John 12:1-19 Seeing With His Eyes

A week before His death, Jesus returned from Galilee to Bethany, just 2 miles from Jerusalem, to share an intimate meal with those He loved.  Martha, as usual, ministered by preparing and serving the meal.  Mary, in her own act of worship, anointed Jesus’ feet with very expensive perfume and wiped His feet clean with her hair (a woman’s glory according to Scripture).  Judas hated that the value of the perfume was lost by her act.  He wanted the money the perfume would have brought if sold, for he often stole from the funds he was charged with keeping.  Even some of the other disciples agreed that the poor could have been fed with the funds.  Knowing what was coming, though, Jesus praised her for anointing Him for burial.

Lazarus was there, too, and many had come to see him – hearing that he’d been raised from the dead by Jesus.  “So the leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus, too.  Because of Lazarus, many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus,” Scripture says.  They were making plans to kill a man that God had raised from the dead!

The next day, “the only public demonstration that our Lord allowed while He was on earth” occurred, my commentary said.  “His purpose was to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 … It was part of His obedience to the Father’s will … They proclaimed Him the ‘King of Israel’.  But while they were doing this, Jesus was weeping!” my commentary said.  In Luke 19, Jesus foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of her people, and at what would have been the high point in the life of any normal man, He wept in sorrow.

The Jewish leaders, watching the procession, “were quite sure that Jesus had won the day … How little they really understood the mind and heart of the Master!  What they did not realize was that Jesus was ‘forcing their hand’ so that the Sanhedrin would act during the feast.  The Lamb of God had to give His life  when the Passover lambs were being slain,” my commentary explained.

Father, as usual we humans don’t see things with Your eyes.  We complain about worship, we assign wrong motives, and we only see things in light of how they affect us.  Enable my mind and heart to see what You see instead.  Give me Your eyes.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford