John 11:53-55

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. John 11:53 Jesus is placed under a death sentence, which the careful reader will suspect to be illegal because of Nicodemus’ question to the authorities in Jn 7:51: “Does our Law allow us to pass judgment on someone without first giving him a hearing to ascertain what he is doing?”
2. John 11:54 Ephraim: on the edge of the wilderness of Judea, 16 miles north of Jerusalem.
3. John 11:55 It is the feast of Passover in Jerusalem, a time when faith and hope are reborn in the minds of the people, as they commemorate their deliverance from slavery, the formation of the people, the Covenant, the journey to the mountain of God, and the promised land. Lambs are sacrificed, reproducing the shedding of the blood that had preserved the life of Israel long ago. The feast is full of memories, which are at the same time a promise of a different future. This future is now becoming a reality.
   There is now a new Passover, the once-for-all Passover that is accomplished not in a ritual but in an action: Jesus fulfills the former Covenant by bringing to pass that which it had announced and prefigured (Ex 12:1-13, 16); he is the true Lamb who gives his life and whose blood poured out delivers the people from enslavement to evil and sin and opens the way to the true promised land, to the Father, in a communion of life with him.
   The last section of the Gospel of John is centered on this mystery of the Passion of Christ.
   The fate awaiting Jesus from the first pages of this Gospel is fulfilled; his adversaries have decided to put him to death and are waiting to have the sentence executed. It is the reign of darkness. But the hour of Jesus’ death and defeat is another reality, that of triumph and glory; and it will be confirmed by the Resurrection of the Crucified.
   The time of the Church will be inaugurated. She will receive the Spirit promised by Jesus and—as is indicated by the last signs (the miraculous catch of fish and the investiture of Peter)—will be established and sent forth to preach everywhere. She is to proclaim salvation and life so as to gather together all believers until the day when Christ will return in his glory as Son of God and Savior of the world.
4. John 11:55 The time for signs has ended. The glory that the signs announced is going to appear. How? It will not be through the deceitful glory of human triumphs; it will be through the presence of God in the action of Jesus and in the transformation of the human condition. Jesus’ hour of glory is above all the hour of his death.
5. John 11:55 According to the tradition followed by the fourth Gospel, the woman who pours the perfume on the feet of Jesus is Mary, the sister of Lazarus. With the prodigality of love she expresses her gratitude for the raising of her brother from the dead; but Jesus evokes his own death, and Mary’s gesture points ahead to this, anticipating by her anointing the rite of burial: it is an act of veneration.
   Wasteful squandering? Only Judas, whose shadow already darkens the picture, thinks so. It is not such veneration of Christ that turns his attention to the poor; it is avarice—at the same time that Jesus is being glorified at Bethany, the plot against him is being laid for civic reasons, as we saw earlier.
6. John 11:55 This is probably the Passover of the year 30, which was to be Jesus’ last. The devout Jews journeyed to Jerusalem to complete the ritual purifications necessary for Passover celebrations (see Ex 19:10-11, 15; Num 9:6-14; 2 Chr 30:1-3, 15-18). Since Jesus had been present in Jerusalem at the feasts of Tabernacles and Dedication, the populace expected him to be there again. A warrant had been issued for his arrest, and anyone who knew his whereabouts had to declare it under penalty of complicity.