prevent death, that death may not prevent thee and cut off thine opportunity.—Gossner: Mary. With her what was outward proceeded from within, as it always should be.—The odor of her ointment, etc. How the glorious odor of the gospel fills all Christendom, and particularly the house of a heart that receives it.—Judas betrayed that he would rather have money in his purse than his Saviour in his heart.—Yes, to such lengths do abuses go that the thief, avarice, covetousness, the devil, steals into the apostolic college.—Ointments were preserved among the household treasures until burial.—It is true that we have Jesus always with us in the poor, but His presence with us is not always to be felt. Therefore when He discloses Himself so perceptibly, as if we saw Him, as if He were corporeally and visibly present, we must profit by this occasion and not forsake Him for the sake of outside works that can be performed at another time.

Schleiermacher: The human kindliness and pleasantness of the Redeemer.—As Christians, who have become what they are by the death of the Lord, death itself must remain a something continually present to us all. But gladsomeness of heart is just what turns even the continual thought of death into something that does not annoy us in the cheerful moments of social life.—Mallet: The odor of the ointment. Thus the house had suddenly become the very opposite of the grave (there a savor of mould,—here a savor of life).—The days of glory and the cross in Jerusalem stand in the closest connection with the occurrences in Bethany.

[Craven: From Augustine: Joh_12:6. Judas was already a thief, and followed our Lord in body, not in heart: wherein we are taught the duty of tolerating wicked men in the Church (for a season.—E. R. C.)—It is not surprising that Judas who was accustomed to steal money from the bag, should betray our Lord for money.—In the person of Judas are represented the wicked in the Church.—From Alcuin: Joh_12:1. As the time approached in which our Lord had resolved to suffer, He approached the place He had chosen for the scene of His suffering.

Joh_12:2. The Lord’s Supper is the faith of the Church working by love.—Martha serveth, whenever a believing soul devotes itself to the worship of the Lord.—Lazarus is one of them that sit at table when those who have been raised from the death of sin, rejoice together with the righteous, in the presence of truth, and are fed with the gifts of heavenly grace.——From Burkitt: Joh_12:1. Our Lord’s example teaches us that although we are bound by all lawful means to preserve ourselves from the violence of persecutors, yet when God’s time for our suffering is come we ought to set our faces cheerfully toward it.

Joh_12:3. When strong love prevails in the heart nothing is adjudged too dear for Christ.

Joh_12:4-6. How does a covetous heart think every thing too good for Christ.

Joh_12:5-7. Men may, through ignorance or prejudice, censure those actions which God commends.——From M. Henry: Joh_12:1. As there is a time when we are allowed to shift for our own preservation, so there is a time when we are called to jeopard our lives for God.

Joh_12:2. Martha served: Our Lord had formerly reproved her for being troubled with much serving, she did not therefore leave off all serving as some who being reproved for one extreme run into another.—Better a waiter at Christ’s table than a guest at the table of a prince.—Lazarus—sat at the table with Him: Those whom Christ has raised up to a spiritual life, are made to sit together with Him, Eph_2:6

Joh_12:3. The act of Mary manifested a love—1. generous, 2. condescending (self-humbling), 3. believing.—God’s Anointed (Messiah) should be our Anointed—with the ointment of our best affections (and service). Honors done to Christ are to God and men an offering of a sweet smelling savor.

Joh_12:4. It is possible for the worst of men to lurk under the disguise of the best profession.

Joh_12:4-5. Coldness of love to Christ in professors of religion is a sad presage of final apostasy.

Joh_12:5. Here is—1. a foul iniquity gilded over with a specious pretence; 2. worldly wisdom passing censure on pious zeal; 3. charity to the poor made a color for opposing an act of piety to Christ.—Many excuse themselves for laying out in charity, under pretence of laying up for charity.—Proud men think all ill advised who do not advise with them.

Joh_12:6. Judas the purse-bearer: Strong inclinations to sin within, are often furnished with strong temptations to sin without.—He was a thief: The reigning love of money is heart-theft, as much as anger and revenge are heart-murder.—Judas who betrayed his trust, soon after betrayed his Master.

Joh_12:7. Against the day of My burying hath she kept this: Providence often so affords opportunity to Christians that the expressions of their pious zeal prove to be more seasonable and beautiful than any foresight of their own could make them.

Joh_12:8. The good which may be done at any time, ought to give way to that which cannot be done but just now.——From Stier: Joh_12:4-5. The censure of Judas echoed by the other Apostles (see Mat_26:8-9; Mar_14:4; also the ye of Joh_12:8): 1. “Censure infects like a plague;” 2. Could we but know the wicked origin of many of the judgments which we thoughtlessly echo, the Judas-heart from which springs many of the current criticisms of books and things (and men)—how should we recoil from them!—An example of those views and judgments which have their foundation in the principle of utilitarianism falsely applied—1. to the wounding of pious hearts; 2. to the damage of that justifiable cultus which, (1) aims worthily to express the sentiments of reverence and love, (2) is in itself productive of highest blessing.—An example of—1. the “cold judgments passed upon the virtuous emotions of warm hearts;” 2. the more or less conscious or unconscious censures of the artless outgoings of honest feelings; 3. the narrow-minded criticism of others according to our own mind and temper; 4. that slavish spirit which metes out all good works by rigid rule.

Joh_12:7-8 (see also Mat_26:10-13; Mar_14:6-9). Christ’s affectionate and sympathetic justification of the wounded Mary;—1. He surpasses the blame of the disciples by His own instant praise and consolation; 2. Behold the moral æsthetics in the estimation of human acts which He teaches and requires—He commends the deed as deriving its value from the state of the soul thereby expressed; 3. He corrects the errors of human judgment as to what is great and noble in human works—the greatness of the result gives them not their value, but the intention; 4. Observe the deepest ground of His verdict—she hath done it unto Me (Matt. and Mark)—love for Him (for God) the first, and most essential regulating measure of all good and lovely works.—Be confident, misunderstood soul—He knows thee and thy purpose; even if His disciples blame, He will justify thee both now and hereafter.

Joh_12:7. The beautiful work (καλὸν ἔργον) of love elevated, interpreted and glorified into a prophetic act; Jesus establishes from its providential significance its moral propriety. (?)

Joh_12:8. No agragrian law can abolish the poverty which is ever being reproduced; we must, indeed, give with the wisdom of charity, but without hoping that giving will make poverty cease.—From Barnes: Joh_12:6. He was a thief and had the bag: Every man is tried according to his native propensity—the object of trial is to bring out a man’s native character.

Joh_12:4-6. Learn that—1. it is no new thing for members of the Church to be covetous; 2. such members will be those who complain of the great waste in spreading the gospel; 3. this passion will work all evil in a Church (even the betrayal of our Lord, Joh_12:4).—From Williams: Joh_12:3-5. Observe the nature of the action selected by our Lord as the one above all others that should receive an earthly memorial (Mat_26:13); it was—1. wrought in a private room; 2. an expression of loving, reverential thanksgiving; 3. not to please men, but for the simple purpose of doing honor to Jesus.

Joh_12:5. But for the reproof of Judas the costliness of Mary’s offering had not been known and honored—the evil eye (and tongue) of the wicked serves to do honor to God’s servants.—From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh_12:3. Can we wonder at the love of Mary? Lazarus was at the table!

Joh_12:2-3. Christ at the table with the Leper who was cleansed (Mat_26:6) and with the dead man whom He had raised to life—a figure of His Church when he who is cleansed and he who is raised from the death of sin, sit with Christ, and eat and drink in His kingdom which is filled with the odor of His Death.—(Altered from Williams).

Joh_12:5-7. The offering of Mary the most expensive she could procure: Our Lord’s commendation is—1. the abiding warrant for munificence on every similar occasion; 2. the perpetual rebuke of those who think that anything is good enough for the House of God, while they deny themselves in no luxury at home.

Joh_12:6. Christ suffered Judas to remain amongst the Apostles—teaching us not to look for a Church (or a ministry) where all shall be saints.

Joh_12:8. The poor always with the Church, in order that His people may always show them kindness for His sake.—From Ryle: Joh_12:2. The supper a type of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Joh_12:5. A specimen of the way in which wicked men often try to depreciate a good action, by suggesting that something better might have been done.

Joh_12:6. Multitudes, like Judas, excuse themselves from one class of duties by pretended zeal for others—they compensate neglecting Christ’s cause by affecting concern for the poor.—It is the successors of Mary and not of Judas who really care for the poor.—He was a thief, and yet an Apostle—privileges alone convert nobody.—A man may go far in Christian profession without inward grace.

Joh_12:7. Christians do not always know the full meaning of what they do—God uses them as His instruments.

Joh_12:8. The existence of pauperism is no proof that States are ill governed or that Churches are not doing their duty.—Relieving the poor is not so important a work as doing honor to Christ. (During His absence from us is He not honored by our ministering to the poor (Mat_25:40; Mat_25:45)?—E. R. C.)

Joh_12:8. Me ye have not always: These words overthrow the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation.—From Owen: Joh_12:4-5 (in connection with Mat_26:8; Mar_14:4). How pernicious, even upon good men, may be the example and influence of one, who with apparently charitable motive decries the benevolence that would surrender all for Christ.—The Evangelist does not seek to cover up the disgrace brought upon the family of Christ by having cherished so long in its number this bad man: it is thus (by their honesty) that the sacred writers manifest the truthfulness of their statements.

Joh_12:8. The inference is clear that it is a Christian duty to relieve the wants of the poor.]

Footnotes:

[1]Joh_12:1.—[In Cod. Sin. B. L. X. ὁ τεθνηκὠς is wanting, on which account Lachmann and Alford have bracketed the words, and Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort have omitted them. Probably this purposely significant term was employed as expressive of the fact that a man who had lately been dead did, by means of the miracle of Christ, appear as one of the guests at the feast. It is, however, superfluous, the fact being sufficiently indicated without it.—P. S.]

[2]Joh_12:1.—[Tischendorf, Alford, etc., read Ἰησοῦς in accordance with Sin. A. B. D. e.g., etc. The text. rec. omits it.—P. S.]

[3]Joh_12:2.—[δεῖπνον should perhaps be better translated dinner or feast, than supper, for it was the chief meal of the Jews, as also of the Greeks and Romans, taken after the work and heat of the day early in the evening and often prolonged into the night. ἄριστον is breakfast, lunch.—P. S.]

[4]Joh_12:3.—[ἐκμάσσω or ἐκμάττω, to wipe off, to wipe dry, in poets and later prose writers, for the Attic ἀπομόργνυμι and ἐξομόργνυμι.—P. S.]

[5]Joh_12:4.—Instead of Ἰούδας Σίμωνος ̓Ισκαριώτης in accordance with Codd. A. Q. and the Recepta, Tischendorf simply reads Ἰσκαρ. in accordance with Cod. B. and several minuscules. Σίμωνος appears doubtful, being now become superfluous. Omitted also from the Sin. [Tischendorf, ed. 8, Alford, Westcott and Hort read Ιοῦδας ὁ Ἰσκαριώτης, without Σίμωνος.—P. S.]

[6]Joh_12:6.—[A δηνάριον (Lat. denarius=10 asses), a Roman coin, is equal to the Attic drachma, about 15 or 17 cents of our money. Three hundred denarii therefore are about £9 16s. sterling, or from 45 to 50 Am. dollars. The E. V. gives a very false idea of the value of this ointment. Dimes or shillings (in the New York sense) would come nearer.—P. S.]

[7]Joh_12:7.—Instead of εἰς τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ ἐνταφιασμοῦ τετήρηκεν [hath kept] αὐτό (comp. Mar_14:8), Lachmann and Tischendorf [Alford, Westcott and Hort] read in accordance with א. B. D. K. L. and others, Vulgate and other translations and Fathers: ἵνα εἰς τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ ἐνταφιασμοῦ τ ηρήσῃ [may keep]. The Sin. likewise.

[8]Joh_12:8.—The eighth verse is wanting in Cod. D. “and might be suspected of having been introduced from Mat_26:11; Mar_14:7, if it came before ἄφες, and the characteristic order of the words were the same as in the Synoptists (πάντοτε first).” Meyer. Here, however, the complete preponderance of Codd. is alone decisive in favor of the verse. [Tischendorf, ed. 8, Alford and Westcott and Hort retain it.—P. S.]

[9][πρὸ ἓξ ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα, instead of ἓξ ἡμέραις πρὸ τοῦ πάσχα, is no Latinism (ante six dies, instead of six dies ante pascha), but very frequent in later Greek writers (Philo, Josephus, Plutarch, Appian, etc.), see Winer, p. 518 f., 7th ed. The same combination is formed with μετά, and in local specifications, comp. Joh_11:18, ὡς ἀπὸ σταδίων δεκαπέντε. Greswell (as quoted by Alford) defines the expression to be exclusive of the period named as the limit ad quem or a quo (according as πρό or μετά may be used), but inclusive of the day or month or year of the occurrence specified.—P. S.]

[10][Wordsworth: “This Supper at Bethany was probably on the Sabbath before-is death. It was on a Sabbath—the Sabbath before that great Sabbath, on which Christ rested in the grave and fulfilled the Sabbath, and prepared the grave as a place of rest for all who pass from this life in His faith and fear.” He also allegorizes on the meaning of Bethany, a house of passage, as prefiguring the passage to the spiritual banquet in Paradise.—P. S.]

[11][The Greek λίτρα, the Latin libra, a pound, was adopted into the Aramaic, and is found in the Rabbinical writings as equivalent to a mina (see Friedlieb, Archäol. der Leidensgesch., p. 33, quoted by Alford). The Roman libra was divided into 12 ounces, and was equivalent to nearly 12 ounces avoirdupois—P. S.]

[12][Lit., a tongue-box (from γλώσσα and κομἑω) or reed-case for keeping the tongues or mouth-pieces of pipes and flutes; then any kind of chest, or box, or pouch, or purse for money. Found only in late writers. Mark the striking contrast between the money-box of Judas and the alabaster box of Mary, his thirty pieces of silver and her three hundred denâries, his love of money and her liberality, his hypocritical profession of concern for the poor and her noble deed for the Lord, his wretched end and her blessed memory throughout the Christian world to the end of time.—P. S.]

[13][Meyer, while substantially agreeing with Lange, objects that βαστάζειν means to seize only in the literal sense of ψηλαφᾶν (Suidas).—P. S.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

LOVE’S PRODIGALITY CENSURED AND VINDICATED

Joh 12:1 - Joh 12:11.

Jesus came from Jericho, where He had left Zacchaeus rejoicing in the salvation that had come to his house, and whence Bartimaeus, rejoicing in His new power of vision, seems to have followed Him. A few hours brought Him to Bethany, and we know from other Evangelists what a tension of purpose marked Him, and awed the disciples, as He pressed on before them up the rocky way. His mind was full of the struggle and death which were so near. The modest village feast in the house of Simon the leper comes in strangely amid the gathering gloom; but, no doubt, Jesus accepted it, as He did everything, and entered into the spirit of the hour. He would not pain His hosts by self-absorbed aloofness at the table. The reason for the feast is obviously the raising of Lazarus, as is suggested by his being twice mentioned in Joh 12:1 - Joh 12:2.

Our Lord had withdrawn to Ephraim so immediately after the miracle that the opportunity of honouring Him had not occurred. It was a brave tribute to pay Him in the face of the Sanhedrim’s commandment {Joh 11:57}. This incident sets in sharpest contrast the two figures of Mary, the type of love which delights to give its best, and Judas, the type of selfishness which is only eager to get; and it shows us Jesus casting His shield over the uncalculating giver, and putting meaning into her deed.

I. In Eastern fashion, the guests seem to have all been males, no doubt the magnates of the village, and Jesus with His disciples.

The former would have become accustomed to seeing Lazarus, but Christ’s immediate followers would gaze curiously on him. And how he would gaze on Jesus, whom he had probably not seen since the napkin had been taken from his face. The two sisters were true to their respective characters. The bustling, practical Martha had perhaps not very fine or quickly moved emotions. She could not say graceful things to their benefactor, and probably she did not care to sit at His feet and drink in His teaching; but she loved Him with all her heart all the same, and showed it by serving. No doubt, she took care that the best dishes were carried to Jesus first, and, no doubt, as is the custom in those lands, she plied Him with invitations to partake. We do Martha less than justice if we do not honour her, and recognise that her kind of service is true service. She has many successors among Christ’s true followers, who cannot ‘gush’ nor rise to the heights of His loftiest teaching, but who have taken Him for their Lord, and can, at any rate, do humble, practical service in kitchen or workshop. Their more ‘intellectual’ or poetically emotional brethren are tempted to look down on them, but Jesus is as ready to defend Martha against Mary, if she depreciates her, as He is to vindicate Mary’s right to her kind of expression of love, if Martha should seek to force her own kind on her sister. ‘There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.’

Mary was one of the unpractical sort, whom Martha is very apt to consider supremely useless, and often to lose patience with. Could she not find something useful to do in all the bustle of the feast? Had she no hands that could carry a dish, and no common sense that could help things on? Apparently not. Every one else was occupied, and how should she show the love that welled up in her heart as she looked at Lazarus sitting there beside Jesus? She had one costly possession, the pound of perfume. Clearly it was her own, for she would not have taken it if Lazarus and Mary had been joint owners. So, without thinking of anything but the great burden of love which she blessedly bore, she ‘poured it on His head’ {Mark} and on His feet, which the fashion of reclining at meals made accessible to her, standing behind Him, True love is profuse, not to say prodigal. It knows no better use for its best than to lavish it on the beloved, and can have no higher joy than that. It does not stay to calculate utility as seen by colder eyes. It has even a subtle delight in the very absence of practical results, for the expression of itself is the purer thereby. A basin of water and a towel would have done as well or better for washing Christ’s feet, but not for relieving Mary’s full heart. Do we know anything of that omnipotent impulse? Can we complacently set our givings beside Mary’s?

II. Judas is the foil to Mary.

His sullen, black selfishness, stretching out hands like talons in eagerness to get, makes more radiant, and is itself made darker by, her shining deed of love. Goodness always rouses evil to self-assertion, and the other Evangelists connect Mary’s action with Judas’s final treachery as part of its impelling cause. They also show that his specious objection, by its apparent common sense and charitableness, found assent in the disciples. Three hundred pence worth of good ointment wasted which might have helped so many poor! Yes, and how much poorer the world would have been if it had not had this story! Mary was more utilitarian than her censors. She served the highest good of all generations by her uncalculating profusion, by which the poor have gained more than some few of them might have lost.

Judas’s criticism is still repeated. The world does not understand Christian self-sacrifice, for ends which seem to it shadowy as compared with the solid realities of helping material progress or satisfying material wants. A hundred critics, who do not do much for the poor themselves, will descant on the waste of money in religious enterprises, and smile condescendingly at the enthusiasts who are so unpractical. But love knows its own meaning, and need not be abashed by the censure of the unloving.

John flashes out into a moment’s indignation at the greed of Judas, which was masquerading as benevolence. His scathing laying bare of Judas’s mean and thievish motive is no mere suspicion, but he must have known instances of dishonesty. When a man has gone so far in selfish greed that he has left common honesty behind him, no wonder if the sight of utterly self-surrendering love looks to him folly. The world has no instruments by which it can measure the elevation of the godly life. Mary would not be Mary if Judas approved of her or understood her.

III. Jesus vindicates the act of His censured servant.

His words fall into two parts, of which the former puts a meaning into Mary’s act, of which she probably had not been aware, while the latter meets the carping criticism of Judas. That Jesus should see in the anointing a reference to His burying, pathetically indicates how that near end filled His thoughts, even while sharing in the simple feast. The clear vision of the Cross so close did not so absorb Him as to make Him indifferent either to Mary’s love or to the villagers’ humble festivity. However weighed upon, His heart was always sufficiently at leisure from itself to care for His friends and to defend them. He accepts every offering that love brings, and, in accepting, gives it a significance beyond the offerer’s thought. We know not what use He may make of our poor service; but we may be sure that, if that which we can see to is right-namely, its motive,-He will take care of what we cannot see to-namely, its effect,-and will find noble use for the sacrifices which unloving critics pronounce useless waste.

‘The poor always ye have with you.’ Opportunities for the exercise of brotherly liberality are ever present, and therefore the obligation to it is constant. But these permanent duties do not preclude the opportunities for such special forms of expressing special love to Jesus as Mary had shown, and as must soon end. The same sense of approaching separation as in the former clause gives pathos to that restrained ‘not always.’ The fact of His being just about to leave them warranted extraordinary tokens of love, as all loving hearts know but too well. But, over and above the immediate reference of the words, they carry the wider lesson that, besides the customary duties of generous giving laid on us by the presence of ordinary poverty and distresses, there is room in Christian experience for extraordinary outflows from the fountain of a heart filled with love to Christ. The world may mock at it as useless prodigality, but Jesus sees that it is done for Him, and therefore He accepts it, and breathes meaning into it.

