John 12:12-16
Introduction: For Palm Sunday, we’re jumping ahead a few chapters in our study of the Fourth Gospel. The scene is quite a contrast from what we had been looking at in John 8… Everyone likes a parade! I had a little guy come up to me after church a couple of weeks ago, 5 or six years old, and say “Pastor Steve, I have a suggestion. Why don’t we put a float in the Windjammer parade this year? And if we do, do you think I could ride in the front since it was my idea?” (I think he is currently working up a proposal for a committee!). The triumphal entry seems like a celebration! It is also one of the most ironic scenes in the Bible. The crowd speaks the truth as they hail the arrival of Jesus, but they don’t understand the full meaning of their own words. “The Son of God”—“The King of Israel”—“Save now!” The crowd was saying more than they knew, more than they understood. You see the scene is a prelude to the cross. Yes it’s Palm Sunday, but it was Passover week, Good Friday is only days away. Everything they say is true, that’s why Jesus accepts it and does not rebuke them. But they don’t grasp the full import of their own words – they don’t understand who He really is.
The New Testament writers show that part of the problem was a failure of the Jews to understand their own Scriptures. In the Bible we see hundreds of prophecies that were made about the Messiah fulfilled explicitly in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. God had a plan, that plan was revealed, in part, in advance in these OT texts, yet most people simply did not get it. Palm Sunday leads us into the last week of Jesus’ life before the Cross. The story unfolds exactly as God had planned it—confirming Jesus’ identity, inviting us to consider how we should respond to Him.
Context: The plot to kill Jesus after the miraculous raising of Lazarus (11:40-57) the anointing of Jesus “for His burial” (12:1-8) and the plot to kill Lazarus (12:9-11) strike an ominous note as the story unfolds. The contrast with what is about to happen is an example of Johannine irony. The crowds, even the disciples did not understand fully what was happening, what it really would involve for Jesus to fulfill His role as the “King of the Jews” (see 12:16). As we consider this we’ll see… The Big Idea: Palm Sunday invites us to consider the Lamb upon the throne, the Passover King, and calls us to worship Him.
John 12:12-16 “The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!"
I. The Crowd was right, He is the King! (12:12-13). We’ve seen in John’s Gospel irony as the story of Jesus unfolds. The Jews were expecting a Messiah, a King, a Son of David who would restore the kingdom to Israel. They had somehow lost sight of the truth that the coming King was also to be the Suffering Servant. The title “King” doesn’t show up a lot in John’s Gospel, until chapters 18, 19 with Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. But there are some clues that John gives his reader early on:
The first time Jesus is called “King” in this Gospel occurs in the first Chapter, the confession of Nathanael: John 1:49 “Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Before this confession however, the reader has heard John the Baptist, twice, calling Jesus God’s Lamb: John 1:29 "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!; John 1:36 “And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’" Could they both be talking about the same person? We read that and take it for granted, we’ve heard the phrases and this language applied to Jesus in church. Imagine the disciples when they first heard it, imagine John’s readers when they first read this Gospel: for a Jew in the first century, “Lamb” whatever else it might mean, implies sacrifice. Lamb, and King? How could He be both Sovereign and Sacrifice?
The second time in John’s Gospel that the word “King” appears, is in Chapter 6, and comes in response to Jesus miraculously feeding the 5,000 with 5 small loaves of bread and a couple of fish. John 6:14-15 “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.” In response to this miraculous provision, they wanted to make Him king by force. Jesus knew their thoughts, what they intended to do, and went away. It wasn’t time for the king to be revealed. Moreover, they were looking for a king like the nations around them, not the God-Man Jesus. John has just reminded the reader of the Gospel, just a few verses earlier: John 6:4 “Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.” After hearing John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb, the reader of the Gospel has a clue as to what is coming – the disciples on the other hand still don’t understand. He is the King – but He is also the Lamb.
The third use of “king” in John’s Gospel comes that first Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry. The crowd quotes from Psalm 118:25-26
“Save now (hosanna), I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity. 26 Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.”Notice in John’s Gospel that they add something to the text of the Psalm: John 12:13 “…took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!" What they said was correct, and this time Jesus allows it, even though there is little doubt the crowd was still clueless as to what was about to happen. The reader of the Gospel, however, has just been reminded:
1) Passover was coming in just a few days, which means the Passover Lamb would soon be sacrificed (12:1).
