And there were certain Greeks among those who came up that they might worship in the feast;
Jerusalem is full for the feast, and among the worshippers are some Greeks — people from outside Israel. Their wish to see Jesus looks like a small thing, yet it turns the direction of the whole chapter, and the Lord answers it by speaking of His own death.
The word "Greeks" here does not mean Jews who spoke Greek. It means people from outside Israel, and that is why they came to Jesus through someone else.
These men were not Hellenists, that is Greek-speaking Jews, but Hellenes — Gentiles, people who were not Jews at all. Their coming, and their wish to see Jesus, opens the third great testimony to the glory of Christ as the Son of Man. A Gentile had no claim on Christ as the Messiah, so these Greeks were right to come to the Lord through the Jewish disciples, just as the Gentile centurion had earlier sent his message to the Lord through the Jewish elders. The Lord at once speaks of Himself as the Son of Man, the title under which He becomes the way of blessing for all people (verse 32).
What were they looking for? One writer traces their wish back to the emptiness of the gods they already had.
Religion drew them. The gods they worshipped as Gentiles were only "dumb idols," and we can safely assume they were tired of the emptiness of their Greek myths. So they now said they wanted to see Him whose name and fame had spread through the land. Perhaps they expected to find in Him something that would meet their own empty and needy souls.
This says something about Jesus, not only about the men who asked.
This is no small testimony in itself to the glory of the person who stood among them. Israel rejected Him, and the despised Gentile looked for Him. The one refused Him; the other asked after Him. The last is first.
The way they came — outsider, then disciple, then Jesus — matches an old picture of the nations taking hold of a Jew. It also points to a day still ahead.
This surely reminds us of Zechariah 8:23, where we read, "In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" The Greeks did not come to Jesus themselves, but through Philip and Andrew. In the same way, when He comes in His glory as the King of Israel, the nations will see that God has blessed His people, and they will go up to worship at Jerusalem. Then His house will truly be a house of prayer for all nations.
His reply looks like it ignores the question. He was looking past these few men to what they stood for, and to the one thing that could bring such people in.
When the Greeks come up to the feast wanting to see Jesus, what does He say? "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." He was going to the cross and to death, yet He says the hour had come for Him to be glorified. How could that be? Jesus sees in the Greeks in front of Him a sample of the ingathering of the Gentiles. He knew well that the only thing that would draw the Gentiles was His own cross and His glory in heaven.
There was a real barrier. They had come to worship, but they stood outside the promises God had made to Israel.
They had come to worship at Jerusalem, yet they were strangers to the covenants of promise. A completely new order of things was needed to bring them in. They had no right to the promises; Jesus must die to lay the foundation for this new order of things.
People still want to see Jesus. There is only one place to look.
If the Gentiles were really to see Jesus, if any of us were to see Jesus, how must we see Him, and where? We must see Him taking up a service that the law did not lay upon Him, a voluntary service of love that made Him the Sufferer. We must see Him lifted up on the cross. Jesus would have been no use to us, He would not have been "JESUS" to us at all, if He had not gone to that cross.
- Asked — The nation that had Him refused Him, while outsiders came looking for Him.
- Relayed — Having no claim on Israel's Messiah, they came through Philip and Andrew, a picture of the nations taking hold of a Jew because God is with him.
- Answered — The Lord looked past the few men to the many they represented, and called that moment the hour of the Son of Man's glory.
- Costly — They were strangers to the covenants of promise; only a new order of things could bring them in, and that meant He must die.
- Seen — Anyone who wants to see Jesus must see Him at the cross; without that cross He would be no use to us at all.
these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him saying, Sir, we desire to see Jesus.
Crowds had just welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem as Israel's King. Then a small group of foreigners at the feast asked a disciple for an introduction. Their small ask turned the Lord's words toward His death. It also raises a question: how could anyone outside Israel come to Him at all?
These visitors were not Jews but Gentiles. That is why they came by way of a disciple.
These Greeks were not Greek-speaking Jews. They were Gentiles — people outside Israel. Their desire to see Jesus is what brings in the third great testimony to the glory of Christ as the Son of Man. The Gentile had no claim on Christ as the Messiah. So these Greeks were right to approach the Lord through the Jewish disciples. The Gentile centurion had done the same earlier, sending his request to the Lord through the Jewish elders.
