Fabulous Feast

Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:1-3)

I have been meditating on this story this morning and wondering why John reported it so benignly as it reads here. Given the scandalous, insulting way both Jesus and Mary were treated in what actually took place when seen from the perspective of the other gospels, why did John choose to present such a brief and almost idealistic version of this event?

As I meditated on it and listened for insights from the Spirit, it began to soak in that this is yet another revelation of how Jesus sees all of us and relates to us. John's version of this story is not a case of ignorance or apathy or seeking to manipulate facts to further a selfish agenda, but the reality is that God is fundamentally committed to drawing us to Him in every way possible with the greatest patience, kindness and tact. What purpose is served by exposing the faults of the guilty parties involved here? It is true that the feast was held in Simon's house and not in the home of Lazarus as in the story I wrote last time. I find this a little curious to start with and wonder what some of the background politics were involved in that decision. I suspect there was plenty of social maneuvering and influence manipulation going on behind the scenes and that the Lazarus' family may not have been completely satisfied with the outcome. Yet John quite likely aware of all this still chooses to portray this feast almost as if it were conducted with the purest motives, free of the tensions and gaffes more fully reported by the other writers.

If John's account were the only one we had we might easily be led to think that Mary had no stigma attached to her reputation. Aside from the rude comment of Judas which John notes, it might look like Mary's anointing of Jesus was just part of the scheduled proceedings that were designed to honor Jesus in every way possible. I had never noticed this before today and I find it curious that John so carefully masks out most of the intrigue and shame and censure that actually occurred.

I seriously wonder if John didn't portray this feast using this perspective to hint to the reader what could have taken place in the previous story if different choices had been made there. But beyond that I wonder what other lessons might be extracted from this idyllic picture involving each member of the family of Lazarus. This is such a positive story that stands in stark contrast to our penchant for wanting to know as much as possible about all the intrigue and the lurid details in stories that we hear. Our society is so addicted to airing the dirty laundry of others, we have such a strong appetite for drama and exposing the failings of others that we tend to view this version of the story as almost incomplete.

But I don't think it was an oversight on the part of John when he wrote this story the way that he did. John may be wanting to set the record straight about Mary after so many years of slights about her reputation. John may have been wanting to portray Mary from the perspective of heaven rather than to keep referring to her past life of prostitution as if that were the label that she would never be able to shake off.

From the other accounts of this story it appears that Jesus too, wanted to correct our thinking about Mary, for He seemed to indicate that Mary's grasp of the gospel and her relationship to Him was closer to what He has in mind for all of us than what most Christians tend to assume constitutes holiness. Religious people tend to think of religion in terms of outward behavior, of measuring the life by a list of do's and don'ts and looking at each other through critical eyes. But Jesus always seemed more intent on drawing out the heart and noting the condition of people's spirit.

What I find here is a story about a person who has such an overwhelming passion for Jesus that they are willing to expose themselves to any risk in order to pour out their love and affection on Him. Mary's passion for Jesus is reflective in some respects for her natural tendency toward passion in all of her life. In the past her passion had been abused and had become distorted. She had been terribly damaged and deeply wounded both by other's treatment of her and through her own choices to seek satisfaction and survival through immoral choices. But I sense that Mary was a person who could hardly hold herself back from living from her heart even after it had been abused and damaged repeatedly. And in that respect I admire her greatly.

What I have observed over the years is that the idea of living from the heart seems to produce the greatest resistance in people. There is such enormous pressure, particularly in religion, to keep up appearances, to conform to social or legalistic expectations and living from the heart is not viewed very favorably. But God designed us to live passionately from our hearts and to do anything else is to be less than truly human. To live from our head without having our hearts fully engaged is to live a damaged and severely handicapped existence from heaven's perspective. Jesus received the greatest resistance from those who had perfected the art of living by rules while suppressing and hardening their hearts.

Mary, on the other hand, was one of the rare examples of a person who was willing to live out on the edge. All of her life she had felt compelled to live a raw, exciting life full of passion that cannot be hidden. This kind of living full of passion for love and life is so electrifying and compelling to others who are unwilling themselves to live in the same way that such a one is often is viewed as a threat. How many times have we been warned against hanging around people who have this kind of charisma and who are almost irresistible? Yet this very magnetic attraction may be a God-given trait that is largely missing from most of our lives.

