(12) In the section which follows (John 12:12-19), we again meet with matter which is common to St. John and the earlier Gospels. The Entry into Jerusalem is described by each of the evangelists, and the outer incidents are told more briefly by St. John than by any one of the others. (Comp. Notes on Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44.)

On the next day.—See Note on John 12:1. St. John only gives us this definite note of time, connecting the Entry with the previous sojourn at Bethany. The Synoptic narrative is more general, describing the approach from Jericho, and naming Bethphage (Matt. and Luke) and Bethany (Mark and Luke) as stages in the journey, but not connecting the Supper at Bethany with the Entry.

When they heard that Jesus was coming.—They heard probably from those of the Jews (John 12:9) who had gone to Bethany. Note that these multitudes are not called Jews, though, of course, in the ordinary sense they were so. They were not “Jews” in the sense in which St. John uses the word, and he describes them as “much people that were come to the feast.” (Comp. John 11:54.)

John

A NEW KIND OF KING

John 12:12 - John 12:26.

The difference between John’s account of the entry into Jerusalem and those of the Synoptic Gospels is very characteristic. His is much briefer, but it brings the essentials out clearly, and is particular in showing its place as a link in the chain that drew on the final catastrophe, and in noting its effect on various classes.

‘The next day’ in John 12:12 was probably the Sunday before the crucifixion. To understand the events of that day we must try to realise how rapidly, and, as the rulers thought, dangerously, excitement was rising among the crowds who had come up for the Passover, and who had heard of the raising of Lazarus. The Passover was always a time when national feeling was ready to blaze up, and any spark might light the fire. It looked as if Lazarus were going to be the match this time, and so, on the Saturday, the rulers had made up their minds to have him put out of the way in order to stop the current that was setting in, of acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah.

They had already made up their minds to dispose of Jesus, and now, with cynical contempt for justice, they determined to ‘put Lazarus also to death.’ So there were to be two men who were to ‘die for the people.’ Keeping all this wave of popular feeling in view, it might have been expected that Jesus would, as hitherto, have escaped into privacy, or discouraged the offered homage of a crowd whose Messianic ideal was so different from His.

John is mainly concerned in bringing out two points in his version of the incident. First, he tells us what we should not have gathered from the other Evangelists, that the triumphal procession began in Jerusalem, not in Bethany. It was the direct result of the ebullition of enthusiasm occasioned by the raising of Lazarus. The course of events seems to have been that ‘the common people of the Jews’ came streaming out to Bethany on the Sunday to gape and gaze at the risen man and Him who had raised him, that they and some of those who had been present at the raising went back to the city and carried thither the intelligence that Jesus was coming in from Bethany next day, and that then the procession to meet Him was organised.

The meaning of the popular demonstration was plain, both from the palm branches, signs of victory and rejoicing, and from the chant, which is in part taken from Psalm 118:1 - Psalm 118:29 The Messianic application of that quotation is made unmistakable by the addition, ‘even the King of Israel.’ In the Psalm, ‘he that cometh in the name of Jehovah,’ means the worshipper drawing near to the Temple, but the added words divert the expression to Jesus, hail Him as the King, and invoke Him as ‘Saviour.’ Little did that shouting crowd understand what sort of a Saviour He was. Deliverance from Rome was what they were thinking of.

We must remember what gross, unspiritual notions of the Messiah they had, and then we are prepared to feel how strangely unlike His whole past conduct Jesus’ action now was. He had shrunk from crowds and their impure enthusiasm; He had slipped away into solitude when they wished to come by force to make Him a King, and had in every possible way sought to avoid publicity and the rousing of popular excitement. Now He deliberately sets Himself to intensify it. His choice of an ass on which to ride into Jerusalem was, and would be seen by many to be, a plain appropriation to Himself of a very distinct Messianic prophecy, and must have raised the heat of the crowd by many degrees. One can fancy the roar of acclaim which hailed Him when He met the multitude, and the wild emotion with which they strewed His path with garments hastily drawn off and cast before Him.

Why did He thus contradict all His past, and court the smoky enthusiasm which He had hitherto damped? Because He knew that ‘His hour’ had come, and that the Cross was at hand, and He desired to bring it as speedily as might be, and thus to shorten the suffering that He would not avoid, and to finish the work which He was eager to complete. The impatience, as we might almost call it, which had marked Him on all that last journey, reached its height now, and may indicate to us for our sympathy and gratitude both His human longing to get the dark hour over and His fixed willingness to die for us.