The contrast with the religious leaders at the same feast is sharp.
The request did not come from the Pharisees or the chief priests. They had plenty of chances to see Him and hear Him at that very feast. No, it was the desire of Greeks (Gentiles) who had come to worship there… It is in itself no small testimony to the glory of His person who was among them. Israel rejected Him, but the despised Gentile came looking for Him. The one refused Him; the other asked for Him. The last is first.
The way they came pictures the way the nations will one day come.
The Greeks did not approach Jesus directly. They came through Philip and Andrew. In the same way, when He comes in His glory as the King of Israel, the nations will see that God has blessed His people, and they will go up to worship at Jerusalem. Then His House will truly be a house of prayer for all nations.
Philip did not answer the question himself. He found someone who would take it straight to the Lord.
But what could Philip do? Were not these Greeks outside the boundary? Would the Lord receive them if he brought them to Him? Philip was a puzzled servant that day, because he did not understand. But he goes and tells Andrew, and in that he was wise. He felt that Andrew would find a way out of the problem. And Andrew did, for he brings him straight to the Lord with the difficulty.
We are never told that the Greeks got their meeting. The Lord's answer looked straight past them.
His thoughts turn at once to the hidden meaning of granting such a desire to the Gentiles. It signified His death. Rejected as Israel's Messiah, He would take the wider place of Son of man. As Psalm 8 shows, that title covers a much larger range than the "Anointed" of Psalm 2. But to fill that larger range, He must first die!
The necessity was not a limit on His power but on man's condition.
He Himself was the true grain of wheat that would bear rich fruit. Yet even He could do so only by death and resurrection. This was not, could not be, from any lack of power in Him. It was because of man's condition that it could not righteously be otherwise before God. Only death can meet the evil, or fill the void — and only His death… Living, He must remain alone. Dying, He bears much fruit in the power of His resurrection.
In these few enquirers the Lord saw far more than the men standing in front of Him.
In the Greeks standing before Him, Jesus sees a sample of the gathering in of the Gentiles. The Lord knew well that only one thing could draw the Gentiles: His own cross and His glory in heaven. So He looks through all the scene that lay in between, for He had to accomplish redemption and to go up on high. But from this little sample He connects everything with His glorification, and speaks of it as a present fact.
Ask to see Jesus today, and there is one place to look.
Do you say, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus"? My answer is, Look at the centre cross on Calvary. THIS IS JESUS — the thorn-crowned Nazarene, despised and rejected by men, crucified on a criminal's cross. This is Jesus, and beside Him there is no other.
- Outsiders ask. Gentiles had no claim on Israel's Messiah. Yet they asked what Israel's own leaders never asked at that feast.
- Grace makes room. Philip did not know if he could bring such people to Jesus. Andrew took the problem straight to Him, and that was the wise move.
- Death answers. The Lord replied by speaking of the grain of wheat: living, He must remain alone; dying, He bears much fruit.
- The title widens. Rejected as Messiah, He takes the larger place of Son of man — and only under that title do Gentiles come in.
- The harvest begins. In a handful of enquirers He saw a sample of the nations drawn by the cross, which is where anyone still goes to see Jesus.
Philip comes and tells Andrew, [and again] Andrew comes and Philip, and they tell Jesus.
A question from foreign worshippers takes a short but telling route. It reaches Philip, then Andrew, and only then Jesus. Why did two disciples have to talk it over first? And what did the Lord make of it?
These men were not Jews from abroad. They were Gentiles — outsiders to Israel — who had come to worship. They chose to approach through a disciple.
The Greeks here are pure Gentiles, not Greek-speaking Jews. Still, they worship the true God as revealed in Israel. They share the hopes that Israel's prophets had stirred up. So they come forward and respectfully use a disciple as go-between to gain a meeting with Him. Going through a Jew was a natural thought for a Gentile who believed the prophets. In that prophecy the Gentile seeking God takes hold of the skirt of the Jew (Zech. 8:23).
Philip did not carry the message straight to Jesus. One writer links his delay to what he knew of the Lord's mission.
