114. Chapter 1 - The Arrival at Bethany

Chapter 1 - The Arrival at Bethany John 11:15-57;John 12:1,John 12:9-11

Never were all so indebted to One as when Christ died for our sins. Never was there such concentration and condensation in one life-giving message as we find in the Gospel accounts. Of all the priceless history which the Gospel writers have recorded, one-half is devoted to the final week of Jesus’ ministry. In magnificent hyperbole John declares that if all the things Jesus said and did had been recorded, “I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should he written” (John 21:25). The Passover Crowd

All roads always led to Jerusalem at the Passover. But this Passover was different. All roads now possessed a mysterious compulsion which drew to the capital excited, expectant multitudes (John 11:55, John 11:56). Would He come? Would He dare to come? Who could prevent Him? Who could withstand Him? Not the rabble-rousing hypocrites of temple and synagogue. But they were deeply intrenched; they had arms and soldiers; they would with shrewd cunning seek the support of Rome. If only He would declare Himself and use His miraculous power to destroy His enemies. What a day of glory that would be! But, if not — what then? The storm clouds were menacing. The tension of suppressed excitement was fast approaching the inevitable point of explosion. Verily, this thing was not done in a corner. The Apostles From a superior vantage point the apostles had listened and watched. The searchlight of intimate revelation had guided their thoughts. But they were still in a state of hopeless confusion, unwilling to accept the inevitable because it was incredible, and longing to yield to the surge of emotions of love and desire. Like an erratic cyclone which lashes out in opposite directions, they rushed from one extreme to another — from delirious hope to utter despair. At the time of their last departure from Peraea to the capital when Lazarus lay dead, Thomas had spoken for all in his outcry of anguish and despair: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16).

Jesus And with what emotions did Jesus approach Jerusalem? The sight of the city caused Him to burst into tears at the time of the triumphal entry. It was not for Himself, but for them that He mourned. As He now went up to the capital His determination was manifest and unyielding.

Pharisees and Zealots

Without doubt both Zealots and Pharisees had made objections to the bold salutation of blind Bartimaeus of Jericho as he hailed Jesus as the Christ (Mark 10:47). The Pharisees: “What is this? Someone daring to hail Him publicly as the Christ?” The Zealots: “Silence that beggar! Now that we have Him going up to Jerusalem for the final collision, we must not allow Him to lapse back into a humble ministry of healing.” Waiting around in the streets of Jericho while the Prophet of Galilee “stooped to conquer” in the home of an outcast publican, Zacchaeus, would have given worldly dreams a severe backset. Before the house of Zacchaeus the Zealots fretted and fumed, while the Pharisees spread their scornful attacks. The Inevitable Climax When Jesus dosed His Peraean ministry and definitely started the journey to Jerusalem for the Passover, the disciples in a huddled group followed the majestic figure of the Master as He strode on before them (Mark 10:32-34). Hoping against hope, they were filled with the anguish of an overpowering dread: they were faced with the tragedy Jesus had repeatedly predicted to them. When He suddenly appeared in the midst of the throng of pilgrims approaching Jericho, it was plain to all that the inevitable climax was at hand. He was about to accept the challenge of the national leaders who had recently issued a demand that anyone knowing His whereabouts should report it in order that they might arrest Him as a public enemy. He was evidently going straight into their midst and, unarmed and unaided, planning to meet them in the temple itself. The dramatic conclusion to the irrepressible conflict was now definitely approaching. The fickle multitudes with their worldly dreams began to feel the excitement, a situation which was intensified by blind Bartimaeus who boldly voiced the slumbering hopes of all and would not be silenced as he shouted from the roadside: “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” The healing of the blind man must have given tremendous impetus to the rising tide of Messianic fervor. As the great crowd again proceeded on their way from Jericho led by the Master, the excitement became so intense that Jesus paused to deliver The Parable of the Pounds, a parable which was directed at the worldly expectations of the crowd and at the desperate plots of His enemies. We are indebted to the Gospel of Luke for all of these important details which enable us to visualize the scenes at Jericho and on the journey up the mountain highway. John gives a vivid description of the situation in Jerusalem and of the arrival of Jesus in Bethany. “Many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, to purify themselves. They sought therefore for Jesus, and spake one with another, as they stood in the temple, What think ye? That he will not come to the feast?” (John 11:55, John 11:56). The form of the Greek sentence indicates a negative answer is expected to this question: “Surely, He will not come up to the feast? Jerusalem swarms with enemies and seethes with plots. He has no army. But has He not marvelous, miraculous power, if only He would use it against His enemies?” These whisperings were carried on in the temple where an ominous, brooding silence prevailed. If the throngs who had arrived early in Jerusalem were thus excited, it is not hard to imagine the tense emotions of the multitude that was slowly climbing the mountain range with Jesus as He approached the holy city.

