Day 307 (Mark 11, John 12) - Year 4
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

After the events we discussed yesterday and read about again today, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the temple, Jesus and his apostles go to the outskirts of Jerusalem to spend the night, maybe even at the home of their friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, who live in the village of Bethany. The next morning, as they're heading back into the city, they pass the fig tree Jesus cursed. Peter's like, whoa, check it out, it's withered down to the root. And while this is actually a bad sign as far as the imagery for Israel is concerned,

Jesus takes the opportunity to redeem the image. He turns it into an object lesson for Peter, pointing out aspects of faith and prayer and forgiveness that he expounds on more elsewhere in Scripture. Since Jesus covers these topics at length in other spots, we won't dive into them much here except to offer this quick reminder. The first rule of Scripture interpretation is that Scripture interprets Scripture. So we have to be careful not to isolate these passages from everything else Jesus says when he teaches on these things.

Or we'll end up with an incomplete doctrine and a skewed theology. These verses on prayer aren't just giving us the power to make things happen if we believe them strong enough. This is not putting the onus on you to create enough faith in yourself. And the verses on forgiveness can make it sound like some kind of work we have to do to earn our way into a relationship with God.

Neither of those things are what the greater teaching of Scripture says in these areas, so these verses must be viewed in light of those other verses. Hold these things with an open hand for now if you're still confused, and we'll dig into them more as we keep reading.

At some point that week, Mary and Martha and Lazarus make dinner for Jesus and his apostles. As usual, Martha is being Martha, doing the work. Lazarus is hanging out and talking to Jesus and the guys, and Mary is being Mary, cherishing every second with Jesus. She pulls out some expensive perfumed oil, about a pint-sized jar of it, and starts pouring it on his feet. There are a few things worth mentioning here. First, washing feet is the work of a slave or a servant. That's not what she's doing, but it's pretty close.

Imagine what feet are like in a time when shoes are open-toed and everyone travels on foot. As if that weren't enough, she doubles down on her humility by taking the thing that is seen as a woman's physical crown of beauty, her hair, and wiping his feet with it. This is rich with symbolism. She's placing her head at his feet, almost like the crowns cast at his feet that we've talked about before. This is a dramatic, poetic demonstration of humility.

In Matthew's and Mark's account of this story, they say she also anoints his head. Given that she has so much oil stored up, she probably has plenty to cover both his head and his feet.

Meanwhile, Judas is standing off to the side watching this all go down. He appeals to them with an argument for generosity and charity, but underneath his whitewashed argument was a spirit of greed, manipulation, and criticism. John tells us clearly that Judas is a thief. So it seems that his motivation for that conversation has more to do with wanting that money. He's not concerned for Jesus or for the poor. He's looking out for himself.

I wonder if John knew this at the time or if it only became clear to him later. Because at the time, Judas is their treasurer, the one who keeps their money and pays for things they need along the way. Maybe at some point John had seen him acting dishonestly with their cash. Or maybe he only puts two and two together after Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Jesus tells Judas to leave her alone and not take her oil. He says, she'll need it for my burial.

Not only is she anointing him in advance of his death, but he seems to indicate that she'll use the same oil again in the future. There is a lot of it, after all. Around this time, word starts getting out that Jesus is in town, so people start to gather. They also want to see his friend Lazarus, who was raised from the dead. There's no TMZ in this day, but celebrity news still travels fast. The leaders of the Jews are not happy about it, so they decide to put Lazarus to death.

Lazarus, the guy who's famous for being raised from the dead. Hey, let's kill the guy who didn't stay dead last time. I mean, I guess he has to die again at some point, but that's still funny to me. A few of the people who hear that Jesus is in town are Greek followers of Yahweh. These guys aren't Jewish by birth, they're Gentiles, and they not only believe in Yahweh, but also appear to have enough understanding of the Hebrew scriptures to recognize that Jesus is the promised Messiah.

They ask one of the apostles if they can get an introduction, but Jesus, per usual, doesn't really give a straight answer. He says something that basically amounts to, I'm busy right now, it's time for me to go die. But don't worry, this will bear a lot of fruit, and pretty soon, you're going to be following in my footsteps.

Then he goes on to say his heart is troubled, actually. He wants to be rescued from what he's about to endure, but he knows this is the Father's plan and he knows it's the only way. If there's any other way for God's kids to be reconciled to him, then Jesus doesn't have to die. If any path to God is sufficient, or if we can earn our way into that relationship by being good, then Jesus' death is unnecessary. He can be spared all of the pain of his death because it's pointless.

But there is no other way. We can't fix ourselves. Brokenness can't repair itself to a state of perfection. We must have the perfect sacrifice laid out for us to pay our sin debt. And only Jesus can be the perfect sacrifice because only he is perfect. Only he is the fully God, fully man, Savior, Messiah, King. And he prays and asks the Father to be glorified in him. Then...

Then,

Then Jesus tells the people, "He did that for your benefit, not mine, because I already know all this stuff. In fact, I also know that I'm about to die and accomplish the total defeat of the enemy." Jesus is probably referencing the defeat of Satan and death and darkness. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul refers to Satan as the God of this world, which seems to indicate the same idea. By the way, just because something is a God doesn't mean it has power.

We talked about this a lot in the Old Testament, but if you missed that, just know that there are a lot of false gods who claim to have powers they don't actually have. We've already seen Satan doing this very thing when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. So this doesn't actually mean Satan is in charge of what happens on earth. We've seen from the demons' response to Jesus that they know he is in charge. His victory over them has already been accomplished outside of time, and it will be fulfilled in time eventually. They know it, and he knows it.

Today, my God shot was in the last paragraph of John 12. Jesus reveals a total submission to the authority of God the Father. Imagine being as powerful as Jesus. You can bring the dead to life. You can boss the weather around. You can make food materialize out of thin air. And still humbly submitting to the authority of the Father. Jesus is God the Son. He's not just a powerful prophet or a good teacher of morality. He repeatedly claims to be God himself. And God the Father affirms that.

How incredible that the Godhead has one will, and each person of the Trinity has a role to fulfill in that process, and much of it is positioned toward rescuing and redeeming God's kids. That is astonishing. He's where the joy is. ♪

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