"SIX DAYS BEFORE THE PASSOVER"
“SIX DAYS BEFORE THE PASSOVER”
John 12:1,2; John 13:1 - 5; John 20:1,2
JT In these scriptures we see how the gospel of John is intended to lift us out of current religious settings, and to introduce us into what preceded them, in fact, what preceded everything, beginning with the first day of the week. I thought that we might gather up some suggestions in what I apprehend is the disregard of that which religious minds would make much of, and see, too, how the Lord in His own things acts outside of these things.
The gospel introduces the Lord as in the beginning; in the beginning He was there, personally there. What had come in later — religious organisations — had acquired a place, but John the evangelist shows that the Lord was free to act apart from these. Even in regard of John the baptist, the Lord began to serve before he was cast into prison. The other evangelists tell us that John was cast into prison before the Lord entered His service. In this gospel, too, there is the refusal to go to the feast of tabernacles, but He went up in the midst of it and taught; then on the last day of it He brings in what is greater than it — rivers of living water flowing out. And so here in chapter 12, six days before the passover, an occasion which would fill everybody’s mind, we see something that love devised for Himself six days before it. The other evangelists occupy us with the Lord Himself sending to prepare that He might keep the passover, but John says, “before the passover”, chapter 13:1. There was a supper, without saying what it was, but the thing began before the passover. Then in chapter 20 we have that which is in the Lord’s mind, things that happened on a certain day, a day which religionists were making nothing of, which did not fit in their calendar at all; a day, “the first day of the week”, which means that christianity is apart from the religious calendar altogether. It was not the end of something, but the beginning of what was new.
JS Bringing in something entirely new. On the final day of the feast of tabernacles, the great day, Jesus stood and cried, “If any man thirst”, John 7:37 showing there was no refreshment in it. The passover was also viewed in that way in John, merely as an occasion of human religion.
PL We see the place it had in the Jewish mind in chapter 6:5. The Lord is engaging them in chapter 13 with another kind of feast.
JT That shows, as we were remarking, what the great religionists were preparing for, but this supper in chapter 12 comes in six days before the passover. As the Lord arrives at Bethany, the supper is made for Him; it was no religious ordinance at all, it was something done in love in honour of Christ.
WW What does Mary’s action suggest to us; is it appreciation of the death of Christ?
JT She instinctively felt that He was going to die. She represents the intelligence of the saints as Lazarus represents the dignity — a man raised from the dead by the Lord. Mary represents intelligence and affection; such affection and such dignity did not mark ordinary religious customs and observances.
Rem In that way the passover in the mind of the Jews looked back; in the Lord’s mind it looked forward; He was going to die.
JT Yes; the passover in the Lord’s mind suggested the real significance of the thing, but John does not present it thus. It is rather brought in here to show that what is in the Lord’s mind is something outside, or above it.
PL That which precedes.
JT Quite. The other evangelists show us what a place the passover had in the Lord’s mind because He wanted to keep it: “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you”. Luke 22:15. They connect christianity as to testimony with what existed before, like Rebekah in Sarah’s tent; the three gospel writers had that in mind, but John had not; with him Eve fits as the type. What is before him is the new thing itself; what it is, the superiority of it, and to secure a continuance of it, something outside of all that preceded — a new beginning. It is indeed what preceded all. “In the beginning was the Word”. John 1:1. John presents, not a development in the ways of God, but what was in His mind before the world. It says the first day of the week twice over in John 20, as if that were the thought, a point reached where things could be done; the disciples being together, the Lord acts according to God’s primary thoughts.
PL Jesus did not trust Himself to men because He knew all men, although they were at their best, so to speak, religiously. Does the untrustworthiness of the old show the Lord’s mind in bringing in everything new?
JT In the beginning of chapter 3 new birth comes in; being born again is that which underlies trustworthiness. In new birth God begins over again, but it is to effect what He had in mind from the outset.
Ques Does this show the greatness of the Person of the Son of God?
JT The gospel comes in in that way — “In the beginning was the Word”. John 1:1. Then we read that He made everything and that in Him was life and that He became flesh. He, the sent One is doing the things Himself, He was sent here on God’s account, but He is doing the works. He came in after John the baptist historically, but John says, He “is preferred before me: for he was before me”. John 1:15. Again, “Before Abraham was, I am”. John 8:58. These passages show what is in view in John.