As I have noted before, I sense that Martha was much more of a person who was a thinker more than a person full of passion like her sister. Yes, Martha was certainly a performer and spent much of her life trying to do the right thing. But her sister had a very different personality that likely often got her into trouble. Her passion for life and even the look on her face and the sparkle in her eye must have constantly conveyed messages of a passion for living that few people show. This presents a real problem when that passion is taken advantage of by others and exploited for selfish, debased desires.

Yet with all the problems that Mary experienced throughout her life, Jesus saw her as one of the best examples of what He desires all of us to experience in our lives. Jesus designed us to live in joy and passion more than many of us are willing to admit. We tend to gravitate toward a far more conservative position and like to portray God as one who is more intent on squeezing us into a mold of proper performance and submission to rules rather than experiencing a passionate love affair with other hearts. Even to speak in such ways tends to scandalize many people trapped in typical religious thinking.

But in this story I see John trying to make the record more balanced and accurate. John may be suggesting here that we all have different personalities that are acceptable to God and that complement each other. Martha was not a person to pour out her affections publicly on Jesus like Mary, yet in her own way she was showing her love to Him in ways that fit her individuality. Likewise Lazarus was not sitting at Jesus' feet weeping over Him and splashing perfume all over the place but was sitting with Him in a seat of honor. Yet that does not imply in the least that his own heart was not just as connected in love to the heart of Jesus as was Mary's.

In this version of the story John seems to want us to see this feast more from the perspective of heaven and to see each of these siblings on an equal basis by not mentioning Mary's former reputation like the other accounts bring out. Only Judas is mentioned in a negative light here, and that too is part of John's seeking to set the record straight and to help us perceive that heaven views things very different than how we see them.

In contrast to Mary, Judas had been very highly esteemed in the minds of all the other disciples the whole time they had known him. We struggle to wrap our minds around this idea because we are so accustomed to thinking of Judas as the bad guy in the story. Yet in contemporary public perception up until the very last moments of his life, Judas was considered one most likely to succeed. He was talented, suave and had great people skills. He had natural and acquired capabilities that ensured he would be successful in life and he had good political connections he could use for his advantage. All of these things elicited the admiration of the other disciples who looked up to him.

Interestingly Jesus was likely the only one who really knew the condition of the heart of Judas most of that time, and yet Jesus never sought to expose the hypocrisy and failings of Judas or to publicly humiliate him. This is one of the clearest examples of how God relates to sinners in consistent kindness rather than resorting to shame and condemnation like so many of us tend to do. These words to Judas were actually the very first time in all their association together that Jesus had ever rebuked Judas, but even then it only served to trigger Judas to become resentful and angry rather than appreciate the kindness Jesus had shown him for so long. If anything reinforces the kindness and graciousness of God it is the history of how Jesus related to Judas and even allowed him a place of high trust even while he was completely unworthy of that trust.

In his account of this story, John is really reversing the common assumptions about both Mary and Judas from what people thought they were like. Publicly Mary could not escape the tenacious grip of her past reputation as people always thought of her based on her previous identity as a slut, an immoral woman of the streets. Yet in contrast Judas had carefully cultivated his own manicured reputation to make it appear that he was nearly flawless while often drawing attention to the failings of those around him. But at the heart level Jesus saw things just the opposite from what others saw, and here John is helping us see that heaven's view is usually very different than how we are used to perceiving things.

I find myself longing to know more of the passion of Mary for Jesus. Yet at the same time I am aware that to exhibit such passion publicly carries with it enormous liabilities. At this point in my life I still live under the bondage of fear of what others think of me rather than living in the freedom that God desires for me to enjoy in His presence. I pray that God will set me free of these galling, wounding chains that keep me imprisoned and that soon, very soon, my heart will have enough courage to live honestly, transparently and passionately like Mary lived.

As Martin Luther exclaimed during his most trying hour, “So help me God!”