We take it they really wanted to get to know Christ. So they went to Philip, one of the twelve disciples. These Greeks may have known him in his home town. Philip did not tell the Lord at once. He knew of course that Christ's mission was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to them only (Matt. 15:24). He sought out Andrew, his fellow apostle from the same town, and passed on what these Greeks wanted. The two of them together tell Jesus.
The same request met two different men. One hesitated; the other did not.
Philip seems to be in something of a dilemma. But he goes and tells Andrew his difficulty. Andrew had no difficulty at all, for we read that at once he and Philip go and tell Jesus. We gather that Andrew had some idea of the overflowing grace in Christ Jesus. That grace could and would reach outside and beyond the bounds of the Jewish nation and take in the Greeks.
Every time Andrew appears in this Gospel he is doing the same thing, and this verse is the third instance.
Though it is true we do not hear much about Andrew, what we do hear is very lovely. This seems to have been a special line of work with him. The next time we see him is in John 6:8, and there he is bringing "a lad" to the Lord Jesus. Again we find him at the same work in John 12:22, where he is bringing the Greeks to Jesus. Happy work! May the Lord teach every one of us to bring others, one by one, to Himself.
Philip did not go in alone, and the verse names Andrew first the second time. One writer explains both.
Philip, cautious as his people were in such matters, brings another man in with himself to approach his Master. And Andrew takes the lead in telling the Lord what they wanted.
Their shared home town mattered too.
It seemed a strange event. Yet a natural connection gave the occasion to pass it on to Jesus. Philip tells Andrew. He too, with Peter, was from Bethsaida; and they tell Jesus, gaining strength in this way.
The message reached Jesus at last. But these worshippers stood outside everything God had promised Israel.
The Greeks had come to worship at Jerusalem, but they were strangers to the covenants of promise. It took an entirely new order of things to bring them in. They had no right to the promises; Jesus must die to lay the foundation for this new order.
One writer sees a picture in the route these men took. They came to a disciple first, and only then to the Lord.
The Greeks did not approach Jesus directly. They came through Philip and Andrew. In the same way, when He comes in His glory as the King of Israel, the nations will realise that God has blessed His people. They will go up to worship at Jerusalem. Then His house will truly be a house of prayer for all nations.
- Outsiders come. Gentiles came to worship. They were strangers to Israel's promises, so they took hold of a disciple to reach Jesus.
- Philip stalls. He knows Christ came to Israel's lost sheep, so he holds back and looks for help.
- Andrew moves. He grasps that grace overflows Israel's borders. Every time we meet him, he is bringing someone to Jesus.
- Together they tell. Two men from the same town go in as one. They gain strength that way, and Andrew takes the lead.
- Death opens the door. These men had no claim on the promises. Jesus must die to lay the foundation for a new order of blessing.
But Jesus answered them saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.
Greeks who had come to worship ask to see Jesus, and instead of meeting them He announces that His hour has come. His answer looks straight past their request to a glory that runs through His death.
These Greeks had no share in the promises God gave Israel. One writer links their arrival to why Jesus speaks of death:
They came to worship at Jerusalem, but they were strangers to the covenants of promise. God had to bring in a whole new order of things to give them a place in it. They had no right to the promises. Jesus must die to lay the foundation for this new order of things. Here Jesus is not the promised Messiah. He is the second Man, head of all things God created — all things He Himself created. But He must win them by redemption, and above all His co-heirs.
He does not call Himself the Christ here. The title He picks reaches far beyond Israel:
Israel rejected Him as Messiah, so He would take the wider place of Son of man. As Psalm 8 shows, that title covers a much larger range than the "Anointed" of Psalm 2. But to fill that larger range, He must first die!
Another writer shows how far that place reaches:
As Son of man, all peoples, nations and languages will serve Him, in a kingdom that will never be destroyed (Dan. 7:14).
The cross and the ascension still lay ahead. Yet He speaks as if the hour had already struck. One writer reads these Greeks, who were not Jews, as the signal:
He was going to the cross and to death. Yet He declares that the hour had come for Him to be glorified. How could that be? If you read it in a flat, literal way, I think you lose the force of the passage. Jesus sees in the Greeks before Him a sample of the gathering in of the Gentiles. He knew that the only thing that would draw the Gentiles was His own cross and His glory in heaven. So He looks right through the whole scene in front of Him, because He had to complete redemption and go up on high. But from this small sample He connects everything with His glorification, and speaks of it as a present fact.
