Rev. Andrew Wright, pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Topeka, KS, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study John 12:12-19.
When Jesus enters into Jerusalem, the excited crowds take palm branches to meet Him as a sign of the victory they expect Him to bring. They greet Him with shouts of “Hosanna” as they sing from Psalm 118, acclaiming Him as the coming King of Israel. Even if their perception was not quite correct, the text teaches us to receive Jesus rightly as our coming Savior, even as we welcome Him with the same words in the Sanctus prior to the Sacrament of the Altar. The disciples did not fully understand the events of the day until after Jesus had been glorified. The crowd continued to bear witness to what Jesus had done for Lazarus. The Pharisees continued their rejection of Jesus, even as they saw that they were powerless to stop the world from going after Jesus.
“The Word Made Flesh” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the Gospel according to St. John. The disciple whom Jesus loved wrote his Gospel account as an eyewitness to Jesus’ life and ministry. As we read the Word of God recorded by St. John, the Holy Spirit works in us so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so have life by faith in His name.