[p. 36] Rem He is before all things, as we get in Colossians.
JT He began to minister before John was cast into prison. As the Son, as coming from heaven, He must be above all; but in the other gospels He regards what was there before Him.
Ques Do you suggest that this line of ministry is necessary because we are naturally religious, and the Lord has to bring in what is greater in order to free us?
JT Yes. Religious customs have a great place in people’s minds, so that we have to go back to the beginning to see what christianity was; how outside of man’s religion it was, and that it is now what it was then, there is no change in it. So in John’s epistle we have that which was from the beginning. In chapter 10 of the gospel we read that the Lord left them and went away to where “John was baptising at the first: and he abode there ... And many believed on him there”. John 10:40. He began over again according to what the beginning was, there was nothing different, it was the same thing.
PL Colossians 2 is in contrast to accredited religion, is it not?
JT Quite so; for in Colossians it is not that He is made Head, but that He is Head of the assembly; it is a question of what He is personally; He is before all things, and He takes precedence of everything.
Ques Does this scene in John 12 indicate what was coming in?
JT It is on a lower level than chapter 20. Here He came into Bethany where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom He raised from the dead, meaning that what He had in mind was the persons who were there. In Matthew it says, “Being in Bethany, in Simon the leper’s house”. Matthew 26:6. It does not say He came. We have to take account of those two [p. 37] features. The Lord may come to a place because of the persons who are there, because of what they are, such as Lazarus; but He may come in for other reasons, because He moves among the golden candlesticks, and we know that He moves about there in the garb of a judge; He may be in a locality for any reason. “Being in Bethany”, He may have been in the same house, but it does not say He came specially into the house of Simon.
Ques Would you say the Spirit has a peculiar delight in suggesting the things seen in John’s gospel?
JT The Spirit would emphasise the greatness of the saints in John, what they are in the Lord’s mind. Lazarus of Bethany was of that town, he is characteristically a local man, but not in the character of a leper. Doubtless he was a sinner like Simon, and was known in the place as a sinner like the rest of us, because we are all that, all lepers, but the Lord is not viewing him in that light here, but from the standpoint of a risen man, what he is under the Lord’s eye. He is therefore characteristically a local man, but a man who was dead, as it says, “the dead man Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from among the dead”; that was his dignity, and the Lord came in connection with him. Someone has remarked that Scripture never says that Lazarus said anything; but the great thing is that he was of Bethany; the Lord Jesus loved him and the Lord Jesus raised him from the dead. There was not another man in Bethany like him, he had an extraordinary history, but his history does not consist in what he said, his history was viewed from the standpoint that he was of Bethany, that Jesus loved him, and that he was sick and died, and Jesus raised him from the dead.
Ques Does this correspond with the work of God in a person’s soul — being risen with Christ — according to Colossians?
JT Yes; I think it would. “Ye are dead”. Colossians 3:3. “If ye then be risen with Christ ... set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” Colossians 3:1,2.
— [p. 38] it is being brought into correspondence with that. But the Lord comes to Bethany; in that connection it is not so much the resurrection of Christ that is in view, but the bearing of resurrection now, our being “risen with him through the faith of the operation of God”. Colossians 2:12. Lazarus is still within the view of men, and people believed on the Lord Jesus because of him. He is seen in the chapter lower down in relation to the Lord; they came also to see Lazarus, they do not come to see him by himself; Jesus being there, they came to see Him, but also Lazarus, that is, Lazarus in relation to Jesus.
Ques Coming to Bethany, does that suggest a condition attractive to Him?
JT Yes; but on the other hand He may be in a locality without you being the object of it.
Rem In the official garb, there may be conditions that necessitate that.
JT Samuel judged Israel and went round in a circuit. The Lord is seen in Revelation in that character. He said, “I will ... fight against them with the sword of my mouth”, Revelation 2:16. There are the means with Him of dealing with evil.
Ques How does that work out practically?