Commentators differ on what the hour of glorifying points to. Some take it as the far-off day when He will rule over all, brought to mind by the Greeks asking for Him:
When these Greeks asked to see Jesus, it became to Him the promise of the day of His glory. On that day all kings will fall down before Him and all nations will serve Him. God will give Him the nations as His inheritance, and the ends of the earth as His possession.
Others argue from the timing that the kingdom cannot be meant here, since that glory was not yet due:
The time for this glory had not yet come. So when the Lord says, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified," He has in view not the kingdom but the Cross. There the Son of Man is glorified by glorifying the Father.
Both readings meet at the same place. One writer puts it simply:
His death would be the foundation of all the glory in days to come.
One writer hears sorrow and glory sounding together in the same words:
Mixed in with the sorrow we find hints of brighter things — "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." For sorrow, joy and glory alike, that was "the hour." There has never been another hour like it, and there never can be.
What He says next turns the principle onto His followers, and one writer makes the demand concrete:
We must follow Him in this: "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me." That is a very important word. If you want to serve Christ, you must follow Him. You cannot do a certain amount of service on your own, apart from Him. If I serve Him, I must follow Him where He is.
- Occasion. Greeks asking to see Jesus set off this answer. They had no claim on Israel's promises, so Jesus had to lay a new foundation.
- Title. He names Himself Son of man, a place wider than Israel's Messiah, reaching to all nations.
- Cost. He could take that wider place only through death. He had to die to lay the foundation.
- Certainty. He speaks of the glory as present because He looks past the cross to the harvest the Greeks foreshadowed.
- Call. Serving Christ means following Him. There is no independent service.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
He that loves his life shall lose it, and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
Jesus has just spoken of the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies. Now He makes that a rule for anyone who follows Him — and the words sound harsh, until you see which "life" He means.
Everything turns on one word. In the first half of the verse, "life" is not the word used for eternal life at the end:
The word translated "life" here is the word usually translated "soul." It refers to that "soul life" which marks man in his natural fallen condition. The soul is not the spirit. The spirit is the higher part of man, able to put him in intelligent touch with God. The soul is the seat of our natural desires and longings. And "soul life" is that life of enjoyment of all the things that naturally appeal to us.
Why does holding on lose it? The break runs deeper than the shortness of life — and it is the same break that made Christ's death necessary.
There was no link between the natural life of man and God. If in the man Christ Jesus there was a life in entire harmony with God, He must lay it down because of this condition of man. Being of God, He could not remain in connection with man. Man would not have it… But if anyone loved his life of this world, he lost it, for it was not in connection with God. If anyone by grace hated it, he would have it in the new and eternal state. To hate it is to separate yourself in heart from this principle of alienation from God, and to give your life to Him.
"Hate" is strong on purpose. It sets a test, and Christ and the Jewish leaders answered it in opposite ways.
Christ was perfectly willing to give up His life in this world in view of infinitely greater blessing. The Jewish leaders were not: they loved their own lives, but would only lose them. Here is a test of the reality of faith. The expression "hates his life" is intended to be strong, in contrast to loving one's life. It is a question of which life is of vital importance.
Hatred of this kind is not achieved by grim effort. It comes from something else becoming more attractive, as it did for Paul when he listed his advantages and wrote them off.
He who turns his back on the soul-life of this world is going to keep life to life eternal. He turns his back on it because he is identified with the rejected Christ and His death. Here the word for "life" changes, for "life eternal" is a far higher thing. Philippians 3 illustrates what this means. There Paul lists all his natural advantages and then shows how he counted them loss for Christ. Christ became so infinitely attractive to him that he hated all else in comparison with Him.
The keeping points forward to eternal life. But the gain starts now, not only later.
The Lord contrasts the two spheres of life: the "life in this world" and the life of joy and blessing which is called "eternal life"… To love the life here is to cling to a life that we must lose. We even lose it while chasing it. To hate the life in this world, in view of eternal life, is to enter into the enjoyment of eternal life even now.
Jesus said this more often than anything else on record.
