Coptic Orthodox Answers

In Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Welcome to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive. We're continuing today John, chapter 12. We saw last time how Mary poured oil on the feet and the head of Christ and how it was such a beautiful offering of love and submission. And that love was contrasted with the lack of love that Judas had. Today, we continue with verse 12.

Verse 12:

'' 12 The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: ''Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel!'' (John 12:12-13)

So here, obviously, is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is one of the major feasts of the Church, one of the seven major feasts of the Church and it happened on the 10 th of Nisan 1 . So, on the 14 th of Nisan, that was the commemoration of the Passover, which was a commemoration of Exodus 12 what happened when the Israelites were leaving Egypt and they killed the lamb and they put the blood of the lamb on the lintels of the doors and on top of the door, right? And all this was a symbol for their salvation, their redemption, coming out of Egypt, out from under the authority of Pharaoh. And that was symbolic for the Messiah to come. Christ is the real redeemer. And that happened on the 14 th of Nisan.

But on the 10 th of Nisan, in the Jewish ritual, that's when they would choose the unblemished lamb, the one-year-old male lamb and they would take that lamb and keep it on the side until the 14 th . That 10 th of Nisan is that Palm Sunday. So, Christ is walking in or riding the colt into Jerusalem on that 10 th of Nisan, pretty much saying I am your redeemer; I am the Messiah. That's the message here.

So, the Passover was one of the three feasts that all the Jews around the world were required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast. You had the Passover, the feast of Booth 2 and you had Pentecost, which was 50 days after the Passover. But this time around, people were even more excited, because they had heard of Christ and they had heard about the recent raising of Lazarus. So, they were seeking Christ even more so, right? So generally

1 Nisan is the Hebrew name for the first month of the religious calendar (in the Torah). It corresponds approximately to the months of March/April of our calendar. 2 The Feast of Booth is another name for the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot.

speaking, these feasts would fill Jerusalem with worshippers. But this time around, the worshippers were even greater in number, we can assume, right? And more importantly, they were truly seeking Christ because of that miracle.

They had palm branches, because that was a nationalistic sign of victory. That was in 1 Maccabees, chapter 13, verse 51 where Simon Maccabeus was leading some wars and they had won the wars and that...these palm branches were a sign... one of the signs of that nationalistic victory.

So here, to them, the people were accepting Christ as an earthly messiah, as a messiah that was gonna release them, again, from Rome. He was gonna release them from under the power or the authority of Rome. And they were seeking this earthly liberation. But that was not what Christ was there to do.

That is precisely why there were screaming: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel! Hosanna means save us. So here, they're asking Christ to save them from the Romans, to be their king. What is very interesting as well is that in the same Psalm 118, where it says Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!, a few verses earlier, in verse 22, it says:

'' 22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.'' (Psalm 118:22)

Obviously here, the stone is Christ and the Jews rejected that stone, but that stone became the chief cornerstone. The stone is the one, at the end, who conquered and became the foundation for the Church in the New Testament. So here, we find that because of the wrong expectations of the Jews, because of their earthly desires, their king that they were welcoming to save them, right?, they end up rejecting Him, because they expected something from Him that He didn't wanna give. That was not His purpose.

He wanted to give them life eternal. He wanted to kill death and resurrect. He wanted them to be released from the bondage of sin. But they were not willing to have that. They were entangled in the lowly, earthly things. And because of this, they rejected Him.

Unfortunately, this happens to us all the time. Often, we misunderstand Christ or misunderstand His work. And because we seek earthly things and God wants to give us spiritual things first and foremost, we reject Him. Spiritual life becomes too complicated. It becomes not worth it for many. But this is a big mistake. It is wrong. We... we ought to be very careful to have our hearts and our minds set on things above. Because if not, we fall into the same problem the Jews fell in.

And that is precisely what we try to avoid in the liturgy of Palm Sunday. When you participate in that event in that mystical liturgy, unlike the Jews who tell Christ that they want an earthly

king, we tell Him: We want You to be king of our souls; we want release from sin, release from bondage; we want eternal life; we accept you and we want you as king over our souls for eternity, because we love you. So, we participate in these events, but we are put in contrast with the Jews, in a sense, who are seeking earthly things while we seek the heavenly ones. On that same point, St. Augustine says something very beautiful. He says the following:

''Christ was not the King of Israel so that he could exact tribute, put swords in his soldiers' hands and subdue his enemies by open warfare. He was King of Israel in exercising kingly authority over their souls, in consulting for their eternal interests, in bringing into his heavenly kingdom those whose faith, hope and love were centered in himself. For the Son of God, the Father's equal, the Word by whom all things were made, in his good pleasure to be King of Israel was a demotion not a promotion, a sign of his pity not an increase of his power. For he who was called on earth the King of the Jews is in heaven the King of angels.'' (St. Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate #51, paragraph 4)

Verse 14:

'' 14 Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15 ''Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.'' [This is from Zechariah 9:9] (John 12:14-15)

So here, we see Christ riding on a donkey or a donkey's colt, but usually, Christ always would be walking, but not this time 'cause Christ wants to say that He is a king. He is. But He's not the type of king that rides horses: the proud type, the one that would...the ones that would do war, the ones that would seek earthly authority. He's not that type, but He is a king.

