Title: GOD’S TIMING

Focus: Discern God’s timing. Through Mary’s act of anointing, Jesus draws our attention to God’s timing in Jesus’ life—and our own.

Function: To encourage the people to be sensitive to God’s timing, and to embrace Christ as the Lamb of God, who leads us from death to life and takes away our sins.

Text: John 12:1-11

Timing is everything! Parents know the truth of that statement very well. For example, when it comes to certain issues with our sons and daughters, we look for the right time to discuss it with them. Parents learn to choose their “battles” and to discern the right time to wage these battles. Children, too, know that timing is everything. They know what is a good time to ask Mom for a special favor, and teenagers know when it’s a good time to ask Dad for the keys of the car.

Timing is everything.

As a pastor, I’m also learning the importance of God’s timing in our lives. There is a right time and a wrong time to admonish or confront someone. There is a right time to speak the name of Christ publicly and there is a wrong time. And even though some parishioners may have different notions about what a pastor should do or say at certain times, it is still the pastor who has to discern whether those times are indeed God’s timing for him.

Urged by some desperate parents, for example, I’ve been in a few situations where I acted against my own sense of God’s timing. I acted, nevertheless, to keep the parents happy. My actions did more harm than good, and I learned the hard way not to go against God’s timing. There are times to wait, to act, to speak, and to be silent. Discerning God’s timing is critical in pastoral ministry. The same is true for you, parents and children alike.

Today is the fifth Sunday in the season of Lent; we have already considered Jesus’ descent from heaven during the season of Christmas; now we are following the Lord Jesus along his way to the cross. The hour of Jesus’ death is at hand. As we hear the Scriptures today, we do well to discern God’s timing in Jesus’ life—as well as in his disciples’ lives and ours. It is through Mary’s act of anointing that Jesus draws our attention to God’s timing. In exploring with you the story from John 12, I want to encourage you to be sensitive to God’s timing, and to embrace the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God, who leads us from death to life. Discern God’s timing!

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As we explore the gospel story, I want to do two things. First, we consider the flow—or the way John unfolds and tells us the story. And then we will consider the focus or God’s timing that lies embedded in the story.

(1) The Flow: The movement in the story is very easy to follow. The story begins with a time reference: “Six days before the Passover….” This time reference is the first thing that John brings to our attention. I wonder why?

The next thing we learn is the place. John tells us that Jesus has arrived at “….Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” Elsewhere in Scriptures we read that Jesus ended up in the house of Simon, the leper—presumably a person whom Jesus had healed at an earlier occasion.

Moving from the time, to the place, John then tells us about the occasion: “A dinner was given in Jesus’ honor.” And we learn that Lazarus (who had died and whom Jesus had called forth from the grave was sitting at the dinner table. Lazarus’ sisters (Martha and Mary) were also present, and of course there were also Jesus’ disciples, including Judas.

Having told us about the time, the place, and the occasion, John tells us what happened. John focuses upon Mary anointing Jesus, upon Judas expressing dismay about Mary’s “waste” of money that could have been given to the poor, and upon Jesus’ rebuke of Judas and Jesus’ affirmation of Mary. John’s focus in verses 3-8 make up the heart of the story.

John concludes the story with two references. He points to a curious crowd wanting to see Jesus and the resurrected Lazarus; and John points to the ominous threat of the chief priests, who feared the rising popularity of Jesus and the astonishing testimony of Lazarus. The chief priests scheme and decide that Jesus and Lazarus must die.

Now as we consider the flow of the story—the time, the place, the occasion, the focus, and the closing reference to the scheming of the chief priests—ask yourself: what is the golden thread that holds this story together?

The hour of Jesus’ death is at hand. Woven throughout the story is the emerging truth and realization that Jesus’ cross death is near. As we consider the flow of the story, we see the invisible hand of God revealing to Jesus, to Mary, to the disciples and to us that “the hour of Jesus’ death is drawing near. God is signaling his time.

(2) The Focus: Now we must consider the focus of the story. Jesus has been dropping hints to his disciples that he would die. But the disciples are clueless. On a number of occasions, Jesus has referred to his “hour”—which is a reference to his death and resurrection. Already at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus told his mother at the wedding party in Canaan that “his hour” had not yet come.

Later on in chapter 12, we notice Jesus speaking to his disciples in Jerusalem (after his triumphant entry) saying, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” What happens in Bethany, in the company of Jesus, Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and the disciples, is the dawning realization that this “hour” of Jesus’ death is near.

Here are the subtle hints in the story: John tells us that it was “Six days before the Passover” when Jesus arrived at Bethany. The Passover feast is a vivid shadow of the past pointing toward Israel’s future. In the past, God’s people found freedom and resurrection from Egypt’s bondage and death. The story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and entrance into the Promised Land stands at the heart of Israel’s faith.