What Might Have Been

In filling out the comparison chart and examining the fascinating parallels between these chapters in John, I am starting to catch a glimpse of something John might have been trying to suggest about what could have happened if there had been more bold faith in the first story. The reality is that all of our stories have potential to move in quite different directions and have dramatically different outcomes determined largely on how much faith we choose to bring to our circumstances. God is very often limited by the small level and quality of the faith that we have in Him compared to the infinite resources He has to provide for our needs and His desire to intervene in our situations. The limiting factor in most of our stories is not God's willingness or ability but is our own reluctance to rest and trust in Him no matter what crisis is engulfing our lives or what emotions overwhelm us. I believe this may be part of the message that John was seeking to convey, to alert us that life could be far different if we would only believe in our Father the way Jesus came to reveal Him to us.

I would like to venture into a little inspired (by Scripture) speculation based on what I am perceiving from a closer look at these stories. I ponder what could have happened if Martha and Mary had made different choices in how to relate to their crisis and had chosen to trust and rest their hearts in Jesus when everything seemed to be falling apart rather than slipping into the normal pattern of thinking they were so familiar with.

Imagine how the story of the resurrection of Lazarus might have had far greater impact and the reputation of Jesus might have been far more enhanced if a few people in this story had chosen to believe in Him more than they chose to do. And in the end, the real reason for exercising our imaginations in this way is not so much to produce a story that may seem startling and speculative but to challenge our own hearts to begin to perceive what our own situations could look like if we made more choices to trust Jesus in the dark.

It is to this end that I feel compelled to take on this experiment with these stories, for my own heart longs to see my life and my circumstances more infused and transformed through direct interventions from heaven. I want my life to better reflect the lessons I am learning through meditating on these stories. I want my heart to be more trusting and to view reality from heaven's perspective rather than remaining stuck in the ruts of common thinking and assumptions. I want my experience to be more transformed through lessons of faith rather than simply being a life of religious information from my association with a church.

Rather than speculate about what might have potentially happened if everyone had chosen to fully believe in Jesus, I will choose to consider what might have happened if at least the main characters, those close to Him already, had made different choices along the way resisting the pressure of the status quo. Of course things could have been even more dramatically different if more people had chosen to believe rather than resist Jesus throughout His ministry, but I want to consider what might have happened if just those who had come to know Him intimately had acted more in harmony with the lessons He had already taught them. What if more had reflected on how Jesus had blessed them in the past and had chosen to apply some of the basic lessons of faith they had already received from Him in their current situation? There are many directions the story could have gone differently depending on who made what choices, but I think there are valuable lessons to be gained in meditating on what might have been if more faith had been employed.

Let's take a shot at seeing what might emerge by piecing together some of the clues that John embedded in these passages as he paralleled them so closely and ponder what might have been. Let's try to piece together a scenario that might have taken place in this story of Lazarus based on clues found in the next time Jesus came to Bethany where both of these stories took place.

Lazarus gets sicker and sicker and his sisters become very concerned over him. They begin to discuss their options with each other as they try every remedy possible to improve his condition. They think of Jesus all the time and wonder how they might solicit His help. Nothing else they try is helping and it becomes obvious that without divine intervention they may well lose their brother in death.

So far nothing is different from the story as it may have progressed already.

The sisters send an urgent message to Jesus but with intentional politeness urging Him to come immediately to rescue their brother from his serious sickness. They know in their hearts that death cannot exist in the life of a believer when Jesus is around and their greatest insurance against this enemy is to have Jesus near. They know this not so much from what He has taught them but from first-hand experiences with Him. Mary in particular has experienced the transformational life-giving power that occurs when Jesus' presence is injected into desperate situations. She has come to realize that simply keeping close to Jesus is really the only real safety one can have and so she reminds her sister that what they really need is for Jesus to be there.

Again, all of this likely could have happened in the story as it is recorded.

But as time passes and Lazarus sinks into a coma and finally slips away producing intense grief and arousing deep questions of doubt in the hearts of the two surviving sisters, they now face the ultimate choice of how to react in the face of severe disappointment with God.

Why didn't God answer their prayers when they had done everything possible to please Him? They had done so much to enhance the life of Jesus with their hospitality. They had become close friends with Him and had made their home a welcome safe place for Him to come at any time. So why did God allow such tragedies to come into the lives of people who had devoted their hearts to loving Him and honoring Him? Why does God allow such pain and suffering and even humiliation to come into the experience of those who have placed their trust in Him only to have their prayers go unheeded?