Early Arrivals for the Passover The Old Testament gave numerous, strict regulations as to ceremonial cleansing that had to be observed before a Jew might partake of one of the great feasts at the capital. Ordinary procedure was observed before worship in the temple. For ordinary forms of uncleanness, such as touching an unclean animal or coming into the house of a Gentile, the required ceremony ended at sunset. The more serious forms of uncleanness would require a week for purification, and thus a person who came up to the Passover might be prevented by such a misfortune from partaking of the feast. For this reason the people were accustomed to come up to the capital some days before the Passover. But the crowds who gathered early on this occasion had the additional motive of excited interest in the tragic drama which seemed likely to be enacted. There is no suggestion in the text of John that Jesus came up to the feast so far ahead of the Passover in order to purify Himself. He undoubtedly did observe the regulations of the Old Testament as He approached the temple for this feast. Even as He was coming up to Jerusalem not merely to eat the Passover lamb, but to become the Sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, so the details of ceremonial cleansing were not the impelling motives for His early arrival, but the desire to save lost men, to issue such a series of warnings to the wicked leaders of the nation and to the people as might echo down through the ages. His death was not to be by secret assassination in a dark corner. He intended to make His challenge to Satan and his priestly and Pharisaical allies so public and complete that no one could ever overlook it.

Devious Methods of the Pharisees The arrest of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas is described by the same Greek verb which is used of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Matthew 4:12 says “John was delivered up.” This does not necessarily imply that John was betrayed into the hands of Herod as was Jesus by Judas. The verb means “to deliver over, as to prison” as well as “to betray.” It would not require great physical effort for Herod to procure the arrest and imprisonment of John the Baptist as he preached. We are not to assume, however, that the Peraean ministry of Jesus was carried on in such secret manner that the Pharisees would have had any real difficulty in finding where Jesus was. John states without refutation the decree of the Sanhedrin, but it needed no refutation: “Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commandment, that, if any man knew where he was, he should show it, that they might take him.” Why should such a decree as this he issued when Jesus was preaching publicly in Peraea? He had retreated to the provinces, but He was certainly not in hiding. The Pharisees probably had the subtle purpose in this pronouncement of preparing the nation for the struggle which was about to ensue. They had repeatedly tried to kill Jesus, but they had found themselves mysteriously foiled when they tried to attack Him. When they had attempted to have Him arrested at the Feast of Tabernacles, the officers returned empty-handed with the awed report: “Never man so spake.” Meanwhile the hold of Jesus upon the nation increased, and as the mystery of His divine person became the more evident, the possibility of an assassination such as they later planned against Paul and executed against Stephen became more remote. Although they were constantly plotting the death of Jesus, they felt that if they were to achieve their purpose, it must he by a public trial, and for this the nation must be prepared.

Hypocritical Cowardice A further reason for the decree and perhaps the chief reason was their desperate necessity to do something to stem the rising tide. The decree was a colossal bluff. They knew where Jesus was. They could readily have reached the scene of His preaching in a two day’s journey. The sudden journey of Jesus to Bethany for the raising of Lazarus and the sudden departure furnished both the necessity and the opportunity for the issuing of this decree of proscription. The resurrection of Lazarus forced the issue; they could not ignore it or avoid it. They dared not act yet, and so they fumed and threatened in the temple. They remind one of that Greek soldier described by Xenophon, who though large of body was faint of heart and excused his failure to go into battle by his inability to find a sword which was big and strong enough to suit his frame. If ever he could find such a sword, he would readily advance to the combat! He just could not find it! Wicked hypocrites ruling in the temple would have had plenty of equally evil enemies at their heels. Taunts for their failure to face the issue had to be given some answer. This decree served the purpose of saving their faces as well as preparing for the final struggle. The ready proof is that no one attempted to carry out their decree and report Jesus for arrest. Anyone delivering such a report might be asked to execute the commission of arrest!

It is true that Jesus was in the territory of Herod Antipas, but the authority of the Sanhedrin obtained in religious matters among Jews everywhere. And Herod Antipas could hardly be described as a devoted disciple of Jesus. They could have secured his co-operation for the arrest, had they dared to effect it. Herod had tried in vain to drive Jesus out of his domain (Luke 13:31). The predictions of Jesus that He was to suffer death at the hands of His enemies had been reported to them (Matthew 27:63). His evident determination not to use His miraculous power to defend Himself caused them to grow more bold in their determination to risk all by arresting Him. They did not do this in the provinces where Jesus waited for the Passover. Jesus forced the issue by coming into their very presence in a triumphal entry of Jerusalem.