If we love it, we shall only lose it. Seeing it in its true light, we learn to hate it, and by that we keep life — the only life worth having — to life eternal. This is a hard saying for us, but extremely important. We can see this, because Jesus spoke words of similar meaning on three other occasions. The four Gospels record these four sayings six times. No other saying of our Lord is repeated for us like this.
- Two lives. The life you can lose is the soul-life of natural desires. The life you keep is eternal life — a different word, and a far higher thing.
- Two loves. Loving the first loses it, because that life has no link with God. Hating it means separating from it in heart and giving it to Him.
- Two examples. The leaders loved their lives and lost them. Christ gave His up for far greater blessing. Which one you copy tests whether your faith is real.
- Two timings. What you keep is kept "for eternal life" — full only later, yet enjoyed now by the one who lets go.
- One refrain. Jesus said this on four occasions, and the Gospels record it six times. No other saying of His is repeated like it.
If any one serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall be *my* servant. [And] if any one serve me, him shall the Father honour.
The Lord had just spoken of His own death. His words about serving follow straight on, so the promises here — a place with Him, and honour from the Father — belong to a path that runs through death.
The writers quote an older wording: "let him follow me" where the ESV has "he must follow me." The Lord defines service by a person, not a list of tasks:
"If anyone serves me," says the Lord, "let him follow me." Notice, He does not say, "let him do this for me, or do that," but "let him follow me." The most pleasing service we can give the Lord is to wait on Him quietly so that we may know His will, and to follow Him faithfully, listening to the voice of His word. Some He may lead into more public paths of service, others into more private ones. But our most acceptable service is to follow His word closely, while looking by faith to Himself.
The path itself tests the servant, not just the work:
We find everything in "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me." This marks out the path and supplies the power by which alone any of us can take it. The path is His own path. The power to make it ours lies in the hold that that twice-repeated "Me" has gained in our hearts. We shall see, too, that the path is the test — not of the service only, but of the servant. These are words that may arrest us in this day of general activity. A day of solemn examination is coming. Then the question will not be how much has passed for service, but what kind it was.
Following Him has a set direction, and it is not upward in this world:
The Lord adds a most important principle of conduct to what He has just said: "If anyone serves me, let him follow me." We must follow Him through death — in principle, death to sin and to the world. But the consequence of such a path is simple: where the Saviour is, there shall His servant be. Such a person follows Him through death into the heavenly glory where He has entered.
This has an edge for anyone who measures life by success:
Let us not profess to enjoy the benefits which His cross secures, while we refuse the rejection which that cross involves. We may be sure that the road to the kingdom is not lit by the sunshine of this world's favour, nor strewn with the roses of its prosperity. If a Christian is advancing in the world, he has much reason to suspect that he is not walking in company with Christ. … The company of Christ lets me into heaven and casts me out of earth. To claim the first while I know nothing of the second proves there is something wrong.
The Lord encourages hearts that flinch from such a road:
By nature we shrink from death. The Lord knows this as we could never know it, and in His tender grace He has supplied the power and the encouragement to walk this path of life. … First He holds Himself before our hearts as the One who has passed through death into His present place of exaltation and glory. And He invites us to follow Him. And to bring us under all the attractions of His grace and love, He pledges His sure and faithful word that where He is, there shall also His servant be.
The last clause brings in the Father:
"If anyone serves me, him will my Father honour." If anyone serves Christ, he comes under the special eye and notice of the Father; when He sees anyone following Christ, the preciousness of that Son of His love casts its light upon them.
Weigh these promises against what a follower gives up:
The servant with his Master! What honour! "Him will the Father honour." Put reputation among men, wealth, honours and rank on earth all in one scale. Put the promises made here in the other. This second scale will far outweigh the first. Honours and ruling power here may seem valuable, and worth grasping at. Yet all of that must fade away in time. But to be with Christ on high, and to be honoured by the Father — these favours last for ever, and can never pass away.
- Follow, not perform. The Lord does not say, do this or that for Me. He says, follow Me. The service He accepts is waiting on His will and keeping to His word.
- The servant is tested. The path tests the servant, not just the service. On the day of examination, the question is the kind of service, not the amount.
- The path is death. Following Him means death to sin and to the world. Enjoying what His cross secures while refusing the rejection it brings shows something is wrong.