At the core of that story is God’s provision of a Passover Lamb, whose blood smeared on the doorposts of the Israelites saved them from a visit of the angel of death. The blood of the Passover lambs led to freedom, to life, to resurrection. God’s people celebrated that saving event of the exodus on a yearly basis by way of a feast. That feast is 6 days away.

Jesus is God’s Passover lamb, who takes away the sins of the world. The Passover feast reminded the Israelites not only of the past, but also of God’s saving actions as yet to come. Israel’s feasts and festivals foreshadowed a new exodus, a coming salvation that would lead us from bondage to sin and death to a resurrection life of forgiveness, service, love and shalom that would culminate in eternal life.

Jesus is the Passover Lamb of God. John the Baptizer told us so at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when Jesus was baptized. And the apostle John tells us the same thing in this story today: The Passover feast is about to start; and Jesus, the Passover Lamb is about to sacrifice his life.

As the Passover feast is approaching, you begin to sense that the stakes are getting higher. In fact, Jesus has already raised those stakes by revealing his resurrection power to Lazarus. Jesus called Lazarus to come out of his grave. And Lazarus did. And Jesus revealed himself at that time, saying, “I am the resurrection and the life.” There he is, together with Lazarus, and Lazarus’ sisters and friends, and his disciples. Do you discern God’s timing in all of these events?

The disciples do not. But Mary does. She takes Jesus’ words about his pending death seriously; she senses that the Lord Jesus would face opposition, yes, even death in Jerusalem. She also knows that she cannot stop Jesus from facing his destiny in Jerusalem.

All she can do is showing her devotion and love for Jesus; all she can do is expressing her high esteem for Jesus’ task as the Son of God—she anoints him with the costly fragrance of spikenard oil. And in essence, therefore, Mary foreshadowed that Jesus’ hour of death is at hand. Mary sensed God’s timing. And she signals her awareness of that timing by her act of devotion.

The Lord Jesus affirms Mary in her act of anointing. Jesus rebukes Judas and exposes Judas’ character flaw of greed, and John adds to that character flaw by pointing out Judas’ tendency to help himself with cash from the money bag. Thus Jesus says: “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

By way of his affirmation of Mary, the Lord Jesus signaled that he recognized the timing of his heavenly Father. Jesus knows his cross death is coming; Mary believes his words and acts upon it with her anointing. And at the end of the story, John lifts up further the veil of Jesus’ pending death when he tells us that the chief priests are scheming Jesus’ (and Lazarus’) death. Discern God’s timing—Jesus’ hour of death is at hand.

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Today’s Scripture reading forces us to be mindful of three things:

(1). Jesus is the Passover Lamb, who takes away our sins. Do you believe that Scripture truth? Do you and I believe that Jesus died and rose again for our sake? Do you embrace Jesus as your only hope for life—today and forever more?

I’m struck by Mary’s devotion; she is keenly aware that Jesus is walking down his cross road—to his death. And Mary participates in that death of Jesus by her anointing of Jesus with fragrant oil. Are we keenly aware that Jesus gave his life—not only for Mary and his disciples, but also for you and me?

For the next two weeks, I encourage you to focus on Jesus’ crossroad. Read and reflect upon his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; walk with Christians down the valley of the shadow of Jesus’ death and participate in the Maundy Thursday service, and in the Good Friday service as well. Come to grips with Jesus’ sacrificial death—and you will experience his resurrection—and the power of his resurrection so much more on Easter Sunday. Jesus is the Passover Lamb. Walk with him as he faced his hour of death.

(2) Some things can’t wait. “Timing is everything,” I said at the beginning of my message. Sometimes, we must wait for God’s timing. Sometimes we must act. But there are some things we can’t put off: Now is the time of salvation. Today is God’s offer of good news. Do not postpone acting upon God’s offer to you today. For you and I do not know when our earthly, God-ordained time has come to end.

Are there people whose forgiveness we need to ask? Are there relationships that need mending? Are there old wounds that could be healed with a word of apology, with a confession, or with a gesture of grace and forgiveness, perhaps? Some things can’t wait. Ask yourself: is now the time to act and discern God’s Word to you, personally? Remember: God’s timing is everything!

(3) Be mindful of God’s timing. Here’s how: Read and be in tune with God’s Word, so that you recognize God’s revealed will and ways for you. Reading and hearing God’s Word will enable us to recognize God’s voice to us.

That voice comes to our hearts and minds by way of God’s gift—the Holy Spirit. When we are in tune with God’s Word and prayerfully seek God’s ways in our lives, the Holy Spirit will disclose to us his direction and timing for us to act. Sometimes he brings to mind a thought or gesture to follow; sometimes the Spirit of God gives us a sense of “Not yet!” or “Be still,” or “Go ahead, act in faith.” Always seek God’s timing. For Jesus teaches us that to live our hours with a deep sense of God’s timing is the way to go through life. Discern God’s timing!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.