John 12 - CSB Study Bible for Women

12:1-11 Six days before the Passover . . . Martha was serving (vv. 1-2), and from what follows one can assume Mary was again sitting at the feet of Jesus (v. 3). Martha served without complaining, perhaps offering her service and hospitality as a gift to the Lord. While Matthew and Mark both mentioned Mary’s anointing of Jesus, only John notes when the anointing took place (i.e., on the Saturday before what is now known as Palm Sunday). Mary poured on Jesus’s feet a jar of perfume that was worth more than a year’s wages (vv. 3,5).

Anointing was usually for the head. Mary showed her own deep humility as she chose to pour the costly, fragrant oil over Jesus’s feet. Only the lowliest servant attended the feet of guests, which would be dirty and dusty. No act could have been any more symbolic of her personal devotion to Christ and of her desire to sit at His feet to learn and to worship. The use of her hair to dry His feet was not common in the ancient world. Perhaps this act was yet another way of humbling herself by letting down her hair, usually bound or braided as customary for women in public, to complete the act of service.

Mary’s actions were symbolic of preparing a body for burial. Perhaps sensing that Jesus’s death was imminent, she used her most precious possession. (Nothing in the text suggests that she took the family resources to purchase an extravagant oil, but rather she was willing to give up something of value she already had.) Because the imported spices and ointments were quite costly and yet occupied little space, they were often stored as an investment or life savings.

Because Lazarus’s resurrection from the dead had verified Jesus’s power over death, the chief priests wanted to kill him as well as Jesus (v. 10). They were Sadducees and thus did not even believe in the resurrection of the dead. A living Lazarus would cause them to lose influence and power over the people.

Judas protested Mary’s gift. Jesus knew the heart of Judas (6:20) and was well aware of his coming betrayal. Other disciples had fallen away and deserted Him, but Judas remained, perhaps hoping for financial gain or powerful position—some way to enrich himself as he had already done through his position as treasurer (12:6). John makes clear that Judas cared nothing for the poor (v. 6). Caring for the poor was a command of the OT (Dt 15:11). However, what Mary did was quite appropriate under the circumstances.

12:12-23 All of the Gospel writers mentioned Jesus’s final entry into Jerusalem, but John supplements the Synoptic accounts by adding some unique details. Upon seeing Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, the Pharisees exclaimed that the world has gone after [H]im! (v. 19), a unique note from John, which prepares the way for his mention of the Greeks who came to Jesus. These “Greeks” may have been God-fearing men like Cornelius (Ac 10) or proselytes. The designation is one generally inclusive of Gentiles. The raising of Lazarus from the dead had far-reaching effects. Certainly these words offered a prophetic voice of what would come through Jesus’s atonement for the sins of the world—Jews and Gentiles (Jn 12:32).

12:24-36 Jesus’s parable about the grain of wheat, which falls to the ground and dies (v. 24), has an application through the paradox of the man who loses eternal life because of his fixation on physical life and temporal passions, while the man who has God as the first priority in his life will receive eternal life (vv. 25-26; cp. Mt 6:33; Lk 12:15,22). The expression hates his life was not meant to suggest contempt for oneself and certainly was not an allusion to a low value of life or suicidal tendencies (v. 25). The climax of the parable came when Jesus emphatically stated that, in His death, He would draw all people to Himself (v. 32). “All people” is not a suggestion of universalism in the sense that all will be saved. However, it does provide assurance that Christ died for all and draws all without regard for ethnicity, gender, or economic status to Himself.

John’s use of the phrase lifted up (Gk hupsōthō, “raise high, exalt,” used exclusively by John to refer to Jesus’s death, vv. 32-34; 3:14; 8:28; but elsewhere with the sense of “exalting”) has a double meaning: The crucifixion of Christ will ultimately lead to His exaltation as well as to redemption (3:16). Once again, the people did not fully understand the meaning of His words (12:34). The disciples seemed to understand that Jesus’s death was imminent; yet they could not comprehend that the Messiah could be “lifted up” to die (Dn 7:13-14).