But even while Jesus accepted the acclamations and deliberately set Himself to stir up enthusiasm, He sought to purify the gross ideas of the crowd. What more striking way could He have chosen of declaring that all the turbulent passions and eagerness for a foot-to-foot conflict with Rome which were boiling in their breasts were alien to His purposes and to the true Messianic ideal, than that choosing of the meek, slow-pacing ass to bear Him? A conquering king would have made his triumphal entry in a chariot or on a battle-horse. This strange type of monarch is throned on an ass. It was not only for a verbal fulfilment of the prophecy, but for a demonstration of the essential nature of His kingdom, that He thus entered the city.

John characteristically takes note of the effects of the entry on two classes, the disciples and the rulers. The former remembered with a sudden flash of enlightenment the meaning of the entry when the Cross and the Resurrection had taught them it. The rulers marked the popular feeling running high with bewilderment, and were, as Jesus meant them to be, made more determined to take vigorous measures to stop this madness of the mob.

The second incident in this passage contrasts remarkably with the first, and yet is, in one aspect, a continuation of it. In the former, Jesus brought into prominence the true nature of His rule by His choosing the ass to carry Him, so declaring that His dominion rested, not on conquest, but on meekness. In the latter, He reveals a yet deeper aspect of His work, and teaches that His influence over men is won by utter self-sacrifice, and that His subjects must tread the same path of losing their lives by which He passes to His glory. The details of the incident are of small importance as compared with that great and solemn lesson; but we may note them in a few words. The desire of a few Greeks to see Him was probably only a reflection of the popular enthusiasm, and was prompted mainly by curiosity and the characteristic Greek eagerness to see any ‘new thing.’ The addressing of the request to Philip is perhaps explained by the fact that he ‘was of Bethsaida of Galilee,’ and had probably come into contact with these Greeks in the neighbouring Decapolis, on the other side of the lake. Philip’s consultation of his fellow-townsman, Andrew, who is associated with him in other places, probably implies hesitation in granting so unprecedented a request. They did not know what Jesus might say to it. And what He did say was very unlike anything that they could have anticipated.

The trivial request was as a narrow window through which Jesus’ yearning spirit saw a great expanse-nothing less than the coming to Him of myriads of Gentiles, the ‘much fruit’ of which He immediately speaks, the ‘other sheep’ whom He ‘must bring.’ The thought must have been ever present to Him, or it would never have leaped to utterance on such an occasion. The little window shows us, too, what was habitually in His mind and heart. He, as it were, hears the striking of the hour of His glorification; in which expression the ideas of His being glorified by drawing men to the knowledge of His love, and of the Cross being not the lowest depth of His humiliation, but the highest apex of His glory-as it is always represented in this Gospel-seemed to be fused together.

The seed must die if a harvest is to spring from it. That is the law for all moral and spiritual reformations. Every cause must have its martyrs. No man can be fruit-bearing unless he sacrifices himself. We shall not ‘quicken’ our fellows unless we ‘die,’ either literally or by the not less real martyrdom of rigid self-crucifixion and suppression.

But that necessity is not only for Apostles or missionaries of great causes; it is the condition of all true, noble life, and prescribes the path not only for those who would live for others, but for all who would truly live their own lives. Self-renunciation guards the way to the ‘tree of life.’ That lesson was specially needed by ‘Greeks,’ for ignorance of it was the worm that gnawed the blossoms of their trees, whether of art or of literature. It is no less needed by our sensuously luxurious and eagerly acquisitive generation. The world’s war-cries to-day are two-’Get!’ ‘Enjoy!’ Christ’s command is, ‘Renounce!’ And in renouncing we shall realise both of these other aims, which they who pursue them only, never attain.

Christ’s servant must be Christ’s follower: indeed service is following. The Cross has aspects in which it stands alone, and is incapable of being reproduced and makes all repetition needless. But it has also an aspect in which it not only may, but must, be reproduced in every disciple. And he who takes it for the ground of his trust only, and not as the pattern of his life, has need to ask himself whether his trust in it is genuine or worth anything. Of course they who follow a leader will arrive where the leader has gone, and though our feet are feeble and our progress devious and slow, we have here His promise that we shall not be lost in the desert, but, sustained by Him, will reach His side, and at last be where He is.

