John 12:12-19

Read John 12:12-19 A great crowd greets Jesus as he enters Jerusalem

What does the crowd do when they hear that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem for Passover?

What do palm branches symbolize?

Palm branches are a symbol of victory or triumph.  They were used to welcome or celebrate kings and conquerors.

In verse 13, the word “Hosanna” is a Hebrew word that means “Save us.”  What word do the people use in verse 13 that tells us what role they think Jesus can play in saving them?

The people are quoting from the Psalms.  Psalm 118:25 says, “Lord, save us,” and the next verse, Psalm 118:26, says, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  The Jewish people would quote these words as they entered the Temple precincts.  But now they are referring to Jesus.  What is the significance in saying that Jesus “comes in the name of the Lord”?

In what ways do we come to God and to other people “in the name of the Lord”?

Look at John 11:48.  What did the Jewish leaders fear would happen if they didn’t do something about Jesus?  How would what they see happening here trouble them?

The words “ass” and “donkey” refer to the same kind of animal.  The word “ass” goes back more than 1,000 years and is related to the scientific name for this creature: Equus asinus.  The word “donkey” was first used in 1785.  Asses are often wild, whereas the word “donkey” is usually used only for domesticated asses.  Because the word “ass” has taken on other meanings, modern translations of the Bible often use the word “donkey.”

Jesus finds an ass or donkey and sits on it.  What does riding on a donkey symbolize?

Riding on a donkey is a symbol of coming in peace.  A conquering king or general would enter a city on a horse.  Jesus comes on a donkey.

What message is Jesus sending by choosing to ride into the city on a donkey?

Jesus is indicating that he comes in peace.  He is rejecting the image of a king lording himself over the people and is instead embracing his connection to the people – that he is one of them.  What would a modern-day image of this look like?  A pope riding in a Volkswagen?  A president riding a bicycle?  When I was in college, the president of the University I attended rode around campus on a bicycle, and it sent a signal that he was down-to-earth and approachable, not someone high and distant from us.

How can we follow Jesus’s humble example?

John rarely quotes the Old Testament directly, but he does so in verse 15.  What does this quote from Zechariah 9:9 say?

The next verse in the passage from Zechariah says that this king comes to proclaim peace to the nations (Zech. 9:10), and John knows that.  What kind of peace does Jesus proclaim?

In what ways is Jesus’s peace meant “for the nations,” not just for the Jews of his time?

How can we show to people who are not of our nationality that Jesus’s peace is for people of all nations, not just people of our background?

John rarely uses the word “king” for Jesus, but here he is reporting what the crowd said, and the early church embraced the term “king” for Jesus.  Since Jesus rejects the trappings of a king, in what ways is he a king?

At the end of verse 16, John says that, after Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples remembered that “they had done these things to [or for] him.”  It isn’t clear who the “they” refers to.  It could be a reference to the crowd, but the direct antecedent in the sentence is the disciples.  Perhaps this is a  hint that the disciples were some of the people in the crowd who were waving palm branches as Jesus entered the city.  Matthew provides more details about this incident, and in his Gospel it is clear that, even before Jesus enters the city, the crowd of people who came up to Jerusalem from Galilee with Jesus are already cutting palm branches and starting to lay them on the road ahead of him before he enters the city (Matt. 21:1-11).

The spectacle of Jesus and the donkey and the palm branches is not the only thing going on.  In verses 17-19, we hear about what is happening on the sidelines.  People who had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead are testifying about Jesus, and the Pharisees are griping.  Sometimes the real spiritual battle is not in the spotlight where everyone’s attention is focused, but on the sidelines where unnoticed people are either seeing God’s perspective or missing it.  How can you develop the spiritual sensitivity to recognize the people who are not in the spotlight whom you can tell about what God is doing, to help them make sense of what is happening in the spotlight?

The people want to treat Jesus as a king.  But even though he is a king, he does not choose to be treated that way.  How might we sometimes focus on the flashy parts of who Jesus is, when he might prefer that we focus on the humble things he cares about?

In verse 19, the Pharisees say something that is deeply ironic: they say that the “world” (i.e., everyone) has gone after Jesus.  John uses the word “world” repeatedly to show the universality of Jesus’s offer of salvation; for example:

• 3:16: John says, “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.”

• 1:29: John the Baptist says that Jesus “takes away the sin of the world.”

• 4:42: Jesus is referred to as “the savior of the world.”

• 6:33: Jesus says he “gives life to the world.”

• 8:12: Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”

In verse 19, the Pharisees express their fear that the whole world is going after Jesus.  How universal is Jesus’s role in the world?  How much of the “world” does he care about and call to himself?

How can we live in a way that shows that we have the same concern for “the whole world” that Jesus has?

In verse 19, the Pharisees are insightful enough to recognize how many people are turning to Jesus, but they respond with the wrong reaction.  People around us may often have negative reactions or attitudes toward people from other parts of the world.  How can we communicate and act in ways that show how much God cares about people from all of the world?

Take a step back and consider this:

Back in John 10, Jesus described himself as the good shepherd who knows his sheep by name and lays down his life for his sheep.  Pope Francis said that priests should be “shepherds who have the smell of their sheep” (McElwee).  In other words, they should accompany the people, not live above them.

Jesus shows a similar attitude in the way that he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. 

The issue here is not the animal itself – the sheep or donkey – but what it symbolizes: it signals Jesus’s concern for the common people.  It calls us to care for the common people and not to try to escape them for some community that has a higher status.

How can we be the kind of people who have “the smell of the sheep” and celebrate the man who rides on a donkey?  How can we be people who accompany the common people in their real-life struggles and offer peace to all?