At this point, as in millions of similar stories in the lives of believers, the sisters were facing a severe choice. What would they choose to focus on? What would they allow to dominate their thinking? What picture of God would they allow to dominate when all the surrounding evidence seemed to indicate a God less caring than they wanted to believe? What emotions would they allow to permeate and direct their choices?

In no way do I want to diminish or make light of the intense pain and emotional trauma that any experience during such times of bereavement. But what I do want to suggest is that there are more alternatives than we often are willing to consider in such circumstances. Like Martha and Mary, it is easy to become swept away in the outpouring of sympathy, the grief and all the other emotions that come when such tragedies occur and become blinded by assumptions that keep us stuck there. Far too often sympathy can have a dark side to it that is hidden by the natural compassion people want to show.

I am not suggesting that people intend to paint God in dark colors while they attempt to lessen our pain, yet too often unchallenged negative assumptions about God are woven all through the comments made and the unspoken inferences implying that God doesn't really care as much as He claims to care about us during such times.

This was the core issue for Martha and Mary during those agonizing days, wrestling in their hearts with how to relate to their brother's death and the glaring absence of Jesus. But there was another option available to them that is seldom considered by any of us. What if they had chosen to resist the natural urges that come from intense sorrow and had chosen to fixate their minds on what they had learned about Jesus from their past experiences? What if they had kindly but firmly insisted that all the mourners to go somewhere else if they were not willing to try to exercise this kind of faith so as to avoid being overwhelmed with the typical sentiments about their situation. It is very hard to turn away from what we are used to doing in response to this kind of grief, but the normal reactions we have tend to unduly control our emotions and dampen our faith. But what if these sisters had chosen in place of indulging in being absorbed in the normal emotions surrounding death to separate from all who refused to seek a new path and instead had compelled their hearts to dwell on God's goodness?

They might have chosen to separate themselves from all other influences and intentionally filled their minds with memories of how Jesus had been there for them time and again when they needed help. They could have reviewed what they knew from the Word of God things that had taken on new meaning and challenged old assumptions about God. They could have directly sought God in prayer to show them their painful circumstances with new eyes. They could have chosen to rehearse over and over how faithful they had found Jesus to be and might have encouraged each other to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt even while unable to explain His strange absence in their situation.

Does this sound strange or even bizarre? Yes it does and some may even react to these suggestions with intense indignation or hostility. But I believe these options are very real though very unused alternatives to how we typically think we have to react to bereavement.

As the sisters chose to focus on God's goodness in spite of their own pain, the Holy Spirit could have inspired them to do make dramatic and radical plans contrary to what is normal for such circumstances. Rather than sitting around allowing their pain and other's encouragement of their doubts to darken their hearts, they could have begun planning something totally bizarre and bold. Choosing to believe that Jesus still had their best interest in mind even though they had no explanation as to why He had chosen to delay His return, they could have started planning to use their abilities and gifts to throw a big party for Him for when He would arrive.

Martha was always good at putting on a good spread and Mary could have helped her plan and prepare for it. Certainly everyone would have thought they had lost their minds under the circumstances, but they were choosing to act in ways consistent with their firm choice to believe that Jesus' heart was for them no matter what the evidence might seem to convey or what anyone else suggested about Him. They were going to celebrate the goodness of Jesus that they already knew firsthand and by faith would demonstrate publicly how valuable Jesus was to them.

But rather than having the feast take place in Simon's house, this feast would have been planned to happen right in their own home where Jesus had already enjoyed so much of their hospitality many times before. Choosing to express their belief that Jesus cared for them in spite of the ever-present feelings from their immense loss, they would show the world that Jesus was worth trusting even in the darkest times of life. Like a joyful dance in front of an execution squad, they would choose to smile and laugh in the face of death itself and focus on the truth they were learning about God rather than become saturated with insinuations about Him from the events in their lives.