But He's the humble kind of king, the one that rides on a donkey's colt, the one that is seeking salvation for the people, that is willing to live His life for others, to sacrifice His life for others. That's what He was there to do. So, He is a king, but He's a humble one. And His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. It is above this realm altogether.

The beauty, though, of this paradox is that it describes the entirety of Christianity. We have the King of kings riding on a donkey, a king who's supposed to be authoritative. This specific one, though, never hurt anyone. The king that is supposed to be so powerful and so prideful, yet this specific one is so humble. So, this paradox describes all of Christianity.

If you wanna be first, be last. If you wanna be strong, be weak, right? So, our strength is found in our weakness, because when we are weak, Christ fills us and He gives us the strength. So, we work with the strength that is from above. Our internal peace is not found in pride. It's found in humility. That paradox is so beautiful and it describes the entirety of Christianity.

Moving on to verse 16:

'' 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified [meaning the cross and the resurrection], then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.'' (John 12:16)

So notice how Christ, here, is not planning with the disciples about fulfilling the prophecies. So, they're not studying the prophecies and planning how to accomplish them and then they get accomplished. Obviously, Christ is aware of the prophecies, but here, the disciples have no clue. They couldn't tell. They only realized that the prophecies were fulfilled in Him after the cross and the resurrection.

'' 17 Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. 18 For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. 19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, ''You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!'' (John 12:17-19)

Verse 20:

'' 20 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.'' (John 12:20)

These Greeks were not idol worshippers. They were not Gentiles in that sense, right? These were God fearers, meaning they would read the Torah. They believed in the God of Israel, and therefore, they would read the Torah. They would go to the synagogue, potentially keep the food laws. In this case, they're going to worship at the temple. However, they weren't circumcised, therefore, they were not Jews.

'' 21 Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, ''Sir, we wish to see Jesus.'' 22 Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.'' (John 12:21-22)

Some say that these Greeks went to see Philip, because Philip was from Bethsaida. And in Bethsaida, there was a mix of Jews and of Gentiles, and potentially, therefore, he could understand them better. But who knows really. It's not conclusive. Maybe Philip was just the one that they ended up seeing, so they just went and spoke to him.

Verse 23:

'' 23 But Jesus answered them, saying, ''The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.'' '' (John 12:23)

So, as soon as the Greeks come into the picture, these Greeks here, they represent all Gentiles, all Gentile nations. As soon as they come into the picture, Christ speaks about His glorification, about the cross and the resurrection. And this is reminiscent of John 10, verses 16 to 18, where Christ says the following:

'' 16 ''And other sheep [meaning the Gentiles] I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. 17 ''Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.'' '' (John 10:16-17)

So, we find, in verse 16, how Christ speaks about the Gentiles, and then in verse 17, He speaks about Him laying down His own life. So, that same juxtaposition is done in verse 23: When the Greeks come, Christ speaks about His own glorification.

Verse 24:

'' 24 ''Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.'' '' (John 12:24-26)

So, Christ says that He is the grain of wheat, right? He needs to fall into the ground and die. And if He dies, right?, He will produce much grain. So, through His life, many others... through sacrificing His life, many others will be able to live. However, if He saves His life, if He loves His life, if He doesn't wanna give it up, that grain of wheat remains alone and there's no salvation for humanity.

But the idea here is that the sacrificial love that Christ gave to humanity is not only limited to Him. He started it. He is the firstfruits. He opened that path for us as well, His children, to walk in it. So, we also ought to give our lives for others. And if we do this by serving others, then they also will find life. So, we need to be like mini-christs in the world, so to speak. And that's essentially what St. John Chrysostom talks about here in this beautiful quote, so simple yet so powerful:

''If but ten among us lead a holy life, we shall kindle a fire which shall light up the entire city.'' (St. John Chrysostom)

And that quote fits perfectly with another underlying message in these verses. Christ speaks about the grain of wheat. When it dies, it produces much grain and with much grain, you produce bread. And with bread, you eat it, and therefore, it gives you life. And obviously, Christ is the real bread, the one that came from heaven. So here, it is talking indirectly about the Eucharist.

But also, we, as Christians, ought to become the bread for others or the light of the world, if you will. And again, we need to lose our life that others may gain theirs. And that's why Christ says: Where I am, there My servant will be also. The idea is that wherever the master was at the time, the servant would be awaiting next to him. He's awaiting orders.

So, similarly to that servant who would follow his master, we also ought to follow in the footsteps of Christ. So, let us not think for a second that Christianity or Christians are meant to be masochists. That's not the idea at all. We do not desire suffering in that sense. But we understand that because of the corrupted nature that we have, because we are so prone to sin, to laziness and so on, there is much effort that is required for us to be enlightened or to be full of God and to give that light to others as well. And that in itself requires effort, and therefore, it does require a bit of suffering, but not because we love suffering. It's because it is necessary.

Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to god forever and ever. Amen.

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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.