Jesus: King of Glory (12:9-26)

Bible Passage: John 12:12-36

This passage is John’s telling of the triumphal entry narrative. Jesus enters Jerusalem to the acclaim of the crowd, who receive him as a king. In a lot of ways this looks like a successful moment, but as you dig deeper you see the incident is a steeped with satire and is something of a parody of earthly power and glory, and contains within it a lesson of what true kingdom glory is like.

The Lazarus Problem: In the preceding chapter, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead after he had spent four days in the grave. This created a big problem for the opponents of Jesus, as there was now somebody within just a few miles of Jerusalem who was a living testimony to his power, and who people could see with their own eyes. Because it had become much more difficult to sweep what Jesus had done under the carpet, the religious leaders stepped up their opposition to him and now wanted to kill him. This caused Jesus to lie low for a while, and as the Passover festival was approaching, the big question on everyone’s minds was whether or not Jesus would show his face in Jerusalem for the celebration. Six days before the festival took place, Jesus had shown up at Lazarus’s house and word had got around. A large crowd headed from Jerusalem to Bethany to see him (and also to get a glimpse of Lazarus), and this made the authorities even more mad, so they now didn’t only want to kill Jesus but Lazarus as well.

The Entry of the King: The next day (v12) Jesus takes matters into his own hands and rides into Jerusalem. The crowd come out to proclaim him king. This is an act of prophetic theatre, where Jesus is acting out both the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9-12 and also the kind of victory parade typical of military generals, only using a donkey rather than a great horse. Everybody present knew the significance of what was happening: Jesus had told Martha (11:40) that she would see God’s glory; his enemies grasped that public opinion had gone away from them (12:19); and the crowd understood that Jesus was entering Jerusalem as Messiah, was doing so publicly and was being received as such. It seems a simple seen to grasp, but there is more than meets the eye. As verse 16 suggests, there is an aspect of this story that was not initially understood but only became clear after Jesus rose from the dead.

Seeing Jesus’ Glory: Verses 20-23 tell of some Greek people who had come up to the festival. They had no doubt heard the buzz, and their request was ‘we wish to see Jesus’. This is a fantastic desire, and Philip passes the request up to Andrew, who in turn takes it to Jesus. Jesus’ response is that the time has come for him to be glorified. This is a fascinating response given what has just happened. Jesus has just entered the town like a conquering king to popular acclaim, and yet that is not the glory he is speaking of. For Jesus, the glory that he will show is something else. In this account he plays the part of the earthly rule but then subverts it to show that the glory of the kingdom is of a different nature entirely.

The key to understanding this glory is found in verse 24. Jesus compares himself to a grain of wheat, and explains that it is only by going into the ground and dying that he will bear fruit. The glory of Jesus is the glory of the cross and the way of the kingdom is not about earthly power but sacrifice and service. It is small and hidden and yet in it there is the power of God to upend the cosmos. In verses 25-26, Jesus makes the point explicit that the same truth that he has taught about himself is also what he calls those who follow him to: to lay down our lives in order to find them.

Potential Applications:

• This passage is a major challenge to the way we think about power. It could be applied into lots of areas of life, church, leadership, cultural influence, etc.
• This passage also focusses out attention onto the cross as the true revelation of Christ’s glory. You could lead into a time of sung worship with songs chosen that specifically focus on his work on the cross.
• There is an invitation here for people to say something similar to the Greek people in this story: ‘We wish to see Jesus’. Perhaps there is a follow up event such as an Alpha course that you could invite people to if they wish to say this?