Here Come the Greeks!

Today's passage (John 12) begins the final week of Jesus Christ's earthly work. It begins with The Triumphal Entry (we'll celebrate Palm Sunday two weeks in a row!) It's the presentation to Jerusalem of their true King …BUT a King like they and the world has never seen.

And if you want to understand Christianity and what Jesus Christ is all about, THIS is a nexus or a connection… like a junction box where all the wires come together. The repeated themes/ideas of His life converge in this Triumphal Entry… And at this CRUCIAL intersection we can't help see a gathering of ironies and paradoxes. Christianity is full of paradox – apparent contradictions that tell a deeper truth.

He's a King and riding a donkey. He'll be enthroned NOT on a royal chair but on a Cross…the brilliant experts wrongly reject Him but the ignorant crowds rightly embrace Him… He conquers by being defeated.

John is the writer who tells HOW the fuse was lit i.e. when Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead …it's another paradox: He raises the dead and for that HE MUST DIE.

3 BIG THEMES that connect/clarify what Jesus is all about:
#1: The Weakness of Human Strength
#2: The Strength of God's Weakness
#3: The Announcement of the Great Reversal