The Gospel of John By J.C. ryle

CHAPTER XII
JOHN 12:1-11
Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom
he had raised from the dead. So they prepared a dinner for Jesus there. Martha was
serving, and Lazarus was among those present at the table with him. 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 dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfumed oil.) But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was
going to betray him) said, "Why wasn’t this oil sold for three hundred silver coins and
the money given to the poor?" (Now Judas said this not because he was concerned about
the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, he used to steal what
was put into it.) So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial.
For you always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have me."
Now the large crowd of Jewish people from Jerusalem learned that Jesus was there, and
so they came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from
the dead. So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, for on account of him many of
the Jewish people from Jerusalem were going away and believing in Jesus.
The chapter we have now begun finishes a most important division of John's Gospel.
Our Lord's public addresses to the unbelieving Jews of Jerusalem are here brought to an
end. After this chapter, John records nothing but what was said in private to the
disciples.
We see, for one thing, in this passage, what abounding proofs exist of the truth of our
Lord's greatest miracles.
We read of a supper at Bethany, where Lazarus "sat at the table" among the guests--
Lazarus, who had been publicly raised from the dead, after lying four days in the grave.
No one could pretend to say that his resurrection was a mere optical delusion, and that
the eyes of the bystanders must have been deceived by a spirit or vision. Here was the
very same Lazarus, after several weeks, sitting among his fellow-men with a real
material body, and eating and drinking real material food. It is hard to understand what
stronger evidence of a fact could be supplied. He that is not convinced by such evidence
as this may as well say that he is determined to believe nothing at all.
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