- The place is with Him. He passed through death into glory, and He pledges that where He is, His servant will be.
- The honour is the Father's. The one who follows Christ comes under the Father's eye, lit by the preciousness of His Son. That honour is everlasting, while earthly honours fade.
Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But on account of this have I come to this hour.
Some Greeks had just asked to see Jesus, and He answered by speaking of a grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die. His trouble follows at once, and it raises a hard question: is "Father, save me from this hour" a prayer He makes, or one He refuses?
The arrival of these Gentiles — non-Jewish visitors — opened up before Him glory as Son of Man, reached only by way of death.
The coming of the Gentiles had opened out before Him a scene: the rejected Christ passing into the wider glory of the Son of Man. But that meant the grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die. This brings before His soul the true and necessary path of His glory — death, and all that death meant to His soul. And He looks for deliverance. He could not wish for the forsaking of God and the cup of death He had to drink. Nor could He fail to fear them. He was heard because of His godly fear. That was truth, and true devotion to God, as He faced what His soul had to pass through.
The weight was not simply dying. It was death as God's judgment, and the forsaking that came with it.
The Lord has urged us to take the path of death to this world, leading to life and honour. But before the believer can take this path, Christ had to face death as the judgment of God against sin. He knows the solemn weight of being forsaken by God at the cross. So He has to say, "Now is my soul troubled." Even so, will He say, "Father, save Me from this hour"? Was it not for this very cause — to be forsaken so that His people might never be forsaken — that He had come to this hour?
Some fear that a troubled soul makes Him less. The opposite is true: this is exactly what a perfect man would feel here, and both halves of the verse belong together.
The reality of His manhood, and the glory of His Godhead, in no way hindered His sorrow. His being Who and what He was, and perfect in everything, only gave Him infinite capacity to feel and fathom what He endured. He would not have been perfect man if His soul had not been troubled, so that He felt, "What am I to say?" He would not have been Son of God as man if He had not prayed, in that trouble of soul, "Father, save Me from this hour." He would just as surely not have been, if He had not gone on to say, "But for this purpose I have come to this hour," crowned with, "Father, glorify Your name."
Commentators differ here. Darby and Kelly read the words as a real prayer that was heard. Another writer reads them as a plea He raises only to set aside.
Yet His rejection by man was not even a shadow of the sorrow none could share — His being forsaken by God. No, He would not say, "Father, save me from this hour," while still letting us know that His soul was troubled. "Father, glorify Your name," spoken in the shadow of the cross, is simply the completion of the thought formed in the brightness of the eternal glory — "I come… I delight to do Your will, O my God."
What He says here He would face again in the garden, and then endure in fact.
It is worth remembering that Gethsemane still lay ahead of the Lord at this time… Death, as the judgment of God, the thing that lay upon us, was before Him there. He went through it in anticipation in Gethsemane. He went through it in fact, in all its dread reality, in the dark hour of Calvary.
The trouble does not have the last word. Even here, one thing mattered to Him more than the cost.
He knew full well what the dreadful hour of the cross would mean to His holy soul. It meant sufferings beyond all creature knowledge. It meant all that the evil heart of man, driven by the power of Satan, could devise, and all that the powers of darkness could gather to attack Him. It meant the wrath and judgment of a holy God against sin, when He would be made sin and bear our sins. Looking ahead to all this was awful, and the drinking of the cup of wrath would be awful too. Yet one thing mattered to Him above everything else: the glory of the Father's Name.
- The hour — the Greeks' arrival opened up glory as Son of Man. The way there ran through the grain of wheat falling into the ground to die.
- The trouble — not dying as such, but death as God's judgment, and the forsaking that came with it.
- The manhood — a troubled soul does not make Him less. Only a real man would feel it, and only He could fathom it.
- The choice — commentators differ: is the plea prayed, or raised only to be set aside? Either way the verse turns on one hinge: He came for this hour.
- The end — the trouble ends not in escape but in "Father, glorify Your name." That was the one thing worth more to Him than the cost.
Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, I both have glorified and will glorify [it] again.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
The crowd therefore, which stood [there] and heard [it], said that it had thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to him.
