Jesus knows our intentions, but His words never accuse, they are always gentle with wisdom.
Even to his enemies, like Judas who was accusing Mary of being wasteful when she could have sold her perfume for money to give to the poor.
“Jesus answered,
“Leave her alone;
she has kept it for the day of My burial.
For you always have the poor with you,
but you do not always have Me.””
John 12:7-8
In other words, I am God, and I've come to you now at this point in time to reveal my Father to you all. The person you see before you is an exact representation of the God you serve. I am of I Am. And I am about to be given over to death, and I will be no more. What sort of significance does that have for you? Are the poor more significant than Me? Is money more important than Me? Or am I the chief of all of which all things fall in submission. And if I am about to be murdered and will no longer be with you, then let it mean much for Mary who has understood this. As for you, Judas, this is Me explaining to you what Mary already knows.
“Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it,
just as it is written:
Fear no more, Daughter Zion.
Look, your King is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt.
His disciples did not understand these things at first.
However, when Jesus was glorified,
then they remembered
that these things had been written about Him
and that they had done these things to Him.”
John 12:14-16
Jesus arrived in front of all His admirers and the people who praised Him for raising Lazarus from the dead, and He grabbed an ass and sat on it. This was not a cultural move of someone who is royal or respectable. An ass was just as ridiculous back then as they are now. It was the silliest animal to ride on let alone be praised while riding. Yet, Jesus chose the ass because He was the key in the entire scene. It could have been a a pig or a turtle that He rode in, but it was an ass, because that was prophesied before all time (in other words God had said in an earlier time that when Jesus came He would ride on a donkey). It also reminds us that it doesn't matter how or what Jesus uses, cuz if Jesus uses you or her or him, then that is enough to make it worthy.
Again, by the looks of things, the disciples were probably shocked and puzzled as they just stared at Jesus. Jesus took hold of the donkey and then proceeded to get on it, and was like "okay, guys, your King is ready to go!"
The disciples were like...."uhhh, Jesus you are the King of the world...that's a donkey..."
They didn't understand why the heck Jesus would ride a donkey. But it was because they were so focused on the inadequacy of the donkey and not on the adequacy of Christ!
But later, it says, when they saw Jesus glorified and raised from the dead, they were like...ohhhh we get it. You planned it all out, that it was a donkey and that we helped you find that donkey for You to do your royal stride through the town on. You planned it all out. Because....we get it now, we see it...because You are God. In other words, we didn't get that You were always in control, and that You use us for Your purposes, which included the donkey, but now we know that all things have their purpose in You, because You only do what the Father says. We get it now, the Father has His ways, even when what we saw didn't make sense to us. They got it.
“Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written: Fear no more, Daughter Zion. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first. However, when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and that they had done these things to Him."
Then as all this praise and admiration is going on it says that there were some Greeks, AKA the intellectuals or the people renowned as being really smart and therefore their opinions really mattered in society, they came up to Philip.
The story says:
"So they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested of him,
“Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
(Probably, I'm just guessing, it was with a tone of "You're welcome." We want to see Jesus, do you see who we are. We are the Greeks. We like this Jesus guy so we want to see Him and as you can guess our opinion of Him matters because we have a lot of influence on society. You're welcome Philip.)
Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus replied to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
(...I skipped a part in the middle where Jesus basically goes on to say that unless you die you won't ever be this "big deal" that you think you are as a Greek or an intellectual or a rich person. Jesus said, “If anyone serves Me,
he must follow Me. (Not the other way around. It's not as they assumed when they told Philip they wanted to see Jesus, make it happen Philip. It doesn't work like that. We follow Jesus. We find Jesus. We go to Jesus. And He said,
"Where I am, there My servant also will be.
If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”
John 12:26
In other words, if you want to see Jesus, only way is to serve Him. You wanna meet Jesus it's only if He's first called upon you. You wanting to see Jesus can mean two things: 1. You want to see Him because you want Him 2. You want to see Him because you have an opinion about Him that you want to assess. Jesus was a basically saying, I don't care what you think about me, whether you're Greek, Jew, rich, or poor, or whether what you think is good or bad about me. I don't care whether you like me or not, because I am who I am. I know who I am and where I am going.
Jesus finished by saying:
"Father, glorify Your name! ” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again! ””
John 12:14-16, 21-23, 28
I mean, this story used to befuddle me. These innocent Greek guys who are probably praising Jesus or at least they have positive views about Him, go up to Philip like "we want to see Jesus, and by see Jesus we mean, we want to meet Him personally so set up the time and place for us." and innocent and naive Philip is like "oh okay let me go ask." And then Jesus goes into this speech about a seed falling to the ground and dying in order to produce something of value. And then He is like FATHER! Glorify Your name!
Jesus did everything from this place. The place of the heart cleaved to God as being glorified. He could've basked in the praise of the Greeks, who probably wanted to commend Jesus for His wisdom and all the good things He was doing, but Jesus could care less about their praise. All Jesus cared about was the God His Father be glorified. That The Father's name would be glorified and not His own.
He wanted them and everyone to know that if you follow me that's enough because it means you know who God is. If your heart has died and you've given your life over then that life has died and will now be like the seed. It will fall, but God will raise it to produce the value it can. This is all about God. Stop looking at my wisdom or my works and look at God! If you liked the wisdom and you were impressed by the works, look at the Father! Glorify Him, not me.
Jesus continually showed the disciples His example for redemption. He was showing us the way. This is the truth. That all of life and all of the things that are worthy of praise and glory belong entirely to God! Don't get it twisted. Everything we do is something that is made to bring God glory, and that is the truth and purpose of why we do have anything in this life. It's purpose is the glory of God. Is there any more worthy purpose than the glory of God? We glorify God, or I should say...lowly creatures like us actually get to glorify God. It's like a diamond that get appraised for its value. The person who says it's worth thousands or millions of dollars is someone who is fit to say that it is...a gemologist or what not. They get to say "this diamond is worth a million dollars" and so it is! In a similar fashion we get to say, "God is God" but not because what we say makes Him God, just like the gem guy can't point to a piece of lint and say that it's a diamond and then everyone is like "okay that piece of lint is now a diamond because he said so." No. But because the gem guy has insight and the ability to know what is and isn't a diamond.
We have insight and ability to know who is and who is not God. And that is why when we give God glory it is that we have been given the ability to know God! We have this gift that is good and true and life-giving. Our knowing God is amazing. Jesus was saying, "Father Your name be glorified!" Because Jesus knew that God is God and that's the most honorable truth. He didn't need to hear that from the Greeks nor did He need to get their approval, He was like, "Unless you die you can't even begin to see or know what I see and know"
And that was that. The Greeks were put in their place, and Philip got a taste of what to do in situations like that. That in all things, when the praise of man comes knocking on your door, you remember that all praise belongs to the Father! Just like that. You know if you know. You don't know if you start thinking you can somehow meet God on your terms. Jesus wanted them to know the heart of the person who knows is like that of a seed that dies. It gets real desperate and weak...until it lets go of the control of life itself and falls flat on the ground. Jesus was saying, "This is how meet God." Because He is life, and if you have been holding on to any notion of life apart from God it needs to be laid down. Come to the real source of life by dying, then see and know that God raises you up. His way. With His life. And for His glory.
Jmegrey
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