‘Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.’ The Evangelist who records that promise does not mention Mary’s name; John, who does mention the name, does not record the promise. It matters little whether our names are remembered, so long as Jesus beam them graven on His heart.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 12

1. The Feast at Bethany. (Joh 12:1-8.)

2. The Entrance into Jerusalem. (Joh 12:9-19.)

3. The Inquiring Greeks and His Answer. (Joh 12:20-33.)

4. His Final Words. (Joh 12:34-50.)

From the close of the previous chapter we learn that the Lord had gone with His disciples to a city called Ephraim. Six days before the Passover He came to Bethany again. They made Him a feast. Lazarus is especially mentioned as well as Martha, who served; Mary also was present with others who were of His disciples. It is a beautiful type of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when He will have His own with Him. Lazarus represents the Saints risen from the dead, the others represent the Saints who never died, but are changed in a moment. Service is represented in Martha. Fellowship they had together in the feast with the Lord, and worship in Mary, who anointed His feet. The Synoptics record the fact that she also anointed His head; she did both and there is no discrepancy. She was deeply attached to Him and knew of the threatening danger which hung over Him as Man. She did not know the full meaning of her beautiful act, but the Lord knew and said: “Against the day of my burying hath she kept this.” And how He appreciated her love and devotion, though she had not the full intelligence of all it meant. It is devotion to Himself our Lord appreciates most in His people. Well has it been said, “She learned at His feet what she poured out there.”

A large number of Jews came to Bethany to see Him, while others came out of curiosity to see Lazarus. Then the wicked chief priests held a consultation that they might put Lazarus also to death. We do not hear another word about Lazarus after this.

His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem followed. The account of it in John’s Gospel is very brief. The people welcome Him with the Messianic welcome, “Hosanna! (Save now.) Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” That shout will be heard again in Jerusalem and then it will not be followed by the awful cry, “Crucify Him!” When He comes in power and glory as Israel’s King the believing remnant of His people will welcome Him by the same word. (See Mat 23:39.) Zechariah’s prophecy (Zec 9:9) is quoted in part, and that which was unfulfilled is omitted. But the disciples did not understand it, nor did they know that they were fulfilling prophecy. Only after “Jesus was glorified” (Joh 12:16) did they remember these things. The resurrection of Lazarus played an important part in His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Those who stood by and saw the miracle done, bore witness, and others met Him because they heard of the miracle. The testimony of His enemies was: “Behold the world is gone after Him.”

Then Greeks (Gentiles) inquired after Him, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” How great was His triumph! There was no answer to those Greeks. Before the Gentiles could come to Him, He would have to die. The hour then had come when He, the Son of Man, should be glorified. He meant the Cross and that which follows the suffering, His resurrection and ascension. By His death as Son of Man He acquired Glory and receives ultimately the Kingdoms of this world, the nations and the uttermost parts of the earth for His inheritance. He, therefore, speaks of Himself as the grain of wheat. If there is to be fruit from the one grain of wheat it must fall in to the ground and die. The grain of wheat has life in itself and when it is put into the ground that life is carried through death, to be reproduced in the many grains of wheat. The Life had to pass through death so that it might be communicated to others. The fruit springs from His death and resurrection. What a wonderful sacrifice He brought in giving His life! Believers possess the life of the grain of wheat, which passed through death and therefore are to follow Him and manifest it in a practical way. That is why He adds: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be; if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor.” Giving up, self-denial, the path He went is our path. But how glorious the promised reward!

Then He looked forward to the Cross and His soul was troubled. “Father, save Me from this hour!” This was His prayer, much like that in Gethsemane. But He also adds at once, “for this cause came I unto this hour.” He had come to die. The next request, “Father, glorify Thy Name,” is at once answered by the voice from heaven. The Father’s Name had been glorified by the Son, in a special manner the Father’s Name was glorified in the resurrection of Lazarus. The glorification in the future, “and will glorify it,” took place “when Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father.” (Rom 6:4.)

The chapter closes with the final words of our Lord to the people. Many of the chief-rulers believed on Him without making an open confession. The last words He speaks before He gathers His own around Himself are concerning the Father Who sent Him.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Anointing of Jesus. Joh 12:1-11

Jesus at supper:

v. 1. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead.

v. 2. There they made Him a supper, and Martha served; but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him.

v. 3. Then took Mary pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

See Mar 14:3-9. The evangelist marks the introduction to the great Passion of the Lord. It was six days before the festival of the Passover, which was celebrated by the Jews in commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt. The Passover proper was celebrated on the evening of the 14th of Abib, or Nisan, the spring month, and was usually taken together with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, unless one wanted to differentiate for special reasons. Six days before this day, in this instance, was Saturday, the Sabbath of the Jews. Bethany was a favorite stopping-place of Jesus, since Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, His friends, were living there. The evangelist here notes especially that Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, had his home in that town. The beloved Master, to whom the little family of disciples owed so much, was received also in this instance with every mark of loving respect. They made a supper for Him, an evening meal, after the close of the Sabbath. The busy Martha was hostess, she waited at table, the work in which she took the greatest pleasure, Luk 10:38-42. It is expressly stated that Lazarus was one of those that reclined at the table as one of the guests. There had been no illusion about his return to life. He was enjoying life and health as much as ever. While the meal was in progress, Mary, the other sister, came into the supper-room bearing a vessel containing one litra or libra (about eleven ounces avoirdupois) of genuine and very precious nard made from myrrh, the juice of the Arabian myrtle. This ointment was so costly and such a luxury that only the well-to-do could afford to use it for ordinary purposes. But Mary apparently paid no attention to this fact. As Jesus was reclining at the table, resting on His left arm, with His feet stretched somewhat to the rear, Mary not only anointed His head, as Mark and Matthew relate, but especially His feet. Profusely, lavishly, she used the precious ointment, and then wiped the Lord’s feet with her hair. It was an act of spontaneous devotion and loving loyalty. Naturally, the odor of the ointment, used in such profusion, filled not only the room, but the entire house, thus attracting attention at once, also to the costliness of the offering. It is altogether well-pleasing to the Lord if people, for love of Him, bring offerings for the adornment of churches, where the congregation comes together for worship. The factor of utility must not be emphasized to the exclusion of all other considerations when churches are built.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARRIVAL AT BETHANY

Joh 11:55-57; Joh 12:1; Joh 12:9-11. Jesus, having spent Saturday night at the house of Zaccheus, the following day travels to Bethany, twenty miles, all the way ascending the great mountains of Benjamin, on whose lofty summit is situated the Holy City, the joy of Israel and the magnetism of the whole world. It is now Sunday, preceding the Friday of His crucifixion. “And the Passover of the Jews was nigh, and many came up to Jerusalem from the country before the Passover, that they might purify themselves;” i. e., by conformity to the Levitical law, under which all who had come in contact with dead bodies, unclean animals, or Gentiles, should have some clean person sprinkle them with the water of purification. which was prepared by dropping some of the blood of a sacrificed red heifer in water, into which the hyssop was dipped, and this water of purification was sprinkled on the subject of ceremonial defilement. This was a prerequisite to their eating the Passover. Hence a great diversity of preparatory catharisms must be utilized, after their arrival at Jerusalem, before they can enjoy the Passover festival.

“Then they began to seek after Jesus, mad speak with one another, standing in the temple, What seems to you, that He may not come to the feast? The chief priests and Pharisees gave commandment that if any one Nay know where He is, he must divulge, in order that they may arrest Him.” When he came thither a dozen days previously and raised Lazarus from the dead, thus stirring the multitude to the very acme, the high priests and Pharisees had convened the Sanhedrin, and secured from them a condemnatory verdict against Him. As the period of His ministry had not yet expired, He went away beyond Jordan, and spent the time preaching the gospel, saving souls, healing the sick, and restoring sight to the blind. Now, that His enemies have secured this condemnatory verdict of the Sanhedrin, they are on the constant outlook for His arrival at Jerusalem, and determined to lay violent hands on Him. The more mighty works He did, the madder they got, as they had grieved the Holy Spirit away, and actually yielded to diabolical possession.

“Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came into Bethany, where Lazarus, who had died, was, whom He raised from the dead. Then a great multitude of the Jews found out that He is there, and came, not only on account of Jesus, but in order that they may see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.” You wonder that they did not come to Bethany to see Lazarus at an earlier date, as Jesus had raised him about two weeks ago. The explanation of that is easy: Lazarus had gone away with Jesus on His tour. Consequently they could not see him till he accompanied Him on His return.

“But the high priests passed a verdict that they would slay Lazarus, because through him many of the Jews were coming and believing on Jesus.” They had settled down in their policy to rule or ruin, having so given way to diabolical influence that reason no longer sat upon her throne in their refined and cultured intellects.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:1-50 Two stories build simultaneously. A growing number of people are praising Jesus (this climaxes in 12:12-13), and the authorities are increasingly determined to arrest him and put him to death. • John records three events that occurred just days prior to Passover (12:1-11, 12-19, 20-36). Then he explains why most of the people refused to believe and details Jesus’ final public appeal (12:37-50).

12:1 Pilgrims from throughout Israel began arriving in Jerusalem the week before the Passover. The festival was on Thursday that year; Jesus arrived late the preceding Friday, just before the Sabbath.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 12:1. Πρὸ ἓξ ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα) Six days before the Passover took place. So the Septuagint, πρὸ δύο ἐτῶν τοῦ σεισμοῦ, πρὸ τριῶν μηνῶν τοῦ θερισμοῦ [two years before the earthquake,—three months before the harvest], Amo 1:1; Amo 4:7. Add 2 Maccabees 15 :(36) 37. The day before had been the Sabbath;[308] and that was called by the Jews the great Sabbath, שבת הגדול: as the Greeks distinguish the subsequent week and the several days of it by an epithet expressive of greatness.—ΕἸς ΒΗΘΑΝΊΑΝ, to Bethany) For He had departed from it after having raised up Lazarus: ch. Joh 11:54, “Jesus—went thence—into Ephraim.” [After the Saviour had passed the night in this place (Bethany—to which He had come by way of Jericho from Ephraim), on the following day He left Bethany and came to Bethphage, which was nearer Jerusalem; and, having procured the ass and foal from a village in that quarter, He rode into the city in solemn state.—Harm., p. 440.]—ἘΚ ΝΕΚΡῶΝ) The Lat. has ‘Jesus;’ several other copies have ἐκ νεκρῶν ὁ Ἰησοῦς: ἐκ νεκρῶν is extant at Joh 12:9.[309]

[308] Therefore it was on the first day (Sunday) of the great week that the paschal Lamb, the one who bore the name in the true sense [the antitype], was set apart (comp. Exo 12:3, “In the tenth day of the month Abib, they shall take to them every man a lamb,” etc.); and from that supper, at which Jesus was made ready [by the anointing] for His burial, to the supper at which on the day of His resurrection He appeared to His disciples, a space of eight days elapsed.—Harm., p. 440.

[309] The Vers. Germ. omits this clause in the present verse, but retains the name ὁ Ἰησοῦς.—E. B.

ABDa Rec. Text retain ἐκ νεκρῶν. b and Vulg. omit the words. ABDLΔ have ὁ Ἰησοῦς (B omitting ὁ): Vulg. also has ‘Jesus.’ Xabc and Rec. Text omit it.—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_12:1-2. Οὖν] is the simply resumptive particle by which the narrative returns to Jesus, whom it had quitted at Joh_11:55. To assume a sequence from Joh_11:57, so that He is supposed to go to Bethany, either on account of His safety, or of its nearness to Jerusalem (Luthardt: so consciously and freely He went to meet death), and in order to put to shame the thought mentioned in Joh_11:55-57 (Hengstenberg), as though δέ or ἀλλά were expressed,is not supported by any indication in the text.

πρὸ ἕξ. ἡμ. τοῦ π.] six days before the Passover. Comp. Amo_1:1. Frequently thus in Plutarch, Appian, Josephus. See Kypke, I. p. 393 f. Analogously in definitions of space, as in Joh_11:18. It is no Latinism. As regards the reckoning of the six days, it is to be observed that, since the 14th Nisan, on the evening of which the paschal meal was kept, was wont to be counted as already belonging entirely to the feast (see on Mat_26:17), and hence also had been already called ἡμέρα τοῦ πάσχα (see Introd. § 2), the 13th Nisan is most naturally assumed to be the first day before the Passover; consequently the sixth day will be the 8th Nisan, i.e. (since the 14th Nisan, on which Jesus, according to John, died, was a Friday) the Saturday before Easter. So also Ebrard, Godet, and Ewald, Gesch. Chr. p. 511, who, however, in the Johann. Schr. I. p. 329, without any sufficient grounds, finds the previous evening probable, so that John at once names the full day of the sojourn, with which Godet also substantially agrees. But according to the Synopticsbecause they make the 14th Nisan a Thursdayit would have been the Friday before Easter.[101] Against the above assumption of the Saturday as the day of arrival, the law of the Sabbath days journey (see on Mat_24:20) is no objection (against Grotius, Tholuck, Wieseler, and several others), since it is not clear from what place Jesus started on that day; He may, indeed, have arrived from a place that lay very near at hand. Others, reckoning the 14th Nisan as the first day before Easter, regard the 9th Nisan as the day of arrival.[102] Others, again, including in their calculation even the 15th Nisan, arrive at the result of the 10th Nisan (Monday); so Hilgenfeld, Baur, Scholten, where we have the twofold interest directed against the historical truth of the Gospel, to obtain the day of the month for the selection of the paschal lamb (Exo_12:3), and find the day of the week which opened the Christian Easter week, and from this chronology to demonstrate the secondary relation of our evangelist to the Synoptics. Yet Baeumlein also reckons in this way.

ἦλθεν εἰς Βηθανίαν] according to the Harmonists (including Hengstenberg and Godet), making a circuit by Jericho, which is as inappropriate to the Johannean as to the synoptical account (see on Mat_21:1). The return by Jericho is not reconcilable with the notice in Joh_11:54, where He, in fact, by the healing of the blind men, and by the visit to Zacchaeus, awakened so much attention.

ὍΠΟΥ ἮΝ ΛΆΖΑΡΟς, Κ.Τ.Λ.] added, on account of the great importance of the matter, without any further special purpose, yet with emphatic circumstantiality.

ἘΠΟΊΗΣΑΝ] the family of Bethany, namely, Joh_11:1-2, which is clear from the following Κ. Ἡ Μ. ΔΙΗΚ.[103] On this and the other variations from the narrative of Mat_26:6 ff., Mar_14:3 ff., which, however, do not set aside the identity of the occurrence (different from Luk_7:3 ff.), see on Mat_26:6 ff. The peculiarity of Johns account is founded on the fact of the writers being an eye-witness; but is referred by Baur, p. 256 ff., to an eclectic and arbitrary treatment, dependent on an ideal point of view; comp. also Hilgenfeld.

ὁ δὲ Λάζαρος εἶς ἦν, κ.τ.λ.] appears, indeed, a matter of course (hence Baeumlein and others believe Simon the leper to be indicated as the entertainer); but the complete restoration of him who had been raised from the dead is so weighty a consideration with John, that he further specially brings him forward as the present table companion of his Restorer. This also in answer to Marcker, Passim, p. 17.

[101] As also Wieseler, Hengstenberg, and others assume, who (see on Joh_18:28) regard the account of John, in respect to the day of Jesus death, as agreeing with that of the Synoptics.

[102] This must therefore, according to the calculation which gave Saturday for the 8th Nisan, have been the Sunday (Hase, De Wette). But if we hold that John does not fix the day of death differently from the Synoptics, we get as the result the Saturday (Wichelhaus and several others), reckoning backwards from Thursday the 14th Nisan inclusive. Further, the 9th Nisan is expressly fixed as the day of arrival in Bethany by Theophylact, and recently by Lücke and several others.

[103] That this meal is to be placed still on the same day, therefore Saturday, at the usual time of the evening repast, appears from the fact that the ἐπαύριον does not follow before ver. 12 (against Wichelhaus, p. 153 f.). The Sabbath is not opposed to this, since the preparations which had possibly been necessary for the meal might already have been made on the preceding day, if the familywhich is a supposition sufficiently obviousknew that Jesus was coming.But the supposition that the meal was a solemn banquet, where Godet, following Bengel, introduces a company of the inhabitants of Bethany as the subject of ἐποίησαν, finds no support in the text, where, besides Jesus and the disciples, only the members of the family (no other participators) are named, and has the serving of Martha against it, which only bespeaks the usual domestic entertainment, although the gratitude and respect of the family had more richly set forth the meal expressly given to Him, to which the description δεῖπνον ποιεῖν (Mar_6:21) with the dative points.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 12:1 . Ὁ οὖν Ἰησοῦς … Βηθανίαν . οὖν takes us back to Joh 11:55 ; the Passover being at hand, Jesus therefore came to Bethany. πρὸ ἓξ ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα , not, as Vulgate, “ante sex dies Paschae,” but with Beza “sex ante Pascha diebus”. So Amo 1:1 , πρὸ δύο ἐτῶν τοῦ σεισμοῦ . Josephus, Antiq. , xv. 14, πρὸ μιᾶς ἡμέρας τῆς ἑορτῆς . Other examples in Kypke; cf. Joh 10:18 , Joh 21:8 , and see Viereck’s Sermo Graecus , p. 81. Six days before the Passover probably means the Sabbath before His death. According to John Jesus died on Friday, and six days before that would be a Sabbath. But it is difficult to ascertain with exactness what day is intended. Bethany is now described as the place ὅπου ἦν Λάζαρος ὁ τεθνηκώς . This description is given to explain what follows.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chap.

12:1-36.] Prophetic anticipations of the Lord’s glorification by death.

1-11.] The anointing at Bethany. Mat 26:6-13.Mar 14:3-9Mar 14:3-9, where see notes.

1.] On πρὸ ἓξ ἡμ., see reff. It is an expression frequent in later Greek; so μετὰ τριάκοντα ἡμ. τῶν γάμων, Dio lix. 20; μετὰ δέκα ἔτη τοῦ οἰκῆσαι Ἀβραὰμ ἐν γῇ Χαναάν, Philo de Congressu, 14, vol. i. p. 529. See numerous instances in Greswell, vol. iii. Diss. 1, where he defines the expression to be exclusive of the period named as the limit ad quem or a quo (according as πρό or μετά is used), but inclusive of the day or month or year of the occurrence specified. Thus the arrival, and anointing, at Bethany, will be on the eighth of Nisan, if the passover was on the fourteenth. That day was a Sabbath; but this makes no difficulty, as we know not from what point our Lord came, or whether He arrived at the commencement of the Sabbath, i.e. sunset,—or a little after, on Friday evening, from Jericho.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Introductory Note on the Anointing at Bethany (c. 12:1-8)

There are three evangelical traditions of the anointing of Jesus at an entertainment in a private house: that of Mar 14:3-9 (followed by Mat 26:6-13), that of Joh 12:1-8, and that of Luk 7:36-50. From the second century to our own time the comparison of these narratives has been attempted by critical readers, and various answers have been given to the questions which arise. Were there three anointings or only two? Or did one incident furnish the material for all three stories?

Few modern expositors hesitate to identify the incident described in Mar_14 with that of Joh_12. The place is the same, viz. the κώμη or village of Bethany near Jerusalem; and in both traditions the scene is laid in the week before the Crucifixion, Jn. putting it on the Sabbath before the Passover, while Mk. suggests (although he does not say it explicitly) that it is to be dated two days only before that feast (cf. Mar 14:1, Mar 14:3). Mk. does not name the woman who anointed Jesus, but Jn. says that it was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. In Mk. the host is “Simon the Leper,”1 but Jn. says that Martha waited on the company, which might mean that she was the mistress of the house; Lazarus, in any case, is included among those at table. In the Marcan story the woman anoints the head of Jesus (a frequent mark of honour to a distinguished guest; cf. Luk 7:46), no mention being made of His feet, or of the use of her hair as a towel. Jn., however, says nothing either of anointing the head of Jesus or of washing His feet; but he relates that Mary anointed His feet, and then wiped them with her hair. This is, prima facie, a strange statement. Anointing the feet of a guest might follow the washing of them, but why should the ointment be wiped off? And it is improbable that a suitable towel (see 13:4) would not be at Mary’s disposal in a house where the acting hostess was her sister. That she should have used her hair for the purpose of wiping the feet of Jesus on this occasion, either after washing or anointing them, is an extraordinary circumstance, to which we shall return presently.

