When the great crowd was shouting, “Hosanna!” (Means “Hooray for Salvation!”), Jesus was not carried away by their praise instead he found a young donkey (poor man’s chariot) and sat on it. Jesus responded to their praise by humbling himself. As a result, the Father glorified him. Do we want to glorify ourselves or do we want God to glorify us?
The Pharisees and the chief priests were the religiously serious people. In this passage we see that they wanted to kill Lazarus and were not happy with Jesus’ popularity. Why did they became so evil? Could it be jealousy, too much attachment to tradition, wrong idea about God, lack of understanding about Sabbath? The Pharisees even neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith.
The crowd believed in Jesus because they saw many miracles and they believed what Jesus said.We should believe Jesus.
The Jews could not accept that Jesus is the Son of Man. They were plotting to kill Jesus even though he was trying to save them. We should not be like the Jews, who couldn’t understand what Jesus was trying to do.
Hosanna: Save us now. In tamil: Ippoluthe Ratchiyum! It seems that the people had a longing for deliverance. Unless we feel the URGENT need, we will not appreciate receiving it. And that salvation is needed now for us, not after we die.
-We should spread Jesus word.
We need to give Jesus our best.
If we don’t ask the question “why”, often, we can lose sight of our purpose and goal, however right it may have been initially. Law and tradition had completely blinded the Pharisees, their goal now was to get Jesus because the whole world was going after him (v 19).
A dinner was given in honor of Jesus by a grateful family. They had gotten a life back and they gave back everything they had.The more we get the more we give…
Laughing Lazarus So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well ( v 10)
Quite laughably a bad idea . Lazarus was the LAST person on earth to fear death. He has gone into death and came back. I can imagine laughing when he heard it.
Where is thy sting death?
How will our life look like if we act like our lives are eternal. We will fear no one except God.
3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard , anointed the feet of Jesus , and wiped His feet with her hair…- Mary’s act should have been criticized by many, but she didn’t bother about her image in the crowd and didn’t shy. She was bold!
– I am thinking of instances where I felt shy to present Jesus in front of even my own crowd
– Let us learn from Mary, be bold, come out of our shyness and glorify Jesus Christ
Law of Mary’s ointment———————–
Mary puts all she has into a “single” place at Jesus’ feet (v3) . But It ends up filling the “entire room”.(v3)
When we give all we have (time, energy, talent, money) for our church it might sometimes feel like we are giving too much at a single place ( isn’t it foolish to put all your eggs in one basket – as per the wisdom of mutual funds and stock markets).
But Mary is showing us it need not be so. By giving all our energies at Jesus’ feet inside our church, we can be assured that we will actually spread the stores perfume ( talent/gifts/blessings) all around – a wonderful side effect!
Let us give all for our God with a singular focus
Pharisees were so jealous of the crowd that followed Jesus. The same Hosanna festival crowd turned against Jesus and crucified Him. Jesus pulled lot of crowd when the people heard about the resurrection of Lazarus by Him. We should follow Jesus without any worldly expectations or any hidden agenda.Trust him with whole heart in any situation.