As the feast was being readied it was brought to their attention that Jesus was at last on His way to Bethany. Yes, there was still intense sadness in their hearts as they could not avoid the emptiness felt in their home where Lazarus had always been with them. But they were going to choose to fill that emptiness with those who were still alive and would give Jesus a welcome fit for a king. They were going to choose to believe that Jesus was their king in spite of how their feelings pushed them to doubt Him and they urged all who were being affected by their choices to trust Jesus to join them in going out to meet Jesus with all the trappings of a king's welcome.

As a bizarre act of courage in the face of logic and emotions, this strange group of people choosing to believe in God's goodness in spite of what had just happened pour out of Bethany to welcome Jesus with shouts of affirmation waving palm branches and laying down their garments to provide a path of honor to welcome Him back to town. Of course His disciples would have been even more puzzled than they were in the original story, but Jesus would have understood completely and would have become animated by the faith of His dear friends. He would have blessed the sisters and would have affirmed them in ways I wish I could imagine myself. But then He would have insisted on a slight change of plans.

Instead of going directly to their home to enjoy the feast prepared for Him and His disciples, Jesus would have insisted on taking the party on a detour to the tomb of Lazarus. This of course would have been a real challenge for the emotions of the sisters who had been seeking to avoid their raw feelings and their doubts, but Jesus would have assured them that their choice to act on faith had not been a mistake. Rather He had come to honor and strengthen their faith and their bold decisions to take the most unusual path they had chosen. But Jesus was not about to leave Lazarus out of the celebration. As an loving affirmation of their trust in Him He was going to march on the citadel of death with a crowd of admirers who were trusting His heart and was going to publicly recapture one of His best friends from the land of the enemy.

As Lazarus' sisters stand in amazement, weeping at what they realize Jesus is about to do for them, Jesus invites them to help Him by removing the symbolic obstacle of death standing between them and their beloved brother – the stone. Excitedly they would have rushed to the tomb along with the others who had come to welcome Jesus and would have collectively thrown it aside like the hated object that had come to represent keeping them from their beloved. Then as they watched with joyful anticipation and baited breath, Jesus would have called out to Lazarus, just as His did in the original story, and Lazarus would have been welcomed to the party with joyful shouts of victory and delirious celebration. There would have been dancing in the streets, tears of joy and worship experiences at the feet of Jesus like never witnessed in history.

As the dancing and joyful shouts of adoration and honor continued, the growing crowd would have swept Lazarus along with them to the feast where Mary would have brought out the alabaster box she had been saving to honor her Savior in the only way she knew best. As Lazarus and Martha watched in amazement, Mary would have showered Jesus with her tears, her perfume and her affection. As everyone watched Mary's supreme act of affection being poured out on Jesus and her love that was beyond even what they could feel, any suggestion that Mary's gift was inappropriate would have been snuffed out instantly.

In sharp contrast with the terrible stench of death so recently encountered at the tomb, the far greater scent of life and love and praise now filled the air and added new incentive to the praise that was on every tongue. This unique act of love and passion on the part of Mary would have inspired others to join in the unusual faith that they had witnessed in her and they would have admired her love and desired to know Jesus more like she had come to know Him.

While it is certainly possible that Judas would have felt irritated by such expressions of affection for Jesus, it might have also been unlikely that he would have felt so ready to expose his selfishness as he did in the original story in the face of such overwhelming evidence of people's affections for Jesus. But even if Judas had made his insensitive comment toward Mary in her own home, Martha and Lazarus might have made it clear to him that Jesus was worth far more than even the expensive gift their sister had chosen to spend on Him. This was a celebration for the real King, not just another party, and the spirit of Judas would have been so out of harmony with the spirit of faith all around him that he likely would have felt compelled to remove himself entirely to avoid exploding from all the resentment and jealously he was feeling toward Jesus.

Could this scenario have actually transpired? I don't know for sure. But I am confident that things could have been radically different if some had chosen the road less traveled, the path of faith in the face of grief and doubt.

I have been starting to sense lately that the real issue I face in my own relationship with God is more along the line of choosing to trust His heart and the characteristics I have been learning that constitute His true identity and disposition toward me more than trying to figure out some formula whereby I can get Him to do for me what I think should happen in my circumstances. So often my prayers fail to take into account His bigger picture but are shaped instead on how I think my problems should be solved without taking into account the larger issues behind the scenes. When I fail to view my circumstances in the context of God's trial in which His character is being challenged and His reputation is under vicious attack, I remain trapped by my narrow and self-focused ideas from religion and on false assumptions about what God really expects from me.

