(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Mary Anoints Jesus’ feet.
- So six days before the Passover, Jesus came into Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead.
- So they made a dinner for Him there, and Martha was serving, and Lazarus was one of the men reclining1“reclining” In the 1st century, they didn’t sit at a table. Rather, they laid down with their feet sticking out. at the table with Him.
- So having taken a litra2“Litra” a Roman pound, approximately equal to 12 ounces or 328 grams of very expensive scented oil of pure nard,3“nard” also called ‘spikenard’ is the plant Nardostachys jatamansi, which grows on subalpine zones of the Himalayas. The oil extracted from the plant is very fragrant, and various parts of the plant have medicinal use as well. Mary anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the scent of the oil.
- But Judas Iscariot – one of His disciples and the man about to betray Him – says:
- “Why wasn’t this scented oil sold for three hundred denarii4“denarii” is the plural of denarius, which was the going rate for a day’s worth of manual labor. Thus, 300 denarii was approximately a year’s worth of wages, since they only worked six days a week, the seventh being the Sabbath. and the money given to the poor?”
- But he said this not because he was caring about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having the moneybag, he was taking the money put into it.
- So Jesus said: “Permit her, so she might keep it for the day of My burial.
- “For you always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have Me.”
- So a great crowd of the Jews learned that He is there and they came; not only because of Jesus, but also so they might see Lazarus whom He raised from the dead.
- And the chief priests took counsel so they might also kill Lazarus,
- because many of the Jews were leaving and were believing in Jesus because of him.
The Triumphal Entry
- The next day – having heard that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem – the great crowd who came to the feast
- took palm tree branches and went out for a meeting with Him. And they were shouting: “Hosanna! *Blessed is the One coming in the name of the Lord,5quotation/allusion to Psalm 118:26 and the King of Israel!”
- And having found a young donkey, Jesus sat on it; just as it is *written:
- “Don’t fear daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes sitting on a donkey’s colt.”6quotation/allusion to Zechariah 9:9
- His disciples didn’t understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were *written of Him, and that they did these things to Him.
- So the crowd being with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead was testifying.
- And the crowd met Him because of this, because they heard He had done this sign.
- So the Pharisees said to themselves: “You see that you don’t benefit anything. Behold, the world went after Him.”
The hour has come
- Now, some of the men going up to Jerusalem so they might worship at the feast were Greeks.
- So these men came to Philip (the man from Bethsaida of Galilee) and they were asking him, saying: “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
- Philip goes and tells Andrew; Andrew and Philip go and tell Jesus.
- and Jesus answers them, saying: “The hour has come so the Son of Man might be glorified.
- “Amen, amen I tell you: unless a wheat seed which fell into the ground dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
- “The man loving his life loses it, and the man hating his life in this world will keep it for the life of ages.
- “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. And where I am, My servant will be there also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
- “My soul is *troubled now, and what might I say? ‘Father save Me from this hour?’ But I came because of this; for this hour.
- “Father, glorify your name.” Therefore a voice came from heaven: “I both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
- So the crowd *stood, and having heard it was saying: “It *was thunder.” Others were saying “An angel has spoken to Him.”
- Jesus answered and said: “This voice hasn’t come for My sake, but for your sake.”
- “Judgement is now in this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
- “And if I’m lifted up7“lifted up”, this is an idiom referring to crucifixion from the earth, I will draw8“draw” this Greek word could also be translated “drag”, as that’s a more common usage in the New Testament. all men to Myself.”
- And He was saying this, indicating what sort of death He was about to die.
- So the crowd answered Him: “We heard from the law that the Anointed remains through the age, and how do you say that it’s necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
- So Jesus told them: “The light is still with you a short time. Walk while you have the light so darkness might not seize you. And the man walking in the darkness doesn’t *know where he goes.
- “Believe in the light while you have the light, so you might become sons of light.” Jesus said these things and, having departed, He was hidden from them.
The people’s unbelief
- But despite Him *doing so many signs in front of them, they weren’t believing in Him,
- so the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which said: “Lord, who believed our report? And to whom was the Lord’s arm revealed?“9quotation/allusion to Isaiah 53:1
- They weren’t able to believe because of this, because again Isaiah said:
- “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I will heal them.”10quotation/allusion to Isaiah 6:10
- Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and spoke about Him.
- But nevertheless, even of the rulers many believed in Him. But they weren’t confessing Him because of the Pharisees, so they wouldn’t become expelled from the synagogue.
- For they ^loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.
- And Jesus cried out and said: “The man believing in Me doesn’t believe in Me, but in the One who sent Me.
- “And the man seeing Me sees the One who sent Me.
- “I am a light which has come into the world, so that every man believing in Me might not remain in darkness.
- “And if someone hears My words and doesn’t keep them, I don’t judge him; for I didn’t come so I might judge the world, but so I might save the world.
- “The man rejecting Me and not receiving My words has one judging him: the word which I spoke. That will judge him on the last day,
- “because I didn’t speak from Myself, but the One who sent Me – the Father Himself – has given Me a commandment about what I should say and what I should speak.
- “And I *know that His commandment is the life of ages. So what I speak, I speak this way, just as the Father has spoken to Me.”
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