Jesus' last days of teaching: Why so few really 'got' him. Can you?

55. Now the Jewish Feast of Passover was near, and many people went up to Jerusalem from the rural areas before the Passover to cleanse themselves ritually. ⁵⁶Thus they were looking for Jesus, and saying to one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? That he won’t come to the feast?” ⁵⁷(Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should report it, so that they could arrest him.)

Mary Anoints Jesus

1. Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he had raised from the dead. ²So they prepared a dinner for Jesus there. Martha was serving, and Lazarus was among those present at the table with him.
3. Then Mary took three quarters of a pound of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus. She then wiped his feet with her hair. Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
4. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (who was about to betray him) said,
5. “Why wasn’t this oil sold for 300 silver coins and the money given to the poor?”
6. But he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.
   As keeper of the money box, he used to steal what was put into it.
7. So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial. ⁸For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me!”
9. Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there, and so they came not only because of him but also Lazarus, to see the one raised from the dead.
10. So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, ¹¹for on account of him many of the Jewish people from Jerusalem were going away and believing in Jesus.

A Large Crowd Welcomes Jesus on a Donkey

12. The next day the large crowd who had come to the feast,

13. took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him.

14. Jesus found a little donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ¹⁵“Do not be afraid, people of Zion; look, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt!”
16. His disciples did not understand these things when they first happened,

17. There was continual testimony from the crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead.
18. So the crowd went out to meet him
    because they had heard that Jesus had performed this miraculous sign,
19. Therefore the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you can do nothing. Look, the world has run off after him!”

Jesus fortells his death, and only then, the harvest

20. Now some Greeks were among those who had gone up to worship at the feast. ²¹So these approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew, and they both went and told Jesus.

33. Now he said this to indicate clearly what kind of death he was going to die.
34. Then the crowd responded, “We have heard from the law that the Christ will remain forever.
    How can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
35. Jesus replied, “The light is with you for a little while longer.

36. While you have the light, believe in the light,Choose to walk
    in the light!

Most refused to believe

37. Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him,
38. so that the word of the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled. He said,

39. For this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said,
40. “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their heart,
    so that they would not see with their eyes
    and understand with their heart,
    and turn to me, and I would heal them.”
41. Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s glory, and spoke about him.
42. Nevertheless, even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
43. For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

Jesus’ Final Challenge

44. But Jesus cried out, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me,
45. and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me.
46. I have come as a light into the world,

47. If anyone hears my words and does not obey them,

48. The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has one judging them;

49. For of myself I have not spoken,

50. And I know that his commandment is eternal life, so whatever I speak