It is not doubtful, however, despite the superficial differences between the Marcan and Johannine stories, that they refer to the same incident, and that Jn. is conscious of the fact and familiar with the earlier narrative. Like Mk., Jn. mentions the criticism made about the waste of the precious ointment (a criticism which he ascribes to Judas); and like Mk., he recalls the Lord’s rebuke, “The poor ye have always with you, but me ye have not always.” Again, Mk.’s προέλαβεν μυρίσαι τὸ σῶμά μου εἰς τὸν ἐνταφιασμόν is reflected in Jn.’s ἵνα εἰς τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ ἐνταφιασμοῦ μου τηρήσῃ αὐτό. And Jn.’s νάρδου πιστικῆς πολυτίμου is a reproduction of Mk.’s νάρδου πιστικῆς πολυτελοῦς. We may say with confidence that the Marcan and Johannine narratives are versions of the same story, Jn. having corrected Mk. where he thought it necessary to do so.2

The narrative of Luk 7:36f. is markedly different from both Jn. and Mk. The place where the incident happened is not named, but the context suggests that it was somewhere in Galilee, and that it occurred during the period of John the Baptist’s imprisonment. But Lk. does not always observe strict chronological sequence, and the story may have been inserted at this point in connexion with the accusation that Jesus was “a friend of publicans and sinners” (v. 34). The host, on this occasion, was a Pharisee named Simon, and the woman who is the central figure was “a sinner” (ἁμαρτωλός). The story tells of her coming into the house—uninvited, as was possible in a country where meals were often semi-public— and standing behind Jesus, as He reclined at table. As she wept, her tears dropped on His feet, and she wiped them off with her long flowing hair. Then she kissed them, and anointed them with ointment which she had brought with her, probably with the hope of being allowed to anoint His head. This would have been an ordinary act of courtesy, but anointing of the feet is not mentioned again (except Joh 12:3) in Scripture, and was evidently unusual.1 Simon the Pharisee was shocked that a guest who had been entertained as a possible prophet should submit to the ministrations of a sinful woman; but Jesus rebuked him with the parable of the Two Debtors, and the story ends with the benediction given to her who had been forgiven much and who had therefore loved much.

The moral of this narrative is wholly unlike anything in the narratives of Mar_14 and Joh_12; nor does there seem to be any connexion with the narrative of Mar_14. The name of the host, indeed, both in Lk. and Mk. was Simon, but Simon the Pharisee is not necessarily to be identified with Simon the Leper, for Simon was the commonest of Jewish names. Nor can we suppose that a leading Pharisee would have entertained Jesus at his house during the week before His Passion, when He was already the subject of orthodox suspicion. The unnamed woman may be the same in both narratives, nevertheless, although Mk. does not note that she was or had been a sinner; but that Mk. and Lk. deal with quite different incidents is plain.

The resemblances, however, of the Lucan story to that in Joh_12 are striking. In both, it is the feet (not the head, as in Mk.) which are anointed, and the language used is similar in both cases. Thus Luk 7:38 has τοῖς δάκρυσιν ἤρξατο βρέχειν τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ καὶ ταῖς θριξὶν τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτῆς ἐξέμασσεν … καὶ ἤλειφεν τῷ μύρῳ, while Joh 12:3 has ἤλειψεν τοὺς πόδας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἐξέμαξεν ταῖς θριξὶν αὐτῆς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ.

It will be observed that there is no formal washing of Jesus’ feet in either story, and that the falling of the woman’s tears upon them, which is so touching a feature of Lk.’s account, has no place in Jn. But the linguistic similarities between the two verses just cited show conclusively that Jn. intended to tell a story similar to that told by Lk.; while, on the other hand, his version is as puzzling as Lk.’s is lucid. Why should Mary of Bethany appear with dishevelled hair, and use this instead of a towel? Why should she anoint the feet of Jesus at all? The woman of Luk_7 did so from penitent humility, but does this apply to Mary of Bethany? And why should Mary wipe off the unguent once it was applied? The ἁμαρτωλός only wiped off her falling tears.

We shall approach these difficulties presently, but at this point we seem called to recognise the fact that Jn. is writing in terms of the Lucan story. He is not necessarily describing the same incident as Lk., but he is describing an incident so similar in some exceptional features, that we must believe him to be writing of the same woman that Lk. has depicted. This involves the conclusion that Jn. regarded Mary of Bethany as the sinful woman of whom Lk. tells. Lk. does not make this identification. He mentions Mary afterwards as being at the house of Martha her sister, the situation of which is not indicated (10:38), and records how Mary was praised by Jesus as having “chosen the good part,” in comparison with the housewifely activities of her sister. This is not inconsistent with the conclusion that Mary had formerly been of loose behaviour, but it does not suggest it directly.

The relations between the various evangelical narratives of the anointing of Jesus have been discussed at length, both in ancient and modern times, and we cannot stay here to examine the opinions of individual Fathers or critics.1 Clement of Alexandria (Pæd. ii. 61) identifies the anointings of Luk_7 and of Joh_12, Mar_14; so does Tertullian (de pudic. xi.). Origen is not consistent with himself, at one time speaking of three (Comm. in Mt. 77) or two anointings (Hom. in Son 1:12), at another time of only one (Fragm. in Joann. 112, ed. Brooke, ii. 287). Ephraim Syrus (Hom. i. “On our Lord”) has a lengthy commentary on the sinful woman, whom he explicitly distinguishes from Mary of Bethany. Tatian treats the story of Luk_7 in like manner as distinct from the story of Joh_12, Mar_14. But, since the time of Gregory the Great, the Roman Church has been accustomed to identify Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and the ἁμαρτωλός of Luk_7. The Breviary office for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalen (July 22) draws out this identification, and treats the story of Mary as that of one who, once a great sinner, became a great saint.

This identification has been accepted in the present commentary. Of Mary Magdalene, i.e. Mary of Magdala (a village some 3 miles from Capernaum, now called Mejdel), Lk. tells that “seven devils had gone out of her” (Luk 8:2), a statement that is made immediately after the story of the ἁμαρτωλός. She is named along with other women who had been “healed of evil spirits and infirmities”; and Lk.’s statement about her is repeated in the Marcan Appendix: “He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven devils” (Mar 16:9). This description would not necessarily point to special vice, for it might only refer to madness; but it remains, for all that, a very apt description of a woman who had been rescued as the ἁμαρτωλός was, and would be a convenient euphemism. Further, the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany enables us to interpret the otherwise difficult words of Joh 12:7, “Suffer her to keep it against the day of my burying” (cf. Mar 14:8, Mat 26:12). No evangelist speaks expressly of Mary of Bethany as going to the tomb to anoint the Lord’s body on the day of the Resurrection; but all four name Mary Magdalene as taking part. The equation of Mary Magdalene to Mary of Bethany explains quite simply the Lord’s words about the latter at the Supper at Bethany (Joh 12:7, where see note)—words which are otherwise left without fulfilment.

We hold, then, that a comparison of Joh_12 with Luk_7 makes it necessary to identify the woman that was a sinner with Mary Magdalene and also with Mary of Bethany, or at any rate to recognise that Jn. identified them.

There is another significant bit of evidence for the latter conclusion. At Joh 11:2 is a parenthetical explanation (whether by Jn. or by a later editor need not now be discussed; see note in loc.), that Mary of Bethany is ἡ ἀλείψασα τὸν κύριον μύρῳ καὶ ἐκμάξασα τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ταῖς θριξὶν αὐτῆς. Now this would not identify Mary of Bethany for the reader, if another woman had also “anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair.” If we distinguish the woman of Luk_7 from the woman of Joh_12, this singular gesture may be attributed to two women, and thus the note of 11:2 would be useless for its purpose of identification. It is plain that the Fourth Gospel regards the ἁμαρτωλός of Luk_7 as the sister of Lazarus and Martha.

It is to be observed, however, that while Jn. uses the same words of Mary’s action that Lk. does of the action of the ἁμαρτωλός, he does not necessarily imply that the narratives of Joh 12:3 and Luk 7:38 refer to the same incident. Mary may have, in the days of His public ministry, anointed the feet of Jesus in penitence (Luk 7:38); and then, having repented and returned to her family, when Jesus came to her home the day before His entry to Jerusalem, have repeated an act so full of memories for her (Joh 12:3). No emphasis is laid in Lk. on the costliness of the ἀλάβαστρον μύρου; the woman had brought with her an ordinary supply of unguent. But in Jn. and Mk. the special quality of the ointment is a principal feature of the story. It was “very precious,” so exceptionally costly that the use of it called forth criticism. If Mary desired to repeat the act which had in the first instance called forth the benediction of Jesus, it would be quite natural that she should provide herself with unguent of specially fine quality. And the circumstance that she used her hair for a towel would also be explained by her purpose of reproducing the former scene. It could not be exactly reproduced; there were no tears of penitence on the second occasion. But, just on that account, a true narrative of what happened would be at once like and unlike the story of Luk_7; and this is what we find in Joh_12 Thus, while we do not identify the incident recorded in Luk_7 with that recorded in Joh_12 and Mar_14, we may regard Luk_7 as telling of the first occasion on which Mary anointed Jesus, the second being that narrated in Joh 12:1 and (with less exactness) in Mar_14, Mk. missing the point that it was the feet (not the head) of Jesus that were anointed at the house in Bethany shortly before His Passion.

The Supper at Bethany (12:1-8)

12:1. ὁ οὖν Ἰησοῦς. οὖν is not causal: it does not carry us back to 11:57, where it is said that the priests were planning to arrest Him. His motive in going to Bethany was not to seek a place of safety, but it was on His way to Jerusalem, whither He was proceeding for the feast. οὖν is only copulative, “and so” (see on 1:22). He knew, indeed, of the enmity of the priestly party; but that did not move Him from His purpose. Indeed, Jn. lays special emphasis on the continual consciousness on the part of Jesus of what was impending (cf. 18:4).

According to the Synoptists (Mar 11:11, Mat 21:17, Luk 21:37), He lodged at Bethany during the nights that remained before the end.

πρὸ ἓξ ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα, a transposition of πρό, the phrase meaning “six days before the Passover.” Meyer cites Amos 11 πρὸ δυὸ ἐτῶν τοῦ σεισμοῦ for the same construction. Jn. is prone to record dates (see Introd., p. cii); and he notes that the day of the arrival of Jesus at Bethany was the Sabbath before the Passover, i.e., in our reckoning, the Saturday preceding Palm Sunday. He may have arrived just as the Sabbath was beginning, i.e. on the Friday evening; or He may have only come from a short distance, and so have refrained from exceeding the limit of a Sabbath day’s journey.

From Mar 14:1, Mat 26:1, we might infer that the supper at Bethany was held later in the week, “two days before the Passover,” but neither statement is quite definite as to the date. What Jn. tells here is more probably accurate.

ὅπου ἦν Λάζαρος. On this account, Bethany was a place of special danger. It was no place to come for one who feared the vindictiveness of the priests which had been excited by the raising of Lazarus.

For the constr. ὅπου ἦν, see on 1:28.

ὁ τεθνηκώς is added after Λάζαρος by ADΓΔΘ, with support from the vss., including the Coptic Q, but om. אBLW

ὃν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν Ἰησοῦς. The rec. text omits Ἰησοῦς, which indeed is unnecessary to the sentence, but א*BW insert it. Perhaps all the words after Λάζαρος, sc. [ὁ τεθνηκώς] ὃν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν Ἰησοῦς, are a gloss that has crept in from v. 9, where ὃν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν is quite in place and apposite; here it is superfluous. Cf. v. 17.

Syr. sin. gives here: “came Jesus to the village Beth Ania unto Lazar, him that was dead and lived. And he made for Him a supper there, and Lazar was one of the guests that sat down to meat with Him, but Martha was occupied in serving.”

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Second Section: 12:1-36. The Last Days of the Ministry of Jesus.

This section includes three parts: 1. The supper of Jesus at Bethany: Joh 12:1 to Joh 11:2. His entry into Jerusalem: Joh 12:12 to Joh 19:3. The last scene of His ministry in the temple: Joh 12:20-36.

These three facts are selected by the evangelist as forming the transition from the public ministry of Jesus to His Passion. This appears, in the first part, from the discontent of Judas, the prelude of His treason, and from the response of Jesus announcing His approaching death; in the second, from Joh 12:19, which shows the necessity in which the rulers found themselves, after Palm-day, of rendering homage to Jesus or of ridding themselves of Him. Finally, in the third, from the entire discourse of Jesus in answer to the step taken by the Greeks, and from His final farewell to the Jewish nation, Joh 12:36. In the first two divisions, the evangelist at the same time sets forth the influence which the resurrection of Lazarus had upon the course of things as he describes it: Joh 12:2; Joh 12:9-11; Joh 12:17-19. Thus all things in this narrative, though apparently fragmentary, are in reality closely linked together. Luthardt rightly says: “This chapter is at once a closing and a preparation.”

I. The Supper at Bethany: Joh 12:1-11.

In the presence of the great struggle of whose approach every one has a presentiment, the devotion of the friends of Jesus becomes loftier; by way of counter-stroke, the national hostility, which has its representative even among the Twelve, breaks out in this inmost circle; Jesus announces to the traitor with perfect gentleness the approaching result of his enmity towards Him.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 1-11. 1. The question as to the day on which Jesus came to Bethany, and, in connection with this, the day of His entrance into Jerusalem, is a complicated and difficult one, because of the uncertainty respecting the day of the week on which the Jewish Passover took place in this year, and also the uncertainty as to whether the counting of days here is in accordance with the Jewish or the Roman method. According to the most natural impression derived from John’s narrative, the Passover occurred on Friday, the day of Jesus’ death. According to the Jewish method of reckoning, six days before this would be Sunday. But if Joh 13:1 refers to the first day before the Passover, and this was Thursday, the Roman method is adopted by the author, and the sixth day was Saturday. The latter supposition seems more probable. If this be the case, the arrival must have taken place very early in the morning, and from a place in the immediate neighborhood, because it was the Sabbath; and the supper in Simon’s house was given in the evening, after the Sabbath hours had passed. The entrance into Jerusalem, accordingly, was made on Sunday. This is the more common view, and the traditional one of the Church, with respect to the time of the triumphal entry. Godet held this view in his first edition, but in his second and third editions he places the arrival on Sunday and the entrance on Monday.

2. Godet insists that the feast mentioned in Joh 12:2 was not in the house of the sisters and Lazarus, and Weiss says that the form of expression used respecting the latter shows that he was not the master of the house and giver of the feast. The story of Matthew and Mark represents the feast as having taken place in the house of Simon the leper, and there is nothing in John’s narrative, certainly, which is inconsistent with this representation. But it can scarcely be affirmed, with correctness, that the expressions used by John prove that the supper was not given by the sisters and Lazarus. The context in the preceding chapter has presented them as the prominent persons; no one else is named here; the verb ἐποίησαν is used without an expressed subject, and the subject to be supplied is naturally suggested by the names of these persons. As all the persons are participants in the scene, it was certainly not unnatural (as it might have been, under other circumstances) to say, They made a feast for him, and one of them had one part connected with it, another another, etc.—

3. The little detail (Joh 12:3), and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment, is one of the incidental indications in this Gospel that the author knew the facts because he lived with Jesus. A later writer, evolving a speculative theory from his own musings, would not have thought of inserting such a statement.

4. The word ἐβάσταζεν is taken by R. V. text, Meyer, and many commentators in the sense of took away, purloined. This view is supported by the literal meaning of κλέπτης, and by the alleged tautology if the sense of bore or carried is given to the verb. The tautology, however, is not inconsistent with the simple measured style of the Gospels, and the word κλέπτης may easily have a certain loose or semi-figurative sense, as pointing to avariciousness displaying itself under such circumstances. That Judas was a thief, on the other hand, in the sense that he actually stole money from the small sum belonging to the company of disciples—often or generally not exceeding about thirty or forty dollars, it would seem, comp. Joh 6:7 with Joh 12:5 of the present passage—is a thing nowhere else intimated in the Gospel history, and very difficult to believe. How could he have been tolerated in the company if he was known to be a thief of this low and base order? R. V. marg., A. V., de Wette, Lucke, Ewald, Luthardt and others give the verb the meaning carriedor bore.

5. If the reading ἵνα...τηρήσῃ is adopted in Joh 12:7, the simplest explanation, perhaps, is connected with the supposition that Jesus views the use made of the ointment as, not literally indeed, but in a certain true and deep sense, a keeping it for the embalming of His body. From this twelfth chapter onward to the end of the seventeenth Jesus evidently anticipates His death as if already present, or even as having occurred.

6. The statements of Joh 12:9-11 show that the place of the story of Lazarus in the narrative is that which has been already indicated. It had a great influence in the way of producing faith, and, on the other hand, in urging forward the chief- priests and Pharisees in their murderous designs. This was all. The rulers did not form their plan in consequence of this event; they had formed it long before. They did not carry it out because of this event; they would have carried it out had there been no such miracle. The results of the miracle— even in the turning away of many of their own party towards faith in Jesus— alarmed them, and made them yield to the bold suggestions of men like Caiaphas.

7. In the development of the narrative as related to the matter of faith, it is interesting to notice that, at the end, the writer brings out so emphatically its presence, even among those who belonged to the bitterly hostile party. The story shows progress in its plan, everywhere and in every line.

Ver. 1. “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came therefore to Bethany where Lazarus was whom he had raised from the dead.”

It would seem from the Synoptics that Jesus came directly to Jerusalem from Peraea, passing through Jericho. In order to bring them into agreement with John, it is enough to suppose that Jesus descended from Ephraim into the valley of the Jordan and rejoined before Jericho the great caravan of pilgrims who came from Galilee through Peraea. He thus took, in the reverse way, the same road which Epiphanius afterwards traversed—who relates to us “that he went up from Jericho to the plateau with a man who accompanied him across the desert, from Bethel to Ephraim.” In truth, I do not understand why this so simple hypothesis should shock the impartiality of Meyer. He presents as an objection the statement in Joh 11:54; but the time of silence was now past for Jesus. We know from Luke that already before entering into Jericho Jesus was surrounded by a considerable multitude (Joh 18:36), that he passed the night at the house of Zacchaeus (Joh 19:1 ff.), and that the expectation of all was excited in the highest degree (Joh 19:11; Mat 20:20 ff.).

The distance from Jericho to Bethany might be passed over in five or six hours. The main part of the caravan continued its journey even to Jerusalem on the same day, while Jesus and His disciples stopped at Bethany. This halt is not mentioned by the Synoptics; there is no reason for calling it in question. Very often one or two of the Synoptics present before us similar vacancies, which can only be filled by the aid of the third. Twice, a case of this kind is presented in the narrative of the following days: Mar 11:11-15 informs us that one night elapsed between the entry on Palm-day and the expulsion of the traders; we should not suppose this interval when reading the accounts of Matthew and Luke. According to Mar 11:12; Mar 11:20, a day and a night passed between the cursing of the fig-tree and the conversation of Jesus with His disciples on the subject, while in reading Matthew one would suppose that this conversation followed the miracle immediately. These apparent contradictions arise from the fact that, in the traditional teaching, the moral and religious importance of the facts by far outweighs their chronological interest. If such is the relation of the Synoptical narratives to each other, in spite of their general parallelism, it is not surprising that this phenomenon reappears, on a still greater scale, in the relation between the Synoptics and the fourth Gospel, which is absolutely independent of the tradition.

The οὖν, therefore, is connected with Joh 11:55 : “The Passover of the Jews was near.” The turn of expressionπρὸ ἓξ ἡμ. τ. π., six days before ..., may be explained by a Latinism (ante diem sextum calendas) in which the preposition is transposed (Baumlein); or perhaps the most natural explanation of this form of expression is the same as that of the construction Joh 11:18 (where it is applied to local distance). The determination of time (six days) is added, in the genitive, to the word which indicates the starting-point of the reckoning (the Passover); comp. Amo 1:1, LXX: πρὸ δύο ἐτῶν τοῦ σεισμοῦ, two years before the earthquake (Winer, § 61, 5). Jesus knew that He would have need of all this time to make a last and striking impression on the minds of the people of the capital. On what day, according to this expression, are we to place the arrival of Jesus at Bethany? The answers are very different in consequence of the uncertainty in which writers find themselves respecting the following points: 1. Are we, or not, to include either the day of the arrival at Bethany or the first day of the Passover in the six days mentioned? 2. Must the first day of the Passover be fixed, in the language of John, on the 15th, as the first great Sabbatic day of the Paschal week, or already on the 14th, as the day of preparation on which the lamb was sacrificed? Finally, 3. Must Friday (which is certainly the day of the week on which Jesus was put to death) be regarded as the 15th of Nisan of that year (according to the meaning ordinarily attributed to the Synoptics), or as the 14th, the day of the preparation (according to the meaning which most give—rightly, as it appears to me—to the narrative of John)? It is impossible to pursue in detail the manifold solutions to which these different possibilities give occasion. The summary result is the following: Some (Tholuck, Lange, Wieseler, Hengstenberg, Luthardt, Lichtenstein, Keil) place the arrival of Jesus at Bethany on Friday, a week before the Friday on which Jesus died; others (Meyer, Ewald, Weiss) on Saturday, the Sabbath which preceded the Passion; others (de Wette, Hase, Andreae, etc.) on Sunday, the next day; finally,Hilgenfeld, Bauer, Scholten, Baumlein, on Monday.

Among these possible different suppositions, that which appears to me, at this time, the most probable, is that set forth by Andreae, in the excellent essay entitled: Der Todestag Jesu (in the Beweis des Glaubens, July and Sept., 1870). The sixth of the days mentioned in Joh 12:1 is Friday, the day of Jesus’ death, that is, according to the very clear meaning of the chronology of John (see the detailed treatment of this whole question at the end of chap. 19), the 14th of Nisan, or the day of the preparation of the Passover of that year. It would follow from this that the day of the arrival at Bethany was Sunday, the 9th of Nisan, at evening. Jesus, after having passed Saturday (Sabbath) at Jericho at the house of Zacchaeus, went up on the next day, Sunday, with the caravan from Jericho to Bethany, where he stopped, leaving the others to continue their journey to Jerusalem, and it was on the evening of the same day that the banquet was offered to Him which is about to be related. The next day, Monday, the solemn entrance into Jerusalem took place.