2) Mary had just anointed Jesus, and He said it was “for His burial” (12:2-8).
3) The chief priests were plotting to kill Lazarus, because his being raised from the dead was irrefutable proof that Jesus was from God, and they wouldn’t hear it (12:9-11). Their minds were made up, they would not consider the evidence that Jesus was the messiah (see Peter’s word in Acts 2:22).
Part of the irony here is that the crowd, in quoting from Psalm 118, had forgotten part of the context: Psalm 118:22 “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.” That rejection would reach its climax in just a few days when the leaders insist: “Crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar!” Palm Sunday invites us to consider the Passover King, the Lamb upon the throne, and calls us to worship Him.
II. He is the King, and He came in fulfillment of the Scriptures (12:14-15). John takes us from the shouts of the crowd, which were ironically true, even though they didn’t understand correctly who Jesus was, to the actions of Jesus, taken in deliberate fulfillment of Scripture: “Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15 "Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey's colt."
The main point is that God had a plan, and every action of Jesus was taken in submission to and in fulfillment of the Father’s will. The cross was not a failure, it was not an accident, it was not plan “B.” Peter said on Pentecost that Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined purpose and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:22-24).
The Scripture, made centuries before was fulfilled precisely: He is the King. Notice that John leaves out a word from Zechariah’s prophecy: “Lowly” or “humble”. John was emphasizing His power, control, sovereignty, and glory. We’ll see Him as a servant in chapter 13 when He wraps a towel around His waist and bends down to wash the dirty feet of His disciples. Then, as the Suffering Servant, who is also the King, He goes to the cross and becomes obedient, even to the point to death. Palm Sunday invites us to consider the Lamb, the Passover King, the One who came according the Father’s plan, in fulfillment of Scripture, and calls us to worship Him.
III. He is the Passover King, the Sovereign Sacrifice, the Lamb of God (12:16). “His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.”
The disciples didn’t understand at first what all of this meant. Even though He had repeatedly, explicitly told them about the necessity of His death and resurrection, they couldn’t grasp it.
“…when Jesus was glorified then they remembered…” In John, it’s especially on the cross that Jesus is glorified (see John 3:14,15). The cross was His lifting up, His exaltation, His glorification, because it proved who He was, fulfilling the Scriptures, and it accomplished what He came to do, giving His life for our sins.
1) Notice in our context, John 12:25-28 25 "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. 27 "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 "Father, glorify Your name…" Jesus is aluding to Psalm 6:3,4. There David is troubled deeply, and calls on God to save him. Jesus uses the same word to express what he is feeling, but He doesn’t pray David’s prayer. You see his hour had come, to pray for deliverance would be a contradiction. He chose to die so that David’s prayer for salvation, and Peter’s, and John’s, and your’s and mine could be answered. He is both Sovereign and Sacrifice, the King and the Lamb.
2) John 18:36-37 “Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.” He was not a king like the nations around them, not even a king like David in the limited sense. He was the Passover King, the King who sovereignly choose to lay down His life for His people.
What is God saying to me in this passage? Palm Sunday invites us to consider the the Lamb upon the throne, the Passover King, and calls us to worship Him. What the crowds said on Palm Sunday was true, but they didn’t grasp the full implications. Jesus was not a victim. He was in control. And as Sovereign, He fulfilled the Scriptures, and gave His life as a ransom for many.
Rev 1:5 He is “…the ruler over the kings of the earth… [He] who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood…” In chapter three John sees in his vision He appears “…in the middle of the throne as a lamb that had been slain…” The Passover King, exalted, on the throne of heaven, worthy to open the scroll and loosen its seals. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. The One who was, who is, and who is to come.
What would he have me to do in response to these truths? What difference does this doctrine make in my life? Our response can only be to stand in awe of the matchless grace of God, and to love the One who so loved us. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. The Passover King, who gave His life, so that we could have life. Praise Him for His indescribable gift. All hail King Jesus! All hail Emmanuel!
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