THE ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM.

(John xii:12-26.)

I. The Analysis.

(1) The triumphal entry, verses 12-16.

(2) The confused opinions of the people, verses 17-19.

(3) The desire of the Greeks, verses 20-22.

(4) The answer of Christ, verses 23-26.

II. The Heart of the Lesson.

There is a beautiful order in the incidents which form our lessons, for the present and following weeks, to which a brother called the attention of the church many years ago., Beginning with the twelfth chapter, the events fall into the order of the tabernacle, or temple service. That order, it will be remembered, was, first, the brazen altar whereon the burnt oflfering was oflfered; then the layer of cleansing; then the holy place, the scene of fellowship and worship; and, last of all the most holy place, into which the high priest entered.

Following that order we have in the twelfth chapter the death of the Lord in three aspects, as the corn of wheat, the judgment of the world, and irresistible attraction. In the thirteenth chapter, the laver of cleansing; in the fourteenth and sixteenth chapters the High Priest and his associate priests in the Holy Place, in intimate communion, and in the seventeenth chapter the High Priest passes as it were behind the veil into the Holy of Holies, and the listening priests hear his voice in intercession according to Hebrews vii:25.

Every Christian, certainly every Sunday school teacher, ought to study with care the typology of the Tabernacle. It gives the mould, or form, of the divine plan of redemption, and in many ways recurs through the whole Scripture.

Turning now to the lesson, we are, I think, to find its deeper truth in the answer of Christ to Philip and Andrew when certain Greeks wished to see him: "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit."

What did our Lord mean? How do his words constitute a reason for not seeing the Greeks? These Greeks were Gentile proselytes to Judaism. Why should he not see them?

Briefly, because a King offering himself to his own proper subjects, the Jews, was no object of faith to a Gentile. Rejected by Israel, He was about to be crucified for the sins of the world, Jew and Gentile, and then, as the Crucified, He would become the right Object of faith to both Jew and Gentile. An uncrucified Messiah could save no Gentile, no Jew. This is His own word: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone."

And this word of Christ's is the sufficient answer to all the theories of the atonement which ignore the liberation of the life of Christ that it might be imparted to all who believe. "In Him was life," and on the cross that life was set free to enter those who, through faith in Him are born again, just as a corn of wheat, planted, dies into countless corns of wheat. Only through death could Christ become the life-giver.

We have not before us in John xii the sin-offering aspect of our Lord's death, but rather the whole burnt offering aspect, that sense in which His death was all for the Father.

The heart of this lesson, then, is that Christ would not show himself to the Greeks because salvation is not by the influence of His spotless life, as some say, but by faith in Him as crucified for us that we might not perish, but have eternal life. He had offered himself as a king to Israel, but during the time of his earth-ministry His disciples were carefully instructed not to go in any way of the Gentiles, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. After the crucifixion, however, the word was to go to the uttermost parts of the earth, but the message was no longer to be, ''The kingdom of heaven is at hand," but ^'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

An uncrucified Christ was not, could not be, an object of faith to the Gentiles.