In my first edition, I left out the 14th (Friday, the day of Jesus’ death) from the six days, as already included in the Passover feast. In fact, this day plays the principal part in the story of the institution of the Passover in Exodus (chap. 12), and Josephus (Antiq. xii., 15, 1) counts eight feast days, which shows that he includes the 14th. But, on the other hand, we must recognize that there is a difference between the feast of unleavened bread and the feast ofthe Passover properly so called: if the former necessarily included the 14th, on which the leaven was removed from the Israelitish houses, the latter did not properly begin until the 15th, to end on the 21st, these two days having the Sabbatical character and forming the beginning and ending of the Paschal week. Then another difficulty in this way of counting is, that in starting, in the count of six days, from Thursday the 13th, and in going back from that day, we come to Saturday as the day of the journey from Jericho to Bethany.

Now, it cannot be admitted that Jesus made so long a journey on the Sabbath. Meyer, to escape this consequence, holds that Jesus had passed the night in a place quite near to Bethany, in order that He might be able to reach there the next day without violating the Sabbath ordinance, according to which one could not make a journey on that day of more than twenty minutes. But why, in that case, did He not arrange so as to reach Bethany also on that evening? And, besides, there was no place where one could stop between Jericho and Bethany. I had proposed a somewhat different solution, which seems to me now to be that of Weiss: Jesus had made most of the journey from Jericho to Bethany on Friday, but He arrived only at the earliest hour on Saturday (from six to seven o’clock in the evening); and thus this Saturday was indeed the firstof the six days before the feast. The feast was not offered Him until the next day at evening, towards the end of this Sabbath; the next day but one, Sunday, He made His entry into Jerusalem. This combination, however, is far less simple than that which has been proposed by Andreae; and how could the rest of the caravan which was going to Jerusalem have still made their journey from Bethany to Jerusalem without violating the Sabbatic prescription?

According to Hilgenfeld, Baur, etc., who take the 15th as the starting- point for the calculation, and include that day in the six, the arrival at Bethany took place on Monday, the 10th of Nisan. According to some of these interpreters, the evangelist sought by this date to establish a typical relation between the arrival of Jesus and the Jewish custom of setting apart the Paschal lamb on the 10th of Nisan. Such an intention would evidently compromise the historical character of our narrative. But this alleged relation between the arrival of Jesus and the setting apart of the lamb, is not in any way indicated in the narrative; and the idea of this comparison could not have entered the minds of the Greek Christians for whom the author designed his work.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER XII.

Jesus sups at the house of Lazarus, and Mary anoints his feet,

1-3.

Judas Iscariot finds fault, and reproves her, 4-6.

Jesus vindicates Mary and reproves Judas, 7, 8.

The chief priests consult to put Lazarus to death, because that

through him many believed on Jesus, 9-11.

He enters Jerusalem in triumph; the people meet him, and the

Pharisees are troubled, 12-19.

Greeks inquire after Jesus, 20-22.

Our Lord's discourse on the subject, 23-26.

Speaks of his passion, and is answered by a voice from heaven,

27, 28.

The people are astonished at the voice, and Jesus explains it

to them, and foretells his death, 29-33.

They question him concerning the perpetuity of the Messiah, and

he instructs them, 34-36.

Many believe not; and in them the saying of Isaiah is fulfilled,

37-41.

Some of the chief rulers believe, but are afraid to confess him,

42, 43.

He proclaims himself the light of the world, and shows the

danger of rejecting his words, 44-50.

NOTES ON CHAP. XII.

Verse 1. Six days before the Passover] Reckoning the day of the Passover to be the last of the six. Our Lord came on our Sabbath, the first day of the Jewish week, to Bethany, where he supped; and on the next day he made his public entry into Jerusalem: Joh 12:12. Calmet thinks that this was about two months after the resurrection of Lazarus, on the 9th of Nisan, (March 29), in the thirty-sixth year of our Lord's age. It has been observed before-that Calmet adds three years to the common account.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. Jesus came to Bethany. We see that they judged too rashly who thought that Christ would not come to the feast, (John 11:56;) and this, reminds us that we ought not to be so hasty as not to wait patiently and quietly, till the season arrive, which is unknown to us. Now Jesus came first to Bethany, that thence he might go three days afterwards to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, he intended to give Judas a fit time and place for betraying him, that he might present himself, ready to be sacrificed, at the appointed time; for he is not ignorant of what is to take place, but willingly comes forward to be sacrificed.

Having come to Bethany six days before the passover, he remained there four days; which may easily be inferred from Matthew and Mark. On what day the banquet was made for him, at which he was anointed by Mary, John does not state; but it seems probable that it took place not long after he had arrived. There are some who think that, the anointing mentioned by Matthew (Matthew 26:7) and Mark (Mark 14:3) is different from what is mentioned here; but they are mistaken. They have been led to adopt this view by a calculation of time, because the two Evangelists, (Matthew 26:2; Mark 14:1,) before relating that Christ was anointed, speak of two days as having elapsed. But the solution is easy, and may be given in two ways. For John does not say that Christ was anointed on the first day after his arrival; so that this might happen even when he was preparing to depart. Yet, as I have already said, there is another conjecture which is more probable, that he was anointed one day, at least, or two days, before his departure; for it is certain that Judas had made a bargain with the priests, before Christ sent two of his disciples to make ready the passover. Now, at the very least, one day must have intervened. The Evangelists add, that he

sought a convenient opportunity for betraying Christ, (Matthew 26:16,)

after having received the bribe. When, therefore, after mentioning two days, they add the history of the anointing, they place last in the narrative what happened first. And the reason is, that after having related the words of Christ,

You know that after two days the Son of man shall be betrayed, (Matthew 26:2,)

they now add — what had been formerly omitted — in what manner and on what occasion he was betrayed by his disciple. There is thus a perfect agreement in the account of his having been anointed at Bethany.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

XII.

(1) Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany.—The whole question of the arrangement of days during this last great week depends upon the conclusion which we adopt with regard to the day on which our Lord was crucified. The discussion of this is reserved for a separate Note, where it may be fully dealt with. (Comp. Excursus F: The Day of the Crucifixion of our Lord.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. Then Jesus] The ‘then’ or therefore simply resumes the narrative from the point where it quitted Jesus, Joh_11:55. This is better than to make it depend on Joh_11:57, as if He went to Bethany to avoid His enemies. His hour is drawing near, and therefore He draws near to the appointed scene of His sufferings.

six days before the Passover] The Passover began at sunset on Nisan 14: six days before this would bring us to Nisan 8. Assuming the year to be a. d. 30, Nisan 8 would be Friday, March 31. We may suppose, therefore, that Jesus and His disciples arrived at Bethany on the Friday evening a little after the Sabbath had commenced, having performed not more than ‘a Sabbath-Day’s journey’ on the Sabbath, the bulk of the journey being over before the day of rest began. But it must be remembered that this chronology is tentative, not certain.

which had been dead] These words are omitted by a large number of the best authorities, which give where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead. They made Him therefore, &c.

1–36. The Judgment of Men

Note the dramatic contrast between the different sections of this division; the devotion of Mary and the enmity of the hierarchy, Christ’s triumph and the Pharisees’ discomfiture, &c.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

Ver. 1. Came to Bethany] To convert some, confirm others, and to refresh himself with his fast friends, ere he fell into the hands of his bloody enemies. So Cromwell, Earl of Essex, going to his death, first called for his breakfast, and cheerfully eating the same, and after that meeting the Lord Hungerford going likewise to his execution, and perceiving him to be all heavy and doleful, with cheerful countenance and comfortable words asking him why he was so heavy, he willed him to pluck up his heart, and to be of good comfort: For, said he, there is no cause for you to fear, for if you repent and be heartily sorry for what you have done, there is for you mercy with the Lord, who for Christ’s sake will forgive you; therefore be not dismayed. And though the breakfast we are going to be sharp, yet, trusting to the mercy of the Lord, we shall have a joyful dinner. And so went they together to the place of execution, and took their death cheerfully.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then Jesus came to Bethany - This was near to Jerusalem, and it was from this place that he made his triumphant entry into the city. See the notes at Mat 21:1.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

On the tenth day of the month the Jews were accustomed to collect the lambs, and other things in preparation for the ensuing great feast. On this day, likewise, they generally had a small feast, or treat for their friends, at which time Jesus coming to Bethania, joined his friends in their entertainment. This was most likely in the house of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Martha served at the table herself, thinking herself happy in waiting on Jesus, whom she considered as her Lord and God. Lazarus was one of them that were at table, to shew himself alive, by speaking and eating with them, and thus confounding the inexcusable incredulity of the Jews. And Mary too shewed her loving attachment to Jesus, by anointing his feet with her precious ointment. (Theophylactus, St. Augustine, and St. John Chrysostom)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

From the country near to the wilderness, where Jesus continued with his disciples, Joh 11:54, he

came to Bethany, within less than two miles of Jerusalem, upon the sabbath day, or possibly the night before, six days before the passover: it was the place where (as we read in the former chapter) Lazarus died, and was by Christ

raised from the dead.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Triumphal Entry. Close of the Public Ministry

1-11. Supper at Bethany (see on Mat_26:6 and Mar_14:3, which record the same incident). The event in Luk_7:36. is different. The supper was at the house of Simon the leper, a near relation, perhaps the father, of Lazarus and the sisters. St. John alone mentions the name of the woman who anointed Jesus, the quantity of the unguent (1 litre = 12 oz.), and the author of the mean speech, 'Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?' He also states that the supper was held six days (not two days, as St. Mark) before the Passover. Mary probably anointed Jesus in gratitude for the restoration of her brother Lazarus to life.

1. Six days] Since the Passover, according to this Gospel, took place on Friday, Jesus apparently arrived on Saturday (the sabbath), and the supper must have taken place the same evening.

5. Three hundred pence (denarii)] about £9.

6. The bag (or, box)] The apostles had one purse, because they realised that those who have spiritual things in common, ought (ideally, at least) to have temporal things in common also. But though communism is the ultimate Christian ideal, and has always been regarded as such (see Act_2:44), it does not, therefore, follow that it is practicable or good in the existing state of the world.

Bare] RV 'took away,' i.e. stole.

7. Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this] i.e. She has done quite right not to sell the ointment. She has kept it for today, making today as it were My burial day, by performing the prophetic act of anointing and embalming My body. But a better reading is, 'Suffer her to keep it against the day of My burying'; i.e. She has only used a portion of the ointment in anointing My feet. Do not insist on her giving the rest to the poor. Rather let her keep it for anointing My body for burial after the death which I perceive to be impending.

9. Much people] RV 'the common people.' They came] doubtless into the house to watch the banquet. In the East a feast is a public ceremony, and there is a continual succession of sightseers.

11. Went away] i.e. apostatised.

12-19. The triumphal entry (see on Mat_21:1; Mar_11:1; Luk_19:29.) The purpose of our Lord's public entry was to testify to the nation and to mankind that He was actually the Messiah promised by the OT. prophets, and the person by whom the kingdom of God was to be established. St. John writes briefly, supplementing the synoptic account, a knowledge of which he assumes. The synoptists seem to regard the entry as a purely Galilean demonstration, and give no explanation of our Lord's favourable reception in Jerusalem. St. John represents the procession as consisting not only of Galileans (Joh_12:12), but also of inhabitants of Jerusalem, who had seen Lazarus raised from the dead, and whose testimony to the truth of the miracle caused the extraordinary sensation in Jerusalem (Joh_12:17-18).

12. The next day] This is now generally called Palm Sunday. Much people] evidently Galileans.

13. Palm trees] Among the Hebrews, as among the Greeks, palms were carried as symbols of victory and rejoicing (1Ma_13:51; Rev_7:9).

16. Observe the author's intimate knowledge of the sentiments of the disciples.

20-22. Jesus and the Greeks. A dominant idea of this Gospel is universalism. Christ dies for all men, Gentiles as well as Jews, and is, therefore, the Saviour of the world (Joh_4:22; 1Jn_4:14). Appropriately, therefore, the evangelist notices that the last public utterance of Jesus was on the Gentile question. St. John sees in the request of these Greeks for an interview (which we are to presume was granted) a foreshadowing of the calling of the Gentiles.

20. Greeks] i.e. Gentiles, probably from Galilee or Decapolis, where there was a large Gentile population. Their presence at the feast shows that they sympathised—as so many devout Gentiles did—with the monotheistic faith of Israel.

23-26. Last public discourse of Jesus. The voice from heaven. The time is probably Wednesday afternoon, the place the Temple: cp. Mat_21:23. Jesus resigns Himself to death, comforting Himself by contemplating its glorious issues.

23. The humble request of these Greeks for an interview brings vividly before Christ's mind His approaching death, through which alone salvation can be offered to the Gentiles.

Should be glorified] viz. by death, which in the case of Jesus was not a humiliation, but a triumph over the powers of evil.

24. As a grain of corn must rot in the ground before it can bring forth fruit, so must the Son of man die and be buried before the harvest of the world can ripen and be reaped. The divine life, so long as Jesus remained on earth in the body of His humiliation, was confined to Himself. But when by His death and resurrection the earthly shell was cast off, the way was open for the diffusion of the divine life among all mankind. Our Lord's mysterious words would probably be understood by the Greeks, who, if they had been initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis, had seen the immortality of the soul represented under the figure of a grain of wheat buried in the earth that it might germinate and spring up into new life.

25, 26. Our Lord's followers also, if their labours for the conversion of the world are to be fruitful, must, like Him, 'love not their lives unto death.' Only by self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-mortification, and, if need be, by a martyr's death, can the faith be spread, and life given to a dying world. They are to expect no reward in this world, but in the world to come they shall have eternal life, and their heavenly Father will delight to honour them.

26. Where I am] i.e. where I am soon to be, viz. in heaven.

27. Deeply pathetic are these words, and deeply comforting to all who feel their load of sorrow too heavy for them to bear. Even Jesus could not face His hour of agony without a struggle. The horror of His approaching death filled Him with anguish. His soul was troubled. For a moment He almost prayed to be spared the bitter cup. Then His purpose victoriously reasserted itself. It was to die that He came into the world, and by dying willingly He will glorify His Father. The intensely human struggle described here exactly corresponds to the agony in the garden recorded by the synoptists (Mat_26:39), and is evidence that St. John, no less than they, realised our Lord's true humanity, and its subjection to human conditions. Father, save me from this hour] or, perhaps better, 'Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?' For this cause] i.e. to die.

28. Father, glorify thy name] viz. by accepting My willing sacrifice upon the Cross. A voice] The voices from heaven in the NT. are objective in the sense that all present hear them and are startled by them, but only those for whom they are intended understand their meaning. Thus at the Baptism the heavenly voice was understood by Christ and the Baptist, at the Transfiguration by Christ and the chosen three, here by Christ and the apostles, perhaps by Christ alone. Similarly at St. Paul's conversion only St. Paul himself distinguished the words spoken from heaven, though all heard the voice. I have both glorified it] viz. by accepting the offering of Thy life's work, crowned as it is by Thy willing submission to suffer death upon the cross, and will glorify it again by raising Thee from the dead, and placing Thee in glory at My right hand.

31. Now (i.e. within a few days) is the judgment (or, a judgment) of this world] i.e. of the persons in it. Christ's death followed by His Resurrection is a 'judgment,' because it is a deliberate challenge to mankind to accept Him as the Divine Redeemer of the world Henceforth men must take sides for and against Christ. To accept Him is to accept eternal life: to reject Him is to be self-condemned.

Now shall the prince of this world (i.e. Satan) be cast out] i.e. deposed by the power of Christ's Death and Resurrection from his usurped dominion over the human race. 'The prince of the world' (i.e. of the Gentile world) was a recognised rabbinical title of Satan.

32. And I, if I be lifted up (viz. upon the cross) .. will (after My Resurrection and Ascension) draw all men unto me (RV 'myself')] St. John regards the crucifixion of Jesus as a symbol. His elevation upon the cross is an emblem of His being set up as the ensign (Isa_11:10) around which the nations are to rally. The attractive power of the cross lies largely in the fact that sorrow and suffering are universal, and that the sympathy for which all suffering souls crave is only to be found in the love of the Crucified. All men] The offer of salvation is made to all.

34. The people understand Christ's allusion to His death, and find this difficult to reconcile with 'the Law,' i.e. the OT. (see Joh_10:34), which teaches that the reign of the Messiah will be eternal (Psa_45:6; Psa_110:4; Isa_9:6-7; Dan_7:14). Can, therefore, Jesus be the Messiah? Has He even claimed to be He? He has only (Joh_12:23) claimed to be the Son of man. Is this Son of man, whom He claims to be, the Messiah or not? They press for an answer.

35, 36. Jesus gives no direct answer, though He implies that He is the Messiah by calling Himself the Light: see Joh_8:12. Avoiding all controversy, He bids them believe on Him, while they have Him with them, and warns them of their danger if they do not.

36. Children (RV 'sons') of light] i.e. enlightened persons. The phrase occurs Luk_16:8; Eph_5:8; 1Th_5:5. Did hide himself] lit. 'was hidden.' This was Christ's final retirement from His public ministry, and corresponds with Mat_24:1, where Christ leaves the Temple for the last time. He went, probably, to Bethany (Mat_21:17).

37-43. Cause of the unbelief of the Jews. At first they could believe, but refused. By and by they became incapable of it. In this too common experience St. John sees the judgment of God: cp. Romans 9-11.

38. Lord, who, etc.] quoted exactly from LXX of Isa_53:1.

40. He hath blinded, etc.] A very free quotation from Isa_6:10.

41. These things said Esaias (Isaiah)] Strictly speaking, God said them to Isaiah about Isaiah's own contemporaries, but St. John sees in the passage a typical prophecy of the unbelief of the Jews in the time of Christ. When he saw his glory] i.e. Christ's glory. The words were spoken at Isaiah's call when he 'saw the Lord' (whom the evangelist identifies with Christ) 'upon a throne high and lifted up' (Isa_6:5).

43. They loved to be honoured by men, more than to be honoured by God.

44-50. Judgment of Jesus upon their unbelief. He refuses to condemn them formally (Joh_12:47), because His First Coming was not to judge, but to save. Yet He adds that in the Last Day they will be self-condemned. His words, which they rejected, will rise up against them in judgment. These vv. are neither a public address, which Jesus came out of his retirement to deliver, nor a private exhortation to the Greeks, but rather a collection of striking sayings of Jesus on the subject of faith and unbelief, appropriately inserted by the evangelist in this place.

45. Cp. Joh_14:9.

46. Cp. Joh_8:12; Joh_9:5, Joh_9:39 etc.

47. And believe not] RV 'and keep them not.' I judge him not] cp. Joh_5:45; Joh_8:15, Joh_8:26. I came not] cp. Joh_3:17.

48. In the last day Jesus will but ratify the verdict of their own consciences.

50. 'The gospel message which the Father has committed to Me conveys to those who accept and obey it eternal life.'

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The twelfth chapter neither belongs intrinsically to that which precedes nor to that which follows. It is a paragraph of high significance, as bearing on the construction of the Gospel. It is the transition between the public and the private ministry, the great pause between the two classes of manifestation forming the climax of the public ministry.

III CONSUMMATION OF THE PUBLIC MINISTRY.

Vers. 1-8. 1. The feast of love and gratitude.