John 12:12-16. On the next day — On Sunday; much people that were come to the feast — From different parts of the country, particularly from Galilee; took branches of palm-trees, &c. — So that this multitude consisted chiefly, not of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but of persons from other places. See this story explained at large, Matthew 21:1-16; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:29-40. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass — Called by the other evangelists, a colt. But the Greek here, ευρων δε ο Ιησους οναριον, may be better translated, Now Jesus, having found a young ass; sat thereon, &c. — For the evangelist does not mean that Jesus was saluted by the multitude before he mounted, but his meaning is, that Jesus was riding when they saluted him. As it is written — Namely, Zechariah 9:9; Fear not, daughter of Sion — For his meekness, as well as the end of his coming, forbids fear; behold thy king cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt — We shall easily see the propriety of applying Zechariah’s prophecy to this transaction, if we remember that, in the East, riding on horses was anciently reckoned the greatest ostentation of magnificence. It was, therefore, becoming the meekness of the lowly Jesus, that in his most public entry into the capital city, he chose to ride on an ass. At the same time, there was nothing mean or ridiculous in it, asses being the beasts which the eastern people commonly made use of in riding. These things understood not his disciples, &c. — They did not at that time know what their Master designed by this entry, or by any of the circumstances of it. Probably they considered it as the first step of his exaltation to the throne. But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they, &c. — After his ascension, recollecting the prophecies concerning the Messiah, they remembered how exactly they had been fulfilled in him, and found their faith greatly strengthened thereby. In like manner, the design of God’s providential dispensations is seldom understood at first. We ought, therefore, to believe, though we understand not, and to give ourselves up to the divine disposal. The great work of faith is, to embrace those things which we know not now, but shall know hereafter.

12:12-19 Christ's riding in triumph to Jerusalem is recorded by all the evangelists. Many excellent things, both in the word and providence of God, disciples do not understand at their first acquaintance with the things of God. The right understanding of spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, prevents our misapplying the Scriptures which speak of it.See this passage explained in the notes at Matthew 21:1-16. Also Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44.Joh 12:12-19. Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

(See on [1838]Mt 21:1-9; and Lu 19:29-36).

12. On the next day—the Lord's day, or Sunday (see on [1839]Joh 12:1); the tenth day of the Jewish month Nisan, on which the paschal lamb was set apart to be "kept up until the fourteenth day of the same month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel were to kill it in the evening" (Ex 12:3, 6). Even so, from the day of this solemn entry into Jerusalem, "Christ our Passover" was virtually set apart to be "sacrificed for us" (1Co 5:7).

Ver. 12-15. This whole history is much more largely reported by the other evangelists; See Poole on "Matthew 21:1", and following verses to Matthew 21:16. See Poole on "Mark 11:1", and following verses to Mark 11:10. See Poole on "Luke 19:29", and following verses to Luke 19:40.

On the next day, much people that were come to the feast,.... Of the passover; and they were much people indeed, that came yearly to this feast, from all parts of the nation; for all the males in Israel, were obliged to appear at this time; and though the women were not obliged, yet multitudes of them came, and the fame of Jesus might bring the more; add to which, that there was now a general expectation of the Messiah's coming, which brought the Jews from all parts of the world, to Jerusalem; so that this might be called indeed, , "a crowded passover": and though the following account is a stretching it too far, yet it may serve to illustrate this matter:

"would you desire to know what multitudes were at Jerusalem of the priests, you may know, as it is written, 1 Kings 8:63, and the tradition is, that an ox was offered for twenty four, and a sheep for eleven.--King Agrippa sought to know what was the number of the multitude, which were in Jerusalem; he said to the priests, lay by for me one kidney of every passover lamb; they laid by for him six hundred thousand pair of kidneys, double the number of those that came out of Egypt: and there is never a passover lamb, but there are more than ten numbered for it (m), &c.''

Now the day following the supper at Bethany, and which seems to be the first day of the week, this multitude of people,

when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem; from Bethany, which was soon known, it being so near.

(m) Echa Rabbati, fol. 42. 3, 4.

On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,