It is idle for modern critics to declare that if the claims of Jesus are correct and He was actually the Son of God, then it required no great courage to come to Jerusalem and face His enemies who were mere men. The vital point is that Jesus refused to use His divine power to save Himself from suffering and death at the hands of His enemies. He had made evident to both friend and foe that He would not undertake to defend Himself by violence and that He would not permit any of His followers to resort to violence. It requires a certain amount of courage to face death at last when one no longer has the power to avoid it and is helpless to delay it. It requires a far greater amount of courage to give one’s life deliberately for someone else, to have the power to avoid death, but to refuse to use the power. When such a tragic decision can he made and executed on the spur of the moment, it is far easier than to face the terrible reality of approaching disaster through long months and years and to meet death full of power to avoid it, but consumed with determination not to do so. The Son of God, as He went up to die for a lost world, gave the sublime revelation of courage.

Time of Arrival The date of Jesus’ arrival seems to he set quite definitely by John’s Gospel: “Jesus therefore six days before the passover came to Bethany.” When this statement is analyzed, however, one immediately faces the following problems: Is the count made from the day on which the Passover lamb was slain (Thursday) or the day of the great feast (Friday)? Does the count include the day of arrival and the day named as the “Passover,” or does John mean six days intervened without including these terminal days? The count is usually made from Thursday and the preceding Saturday named as the approximate date of His arrival at Bethany. It is generally held that Jesus arrived late on Friday afternoon since it is not likely that He would have spent the night between Jericho and Jerusalem or that He would have made this long trip (eighteen miles) on the Sabbath. This is probably correct, but it cannot be argued with absolute assurance since the ruins of an ancient khan about half-way up the mountain road from Jericho to Jerusalem show that travelers were under no necessity to make the trip in one day. Moreover, the presence of such a multitude of pilgrims would make possible an overnight camp at any point on the highway, even though the region was desolate and robber-infested. The proposition that Jesus would not have made the entire trip on the Sabbath needs more examination than has been given to it. It rests upon the presumption that Jesus would not have traveled freely an the Sabbath, but would have observed the tradition of the elders which forbade any journey of more than seven-eighths of a mile. The Old Testament law simply prohibited any work on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees set themselves to the task of spinning out all sorts of fine discriminations by way of interpreting this command for the nation. Work? Was it work to walk? That depended on how far you walked; and so, on the basis of the original encampment of Israel about the tabernacle, they ruled that seven-eighths of a mile was the limit of any journey that a faithful Jew might make on the Sabbath. Jesus, however, refused to be bound by the traditions of the Pharisees He even went Out of His way to override and denounce them. The lame man at the Pool of Bethesda might have been healed on some other day. He might have been cautioned to bestow his pallet near by and not attempt to carry it home on the Sabbath (the carrying of any burden was especially prohibited by the Pharisees). But instead of this, Jesus healed the man and ordered him to take up his bed and go home even though this compelled him to go through the Sabbath day crowds about the temple in open violation of the traditions of the Pharisees There is not one single instance in the ministry of Jesus where He expressly accepted these traditions. Why, then, argue with such assurance that He would not have traveled from Jericho to Jerusalem on the Sabbath? He probably did not, but it cannot be proved. Although Bethany is said to he “a sabbath day’s journey from Jerusalem,” this does not necessarily imply that Jesus and His followers kept the regulation. If Jesus had chosen to make the journey up from Jericho on the Sabbath, the excited multitudes would certainly have accompanied Him. Poor people could not hope to keep the traditions of the Pharisees, because only those with wealth and leisure could have the time to keep the endless round of ceremonies ordered by the exclusive sect. Jesus said concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, “Pray ye that your flight he not in the winter, neither on a sabbath” (Matthew 24:20). This did not mean, however, that such flight would be impossible, only more difficult. To make it mean that His followers could not break the tradition of the elders and flee more than seven-eighths of a mile on the Sabbath, even to save their lives from the Romans, would make the early Christians out-Pharisee the Pharisees! The supreme moment of universal history would lead Jesus to make this journey just as God directed regardless of whether it was on the Sabbath or not. There is thus nothing to prevent the view that Jesus came on the late afternoon of the Sabbath. Some hold that Jesus spent the Sabbath in Jericho at the home of Zacchaeus and made the journey on Sunday, entering immediately in triumph into the temple toward the close of this day. These scholars follow the arrangement of Matthew and Mark as to the anointing of Jesus in Bethany and hold that John’s record of this event is geographical. But it seems more probable that Jesus arrived on Friday or Saturday evening.

Jesus and Lazarus The mention of Bethany naturally brought forth in John’s account the reminder that Lazarus was still there, alive, a compelling, unavoidable testimony to the miraculous power of Jesus. The miracle was recent and still fresh in the minds and the conversation of the people. Crowds came from Jerusalem hoping to get a glimpse of the great Prophet and also of this man whom He had raised from the dead. While a restless multitude of the curious or the more spiritually minded shifted and sought on the Mount of Olives, the palace of the high priest was filled with morose whisperings and deadly plots. Meanwhile the home in Bethany where Jesus and His apostles rested was full of the quiet and calm of a heavenly peace.