Jesus therefore, six days before the Passover. Every preliminary of that solemn feast is memorable to our evangelist. The coincidence of the Passover feast and the killing of the Paschal lamb, with the sacrifice of "Christ our Passover," cannot be concealed. For the grammatical construction with pro , cf. note, Joh_11:18, where a similar use of apo occurs; not, however, a Latinism, as some have supposed, as similar phrases are found in good Greek (see Winer, " Greek Gram.," p. 69). The date from which the calculation is made is complicated with the intricate controversy upon the day of our Lord"s death, i.e. whether he suffered on the 14th or 15th of Nisan, and whether a "harmony" is possible or not with the statements of the synoptists, who all three assert that our Lord ate the Passover with his disciples (see Introduction, pp. 92-94). However this matter be finally settled, if the 14th of Nisan was the day on which the Passover was killed, "between the evenings," the 13th was reckoned as the first day before the Passover, and the sixth day would be the 8th of Nisan. If the weekly sabbath occurred on the 16th, then the 9th also was a sabbath. The Lord would then have reached Bethany on the eve of the sabbath, and have rested on the sabbath itself. The evening of the 9th would be the occasion of the feast, and the 10th would correspond with Palm Sunday. If the Lord were crucified on the 14th, and the weekly sabbath coincided with the Passover-day of convocation, the 15th, then the previous sabbath was on the 8th, and our Lord must have reached Bethany in "the end of the sabbath," and then the feast was on the following day. When Jesus halted at Bethany, the vast crowd of pilgrims advanced into the suburbs of Jerusalem, encamping on the Mount of Olives, and would be ready for the great demonstration of the next day. Westcott, after Bengel, observes that John"s Gospel begins and ends with a sacred week. (cf. Joh_1:29-35, 43 2:1) Jesus therefore, sis days before the Passover, came to Bethany. The quiet rest of that last sabbath with the family at Bethany is a thought full of suggestion. Thoma accounts for the triumphal feast and anointing, "six days before the Passover," as answering to the day on which the lamb was separated from other and secular animals, and consecrated for this holy service. (Exo_12:3-6 Heb_7:26) The segregation, however, was partial or premature, and the anointing (see below) took place five days before the Passover. It is not said that the day of his arrival at Bethany is the day of the festive welcome. Bethany is described as the place where Lazarus was. The explanatory clause,he who had been dead, is not necessary, as the evangelist limits and explains sufficiently the great motive for his pause and presence at Bethany by adding, whom he (Jesus) raised from the dead. It is extraordinary that some most able expositors should be so unwilling to accept the synchronous statements of the synoptists. Their narrative is not out of harmony with the hypothesis that our Lord passed the previous days with the pilgrim-band from Peraea, and that, taking the head of the procession as it was passing through Jericho, he should thus have distinctly challenged the authorities, and taken up the public position to which they were anxious he should lay claim. By his visit to the house of Zacchaeus he proclaimed the new feature and spirit of his kingdom; by healing the blind man he gave a typical illustration of the work of grace needed by all his disciples; by resting at the home where human love and Divine power had been so wonderfully blended he called the most solemn attention to his supreme claims; by pressing on with urgency up the steep mountain pathway at the head of his disciples he seemed to be ready, in his own words, "to lay down his life, that he might take it again." The oun , according to Meyer, is simply the resumption of the narrative, but surely those are right who regard it as a distinct reference to Joh_11:55. The Sanhedrists had given the entolh that if any knew where he was, they should declare it. Christ was resolved, now that his hour was come, to lift the whole responsibility from his friends, and take it upon himself. The other evangelists do not mention the halt. Their purpose was not a chronological one. They give the narrative of the anointing apart from its deepest meanings and consequences, apart from any references to Lazarus. (see Mat_26:6-12 Mar_14:1-11) There are other subtle omissions from the synoptists, the difficulties of which must be settled as between themselves. Thus, according to Mar_11:12, 20, an interval of a whole day and night took place between the withering of the fig tree and the conversation about it, but Matthew makes the conversation follow immediately upon the miracle. In like manner, John abstains from any reference to the discussions in the temple, to the withering of the fig tree, to the cleansing of the temple, or to the parables which followed.

Vers. 1-11. The supper at Bethany.

While the hostility of the Jews grows day by day, the devotion of our Lord"s friends visibly increases.

I THE TIME OF THE SUPPER. "Six days before the Passover.

1. The most probable opinion is that it took place on the day after the Jewish sabbath.

2. The edict of the authorities at Jerusalem respecting Jesus had no deterrent effect upon his friends at Bethany. This feast is their answer to it.

II THE PLACE OF THE SUPPER.

1. It was, as we learn from the other evangelists, held in the house of Simon the leper. Probably he had been healed by Jesus, and gave the feast as a sign of his gratitude and love.

2. The guests were Jesus and his apostles; Martha, who gave her personal service; Mary, whose extraordinary act showed equal faith and love; and Lazarus, whose very presence glorified our Lord.

III THE ACT OF MARY. "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.

1. Other evangelists mention that she anointed his head; that, however, was a common courtesy. Mary"s act was an extraordinary mark of honor, for she anointed his feet as well as his head.

2. Her act was a virtual consecration of Jesus to a Divine work, involving death.

3. No apostle had ever, perhaps, sacrificed so much upon the Lord as Mary, for her offering was "very costly." A loving heart judges no offering too precious for Christ.

IV THE HYPOCRITICAL REMONSTRANCE OF JUDAS ISCARIOT. "Why was not this perfume sold for two hundred pence, and the price given to the poor?

1. It was undoubtedly a large sum to expend for such a purpose. Says, (Mar_14:5) "It might have been sold for more than three hundred pence," a sum equal to the support of a working man during a whole year.

2. The complaint of Judas was echoed by the other apostles. "And they were angry at her" (Mark). How ready even good men are at times to respond to the suggestions of selfish but plausible men!

3. The objection of Judas to Marys profusion was dictated in no degree by a genuine regard for the poor. "Now he said this, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and kept the bag, and took what was put in it.

(1) Judas thought it would have been a wiser act for Mary to entrust the value of this costly offering to his keeping.

(2) It would have given him a fresh opportunity of purloining from the common stock.

(3) Mark how a covetous heart grudges everything to Christ.

(4) Mark the false motive that prompted the remonstrance. How common is the tendency to undervalue a generous act through envy or selfishness!

(a) He had no compassion for the poor.

(b) The poor always had their share of the common fund provided for the apostles. (Joh_13:29)

V OUR LORD"S VINDICATION OF MARY"S DEVOTEDNESS. "Let her alone: against the day of my burial hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

1. Mary utters not a word in her own vindication.

2. Jesus vindicates her act, as having relation to his approaching burial.

a. It was usual to make such preparations for the grave.

b. Her act showed that she believed in his approaching death. In this respect Mary saw further than the apostles themselves.

3. Faith honors a crucified as well as an ascended Lord.

4. The act of Mary now begun was completed by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea. (Joh_19:40)

5. There is a proper season for the honor or love to be shown to those dear to us.

(1) There will never be wanting the poor to receive the tokens of a kindly heart. "For the poor shall never cease out of the land". (Deu_15:11)

(2) Jesus in his human life was soon to disappear from the world.

VI THE CURIOSITY OF THE JEWS CONCERNING JESUS. "Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus" sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.

1. The miracles he had wrought profoundly interested the people in the Person of our Lord.

2. It was curiosity rather than conscience that led to the desire to see Lazarus as well as Jesus. Curiosity, however, is lawful and right when it leads to a serious inquiry into the facts.

VII THE FRESH ACT OF VIOLENCE CONTEMPLATED BY THE CHIEF PRIESTS. "Now the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death also.

1. The sacrifice of one life often leads to the sacrifice of more. Yet what injury had Lazarus done?

2. The idea of the authorities was to destroy the living evidence of a most remarkable miracle.

3. The cause of the bloody design was the effects of the miracle in adding to the number of Christs converts. "Because many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

(1) They not only withdrew from the communion of Judaism and the jurisdiction of the chief priests,

(2) but became true disciples of Jesus. Nothing so enrages the enemies of Christ as the enlargement of his kingdom.

HOMILIES BY GEORGE BROWN Vers. 1-8. A good work wrought in season.

When Jesus lay, a helpless Infant, in the manger at Bethlehem, there came strangers from the East and poured rich offerings at his feet gold and frankincense and myrrh; and now that he was about to leave the world, an unexpected act of homage was done to him, not indeed by a stranger, but by a gentle and unobtrusive disciple. The occasion was this. Our Lord, weary with his journey from the country beyond Jordan, his last long earthly journey, was resting the last sabbath of his earthly life at his favorite Bethany. There they made him a supper, and the disciples were present, and Martha was in waiting, and Lazarus, as might be expected, was a noted guest. It was then that Mary took her pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly we may well suppose the most precious thing which she possessed and poured it on Jesus" feet as he reclined at the banquet, and wiped his feet with her hair. The evangelist takes care to note that the house was filled with the odor of the ointment," and it has been beautifully said that" the Church, which is the house of God, still smells the fragrance, of that woman"s spikenard;" for how wonderfully have the words of Jesus, which we may borrow from another Gospel, been fulfilled, "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be told for a memorial of her"! And how does the consciousness of his own Divine authority burst forth in these words of Jesus! Who else was ever certain that by a simple word he could make an action memorable till the end of time? Consider

I THE MOTIVES OF MARY"S ACT OF HOMAGE. One of them at least lies on the surface. Jesus had not been in Bethany since he raised Lazarus from the dead; and when Mary saw her brother sitting at the same table with him who turned her mourning into joy, could any gift be too great or precious to express her gratitude? "Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, Nor other thought her mind admits: But he was dead, and there he sits; And he that brought him back is there.

This was enough; but there was a deeper obligation still. It was not in vain that Mary herself had sat at Jesus" feet and heard his Word. She knew that he was the Christ, the Savior of the world. He had come to deliver her and all believers from a deeper darkness than that of the tomb, and a death more terrible than the death of the body. Gentle and amiable as she was, she could not receive the gift of eternal life without "dying unto sin;" and who can doubt that it was with a contrite and forgiven heart that she poured her precious ointment on the feet of Jesus? This gave the alabaster box its highest value. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." But once more. Had Mary the impression that so fitting an opportunity of testifying her gratitude to the Redeemer might never occur again? She was not called, like his disciples, to follow him from place to place as he went about preaching the kingdom, and the visits of Jesus to Bethany were necessarily few in number. She could not, indeed, have foreseen all that was coming so soon the conspiracy, the betrayal, the cross of agony and shame. She could not have known that on the very next sabbath her beloved Master would be lying cold and still in Joseph"s sepulcher. But, on the other hand, Jesus had spoken again and again to his disciples of his approaching death and departure to the Father. They indeed were incredulous; but some report of his words would reach Mary"s ears. An undefined presentiment that her Master was not to be long upon earth may well have arisen in her mind, and all the more eagerly would she seize the present opportunity of doing him honor. Hence "she did what she could.

II THE GENERAL MURMUR. While the house was filled with the odor of the ointment, a murmur of dissatisfaction arose. It came first from the lips of the traitor. "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred pence about , and given to the poor? and this he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief," etc. This picture of the son of perdition is almost too painful to dwell upon. His blindness to the moral loveliness of Mary"s action. His vexation at losing an imagined chance of plunder. His avarice, his jealousy; and, worst of all, his mask so readily assumed of zeal for the cause of the poor! So ripe was he for Satan"s last temptation, that the next thing we read of him is his stealing away to the priests at Jerusalem to bargain with them about his Master"s blood, and sell his own soul. "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." But while Judas stood alone in his covetousness and hypocrisy, we learn from the Gospel of Matthew that others joined him in his censure of Mary of Bethany. The disciples said, "To what purpose is this waste?" Their common thought was, "This sacrifice is too great, too costly for the occasion. The spikenard is of great price. Surely it would have been better to bestow its value on the poor. To spend it on an evanescent fragrance is extravagance and waste." Here pause for a moment. Are we certain that, had we ourselves been present, we might not have joined in the rising murmur? At all events, how often has the spirit of the censure broken out afresh? It is not so long ago since the Churches of our own country awoke to the duty of preaching Christ to the heathen world. But missions are costly things, and often they produce but little visible fruit for many days. They seem to spend their fragrance on the desert air. And how long and loud was this complaint! what purpose is this waste?" Might not the money and labor of Christian people be better bestowed? Are there not poor at home to be fed and clothed? and are there not home-heathen to be taught? Let such duties as these be exhausted before thinking of "the regions beyond. No! Utility is one standard of action; but both in the service of God and man it is far from being the only standard.

III THE VERDICT OF JESUS. Let her alone: against the day of my burial hath she kept this." Instead of directly rebuking the disciple, he contents himself with vindicating her whom they were wounding with their words. But there is more in his words than meets the ear. Let her alone," he seems to say to Judas," for there is nothing in common between her and you, between a child of light and a child of darkness. And let her alone, ye unthinking disciples. Allow her gratitude to flow unchecked in the channel which it has worn for itself. Why trouble ye the woman at such a moment as this? She hath done what she could, and she hath done more than any of you are aware of, for my hour is near at hand. If ye saw her do this on the day of my burial, would ye say to her then, To what purpose is this waste? Would ye think then of balancing the claims of common charity against the claims of unbounded gratitude? But since she has come beforehand with her offering, it is all the more precious in my sight. She alone has grasped the thought that my earthly ministry is drawing to a close. The poor ye have always with you; she alone has laid it to heart that me ye have not always." Thus Judas was silenced, and the disciples were overawed, and Mary was comforted, and the poor were not forgotten. What lessons are taught by this episode in the gospel history? In its outward form and substance the act of Mary can never be repeated. It stands alone. A few days came and went, and never again was Jesus to be indebted to the sons of men for a place where to lay his head; never again were his feet to be wearied with the hot and dusty paths of this world. Henceforth those who knew Christ in his humiliation were to know him so no more; and we need not say that to idolize his empty sepulcher, or to pray towards it as some do, or, saddest of all, to waste the blood of Christian nations in fighting for its possession, is at best to seek the living among the dead. "Hearts on high!" was the watchword of the ancient Church. "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

1. But ask yourselves Have you anything of Mary"s spirit in your hearts the spirit of love and gratitude to the Redeemer? Where that spirit exists it will tend to diffuse itself over the ordinary duties and charities of life, so that what you do you will "do heartily as to the Lord, and not unto man." But more than this. It is of the nature of love to be ingenious and original in its ways of expressing itself, and opportunities will sometimes occur of honoring Christ in ways which no one could prescribe to you it may be in supporting his cause, it may be-in showing kindness to his people; and these you will think it a privilege to embrace simply for his sake. Nothing was further from Mary"s thoughts than the fame which followed her action; any such calculation of consequences would have spoiled the sacrifice. And so it will ever be with the good works that spring from love to Christ. The impulse which inspires them comes from within, and not from the world without. Hence they will evermore be spontaneous and free, and yet all the more, in the apostle"s language, they will be as "the odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God.

2. When you witness any act of self-sacrifice in a great or good cause, beware of the spirit of jealousy and detraction. Let a work be ever so good, it is always possible to find fault with it on one ground or another to call generosity extravagance, and zeal ostentation. Ah! there is a kind of criticism which sees some mote in the most honest eye, some vein of selfishness in the kindest heart, which is quick to detect unworthy motives, and "vaunteth itself" in its own acuteness in so doing. Verily this wisdom cometh not from above, and yet how strangely congenial it is to our fallen nature! It was in a moment of hallowed enthusiasm that Mary poured her spikenard on Jesus" feet; but even Jesus" disciples murmured till the Master stamped the offering with the broad seal of his approbation, and called it "a good work"!

3. We do no dishonor to the affecting words, "Me ye have not always," if we allow them to suggest to us the homely counsel, "Be kind to your friends while you have them." Are there not some who have nearer, dearer claims on you than all others? It may be an aged parent, a brother or a sister, or one closer to you still. Providence marks out that person for your special sympathy, for a tenderness to which the rest of the world has no claim. Do what you can for that friend. The tie may any day be broken, and only the memory of it remain. See that no negligence or impatience on your part may yet tinge that memory with self-reproach. "The poor ye have always with you," but no kindness to the outside world will atone for the neglect of personal claims. There are those who will not be with you always. Christ seems to say to you, "Remember them. G.B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Six days before the passover - Namely, on the Sabbath: that which was called by the Jews, "The Great Sabbath." This whole week was anciently termed "The great and holy week." Jesus came - From Ephraim, chap. xi, 54.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Joh 12:3

Church Building and Church Decoration

I. I only remember reading in the Old Testament of two collections being made, and both of these were for what we might call Church Building and Church Decoration. The one we shall find at the end of the Book of Exodus, and the other at the end of 1 Chronicles. To the glory of God and in grateful memory of all that God had done for them, were both the Tabernacle and the Temple erected, the freewill offering of a glad and thankful people. And God accepted it and them. The issue which the hypocrite Judas Iscariot tried to stir up about the gift of Mary, has been tried since his day and with equal success. It is a needless, false and injurious conflict; as if to give to the glory of God in the beautifying of his Church were to take so much from the poor, as if no portion of the Church’s wealth was available for any purely devout and religious purpose, till all the wants of all the poor were met and satisfied; wants, be it remembered, that if they were all supplied today would come out in some new form tomorrow. The world, let us thank God for it, is not so poor that there is only one way for gratifying those generous impulses which visit the heart and prompt to acts of singular liberality. As a rule, you will find that those who spend large sums of money on the house of their God are equally generous and beneficent in relieving the wants of others. Can this with equal truth be said of those who criticise and find fault with such expenditure?

II. If we really believe that our Church is the house of God, if we really believe that it is the place where God vouchsafes His own special presence to His people gathered there in His name, then surely everything we put therein ought to be of the best. Nothing can be too beautiful or too costly which this earth can produce to offer in the courts of the house of God. It was in this spirit that our fathers built and adorned the churches of God in our land. They felt as David did, ashamed to dwell in ceiled houses, while the Ark of God was uncared for; ashamed to have things comfortable and elegant at home, while the place where Christ had promised to meet His people was left as if it were little thought of.

Canon Lloyd, Family Churchman, June 9th, 1886.

References: Joh 12:5.—S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 258. Joh 12:7, Joh 12:8.—G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel, p. 147.

Joh 12:8

These sayings remind us—

I. That we have in Christ One who is human, yet Divine.

II. One whose death as our Saviour is all important, and not less his life.

III. One who presides over the world where we are going, and over the world in which we now are.

J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 281.

References: Joh 12:9.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 280. Joh 12:10.—Homilist, 4th series, vol. i., p. 210. Joh 12:11.—S. Cox, Expositions, vol. i., p. 428.

Joh 12:12-13

Christ’s Entrance into Jerusalem

I. We, too, like the people in the text, should go forth to meet our Saviour, whenever He comes to us. So we would go forth to meet Him, some may perhaps be thinking, if He would indeed come to us, as He came to Jerusalem, in the body, that our eyes might see Him, and that our ears might hear His words so full of grace and truth. But we should remember, that if Jesus Christ were abiding at this day upon earth, He could only be in one place at one time. If He were dwelling here with you, all the rest of the world would be without Him. But now that He is in Heaven, He can be in all places at all times, just as the sun is not only with you in your garden, but quite as much with your neighbour in his corn-field, and with the sheep on the hills, and with the sailors on the broad sea.

II. But how are we to know when Christ is coming to us? If He does not come to us in the body, how and in what does He come? In everything, if you will but believe it, sin alone excepted. If we did but behold the hand that brings all our blessings to us, if we saw how they are brought to us by Him who cometh in the name of the Lord, they would become doubly, nay tenfold more lovely and precious, from the light of His love shining upon them. You know what a difference it makes in the brightness and beauty of everything in the world, when the sun is shining upon it—how cold and cheerless earth, sea, and sky would be without the sun—what freshness and gladness beams from them as soon as they are bathed in its light; such, so great, yea, still greater is the difference which it makes in the whole colour and aspect of our lives, if we look at the events which befall us, as ordained and sent to us by the love of our heavenly Lord and Saviour. In every dispensation and visitation of life, Christ comes to us, sin alone excepted. He came, not to conquer our great enemy once for all, but in order that He might be continually with us, with every one who believes in Him, standing by our side whenever we are attacked, strengthening our arms, nerving our hearts, bidding us to be of good courage, for that the enemy has already been conquered; bidding us lift up our souls to heaven, for that He has gained us a sure inheritance, if we will but strive to make it sure in the kingdom of His Eternal Father.

J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, vol. ii., p. 361.

References: Joh 12:12, Joh 12:13.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 198. Joh 12:12-19.—Ibid., vol. i., p. 263.

Religious Enthusiasm—

I. The enthusiasm which is created by a multitude of men, is, in each one of the units who compose it, a result of the nature which God has given us.

II. The sense of association is the soul and strength of all powerful corporate action among human beings. It was this enthusiasm, arising from the sense of association among the members of a great assembly of human beings which our Lord took into His service so conspicuously and so deliberately on Palm Sunday.

III. Any warm feelings which God may in His mercy give us from time to time, should be regarded, not as ends in themselves, not as great spiritual attainments or accomplishments, but as means, only means, to an end beyond.

H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 1084.

References: Joh 12:13.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 269. Joh 12:15.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 208. Joh 12:16.—S. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 264; J. Keble, Sermons on Various Occasions, p. 417.

Joh 12:10

Two questions here suggest themselves: What was it in Jesus Christ which so deeply stirred the enmity of the Pharisees? And what was it in Jesus Christ which made it true in any sense, that the world was gone after Him.

I. The Pharisees ought to have examined the commission of Christ, as (in some sense) they seem to have examined that of His forerunner the Baptist. But the difference between the message of John and the message of Jesus was just that which made all the difference to them between the credible and the incredible. Pharisees and Sadducees, we read, submitted themselves to John’s baptism; his cry was for repentance, for sins done under the law; there was no direct announcement, as yet, of an altogether different righteousness. With Christ it was otherwise, "I came," He said, "not to destroy, but to fulfil," yet the thing "fulfilled" admits no further filling; and the Pharisee rightly perceived that henceforth it was system against system, law against gospel, merit against grace, a righteousness from below against a righteousness from above. They saw it, and they took their side.