JT It is a question of the state of the saints, and something comes about bringing home their local conditions, that local conditions are not right; and then the Lord acts, sending by His angel, meaning that He comes in in a representative way. He says in Revelation, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies” Revelation 22:16; it was Himself, but in a representative way. We are taught in Matthew’s gospel how this representative ministry goes on; angels are introduced at the tomb, but properly the dispensation is to be marked by representation in men, though there is angelic ministry.
[p. 39] Normally representative ministry is through men such as Paul, as he says, “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me”. 2 Corinthians 13:3. The Lord Himself being in him he could say, “Jesus Christ has been portrayed crucified among you”. Galatians 3:1. The Son of God was revealed in him, the Son of God was in him, reflected in him. This principle of representation is a very important one, because the Lord by it can bring in judicial dealings as well as the ministry of love.
Rem One would have to be very near the Lord to be used by Him at any given moment.
JT Quite. We have been noticing how we have in cities those whom He can use, such as Ananias in Damascus.
PL Would Paul represent these two thoughts? In writing to the Corinthians his first letter, he had to bring in what was judicial, as representative of the Lord. Then in his letter to Philemon he says, “Prepare me also a lodging; for I hope that I shall be granted to you through your prayers”. Philemon 22. Is that the idea more of Paul as representing the Lord attracted by conditions in the locality?
JT Just so. The first letter to the Corinthians he sent by Timotheus; he did not come himself, but sent a representative; he was ready to come, however, but he waited till conditions were right for him, because if he came himself he would have to use the rod.
Ques What would be the safeguard in assuming you are sent to a district where there may be trouble, in regard of one’s local setting?
JT It is important to qualify, to be sent, because the principle of ministry should be carried on in that way. Take a man like Isaiah; he goes a good way in his prophecy before he tells us his own history with God. In chapter 6 he tells us how he himself was brought to God. He says. “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up”, Isaiah 6:1 and it was in the [p. 40] year that king Uzziah died. That kind of man died, for he was not the kind of man whom God could use. That was the beginning of Isaiah’s history in service; he got a view of the Lord in that relation. And then he is cleansed; he sees the means of cleansing; things that are in relation to all that is of God — His holiness, the altar and the seraphim. And one of the seraphim flew unto him; he acted with intelligence, and he had in his hand a glowing coal, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; that is, the fire was burning, the judgment of God was there, but the seraph took the coal by the tongs, meaning that he could not do anything, for the Lord Himself alone could endure the judgment. Thus his iniquity was taken away. And then the prophet heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?” and Isaiah said, “Here am I; send me”. Isaiah 6:8. That is the idea of being sent; there is no doubt about the judgment of God in regard of sin, you yourself are cleansed, but you are conscious that you have to watch your lips in what you are going to say, in dealing with evil.
Ques Would you say it is a very important point hearing the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?”
JT It is indeed. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then he is told what to say, but it was a most terrible message, “Go; and thou shalt say unto this people, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand”. Isaiah 6:9. And Isaiah went. But there is the remnant, the holy seed; God has acted, and there was the seed, “But a tenth part shall still be therein, and it shall return and be eaten; as the terebinth and as the oak whose trunk remaineth after the felling: the holy seed shall be the trunk thereof” Isaiah 6:13; the holy seed was that which could be relied on. But to refer again to John 12, the first thought I had was how the Lord comes to localities; coming in after the glory of God and the Son of God having been glorified, so [p. 41] that there might be an opportunity to show what was there. He came in relation to that; the result shows that He recognised and knew what was there. There they made Him a supper; they do it, but in that locality.
PE Is that the evidence of recovery?
JT Surely. A very different Bethany from what it was when He stayed away two days from it.
PE He comes to the locality.
JT It says He remained two days where He was without moving until Lazarus had died and was buried and had been four days in the grave. Chapter 12 is not, as in chapter 11, “Let us go to him”, John 11:15 but He came to Bethany; it is the place now.
Ques Is it the result of His glory having shone out that conditions are suitable for Him there?
JT Exactly; that is the idea.
PL With regard to Bethany, there is no further allusion to localities after the mention of Bethany in John 12; does that suggest completeness in regard of localities in Christ as Head, as seen in Colossians? When you touch Ephesians it is rather universal ground.