Our perception of reality and of what kind of a God we serve shapes how we relate to Him, what we ask for in our prayers as well as all the decisions we make in our own circumstances. Our picture of God is always what determines how we relate to other people, for we intuitively treat others the way we feel God is treating us.

The only way to change how I treat others, the only way my life is going to come to reflect His character instead of the selfishness and sin that is so natural in my makeup, is to allow Him to infuse a completely new more accurate picture of Him into the deepest places of my soul. As my picture of God is continuously updated my reactions to circumstances follow the same track. The more I perceive the goodness of God, the amazing mercy and kindness and the real truth about how He feels about me, the more my treatment of others will reflect what I am experiencing with Him. This is the process called sanctification that is vitally necessary to prepare me to live securely in His presence throughout eternity.

Parallels

I am starting to see more and more parallels in these passages I have been studying over the past few months that I want to explore further here. I believe there may be some significant discoveries that may emerge from this comparison in some of the details found in these parallels.

John 10:37-38 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father."	John 11:47-48 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
10:36 ...Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world	11:51-52 ...he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
10:39 ¶ Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp	11:53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. 11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.
10:40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.	11:54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.
10:41-42 Many came to Him and were saying, "While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true." Many believed in Him there.	11:55-56 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. So they were seeking for Jesus...
11:1-2 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.	12:1-3 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
11:39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days."	12:3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.	12:4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him.
11:4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it."	12:4-5 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?"
11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.	12:6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.
11:6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.	12:7 Therefore Jesus said, "Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial."
11:4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it."	12:9 The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.
11:8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?"	11:53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. 12:10 But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also;
11:9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.	12:11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.
11:19-20 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.	12:12-13 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, "Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel."
11:21 Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.	12:15 "FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY'S COLT."
11:22 "Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."	12:16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
11:25-26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."	12:17-18 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.
11:28 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.	12:18 For this reason also the people went and met Him
11:31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.	12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him."
11:32 Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."	12:20-21 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."
11:33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled.	12:27 "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.
11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"	12:28 "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."
11:39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days."	12:3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"	12:26 "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."
11:41-42Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me."	12:27 "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." 12:30 Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.
11:45-46 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.	12:37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.
11:47-48 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."	12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him."
11:49-50 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish."	12:31 "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out."
11:51-52 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.	12:32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
11:9-10 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."	12:35-36 So Jesus said to them, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light."
11:54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there...	12:36 These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.
11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.	12:42-43 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

Seeking Jesus

Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. So they were seeking for Jesus, and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think; that He will not come to the feast at all?" Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him. (John 11:55-57)

A few verses before this I noticed the effect that Jesus had on both those who refused to believe in Him as well as those who were coming to believe. While John took the larger view and saw in the ominous words of the High Priest not just a threat but a promise from God that Jesus' influence would gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad, at the same time the effect of Jesus on those opposed to His presentation of the Father became united, put away their political and religious differences and planned together to kill Him. Thus John is showing how Jesus has a unifying influence on both sides.

Now in these verses I see again how John is taking the larger perspective and is noting how the polarizing effect of Jesus life causes all men to seek Him, but for rather opposite reasons. He says that many went up to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. I don't think it is incidental that John mentioned this fact. Jesus came to this earth to purify all who would be willing to listen with their heart to the truth about God. Everyone who is willing to lay aside the opinions and challenge the deceptions of Satan, his accusations against God, the lies that permeate our minds and hearts and religions, Jesus will come to purify our perceptions of God, to reveal to us the truth about God, that He is not someone we should be terrified of but is someone passionately eager for us to engage with Him, to know intimately, to become so enamored with His grace, beauty and loveliness that all the delusions that have caused us to hide from Him become ludicrous and unappealing to us.

While these Jews were following the instructions of Moses given by God to ceremonially purify themselves in preparation for the great symbolic day of Passover which was part of the sandbox model of the great plan of salvation given by God, the true object of all these symbols had arrived to take its place. The real Passover lamb had come to replace the animal lamb; the central figure represented by nearly every object and ritual in the sanctuary system had come to fulfill the laws of Moses and to introduce the far greater and more effective means of purification.