II. Why does the world go after Christ? What is the attraction? We will briefly touch three points. (1) The first is, reality. We may trifle with Christ, but Christ never trifles with us. This is what made the common people hear Him gladly. He is so different from the Pharisee; from the man whose face tells you that he has never had a struggle, and who will sleep just as soundly whether you hear or whether you forbear. "Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after Him." (2) His unworldliness. No man thinks the better of a religious teacher for being worldly. This is a great though a common error. The last man whom worldly men, princes or peasants, will seek in their soul’s extremity, is the physician who is half of this world; no cottage and no hovel is too mean for them, if they may but find in it a man who lives only for eternity. (3) His wonderful love. It was so new to publicans and sinners—it is so new to them now—to be treated with love. Most of all is this love felt when flesh and heart parteth. Very peculiar is that last hour in its helplessness, in its dependence, in its clearsightedness, and in its trust. Certainly no Pharisee avails anything beside the deathbed.

C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 257.

References: Joh 12:20-22.—T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 24. Joh 12:20-23.—S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 244.

Joh 12:20, Joh 12:23

I. "The hour is come." The culminating hour of His life, that hour which is to explain all that has happened, to reveal all that is unknown. "It behoved Him thus to suffer, and to enter into His glory." And His glory has been increasingly manifest ever since His death. From the Resurrection day until this day it has never waned; it has never ceased to grow. The corn of wheat that died has produced much fruit—fruit, in actual numbers rescued from sin and death—fruit in the characters these have borne, in the good works they have done, in the destruction of evil principles and the advancement of good ones in the world, and in the whole progress of Christian civilisation, fruit also which we cannot reckon here, of victories in death and triumphant entrances into heaven, and in the dauntless and unconquerable hope this day living in the heart of the Church, that all the world will be drawn at length to the Cross.

II. No suffering no glory. No dying with and for Christ unto sin and self and the world and time, then no joyful living with Him in the pure land of light. A superficial view of the subject, and of human character might lead one to say, "If this be Christianity, then there are no Christians. Say not so. It is true, alas! that many wear the Christian name who have no right to it and who have yet to get the first idea of what it is to follow Christ. It is also true that many sincere Christians are very defective and very inconsistent. But it is also true that there are many of a purer and nobler stock. There are those who make the service of Christ the business of their life, the one thing they do. There are many who live simple consecrated lives, all out of sight. If Christ were to come and call His true servants to stand out in view, the number would be larger than we think, far greater than in our moments of despondency we fear. It would be the old story over again. The seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to this Baal-world, and who have not sacrificed their noblest selves to time and sense, would arise at the call, and stand up with the light of Heaven on their faces.

A. Raleigh, From Dawn to the Perfect Day, p. 75.

The Cross is Christ’s glory

I. As regards the great enemy. The devil departed from Him for a season only. He had conquered him personally, and therefore by implication for those also to whom He was to become wedded and joined by the work of redemption; but the actual and final victory over Satan was achieved on the Cross. There the Son of God, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, suffered sin’s penalty. He who hoped to crush Adam, was himself crushed in Christ. Satan had won his victory by hatred; Christ’s victory over Satan was won by love. Satan, for his own malicious and selfish purpose, had brought ruin and misery into a happy world. Christ, for His glorious and blessed work, gave Himself to sorrow and suffering, that He might bring out the world into happiness tenfold as bright and holy as that which Satan ruined.

II. As regards man, the Cross is Christ’s glory. On it, as has been said, was transacted the central event of man’s world. All before, had reference to this; all after, flow forth from it. Not in the schools of Athens, not in the forum of Rome, not in poesy, not in art, has man been most glorified, but on the Cross of Jesus. There manhood bore its only fruit of love untouched by a blight; there it was honoured, not with the frenzy of the poet, nor with the subtlety of the philosopher, nor with the inspiration of the prophet, but with the union of the Godhead, stooping to share its sentence of death, and to bring it through death to glory.

III. The Cross was Christ’s glory, as regarded Himself. "To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living." He was born into the world that He might be a King, and here we have His Lordship established and His Kingdom inaugurated. The Cross then was the highest point of the glorification of the person and work of Jesus.

IV. And lastly, it was His glory, as regarded the Father. By the counsel of the Father’s will was the mighty plan of redemption directed; the self-denying love of Jesus, His perfect obedience, His truth and righteousness, these all redounded to the glory of the Father Who sent Him; and these all found their highest example on the Cross. In it His Son glorified Him, and He glorified His great name; manifesting His wisdom, indicating His justice, and approving His love.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. i., p. 216.

References: Joh 12:21.—J. B. Heard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 247; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 108; J. Fletcher, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 203; S. Baring Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 213; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 307. Joh 12:23.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. ii., p. 15. Joh 12:23-28.—F. W. Robertson, The Human Race and Other Sermons, p. 209.

Joh 12:24

Let us try to grasp this principle in its simplicity and strength. In nature "a corn of wheat" is what it is itself alone. The burial in the ground and death make a wondrous change in the wheat; it is no longer itself alone; it gathers more, it multiplies itself, it comes out, associated with and increased into many things like itself.—"It bringeth forth much fruit." Just so with the kingdom of grace. Death is essential to all augmentation; whatever does not undergo death, is solitary; whatever would bring forth fruit, must die.

I. Consider this principle, first, as respects Christ Himself. Christ might, had He so pleased, have abode with the Father, in the glory which He had with Him before the world was. He would have been happy in the adoration of angels and in His own perfections. But as respects that which now makes the very character and being of the Lord Jesus Christ, He would have been alone. Such happiness was not the happiness of the heart of Jesus. He could not, in His very nature, acquiesce in solitary life. Therefore, that He might not be alone, that beautiful plant of the Lord’s planting fell into the ground and died. And this was the joy that sustained Him all along, that He would not be alone afterwards. The conversion and the life of the whole world springs out of the fall of that one precious seed into the earth.

II. But the principle which is true of the life of Christ, outwardly, is equally true of the inner life of Christ in a man’s soul; all living comes out of dying. We bring with us into the world a certain natural character—it is not the character which it ought to be—it is not the character that is to be; but in that natural character there is a germ—there is a capability. Now, the great process of grace, when it comes into the soul, is, that natural character, which we commonly call self, shall die, in order that the germ and capability of good may unfold itself and expand. When it does unfold, the old man dies under the unfolding of the principle of grace, the old nature decays away. And now the new thing which comes out is the spiritual man. It is like Christ—it is pure and good and useful; to the praise of God, it brings forth much fruit.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 11th series, p. 251.

References: Joh 12:24.—Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 257; vol. x., p. 304; D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 328; G. Moberly, Plain Sermons at Brightstone, p. 76; S. C. Gordon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 72; Ibid., vol. x., p. 347; D. Young, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 253; F. J. Austin, Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 268; J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories, p. 1. Joh 12:24, Joh 12:25.—C. Kingsley, All Saints’ Day, p. 101; S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 258. Joh 12:24-26.—G. Calthrop, Words Spoken to My Friends, p. 13. Joh 12:25.—E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 181.

Joh 12:26

The Ascension, our Glory and Joy

I. All the mysteries of the "Word made flesh," have their special comfort for us, and so has the mystery of the Ascension. It were little for us, compared to this, that God the Son had taken our nature, if then (as misbelievers said of old) it had been dissolved into the majesty and glory of God, and had ceased to be, although in God. And so our whole union with God would have been forfeited. Christ would have ceased to be, and the Incarnation of God the Son would have come to nought. It is our very own Lord, He Who became one of us, Who walked to and fro among us, Who went about healing all who were oppressed by the devil, comforting the broken-hearted, keeping company with sinners, admitting publicans and harlots to come to Him; it is He, the sinners’ friend, Who is now at the right hand of God for us.

II. What He was, He is; save as to those infirmities which in heaven cannot be. In heaven He cannot again be hungry, or weary, or athirst, or sorrowful, as neither shall we be if by His grace we attain thither. But He has, even now, that of our nature, which we, His members, shall have in the glory of the resurrection. The very presence of His glorified body in heaven is an earnest of mercy stored up for us. He ever liveth to make intercession for us.

III. He is entered in, not for Himself only, nor only to intercede for us, but to prepare a place for us; that where He is, there, He saith, may My servant be. Nay, there, in a manner we are already. For where the Head is, there in some sort, in token and in earnest, and in virtue are the members. There is our conversation; there our life is hid; there are the first fruits of the Spirit; there has He made us to sit in heavenly places with Himself; there is our home; there, if by God’s grace we persevere, above the stars, are the vacant seats prepared for us, that as He overcame and is set down with the Father on His throne, so to us, by His strength overcoming, shall He say, Sit down with Me in My throne.

E. P. Pusey, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 216.

References: Joh 12:26.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 463; S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 274.

Joh 12:27

A peculiar interest must ever attach to these words in the record of the events that led up to, and immediately preceded, the passion of our Lord. It is impossible to read this incident in St. John’s narrative, without being struck by its intensely graphic features, and its inimitable originality. It has been compared to one of those deep fissures in the crust of the earth’s surface, which enable us to fathom the depths below. The Speaker suffers us to look down into the inmost centre of His being. In the courts of the Temple, in the presence of many witnesses, after a moment of ecstatic triumph, after an anticipation of coming triumph, suddenly there is a pause, and He who is generally so calm and self-controlled, Himself testifies to an inward conflict. His soul is troubled to its lowest depths. He gives utterance to a cry, a petition, and though that cry is instantly hushed in uttermost submission, yet it is uttered and it is real.

I. In a certain sense, of course, we all acknowledge that our Lord predicted His sad future; but it may be doubted whether we are accustomed to make the fact sufficiently real to ourselves; for it is one to which history affords no adequate parallel. It confronts us with a phase of human experience, in which our Lord stands absolutely alone, and which it is not too much to say that neither design nor imagination would ever have thought of attributing to Him. For it is to be remembered that the evangelists had nothing in the past that could form a precedent for such personal predictions. It is a fact of universal experience that to none of the children of men is it given to pierce the veil of his personal future. No man can tell what tomorrow or next week, or next year, may have in store for him. In the whole range of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi, no one is recorded to have essayed to predict the mode or the manner of his own death.

II. What had never been realised before since the world began is in the Gospel narrative set forth, simply, artlessly, without any strain or effort, and we are assured that a foreknowledge of His end, with all its attendant circumstances, was not only claimed by our Lord and affirmed just before His passion, but unfolded long before in a series of orderly and progressive predictions. We find that from the first this consciousness was present with Him. Sometimes He speaks of it darkly and enigmatically, affirming now that the Temple of His body shall be destroyed, and on the third day restored; now that, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Sometimes, but not till His disciples were able to bear it, He had spoken of it openly, clearly, without the intervention of type or figure or dark saying. Calmly, deliberately, He affirms not that He may—not that He will—but that He must, go up to Jerusalem and there suffer and die. As the crisis draws nearer and nearer, so His anticipations of the immediate future increase in number and definiteness; now He declares in the presence of multitudes His speedy departure from the world; now He warns His Apostles that one among them will prove the traitor; now He definitely marks out that traitor by a whispered sign; now He sums up all previous hints, dark sayings, mysterious soliloquies, clear predictions, in the institution of the Holy Eucharist.

III. The prescience of suffering receives perhaps its highest expression in the Agony in the Garden. On human principles that agony is wholly misplaced. It comes before the time. It anticipates the occasion which human experience would have suggested. There have indeed been signal triumphs won by the genius of poetical imagination. But in all literature there is no other instance of the ascription to the hero of the story of a series of predictions pointing to and describing the circumstances of his own decease, as by the Saviour of the world, much less an attempt to harmonise them with the details of a narrative, the interest of which shifts from place to place, and involves a multiplicity of incidents, persons, places, occasions. These predictions, I venture to think, have an evidential value of their own, and constitute another link in the chain of evidence that our Lord was indeed all that He claimed to be—Son of Man and Son of God, the Foreknowing Saviour, the Predestined Sacrifice.

D. Maclear, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, Nov. 9th, 1882.

References: Joh 12:27, Joh 12:28.—Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 193; S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 299; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. vii., p. 332. Joh 12:27-31.—Homilist, new series, vol. iii., p. 142.

Joh 12:28

The craving of sinfulness is for self-glorification. The thirst of godliness is for the glory of God. He who sees God’s Name and comprehends it, hears God’s Name and understands it, looks at it and reads it, listens to God’s Name and rejoices in it, and sees in his own name part of God’s Name, will ever cry "Father, glorify Thy Name." And as those whom Jesus Christ leads and governs are saved from sin, and are taught to live according to godliness, this is the aspiration of their life.

I. Jesus Christ not only shows us the Father, and reconciles us to the Father, but teaches us to seek His glory as the end of life and of salvation. When all, by Jesus Christ’s teaching and leading, shall know God, this will be the prayer of all, from the least to the greatest. In studio and study, in factory and church, in peasant’s cot and palace, in every place of work and recreation and association, you will hear "Father, glorify Thy Name." And while the seraphs cry "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty," and the innumerable choir of angels sing, "Glory be to God most high," the distant voices of earth shall be heard, softly but sweetly, saying, "Father, glorify Thy Name."

II. We may use our text (1) for self-examination. Jesus Christ said, at this crisis of His life and at every crisis, "Father, glorify Thy name." What have we said? What do we say? Have we not sometimes remained in Jerusalem to glorify our own name, instead of going to Nazareth to glorify our Father’s name? (2) Let us seek the state of heart which the prayer expresses, and making the prayer our own, let us embody its spirit in our whole life. Be not much concerned about the length of your life, or the circumstances of your death; leaving yourself in God’s hands, submit to His arrangement. "Father, glorify Thy name." Then, how Divine the peace which shall keep the heart and mind, and how Godlike the rest which shall possess our soul. All that is within us shall be in sweet accord, the intellect and the heart, the reason and the passions. Our eye will be single, and our whole body full of light. With many things to do, at but one thing shall we aim. With many impulses, one great principle shall govern our will.

S. Martin, Rain upon the Mown Grass, p. 374.

References: Joh 12:28.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 909, vol. xxiv., No. 1391; S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 312; A. Barry, Cheltenham College Sermons, p. 268; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 279; vol. v., p. 312; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 372; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, p. 56.

Joh 12:29

Misinterpretation of the Voice of God

I. When we read the history of our Blessed Lord’s first coming into the world, and thoroughly realise who He was that came, it is almost impossible not at times to feel that it must have been a very severe trial for the men of that generation to believe on Him. It was no advantage, but a stern sifting of soul, to have looked on Christ face to face. Why did God so disguise Himself? Why did He not make it easier to recognise Him? Observe: (1) that to have surrounded our Blessed Lord with such a visible glory as should have made unbelief impossible would have been to violate the whole order of the universe; it would have overturned the whole principle of God’s dealings with men. What is that principle? It is to try men and to prove them. If God is to show Himself to any generation of men, and yet not stop their probation, He must put a veil over His face. (2) There is no reason to think that any wonder in heaven above or earth beneath, however startling, could have altogether prevented unbelief. Here comes in the text. The men of our Lord’s day wanted proof. What proof could there be greater than a voice from heaven? The voice from heaven swelled forth upon the air, the startled multitude caught the sound, but few recognised it to be God’s. Any explanation to the many was better than to bow the knee and worship. And so, while yet the Almighty accents lingered upon the hushed air, the people that stood by said that "it thundered."

II. The whole history of the Christian Church, from the beginning to the end, does but exemplify over and over again this same truth. From the first Advent to the last, upon all the mighty verities of God’s revelation, the multitude have been divided. While a few have recognised the Divine Voice and the Divine Hand, the mass have seen nothing, heard nothing. This is true, (1) of the coming of Christ to judge the world, (2) of the Church as the kingdom of Christ, (3) of the Sacraments. From the days of Cain and Abel there have ever been the two classes—the humble receivers of God’s Word, the self-conceited opposers of it; the men who throw themselves into God’s way to be saved, and the men who would save themselves in their own way. The world will cry to the last "It only thundered," while God’s elect are whispering with anxious hearts, rejoicingly yet tremblingly, "An Angel spake."

Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the New Testament, p. 43.

References: Joh 12:29, Joh 12:30.—S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 325. Joh 12:30.—E. Jenkins, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 308. Joh 12:31.—S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 337; Homilist, new series, vol. i., p. 311.

Joh 12:32

I. In these words our Lord foretells the gathering out and knitting "together of His mystical body, which is the Church. From the time of His ascension into heaven, and the shedding abroad of the Holy Ghost, He has been working unseen upon the spirits of mankind; He has been drawing together the living stones of His spiritual house. He has been working out this great all-comprehending aim—the perfection of His Church. There has been not a change, but a growth; as the springing or unfolding of a stately tree; a growth, not only of bulk, but of beauty, ever opening itself to the drawings and invitations of a gentle sky; so His mystical body has grown from childhood to youth and manhood, throwing out new powers of illuminated reason and of regenerate will, ever advancing unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

II. Note the way by which He, in His Church, draws men one by one unto Himself. He is in the midst of His Church, and we are ranged round Him in many measures of approach, as if we were in the many courts or precincts which surround His eternal throne. All of you has He been drawing; and if you look back you can see the links in the chain which has drawn you until now. A word, a thought, a chance, a sickness, a sorrow, a desolation of heart in the daytime, or a dream of the past in the night season, alone, or in the throng of men, in your chamber, or at the altar, something pierced deep into your soul and there abode. And then he has led you, little by little, with gentle steps, hiding the full length of the way that you must tread, lest you should start aside in fear and faint from weariness. Your place, your crown, your ministry, in His unseen kingdom, are all marked out for you. He is drawing you towards your everlasting portion. At that day when he shall have brought unto Mount Zion the last of His redeemed flock, then shall we know what He is now doing with us under a veil and in silence. We shall no more follow Him unseen, but behold Him face to face.

H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. i., p. 274.

The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World

I. It is the death of the Eternal Word, of God made flesh, which is our great lesson how to think and how to speak of this world. His Cross has put its due value upon everything which we see, upon all fortunes, all advantages, all ranks, all dignities, all pleasures, upon the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It has set a price upon the excitements, the rivalries, the hopes, the fears, the desires, the efforts, the triumphs of mortal man. It has given a meaning to the various shifting courses, the trials, the temptations, the sufferings of his earthly state. It has brought together and made consistent all that seemed discordant and aimless. It has taught us how to live, how to use this world, what to expect, what to desire, what to hope. It is the tone into which all the strains of this world’s music are ultimately to be resolved.

II. It may be objected: But the world seems made for the enjoyment of just such a being as man, and man is put into it. He has the capacity of enjoyment, and the world supplies the means. How natural this, what a simple as well as pleasant philosophy, yet how different from that of the Cross. (1) Whatever force this objection may have, surely it is merely a repetition of that which Eve felt and Satan urged in Eden; for did not the woman see that the forbidden tree was "good for food," and a tree to be desired? (2) It is but a superficial view of things to say that this life is made for pleasure and happiness. To those who look under the surface it tells a very different tale. The doctrine of the Cross does but teach the very same lesson which this world teaches to those who live long in it, who have much experience in it, who know it. It may be granted, then, that the doctrine of the Cross is not on the surface of the world. The surface of things is bright only, and the Cross is sorrowful; it is a hidden doctrine, it lies under a veil; it at first sight startles us, and we are tempted to revolt from it. And yet it is a true doctrine, for truth is not on the surface of things, but in the depths. Let us not trust the world, let us not give our hearts to it; let us not begin with it. Let us begin with faith, let us begin with Christ. They alone are able truly to enjoy this world who begin with the world unseen. They alone can truly feast who have first fasted; they alone are able to use the world who have learned not to abuse it; they alone inherit it who take it as a shadow of the world to come, and who for that world to come relinquish it.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi., p. 83.

How is it that Christ, lifted upon the Cross, draws all men unto Him?

Many answers might be given, and all true, to the question now proposed. Two must suffice.

I. The attraction of the Cross is first an attraction of admiration. Who has not felt his heart burn within him as he read of a life given for another? Now when Christ, lifted up from the earth, draws all men to Him, it is in part by the help of admiration. When a man has to learn for the first time what Christ is; when, either from defective instruction or a sceptical temper, he has to lay for himself the foundations of belief, to answer afresh the great question "What shall I think of Christ?" the first instrument of conviction will be commonly that feeling of admiration which must be roused by the study of the character, and most of all the character as manifested on the Cross.

II. Christ did not rest, nor would have us rest, in that superficial sort of relation to Him, which contents many writers and thinkers of our age; a relation which has in it only the satisfaction to be derived from a lovely scene or a beautiful countenance, which a man may just look upon and go his way and forget. If you examine the context, you will see that all points another way. It is not as the magnet of a moral beauty that Christ chiefly regards the attractiveness of His Cross. Not admiration, but faith is that which He asks of us. The object of that "lifting up," which was to be thus all-powerful to attract, was no mere exhibition of an admirable longsuffering; no representation, acted on some magnificent stage, of a superhuman excellence of doing, feeling, suffering; not this, but the very work itself which the Cross effected, the bearing of the sins of the world, the making reconciliation for iniquity, the bringing in of an everlasting righteousness. The reason why we feel differently in kind as well as in degree, towards Christ lifted up from the earth, is to be sought not in the admiration, but in the faith. Though admiration may draw us towards Him, it is faith alone which draws us to Him.