JT Just so. You have that principle set out. So that as a brother remarked just now, “Jesus knowing ... and that he came out from God and was going to God”. So in chapter 13:16 Jesus says, “The bondman is not greater than his lord, nor the sent greater than he who has sent him”. John 13:16 It is a question of being sent.
LS The disciples were sent out in chapter 20; they would be in the good of all these chapters.
JT That is very important, showing what the thought of the whole gospel is in regard of service. We are brought into correspondence with Christ, “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you” John 20:21; and then He breathed into them; so that [p. 42] as sent they were qualified by His Spirit being breathed into them.
LS “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them”. John 20:23.
Rem The appreciation of the glory of Christ brings about affection and intelligence in the saints.
JT Quite; it is what should mark the assembly. The assembly is set up here in the light of the glory; that is the kind of thing. The assembly is gathered in the light of the glory of Christ. The position at Bethany suggests the assembly, but not on the same level as chapter 20. The latter chapter bears universally. Bethany is a locality, the kind of thing that the Lord values; the result of the shining of the glory in a locality. Lazarus was said to be of Bethany, and that it was the town of Martha and Mary; these three came from the town.
Ques Would the last clause of verse 2 show the link with Christ in that little company?
JT “There they made him a supper”. Not simply that they did it, but that they did it there.
PL We learn in a locality what we have in Christ.
JT The question is whether we are in our locality, whether I am in mind when the Lord comes to it. If Lazarus were absent it would be serious, hence one should not be out of one’s locality except legitimately.
In Acts 1 we read who they were who were abiding in Jerusalem, who were ‘staying’ there. The divine idea is to bring in the thought of locality and persons in it who hold things for the Lord.
Ques Do you suggest that not only it is recovery to God personally, but it is recovery to Him positionally in regard to the locality?
JT Yes, I think that is how it stands; the principle of christianity is that light comes to you where you are; you are enlightened where you are, and you are identified as in that place. You are, so to speak, “among these that stand by”, Zechariah 3:7.
PE What you are bringing before us would make us sensitive as to localities.
JT In Luke 11 a man is on a journey, and he comes late at night, at midnight. He is on a journey, showing that he has got something definite before him, but coming late at night the question is, Am I ready for him? He says he is a friend of mine (Luke 11:6); that comes in after chapter 10, where the Samaritan is on a journey; the Lord is a great journeyer. So with Abraham, God appeared to him in Mesopotamia, but then He comes to him on another occasion in the heat of the day — three men come; they are standing near to him, but they do not come to stay, they were on a journey and Abraham knew that they were passing on. So in Luke 11, “A friend of mine in his journey is come to me”. Luke 11:6. The furnishings were lacking, but he saw to it that he got what he needed; he asked persistently for exactly what he wanted, and he got it.
Ques When it is a question of being sent, does the Lord indicate the persons?
JT The Acts gives the best illustration of it, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul”. Acts 13:2. The time had come for that. Barnabas and Saul had been there a whole year.
PL “In the assembly which was there” Acts 13:1; then you get “separate me now”, now is a definite moment.
PE Were they sent forth as brethren?
JT They were let go by the brethren. Christendom ignores that; the “churches” send out missionaries, but this is unscriptural. Barnabas and Saul were let go by the brethren, but “sent forth by the Holy Spirit”. Acts 13:4.
Ques Is that what forms true manhood before God? In Genesis 24 it is Abraham’s servant who goes forth, then the thought is afterwards changed to [p. 44] a man at the well, Rebekah calls him a man not a servant.
PL The servants are regarded by the Lord in John 17 as “the men whom thou gavest me” John 17:6; manhood is in relation to the commission.
JT It is not only that I am sent, but I am representative. As sent I am great enough to represent the Lord. Man was made in the image and likeness of God, meaning that he can represent God as being like Him; not only have I a letter of credit, but I am like the person whom I represent.
Rem It is remarkable you should say that, because it is in John’s gospel that the Lord in speaking of the Father tells them that they had never seen “his shape”, John 5:37.
JT No; but He says, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. John 14:9.
PE They let them go from Antioch.
JT It was sacrificing love. They did not want to get rid of them like a troublesome brother.
PE In the case of Lazarus the Lord says, “Loose him and let him go”. John 11:44.