Some were starting to perceive that this Man indeed was revealing something radically superior to what they had ever perceived previously. Jesus had not come to do away with the law, the principles of reality symbolized in the sanctuary system and rituals; He came to expose the realities they represented. In the life, teachings, sufferings and resurrection of Jesus a far greater revelation of the truth about God was being exposed not only to this world but to the whole universe. All who's hearts were open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and who were humble enough to challenge their religious assumptions were being led by the Spirit of God and were being called as children of God. In responding to the attractiveness of Jesus' life and ministry they were being drawn to seek for Jesus to receive more of what He had come to give to the world – namely, a fuller, better revelation of the truth about the Father.

At the same time, all those who resisted repeatedly the revelations and teachings about God found themselves also coming into more unity with each other. And while at first they may have chosen to try to avoid Jesus rather than seeking for Him, the more His influence grew with the people the more they saw Him as a threat to their ability to dominate and control the masses. Their popularity was being undermined; their ability to keep people in deception and fear was being seriously eroded and in desperation they finally were ready to put away many of their differences that had divided their efforts to come together to seek Jesus, but for very opposite reasons than those who were being drawn by His attractiveness. These rejectors of Jesus' picture of God, these men who felt scandalized by the outrageous representations by Jesus of a God who would so easily forgive sinners and would brush aside any agenda for punishment or retribution in favor of restoring fellowship and acceptance when the vilest sinner showed any sign of wanting to return to Him – these religious, pious men simply could not tolerate any longer allowing such a reprehensible picture of God to continue to infect the minds of those they had kept in fear and under their control for so long. They were ready to seek Jesus intently, but for the sole purpose of eliminating Him rather than embracing Him.

Jesus' actions, teachings and example made it impossible for anyone coming within His sphere of influence to remain neutral about Him. Either a person will be drawn to Him and become willing to lay aside their preconceptions to embrace a new picture of a loving Father or they will feel pushed to reject this view of the God He came to reveal in favor of the darker caricatures of God circulated by His archenemy, the great accuser.

The same is happening still today. The more that the truth about God, the glory of God as described in the first few verses of Revelation 18 spreads throughout the world, the more people will feel compelled to seek Him for one reason or the opposite. The real truth about God always creates this polarizing effect wherever it is exposed. We either will feel scandalized by these revelations about a God who seems too soft on sin for our liking or we will become overwhelmed by the love, grace, tenderness and compassion of a God who is nothing like how He has been presented by mainstream religions.

I am reminded that those who feel compelled to seek Jesus for the wrong reasons, in order to eliminate His influence like these Jewish leaders did, will continue to try to eliminate His perceived threat all throughout history until the final day of full revelation. If Jesus is not here in person for them to attack they will turn their animosity toward anyone who challenges the status quo, who upsets the balance of power, who is seen as undermining the ability of churches and politicians to operate through fear and intimidation as they have done for so long. Anyone aligning with Jesus in challenging Satan's kingdom of fear and misapprehensions about God will come under similar suspicion and attack from those who have vested interests in keeping things as they are. The clearer the testimony about the truth of God one presents the sooner their lives will come under attack and their testimony sought to be discredited.

Only a few verses farther on in this passage it mentions that Lazarus also became caught up in the diabolical plans of these men to suppress the truth about God that was going viral among the people. As insane as it may seem, soon after Lazarus had been spectacularly raised from an extended period of death thereby refuting insinuations about Jesus by His enemies, they decided that Lazarus too, as well as Jesus, needed to be killed to return their country back to the way things had functioned in the past.

The truth about God and revelations of His glory and character are always a threat to those clinging to traditional views of God and who resist the truth about His love. No matter how religious or pious or benign people may appear on the outside, when one continues to choose to resist increasing revelations about the true God of heaven and turn rather to maintaining more familiar and accepted opinions about what God is like, they eventually feel compelled to resort to force and threats to maintain their unfounded beliefs about God that keep them in power. Sooner or later everyone is forced by increasing revelations about God to move one direction or the other. The real issue is, which direction will I choose? Which side will I take? What perception of God will I allow to shape my heart and life?