C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 23.

Universality and Individuality of Christ’s Gospel

I. Universality is one attribute of Christ’s wholesome words, "I will draw all men unto Me." A universality (1) of intention, (2) of invitation, (3) of potency, (4) of kind. Christ draws to Himself men of all characters and men of all histories.

II. Individuality is another attribute of Christ’s wholesome words. The race can only be evangelised through the members. To excuse repentance, to excuse faith, to excuse holiness is, in other words, to excuse happiness, to excuse salvation, to excuse heaven. The Gospel kingdom when it comes, must come not in name but in power; they who are drawn to Christ crucified must be drawn spiritually, and therefore drawn personally and one by one. (1) It is the business of each one of us to apprehend the Gospel of a free, a personal absolution. There must be a solemn giving of the individual soul exactly as it is seen to be and felt to be in history and in circumstance, into the hands of God Himself, on the ground of a revelation made by Him in the Gospel as to a free and total forgiveness of all sin through the alone merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2) Again, it is the business of each one of us to apprehend for himself the Gospel promise of a Holy and Divine Spirit to dwell personally in him as the life of his life and the soul of his soul. God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him; then if that be true we have only to ask and we shall receive. (3) It is the business of each one of us, having thus stamped upon himself by an individual act the seal of his consecration, the double seal of a Divine absolution and a Divine indwelling, then to go forth as a forgiven man and as a spiritual man, not indeed to presume upon what he has done, but as much as possible to forget himself; to forget himself in the Saviour’s service and to forget himself in giving his very life for his brethren. Let the individual life, thus far and in this holy sense, be merged and lost in the relative. Thus through Him shall the Almighty Lord make good His Divine saying, "I, lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

C. J. Vaughan, University Sermons, p. 89.

Wherein consists the attractive power of the crucifixion of our Lord?

I. That which, first of all, draws men in reverence and love to Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross, is the moral beauty, the moral strength, of self-sacrifice. By sacrifice I mean here the surrender of that which is most precious to self for the benefit of others. A sacrifice exerts a vast power, nothing less than a fascination, over those who witness it. It does this for three distinct reasons. Sacrifice, first of all, requires a moral effort of the highest kind. It is an exhibition of strength. This force of will, like all strength, whether moral, or mental, or physical, is of itself beautiful. Secondly, self-sacrifice attracts because of its rarity. As we admire gems and flowers for their rarity, not less than for their intrinsic beauty, so we are drawn to great examples of self-sacrifice, not merely because of their proper lustre, but because they are in contradiction to the ordinary tenor of human life. But, thirdly, sacrifice attracts by its fertilising power. All good that is done among men is proportioned only and exactly to the amount of sacrifice which is required to produce it. To witness sacrifice is of itself to breathe a bracing atmosphere. To be capable of sacrifice is already to be strong. Is not the voluntary self-sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross the secret of His attraction at this moment for His creatures, who know that sacrifice is as beautiful as it is rare, who know that it is as rare as it is productive.

II. A second explanation of the attraction which Jesus Christ upon the Cross exerts over the hearts of men is to be found in the prevalence of suffering in human life. Not when teaching upon the mountain, not when sitting at the festive board, not when rising from the grave, not when mounting from the earth to beyond the stars, but when hanging upon the tree of shame, Jesus is most welcome to a race whose days are few and evil, whose life at the very best is chequered by sorrow and pain.

III. Jesus Christ crucified attracts us on the Cross, because He is the love as well as the wisdom of God; because He is the well-beloved Son, no less than the eternal intelligence of the Father; because He is not merely the first of all teachers of moral truth, but the all sufficient victim for the sins of men. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 294.

The Attractive Influence of the Cross

I. We read these words in the first instance as they are spoken by One who is nothing more than what He at first sight appears—a peasant prophet of Galilee; and if you view them in this aspect, you will be struck by the very strange ambition which they unfold. He dreams of universal sovereignty. A revolt in Judea in favour of the Christ would have been regarded with no more concern among the magnates at Rome than the Ashantee War amongst ourselves. And yet, suspected by His associates, plotted against by His fellow countrymen, hated by the religious part of the community, He dreams still that He will subdue the world, and draw all men to Himself.

II. But if the dream is strange and vast, when viewed in that light, even more strange does it become when we consider the lofty spiritual tune which it assumes. This is not the language of the worldly conqueror—"I will draw all men to Myself." His words are cast in a sterner mould. His ambition concerns more material interest. He seeks to subdue realms, to bring territories under his sway. Jesus of Nazareth covets only the hearts of men. It was not the language of enthusiasm; it was not the language of imposture; but it was language which is unearthly in the strength and loftiness of its self-sacrificing love. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

III. In these words our Saviour affirms the attractive influence of His Cross. Has this all come true? Yes, it has come true. The dream of the peasant prophet now looks like an approximately realised fact. I realise its fulfilment in the wide extended influence of Christian principle; I realise it in this fact, that the civilised world is expressed by another word, which implies the reign, the dominion of Christ—when we speak of the civilised world as Christendom. So has the Galilean triumphed. But I realise its fulfilment even more in the total reversal of the reputations of men. Many who exercised sway in the day of Christ owe the immortality of their names to the strange providence that linked their lives with the despised Galilean, so wondrously has that dream come true—"I will draw all men unto Me."

Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 668.

I. The important event the text anticipates. Our Lord here refers to the crucifixion. The exaltation of Christ in the ministry of the Gospel comprehends: (1) The recital of the manner of the Redeemer’s death. (2) The declaration of the great design of His death. (3) The proclamation of His power to save, with the terms on which He saves.

II. The grand purpose the text reveals: (1) The point to which He attracts—"unto Me." (2) The manner in which He attracts—the view of the Divine character presented by the lifting up of Christ on the Cross is eminently attractive. (3) The scale on which He attracts—"all men."

J. Rawlinson, Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 369.

References: Joh 12:32.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 139; vol. xiii., No. 775; S. Baring Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 82; S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 285; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 461; W. Dorling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 72; F. Ferguson, Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 97; J. Greenhough, Ibid., vol. xxiv., p. 241; Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 130; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 173; H. P. Liddon, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 88; D. Rhys Jenkins, The Eternal Life, p. 27; F. Morse, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 636.

Joh 12:32-33

The Atonement

I. Christ came to remit sin—the debt incurred by man to his God. Punishment, as St. Paul speaks of it, is not an arbitrary penalty for sin, having no direct reference to the sin; but it flows directly from the offence, even as a plant from the seed that is sown. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." We suffer for every sin of our own; for every sin of those whose influence has been directly or indirectly upon us. The punishment of sin is not remitted, nor can it be. Whatever was the purpose of the atonement, it was not to restore that state of things which existed before sin entered the world. Those of us who have accepted and made their own the sacrifice of Christ, and are living reconciled to God, and redeemed be its strength and comfort, are still bearing the penalty of sin. Now what becomes of the doctrine, so common (except in the Bible), that the object of the atonement was to abolish the consequences of sin? This must be false teaching, for the answer to it is simply in the fact that whatsoever a man sows that does he reap.

II. I do not remember that the Bible even says that the object of Christ’s death was to deliver us from hell. It speaks of sin as the thing from which we need to be saved. A state of sin—a state where God is not—is hell, whether in this state of being, or in some other. From this spiritual state the Son of Man was manifested that He might deliver us. "Yes," my opponents may say, "so far we agree with you. But you are putting out of sight the real difficulty—the real stumbling-block. As far as your statement goes, Christ’s life alone might save us. We believe that it was His death that had the atoning power. He died for the sins of the world." And we reply to our imaginary opponent, "We cannot deny your words, for they are an echo of the whole Gospel message, and they are confirmed by the history of Christianity since the death of Christ. We only differ from you in this, that we cannot separate the incarnation of Christ, and His life on earth, from His death, in estimating the sacrifice that He made for men." In His life and death are concentered His whole message, His whole nature. Small wonder that the Saviour in that strain of mighty prophecy, should look forward to His death as raising Him above the world to an elevation, from which, like the "moist star upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands," He should sway the mighty tide of human affection to Himself. "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church, p. 62.

References: Joh 12:32, Joh 12:33.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1717; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 85.—xii. 33. Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 194.

Joh 12:34

What is the force of this name, as applied to Himself, by our Lord?

I. We have in it, Christ putting out His hand to draw us to Himself, identifying Himself with us.

II. We have, just as distinctly, Christ, by the use of this name, in a very real sense distinguishing Himself from us and claiming to hold a unique and solitary relation to mankind. And then we have Christ, by the use of this name in its connection with the ancient prophecy, pointing us onward to the wonderful future. The name carries with it (1) a blessed message of the present activity and perpetual manhood of the risen Lord. (2) A reminder of the second coming of that perfect manhood to be our Judge.

A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 1st series, p. 289.

References: Joh 12:34.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 219. Joh 12:35.—Literary Churchman Sermons, p. 108.

Joh 12:35-36

The True Light and the False

The desire for light is one of the deepest natural instincts of man. The heathen man prayed that if he were to be smitten, he might be smitten in the light, and not in darkness. And the idea of Christ’s Gospel is, that it is a light shining in a dark place, to which, however, men can close their eyes, so that they cannot see it, but go on still in darkness. All the apparatus of the Church is for this simple end—to enable men to have that light which is life, and to have it more abundantly.

I. I do not myself regard this light as given to us to enable us to fathom mysteries. Christianity is a very simple thing. Its object is just this one—to bring men’s wandering hearts back to God. It shines rather upon the will and conscience than upon the intellect; and the path of duty is very seldom other than simple and plain. "Love God," says the great Latin doctor, St. Augustine, "Love God, and then do what thou likest." He means that if we love God, we shall never even wish to do anything that would displease Him. Our perplexities, such as they are, arise when the love of the world, or the love of self, cuts across and comes into conflict with the love of God.

II. What is the Kingdom of Man that we are bidden to welcome with hosannas and hallelujahs? Is it a kingdom where every man shall do that which seemeth right in his own eye? Is it the rule of selfishness, of material force, of barbaric splendour, of inordinate wealth? Is it the rule of scientific discovery, reckless of all considerations save its own results? Is it that state which is so well figured in the phrase, "light without love"? The signs of the kingdom of man are manifest enough among us; I would fain see more tokens of the Kingdom of God. If Christianity has failed, what else is there that has triumphed? Where is the tree of life in your philosophy or in your science, that you have ready to plant on either side of the river, bearing its twelve manner of fruits and yielding its fruits every month, and whose leaves shall be for the healing of the nations? If all you mean is to bid us rid from Christianity all that we have imported into it—that is, alien from its name, foreign to its purpose, destructive of its true moralising influence—I could join in your cry with heart and soul. I am only too painfully conscious how much there is that is hollow, unreal, nay, almost revolting, in many of the most popular forms of the religionism of the day. I have no love for what Jeremy Taylor called "a too curiously articulated creed." I mourn over the folly of those who seek to persuade rational beings that Christianity is a thing of spells and rites and incantations. I have not much confidence in the stimulants which are given to emotions that lie in perilously close neighbourhood to unsanctified and even sensuous passion. I have not so learned Christ from Paul. To me the Gospel is a simpler and help-fuller thing. It teaches me not so much how to feel according to the standard of religious propriety, how to express myself according to the standards of Catholic orthodoxy, but how to live after the pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, how to die in the faith and with the hopes of the great Apostle Paul. And what I have to preach is, that if any man be in Christ, really and truly, by that very fact he is, or becomes, a new creature. "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Bishop Fraser, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 369.

References: Joh 12:37-41.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1844. Joh 12:42, Joh 12:43.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xv., p. 244; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 148.

Joh 12:43

I. It is an obvious question, Why is it wrong to love the praise of men? For it may be objected, that we are accustomed to educate the young by means of praise and blame; that we encourage them by kind words from us, that is, from man; and punish them for disobedience. If, then, it may be argued, it is right to regard the opinions of others concerning us in our youth, it cannot be in itself wrong to pay attention to it at any other period of life. This is true; but I do not say that the mere love of praise and fear of shame are evil; regard to the corrupt world’s praise or blame, this is what is sinful and dangerous. St. John, in the text, implies that the praise of men was, at the time spoken of, in opposition to the praise of God. It must be wrong to prefer anything to the will of God. If the world at large took a correct and religious view of things, then its praise and blame would in its place be valuable too. The reason why we say it is wrong to pursue the world’s praise is, because we cannot have it and God’s praise too. And yet as the pursuit of it is wrong, so is it common for this reason: because God is unseen, and the world is seen; because God’s praise and blame are future, the world’s are present; because God’s praise and blame are inward, and come quietly and without keenness, whereas the world’s are very plain and intelligible, and make themselves felt.

II. I could say to those who fear the world’s censure, this: (1) Recollect you cannot please all parties; you must disagree with some or other; you have only to choose (if you are determined to look to man) with which you will disagree. And further, you may be sure that those who attempt to please all parties, please fewest, and that the best way to gain the world’s good opinion is to show that you prefer the praise of God. (2) Think of the multitude of beings, who, unseen themselves, may yet be surveying our conduct. Accustom yourself, then, to feel that you are on a public stage, whatever your station of life may be; that there are other witnesses to your conduct besides the world around you, and if you feel shame of men, you should feel much more shame in the presence of God, and those servants of His that do His pleasure. (3) Still further: You fear the judgment of men upon you. What will you think of it on your deathbed? You fear shame; well, and will you not shrink from shame at the judgment-seat of Christ? "Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation."

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vii., p. 41.

Two Ambitions

I. The praise of men. What our Lord calls "honour one from another." The praise of men will bid us to be moral, to be diligent, to be exemplary, to be religious. Thus far, it runs side by side with the praise of God. But there are points in every life, or there is one point, where the two roads diverge. Now and then the alternative is proposed, suddenly, seriously, decisively, "Who is on the Lord’s side?" A word must be spoken, or not spoken. Any social table, any home fireside, may furnish the occasion, an act must be done or not done, a gain made or refused, a hopeful prospect hailed or thought scorn of. What manner of persons ought we to be, on whose innermost motive those momentous issues hang.

II. There are those, St. John tells us, who have in them, really and effectually, the other ambition; who sincerely and practically love the praise of God more than the praise of men. The praise of God would have uttered itself to them in no audible sound; in no voice from the sky, convincing and comforting, "Well done, good and true;" simply and solely in this—a conscience calmed at once and strengthened by a sense of peril met and duty done; a soul finding its rest in the truth and in the life, in a Person the desire of all nations, and a spiritual communion, satisfying and everlasting. This is the praise of God in the present. To have this is to be at peace; to love this is to be happy; to live for this is to live above earth, Paradise regained and heaven opened. The man who lives for the praise of God is an independent man; his chains are broken off, and he lives and moves and thinks in freedom—not unmoved by earth’s interests, for the hand of God and the mind of God are in all things; not untouched by earth’s affections, for he who loves God loves his brother also; not idly dreaming of glories to come, but using the world and the fulness thereof as not abusing. Thus he passes through life, watchful not to lose the grace given, fleeing from evil because God hates it, freely imparting, in an influence unwearied and never upbraiding, the love freely received. At length, the departure, to be where it is better; the staff of God comforting the journey, and at its close the at last spoken "Well done!" Then shall he who has here sought the praise of God find it and rejoice in it for ever.

C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 56.

The belief in a Divine Father, to whom our conduct has relation, differentiates at once and for ever religious from secular morality.

I. The thought of a present God, One who knows us, loves us, desires us, co-operates with our efforts, is essential to our practice of the Christian virtues. But we are living at the present time in an intellectual atmosphere, from which that thought has been, to a large extent, eliminated. The consequence is that a great number, if not a majority of professing Christians, have adopted a morality which is no longer distinctively Christian. Their speculative belief, it is true, may have remained unchanged, but the disintegrating influence of this subtle, impalpable, pervasive, corrosive atmosphere has loosened, without their knowledge, the bond of their conduct to their creed; and they live and move and act, in practical affairs, without feeling from day to day the need of the Divine cooperation, the force of the Divine attraction, the constraint of the Divine love. But dangers which elude us by their subtlety do not cease to be real dangers. If what is called agnosticism were the exclusive characteristic of obvious antagonists in well-defined array, it would be no very new enemy to the Church of Christ. But modern agnosticism is nothing of this kind; it is a shifting shapeless mist, that now covers our enemies and now our friends, and now hides the true nature of the battle-ground between us. It means a hundred things in the mouths of a hundred different men. It is now a synonym for atheism, and now the chosen weapon of the Christian apologist, and we must, therefore, if we would clear our conduct from the spell of this mesmeric influence, force the word to give an account of itself, and tell us what it means.

II. Strictly speaking, the word agnosticism should be confined to the position of those who maintain that there is no evidence in the empirical and experimental sciences, when taken by themselves, to prove or to disprove the existence of a God. But such a doctrine, to say the least of it, is in no way incompatible with the Christian belief in a God whom no man hath seen at any time, who is not in the fire, or the whirlwind, or the earthquake, whose ways are not as our ways, and who cannot be found out by searching among the things of the natural world. If agnosticism were confined to the opinion that physical science in the abstract can have no theological bearings, it would be as true as a similar statement in regard of his own department when made by a political economist or pure mathematician. But in actual fact it means more than this, it is the courteous disclaimer of a practised controversialist, who, while he declines the attempt to prove a negative, insinuates his conviction that, after all, with sufficient diligence a negative might be proved. And beyond this scientific agnosticism, we live among forms of what may be called a religious agnosticism, that is, forms of thought which, while retaining a minimum of what is supposed to be requisite to constitute a religion, surrender in false deference to the spirit of the age as large a portion as they think possible of the metaphysics of their creed—all in unconsciousness that by so doing they empty it of moral significance as well. Such attempts are retrogressive, counter to the spirit of development; and a Christian may reasonably maintain that such systems are self-condemned by their mutual exclusiveness, while Christianity includes them, as a late complex result of evolution includes the succession of simpler elements which it has incorporated in itself. Generations, like individuals, have each their besetting temptation, and ours is to think from the high level of our average morality, that we can live in less close and conscious dependence upon the Divine assistance than the men of old, who through that assistance raised our morality to what it is. We have special need, therefore, to remind ourselves from time to time, that the specifically Christian virtues owe their essential character to our consciousness of the love of our Father in heaven, of the revelation of that love on Calvary, and of our capacity for living on the power of it, in virtue of its own free self-communication to our souls.

J. R. Illingworth, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, Feb. 14th, 1881.

References: Joh 12:43.—Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. v., p. 27. Joh 12:44-50.—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of St. John, p. 341.

Joh 12:47

(with Joh 12:22)

Christ the Saviour

Both these passages convey a truth of very great importance, and which requires to be fully received; and both taken together, give us the exact view of Christ’s dealings with mankind. "He came not to judge the world, but to save the world"—here is our example of conduct. "The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son"—here is our warning, and at the same time our hope. And as both are true of the Lord Himself, so are they true also, in an inferior measure, of us also. We are set not to judge the world, but to save the world; not to strive to put down evil by force, but to labour with all meekness and longsuffering to overcome evil with good. Yet "know ye not that we shall judge angels?" that when the throne of the Son of Man is set for judgment, He will be surrounded with ten thousands of His saints; and that all the good will join with full assent in that great sentence by which the Power of Evil shall be put down for ever.

I. Our private severity against sinners should be ever checked by the remembrance of our own sin. We are so much more likely to be too violent than too merciful, to disguise our own angry passions under the name of a regard to public justice and public example, that whether in our own conduct, or in advising others, I know not that we can too strongly enforce the words of our Lord, that He came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

II. But are we then to suffer evil to go on unresisted, and leaving it to the judgment of Christ, take no pains to oppose it ourselves? Nay, we are to resist it all our lives long—to resist it even unto blood, if need be; but then it is our own blood that is spoken of, not that of those with whom we are contending; we may and must strive against sin in ourselves and in others, with all arms but those of violence. We are to imitate, not God as He is in Himself, when He takes to Him His great power, and reigns as the King of all the earth—for in this character no one hath seen God at any time, nor can we know Him till we see Him face to face in heaven; but we are to imitate God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son. We must strive in all things to follow His steps, who came not to judge the world but to save the world.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i., p. 121.

References: Joh 12:47.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xix., p. 303.—W. Sanday, The Fourth Gospel, pp. 191, 201; T. T. Shore, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xxii. p. 226.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The latter end of the foregoing chapter acquainted us with the prudential care of Christ in withdrawing from the fury of his enemies in and about Jerusalem, who were consulting his destruction: his time not being fully come, he gets out of the way of his persecutors: but now the passover being at hand, which was the time that this Lamb of God was to die as a sacrifice for the sin of the world, our Lord comes forth, first to Bethany, and then to Jerusalem, not fearing the teeth of his enemies, but with a fixed resolution to encounter death and danger for the salvation of his people.

His example teacheth us, That although we are bound by all lawful means and prudential methods to preserve ourselves from the unjust violence of our persecutors yet when God’s time for our sufferings is come, and we evidently see that it is his will that we suffer for his sake, we ought to set our faces very cheerfully towards it, and resign up ourselves to the wisdom and will of God.