JT He can be trusted; he is not told where to go; the young man — the widow’s son in Luke 7 — is delivered up to his mother to be cared for. “That they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them, and has been raised”. 2 Corinthians 5:15. Lazarus did not live to himself henceforth, he was found in Bethany when the Lord came there, and sat at the table with them.
Rem It is the spirit of the sent One in chapter 12, how the Lord serves in love.
JT That is the idea. He represents God. “No one hath seen God at any time”. John 1:18. “He who is of God, he has seen the Father”. John 6:46. If you have seen the Father, you can, as one “who is of God”, represent Him; the apostles were of God, so that they were representative.
[p. 45] Rem The Lord tells them not merely what to do, but He shows them how to do it.
JT Quite. It is a service of love that reflects what God is. Chapter 20 begins with the first day of the week, meaning that there is nothing before it, it is before everything else morally, not actually but morally the first day. The Lord is before all things in Colossians, so christianity is not the tail end of anything, or going back to old or heathen customs, or to things that existed before.
PL Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
JT Quite. The idea of Colossians is something that God had prepared beforehand for our glory — all that enters into the first day of the week.
Ques Is Mary Magdalene the completion of the work of God, as Nicodemus is the beginning of it, in John’s gospel?
JT She represents the best, that is, one who comes into the greatest light and privilege through affection.
Rem The Lord appeared to her in resurrection.
JT There is much more than that in John. Here it is, “On the first day of the week Mary of Magdala comes”; that is a fine setting! See how she is set up in relation to the very best thoughts of God; the Lord comes to her as the “hind of the morning”. Mary comes on the first day of the week before dawn, not at the end of the sabbath as in the other gospels.
JS She showed sensibilities answering to Himself.
JT A great honour is conferred upon her by the Spirit, for this is written many years after. “The first day of the week Mary of Magdala comes in early morn to the tomb, while it was still dark, and sees the stone taken away”.
Rem So that love would be her incentive, she would come up from her [p. 46] locality.
JT It is not locality here; it is beyond that, I think. It is not even where the disciples were gathered, but where they were. Bethany represents localities. When you come to John 20 you are in the realm of eternity, looking into it; it is not a question of where you are, or where the disciples were gathered. We move out of the locality into the realm of the Spirit.
PL Like John in the Isle of Patmos, who was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, he was let into eternity.
‘And see, the Spirit’s power,
Has ope’d the heav’nly door’. (74:5).
He hears the voice behind him and he turned back to see.
Ques Would you say that the kind of person who is in the good of John 12 enjoys this portion?
JT Mary Magdalene is in the forefront of the wonderful picture that the first day of the week involves; John 20:1.
PL John puts her in contrast to himself.
JT He and Peter went to their own home, she did not.
PL A man who is named in love can use love to manifest its object — Christ; John did it at his own expense.
JT Peter and John ran together, so far to the good. See how far we can go and have fellowship together, and yet come short of the divine thought. They went to their own home, the natural circle. In chapter 2 the Lord disallows His mother’s claim; and at the end of chapter 7 they all went to their own homes, Jesus went to the mount of Olives. Here even Peter and John went away again to their own home, and that after the experience of fellowship in having run together and having found the tomb empty, save for the linen cloths lying. Mary is set up in the perfection of the truth; she is on the ground [p. 47] where love meets love, and was morally greater than those to whom the message was sent.
JS The light of Christ risen in the soul gives the thought of completeness as to locality; in Colossians you are complete; the normal history of the soul after that is that you enter into the eternal day.
JT You see the way that God balances things amongst us. Take a man like Paul, the great apostle being taught by Ananias; he would never forget that, and he would have to admit that light came to him through a man like that. Then the eleven would never deny that they got the greatest light they ever had through a woman; we are balanced thus. We have to come back to it that Mary Magdalene got the message.
This chapter reminds one of the peculiar lights in the house of Solomon, very narrow outside, but widening out inside; 1 Kings 6:4 (margin). A woman comes in and brings the message — no ecclesiastic or church dignitary — a very small thing outside, but the light inside broadening out into eternity.
Rem So what we see in this gospel is that God would work to attach our hearts to Christ in contrast to religious systems.
JT Yes. That is the object of the Spirit of God in John’s gospel.