Why Did the Jew's Leaders Want to Kill Lazarus?

Tom: We are continuing with the gospel of John, we are in John chapter 12, and we will pick up with verse 9.And, before we get there Dave, Jesus is in Bethany.He just raised Lazarus from the dead; so here we go with verse 9:“Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there:and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.”

Dave:

Tom, that’s really something.The word has spread, I mean, wouldn’t you go to see somebody who had been four days in the grave dead, I mean the guy is dead, there is no doubt that he’s dead and now he is alive.I’d go quite a ways to see someone like that.

Tom:

Dave, today we can get hundreds of thousands showing up because of the statues, supposedly was bleeding or somehow there was—or a UFO sighting or whatever it might be, but seriously, yes, I would.This would be incredibly impressive, especially as you say, this was not just—Lazarus didn’t just faint.

Dave:

Right, wasn’t pronounced clinically dead or something.No, he’s four days—I mean, his flesh is, well—by then he stinks.His sister said, don’t roll the stone away.And out he comes, alive!

Tom:

And you would think this would be very exciting.

Dave:

Wow!Really exciting!

Tom:

Just something to encourage you.This is something that only God could do.I’m sure this was of their mind set.

Dave:

Right.Could this be the Messiah who raised him from the dead?They must have been thinking that.

Tom:

Well, not everybody was thinking that.Let’s go to verse 10.“But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death…”

Dave:

They’re going to prove the guy is not alive but if he is alive we’re going to kill him.Now see what your Messiah can do when we kill him again, okay?Tom—well, we talked about it—the hardness of their hearts, the wickedness all to protect their own position and power—Wow!

Tom:

And what was their motivation?Verse 11 says, “Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.”Now here we have the term, Jews, in this case, not referring to the religious Jews, I don’t think.

Dave:

Everybody, I think, all Jews.

Tom:

But many cases when the term, Jews, is used it has to do with the leaders, the Sadducees, Pharisees and so on.Verse 12, “On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,—

Dave:

Now this was the feast of Passover and they have gathered there now in preparation for this.

Tom:

Verse 13:—took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna:Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”It’s almost like the religious leaders, their worst case scenario, had come to being.

Dave:

Of course this is the day we celebrate as Palm Sunday.Tom, I don’t think we have talked about it on the radio, or maybe we have a year or two ago, but whenever you have an event that was witnessed by a multitude of people and it is commemorated from then on with some memorial, you’ve got absolute evidence that it happened.For example let’s say that there never was a fourth of July celebration, okay?And that we talk out over the radio and we’re going to say, well now from now on, every Fourth of July we’re going to start celebrating Independence Day and we’ll set off firecrackers and so forth, and you know that this is an old long standing tradition in America.And somebody says, Wait a minute, we didn’t do it last year, didn’t do it the year before.You guys are just making this up.Everybody out there, I think you can follow me.You couldn’t just make it up.The first time that you celebrated Palm Sunday, somebody is going to say, Wait a minute, we didn’t do it last year. It had to start with a real event, okay?So this was witnessed by a lot of people.Now the amazing thing is, what the Bible prophesied, and we will get it in the next few verses, he’s not riding on a white horse with a flashing sword and a big army behind him, going to rescue them from the Romans.That was the kind of a Messiah they were looking for.Here he comes riding in on this wobbly-legged colt that’s never had anybody on its back before.This is the Messiah, this is the conquering King?And yet, they hail him exactly as Zechariah:9:9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
See All... said, “Rejoice O daughter Jerusalem, shout for joy, behold, your king cometh, he is meek, lowly, riding upon the colt of an ass bringing salvation.”It was the last thing they expected.It’s amazing the timing.It was because of the raising of Lazarus from the dead that they’ve gathered now and they are ready to hail him, but then the Bible says he is going to be cut off.Four days later the same people are crying, “Away with him! Crucify him!”Tom, you couldn’t have written this story.

Tom:

And Dave, the symbolism of the colt of an ass, as you said, it doesn’t demonstrate a conquering hero, it really indicates a servant, a servant’s heart meek and lowly, as you said.But now I’ve got a question, why the palms, why the palm branches?

Dave:

I don’t know, they just did it.

Tom:

If you’re going to wave something, if you are going to hail somebody, I suppose that was the nearest, cheapest thing at hand.

Dave:

Well, I think that was traditional for greeting a conquering hero, greeting a king.The palm branch, you had that in Rome as well.There is no great significance to it but they did it and the point is that it was the Messiah riding in.Tom, I love it—well, here it says, “Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon.As it is written, Fear not, O daughter of Zion, behold thy King cometh sitting on an ass’ colt.”It’s just a brief summary of what the prophecy is back there.Now, I love it, Tom, in Matthew 16, when Jesus says, Well, who do men say that I am?Well, some say you are Elijah, some say you are this and you’re a great prophet and so forth and Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?”Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.”Then Jesus says something very strange; well, don’t tell anybody.But the gospel is to be preached to the world, we’re to go everywhere.Why wouldn’t he want anyone to know that he was the Messiah yet?Because he wasn’t going to be known as the Messiah, or he wasn’t going to be accepted as the Messiah because 51% of the Jews voted him in, or because the disciples were very convincing and they could talk people into believing this.That’s a point we need to make in preaching the gospel today.Some people try to make an emotional appeal, psychological appeal, to get people to raise their hand, to stand up, to come forward, whatever it is.No, he would only be known as the Messiah if he fulfilled all the Scriptures.But now, when he is riding into Jerusalem, it doesn’t say it in John but it says it in the other gospels, as the disciples are hailing him as the Messiah, the Rabbis say, Master, tell them to stop, this is blasphemy, they’re calling you the Messiah.I love what Jesus said, He says, guys, let me tell you something.If they don’t say it the stones will cry out, because today is the day, and they didn’t know it!

Tom:

Dave, that verse, that’s affected me in different ways.Sometimes when I think I’m really doing something and then I see an example of something that just overwhelms me with a greater ability to do something that I think that I am able to do, you know, in terms of being used of the Lord, oh I think I could do this or do that, I use that verse—the Lord could raise up stones to do a better job than I could do.

Dave:

That’s right, but if they don’t cry out, if they don’t say it the stones will cry out because today is the day.It was 69 weeks of years, 483 years to the day of the command to rebuild Jerusalem.That was when the Messiah had to come in and ride in and that’s why Jesus in Luke 12, says, You Rabbis, you can tell what kind of weather it’s going to be, how come you don’t know the time?This is the day!This is the day that the Messiah is supposed to come!Go back and read it in Daniel chapter 9.Nobody expects Him, they don’t understand.But if they didn’t say it, and they do say it because of the resurrection of Lazarus, the very stones would cry out:This is the day!And from then on we are to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah because he has fulfilled the Scriptures—we talked about that earlier, the prophesies.

Tom:

And we also mentioned that many of the disciples did not understand even though Jesus told them over and over and over again—well, look at verse 16:“These things understood not his disciples at the first…”

Dave:

…But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him and they had done these things unto him and then they began to preach it…” and that’s the basis of their preaching the Christ as the Messiah.

Tom:

Verse 17, “The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record.”Many people think, oh man, if you could have just been there you would have been so excited about it, if I could have just been there to see it, but, you know, we have his word, we have the full counsel of Scripture to understand this thing.

Dave:

And a full understanding of it which they didn’t have at that time, but we don’t understand everything, Tom, but we’ve got the Word of God that gives us the full understanding and that’s why we need to search the scriptures daily.