Thus did Christ here, Joh 11:54, we find he withdrew from suffering, his hour not being then come: but now when the passover was nigh at hand, which was the time when he was to suffer, he sets his face towards Jerusalem, and withdraws no more.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CIV. Jesus Arrives at Bethany].

P A R T S E V E N T H. LAST WEEK OF OUR LORD'S MINISTRY, THE FOURTH PASSOVER, THE CRUCIFIXION.

CIV. JESUS ARRIVES AND IS FEASTED AT BETHANY. (From Friday afternoon till Saturday Night, March 31 and April 1, A. D. 30.) dJOHN XI. 55-57; XII. 1-11; aMATT. XXVI. 6-13; bMARK XIV. 3-9.

d55 Now the passover of the Jews was at hand: and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, to purify themselves. [These Jews went up before the Passover that they might have time to purify themselves from ceremonial uncleanness before the feast. They were expected to purify before any important event ( Exo_19:10, Exo_19:11), and did so before the passover ( 2Ch_30:13-20), for those who were ceremonially unclean were excluded from it-- Joh_18:28.] 56 They sought therefore for Jesus, and spake one with another, as they stood in the temple, What think ye? That he will not come to the feast? 57 Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commandment, that, if any man knew where he was, he should show it, that they might take him. [The decree of the Sanhedrin ordering the arrest of Jesus led the people to question as to whether he would dare to approach the city. But this mention of it and the stir and question which it created have a dark significance. It shows that the Jews generally were forewarned of the evil purpose of the Sanhedrin, and the dangers which surrounded Jesus. They were not taken unawares when their rulers told them to raise the cry "Crucify him!" And they raised it after they had due notice and time [568] for deliberation.] d1 Jesus therefore six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead. [The word "therefore" refers to the decree and consequent dangers just mentioned. Because his "hour" had come, Jesus went to face these dangers. We are told that he came to the house of Lazarus and that he kept near Lazarus because these facts emphasized the great miracle which roused the hatred of the Jews, and caused them more earnestly to seek the death of Christ. Jesus appears to have arrived in Bethany Friday afternoon, March 31, A. D. 30. It is likely that he spent the Sabbath day at that place, and that the supper mentioned below was given him after sunset on Saturday, which, according to Jewish reckoning, would be the beginning of Sunday. This supper is mentioned later by Matthew and Mark, but without any note of time to show that it belongs specifically where they put it. But John does give us a note of time. The Joh_12:12 shows that it was the night before the triumphal entry, and therefore we follow the chronology of John.] 2 So a6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, dthey made him a supper there: ain the house of Simon the leper, dand Martha served; but Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat with him. [Who Simon the leper was is not known. It is not unlikely that he was one whom Jesus had healed, and that he united with the household of Lazarus in a joint effort to show gratitude unto the Lord for his goodness to this group of his friends.] b3 And while he was [there] as he sat at meat, there came aunto him a woman d3 Mary ahaving an alabaster cruse of exceeding precious ointment, bof pure nard very costly; d3 Mary therefore took a pound [a litra, a Greek weight containing nearly twelve ounces avoirdupois] of ointment of pure nard, very precious [Nard was a liquid perfume distilled from some odorous plant or plants and mingled with oil. It was sealed in flasks or alabaster boxes and imported from the far East], band she brake the cruse, and poured it over aupon bhis head. aas he sat at meat. dand anointed [569] the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair [The cruse seems to have been a long-necked flask sealed with wax so tightly as to necessitate it being broken to extract the nard. These flasks were tasteful and costly objects such as women delight to possess. Many of them were so delicate that Pliny compares them to closed rosebuds, and the same writer, speaking of nard, reckons it as an instance of excessive luxury to anoint the feet or ankles with it]: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. [Thus the liberality of Mary contributed to the pleasure of all the guests. The odor of a good deed is generally diffusive.] 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, that should betray him, saith, 5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred shillings, and given to the poor? 6 Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the bag took away what was put therein. a8 But when the disciples saw it, they bthere were some that had indignation among themselves, asaying, To what purpose is this waste? bTo what purpose hath this waste of the ointment been made? 5 For this ointment might have been sold afor much, bfor above three hundred shillings, and given to the poor. And they murmured against her. [It seems very likely that this murmuring was started by Judas Iscariot, for the murmurers fall in with his notions that the price of the ointment should be deposited in the poor fund. It is a singular thing that Jesus permitted a thief to occupy the office of treasurer. It is probable that Judas was honest when he was called to serve, but that same management and spirit of economy which made him fit for the place ruined him when he got it. Thus our strong points are often our weakest. The price of the pound of nard would be about fifty-one dollars of our money, but the purchasing power of money was then nearly ten times as great as it is now. The price here named agrees almost exactly with the figures at which Pliny rates the most costly nard.] a10 But Jesus perceiving it, dtherefore said, aunto them, bLet her [570] alone; aWhy trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. dSuffer her to keep it against the day of my burying. a12 For in that she poured this ointment upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. b8 She hath done what she could; hath anointed my body beforehand for the burying. [The expression "Suffer," etc., used by John, is taken by some as implying that all the ointment was not poured out, and that some of the apostles were endeavoring to persuade Mary to keep and sell what was left, and that Jesus ordered it kept to finish the embalming of his body which Mary had already begun. But there is nothing in the language to require such an interpretation. Jesus meant, "Let her use it rightly," using the word "keep" as in the expression, "keep the feast;" i. e., observe the ceremony. The words of Jesus about the ointment taken as a whole may be construed thus: "The sorrows of my coming passion oppress me ( Mat_26:38), and Mary, conscious of that sorrow, wishes to cheer me with the evidence of love and gratitude. She sympathizes with me as I approach the shadow of death, and anoints me beforehand for the burial. You do not begrudge what is given to the dead. You do not censure as extravagant what is spent for the embalming of a dear one. You yourselves would be ready enough to anoint me in this same manner after I am dead. So do not censure her because in the fullness of her sympathy she has anticipated the coming catastrophe and has anointed me beforehand."] d8 For the poor ye have always with you [ Deu_15:11]; band whensoever ye will ye can do them good: but me ye have not always. [There would be plenty of opportunities in which to do good to the poor, but the time for conferring a personal benefit upon Christ in the flesh was now limited to seven days. Thereafter gifts could only be given to Christ by bestowing them upon the poor.] 9 And verily I say unto you, Wheresoever the { athis gospel shall be preached in bthroughout the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. [Jesus here makes [571] prominent the different estimates which God and man place upon the same acts. That which the disciples had censured as a waste and that which they had regarded as worthy of rebuke was in his sight an action fit to be kept in everlasting remembrance as a model for the conduct of future generations throughout the whole earth, and he accordingly decreed that it be so kept in mind.] d9 The common people therefore of the Jews learned that he was there [in Simon's house]: and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead, 10 But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus also to death; 11 because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away [withdrew from the party headed by the Jewish rulers], and believed on Jesus. [The presence of the resurrected man and the Christ who had resurrected him both at one table greatly excited the curiosity of the multitudes who had come up to Jerusalem to attend the passover. When word of this supper spread among the people it was natural that they should slip out to Bethany to see the sight, and it was equally natural that seeing it they should believe in Jesus. This deflection of the common people gave a keener venom to the hatred of the rulers.]

[FFG 568-572]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Chapter 12

His place (chap. 12) now is with the remnant, where His heart found rest-the house of Bethany. We have, in this family, a sample of the true remnant of Israel, three different cases with regard to their position before God. Martha had faith which, no doubt, attached her to Christ, but which did not go beyond that which was needed for the kingdom. Those who will be spared for the earth in the last days will have the same. Their faith will at length acknowledge Christ the Son of God. Lazarus was there, living by that power which could have also raised up all the dead saints in the same way, [45] which, by grace, at the last day, will call up Israel, morally, from their state of death. In a word, we find the remnant, who will not die, spared through true faith (but faith in a living Saviour, who should deliver Israel), and those who shall be brought back as from the dead, to enjoy the kingdom. Martha served; Jesus is in company with them; Lazarus sits at the table with Him.

But there was also the representative of another class. Mary, who had drunk at the fountain of truth, and had received that living water into her heart, had understood that there was something more than the hope and the blessing of Israel-namely, Jesus Himself. She does that which is suitable to Jesus in His rejection-to Him who is the resurrection before He is our life. Her heart associates her with that act of His, and she anoints Him for His burial. To her it is Jesus Himself who is in question-and Jesus rejected; and faith takes its place in that which was the seed of the assembly, still hidden in the soil of Israel and of this world, but which, in the resurrection, would come forth in all the beauty of the life of God-of eternal life. It is a faith that expends itself on Him, on His body, in which He was about to undergo the penalty of sin for our salvation. The selfishness of unbelief, betraying its sin in its contempt of Christ, and in its indifference, gives the Lord occasion to attach its true value to this action of His beloved disciple. Her anointing His feet is pointed out here, as shewing that all that was of Christ, that which was Christ, had to her a value which prevented her regarding anything else. This is a we appreciation of Christ. The faith that knows His love which passes knowledge-this kind of faith is a sweet odour in the whole house. And God remembers it according to His grace. Jesus understood her: that was all she wanted. He justifies her: who should rise up against her? This scene is over, and the course of events is resumed.

The enmity of the Jews (alas! that of man’s heart, thus given up to itself, and consequently to the enemy who is a murderer by nature and the enemy of God-an enemy that nothing merely human can subdue) would fain kill Lazarus also. Man is indeed capable of this: but capable of what? Everything yields to hatred-to this kind of hatred of God who manifests Himself. But for this it would in fact be inconceivable. They must now either believe in Jesus or reject Him: for His power was so evident that they must do the one or the other-a man publicly raised from the dead after four days, and alive among the people, left no longer any possibility of indecision. Jesus knew it divinely. He presents Himself as Ring of Israel to assert His rights, and to offer salvation and the promised glory to the people and to Jerusalem. [46] The people understand this. It must be a deliberate rejection, as the Pharisees are well aware. But the hour was come: and although they could do nothing, for the world went after Him, Jesus is put to death, for “he gave himself.”

The second testimony of God to Christ has now been borne to Him, as the true Son of David. He has been witnessed to as the Son of God in raising Lazarus (chap. 11:4), and Son of David in riding into Jerusalem on the ass’s colt. There was yet another title to be acknowledged. As Son of man He is to possess all the kingdoms of the earth. The Greeks [47] come (for His fame had gone abroad), and desire to see Him. Jesus says, “The hour is come for the Son of man to be glorified.” But now He returns to the thoughts of which Mary’s ointment was the expression to His heart. He should have been received as the Son of David; but, in taking His place as the Son of man, a very different thing necessarily opens before Him. How could He be seen as Son of man, coming in the clouds of heaven to take possession of all things according to the counsels of God, without dying? If His human service on earth was finished, and He had gone out free, calling, if need were, for twelve legions of angels, no one could have had any part with Him: He would have remained alone. “Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” If Christ takes His heavenly glory, and is not alone in it, He dies to attain it, and to bring with Him the souls whom God has given Him. In fact the hour was come: it could no longer tarry. Everything was now ready for the end of the trial of this world, of man, of Israel; and, above all, the counsels of God were being fulfilled.

Outwardly all was testimony to His glory. He enters Jerusalem in triumph-the multitude proclaiming Him King. What were the Romans about? They were silent before God. The Greeks came to seek Him. All is ready for the glory of the Son of man. But the heart of Jesus well knew that for this glory-for the accomplishment of the work of God, for His having one human being with Him in the glory, for the granary of God to be filled according to the counsels of grace-He must die. No other way for guilty souls to come to God. That which Mary’s affection foresaw, Jesus knows according to the truth; and according to the mind of God He feels it, and submits to it. And the Father responds at this solemn moment, by bearing testimony to the glorious effect of that which His sovereign majesty at the same time required-majesty which Jesus fully glorified by His obedience: and who could do this, excepting Him who, by that obedience, brought in the love and the power of God which accomplished it?

In that which follows, the Lord introduces a great principle connected with the truth contained in His sacrifice. There was no link between the natural life of man and God. If in the man Christ Jesus there was a life in entire harmony with God, He must needs lay it down on account of this condition of man. Being of God, He could not remain in connection with man. Man would not have it. Jesus would rather die than not fulfil His service by glorifying God-than not be obedient unto the end. But if any one loved his life of this world, he lost it; for it was not in connection with God. If any one by grace hated it-separated himself in heart from this principle of alienation from God, and devoted his life to Him, he would have it in the new and eternal state. To serve Jesus therefore was to follow Him; and where He was going, there should His servant be. The result of association of heart with Jesus here, shewn in following Him, passes out of this world, as He was indeed doing, and Messiah blessings, into the heavenly and eternal glory of Christ. If any one served Him, the Father would remember it, and would honour him. All this is said in view of His death, the thought of which comes over His mind; and His soul is troubled. And in the just dread of that hour which, in itself, is the judgment of God, and the end of man as God created him here on earth, He asks God to deliver Him from that hour. And, in truth, He had come-not then to be (although He was) the Messiah, not then (although it was His right) to take the kingdom; but He had come for this very hour-by dying to glorify His Father. This He desires, involve what it may. “Father, glorify thy name,” is His only prayer. This is perfectness-He feels what death is: there would have been no sacrifice if He had not felt it. But while feeling it, His only desire was to glorify His Father. If that cost Him everything,the work was perfect in proportion.

Perfect in this desire, and that unto death, the Father could not but answer Him In His answer, as it appears to me, the Father announces the resurrection. But what grace, what marvel, to be admitted into such communications! The heart is astounded, while filled with worship and with grace, in beholding the perfection of Jesus, the Son of God, unto death; that is to say, absolute; and in seeing Him, with the full sense of what death was, seeking the sole glory of the Father; and the Father answering-an answer morally needful to this sacrifice of the Son, and to His own glory. Thus He said, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” I believe that He had glorified it in the resurrection of Lazarus; [48] He would do so again in the resurrection of Christ-a glorious resurrection which, in itself, implied ours; even as the Lord had said, without naming His own.

Let us now observe the connection of the truths spoken of in this remarkable passage. The hour was come for the glory of the Son of man. But, in order to this, it needed that the precious corn of wheat should fall into the ground and die; else it would remain alone. This was the universal principle. The natural life of this world in us had no part with God. Jesus must be followed. We should thus be with Him: this was serving Him. Thus also we should be honoured by the Father. Christ, for Himself, looks death in the face, and feels all its import. Nevertheless He gives Himself to one only thing-the glory of His Father. The Father answers Him in this. His desire should be fulfilled. He should not be without an answer to His perfection. The people hear it as the voice of the Lord God, as described in the Psalms. Christ (who, in all this, had put Himself entirely aside, had spoken only of the glory of His followers and of His Father) declares that this voice came for the people’s sake, in order that they might understand what He was for their salvation. Then there opens before Him, who had thus put Himself aside and submitted to everything for His Father’s sake, not the future glory, but the value, the import, the glory, of the work He was about to do. The principles of which we have spoken are here brought to the central point of their development. In His death the world was judged: Satan was its prince, and he is cast out: in appearance it is Christ who was so. By death He morally and judicially destroyed him who had the power of death. It was the total and entire annihilation of all the rights of the enemy, over whomsoever and whatsoever it might be, when the Son of God and Son of man bore the judgment of God as man in obedience unto death. All the rights that Satan possessed through man’s disobedience and the judgment of God upon it, were only rights in virtue of the claims of God upon man, and come back to Christ alone. And being lifted up between God and the world, in obedience, on the cross, bearing that which was due to sin, Christ became the point of attraction for all men living, that through Him they might draw nigh to God. While living, Jesus ought to have been owned as the Messiah of promise; lifted up from the earth as a victim before God, being no longer of the earth as living upon it, He was the point of attraction towards God for all those who, living on earth, were alienated from God, as we have seen, that they might come to Him there (by grace), and have life through the Saviour’s death. Jesus warns the people that it was only for a little time that He, the light of the world, would remain with them. They should believe while it was yet time. Soon would the darkness come, and they would not know whither they went. We see that, whatever might be the thoughts that occupy His heart, the love of Jesus never grows cold. He thinks of those around Him-of men according to their need.

Nevertheless they did not believe according to the testimony of the prophet, given in view of His humiliation unto death, given in sight of the vision of His divine glory, which could but bring judgment on a rebellious people (Isa 53:1-12; Isa 6:1-13).

Nevertheless, such is grace, His humiliation should be their salvation; and, in the glory that judged them, God would remember the counsels of His grace, as sure a fruit of that glory as was the judgment which the Holy, Holy, Holy, Jehovah of Hosts must pronounce against evil-a judgment suspended, by His longsuffering, during centuries, but now fulfilled when these last efforts of His mercy were despised and rejected. They preferred the praise of men.

At last Jesus declares that which His coming really was-that in fact, they who believed in Him, in the Jesus whom they saw on the earth, believed in His Father, and saw His Father. He was come as the light, and they who believed should not walk in darkness. He did not judge; He was come to save; but the word which He had spoken should judge those who heard, for it was the Father’s word, and it was life everlasting.

Footnotes for John Chapter 12

45: I speak only of the power needed to produce this effect; for in truth, the sinful condition of man, whether Jew or Gentile, required expiation; and there would have been no saints to call out from among the dead, if the grace of God had not acted by virtue, and in view, of that expiation. I speak merely of the power that dwelt in the Person of Christ, that overcame all the power of death, which could do nothing against the Son of God. But man’s condition, which made the death of Christ necessary, was only demonstrated by His rejection, which proved that all means were unavailing to bring back man, as he was, to God.

46: In this Gospel the occasion of the assembling of the crowd to meet and to accompany Jesus, was the raising of Lazarus-the testimony to His being Son of God.

47: Greeks properly speaking: not Hellenists, that is, Jews who spoke the Greek language, and belongedto foreign countries, being of the dispersion.

48: Resurrection follows the condition of Christ. Lazarus was raised while Christ was living here in the flesh, and Lazarus is raised to life in the flesh. When Christ in glory raises us, He will raise us in glory. And even now that Christ is hid in God, our life is hid with Him there.

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany. From the other Gospels we learn that he went from Ephraim beyond the Jordan and came back through Jericho with the great company of Galileans who came to attend the passover. The supper at Bethany was Saturday evening before he was crucified.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Jesus is at dinner in Bethany when Mary anoints his feet with oil.

Six days before the Passover

The author uses these words to mark the beginning of a new event. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

had raised from the dead

This is an idiom. AT: "had made alive again" (See: Idiom)

a litra of perfume

You may convert this to a modern measure. A "litra" is about one third of a kilogram. Or you may refer to a container that could hold that amount. AT: "a third of a kilogram of perfume" or "a bottle of perfume" (See: Biblical Weight)

perfume

This is a good-smelling liquid made by using the oils of pleasant smelling plants and flowers.

nard

This is a perfume made from a pink, bell-shaped flower in the mountains of Nepal, China, and India. (See: Translate Unknowns)

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume

This can be translated in an active form. AT: "The scent of her perfume filled the house" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

Passover

Jesus

Bethany

Lazarus

Martha

Mary (sister of Martha)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

1–36. THE JUDGMENT OF MEN

Note the dramatic contrast between the different sections of this division; the devotion of Mary and the enmity of the priests, Christ’s triumph and the Pharisees’ discomfiture, the Gentiles seeking the Light and the Chosen People refusing to see it.

1. Omit ὁ τεθνηκώς after Λάζαρος, with אBLX against ADIa.

1. ὁ οὖν Ἰ. The οὖν simply resumes the narrative from the point where it quitted Jesus. Joh 11:55. This is better than to make it depend on Joh 11:57, as if He went to Bethany to avoid His enemies. His hour is drawing near, and therefore He draws near to the appointed scene of His sufferings.

πρὸ ἓξ ἡμ. τοῦ π. The Passover began at sunset on Nisan 14: six days before this would bring us to Nisan 8, which day, Josephus states, pilgrims often chose for arriving at Jerusalem. Assuming the year to be A.D. 30, Nisan 8 would be Friday, March 31. We may suppose, therefore, that Jesus and His disciples arrived at Bethany on the Friday evening a little after the Sabbath had commenced, having performed not more than ‘a Sabbath-day’s journey’ on the Sabbath, the bulk of the journey being over before the day of rest began. But it must be remembered that this chronology is tentative, not certain. For the construction see on Joh 11:18 and comp. Joh 21:8 and πρὸ δύο ἐτῶν τοῦ σεισμοῦ (Amo 1:1): πρὸ μιᾶς ἡμέρας τῆς Μαρδοχαικῆς ἡμέρας (2Ma 15:36). Here also the preposition seems to have been transposed; we should expect ἔξ ἡμέρας πρὸ τοῦ π. Perhaps S. John wishes to contrast this last week with the first; see on Joh 2:1.

ὅν ἤγ. ἐκ ν. Ἰ. This descriptive phrase may have become a common designation of Lazarus (Joh 12:9): comp. ὁ͂ν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰ. (Joh 13:23, Joh 19:26, Joh 21:7; Joh 21:20).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which had been dead. (Omit.) He raised. For He, read Jesus.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.