The Father has just answered His Son's prayer out loud from heaven. Everyone hears the sound, but it splits the crowd into two parties, and neither guess comes near the truth.
This was the Father's public answer. It came at the close of the Son's public ministry, matching the voice that had opened it.
The closing testimony of the Son begins with the words, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine." When the Son was about to begin His public testimony, the Father's voice had proclaimed His pleasure in Him. Now, as that testimony is about to close, the Father speaks again. But the Jews had no ear to hear or understand the Father's voice. They had refused the Son's testimony to the Father, and they could not discern the Father's testimony to the Son.
The crowd was not used to hearing heaven speak, so they reached for a natural explanation. One writer notes that a few came nearer the mark than the rest, and still missed it.
Meanwhile this voice came as His witness to the crowd. He did not need it Himself, since He walked in a communion with God that was never broken. Sadly, for them a voice from heaven was a strange and, for most, an unintelligible sound. The crowd said, "It thundered." A few, who still did not clearly recognise it, said, "An angel has spoken to Him."
Commentators differ over the two answers. One refuses to explain the split at all, and treats both guesses as wide of the mark:
As to the question why some said the voice from heaven was thunder, others the speaking of an angel to the Lord, it seems pointless to look for an answer. It was merely guesswork on the part of the crowd, who all fell short of the truth. Unbelief of Him can weaken or get rid of all testimony until He comes in judgment.
Their problem was not their hearing but their ignorance of God. The Son had just prayed, and heaven had just answered. The link should have been obvious.
There was no knowledge of the Father, no real recognition of God. Otherwise they would have seen the hand of God in such an answer to such a prayer. They saw the wonder in answer to "Father, glorify Your name," and they said, "An angel spoke," or, "It thundered." If God gave His thunder, then it was God, the Highest, who answered the words "Father, glorify Your name."
The next verse gives the reason for the voice, and it is not the reason the crowd assumed. Jesus needed no sound from heaven; they did.
The crowd did not know what to think of the voice they had heard. Some said it was a clap of thunder, others that an angel had spoken to Him. Jesus answers, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine." The Father's voice was in His heart. The people needed something their senses could take in, and grace gave it to them.
The contrast between the Son and the crowd is the point. He lived in unbroken fellowship with the Father, so a public sign added nothing to Him.
The Father had given a public witness that the Son was the One through Whom He was glorifying His Name. The people, unused to voices from heaven, speculated about this public witness. Some said it was thunder, others the voice of an angel. The Lord plainly tells them that it was for their sakes: He Himself, always walking in communion with the Father, needed no such public witness.
Scripture records three times when people on earth heard the Father's voice. The hearers did not all gain the same from it.
On three distinct occasions others heard the Father's voice: at His baptism by John (Matthew 3:17); at His transfiguration (Matthew 17:5); and in answer to His prayer, "Father, glorify Your name" (John 12:28). On the first occasion John the Baptist heard it. On the second, Peter, James and John had the privilege of listening to it. On the third, the crowd heard a sound, but it was clear they did not understand what was said.
The same gap between sound and meaning shows up elsewhere. One commentator explains it from the men who travelled with Saul of Tarsus at his conversion:
Comparing this with Acts 9:7, we gather that the men heard the voice. Yet it could also be said that they did not hear the voice, because it conveyed nothing they could understand.
- Prayer. The Son prayed, "Father, glorify Your name." The Father answered out loud at the close of His ministry — the third time people on earth heard that voice.
- Grace. The voice came for the crowd, not for Jesus. He lived in unbroken communion with the Father and needed no sign, so the sound was pure kindness to them.
- Guesswork. Most said thunder and a few said an angel. Both guesses fell short of the truth.
- Deafness. The failure lay in their hearts, not their ears. They had refused the Son's witness to the Father, so they missed the Father's witness to the Son.
- Warning. Unbelief can weaken or get rid of any testimony, however clear, until Christ comes in judgment.
Jesus answered and said, Not on my account has this voice come, but on yours.
Jesus had just prayed, "Father, glorify your name," and a voice answered out of heaven. The crowd standing there could only argue about what they had heard. His reply sorts out the scene. The voice was never for Him. It came for the very people who could not tell what it was.
The Father answered out loud, in front of everyone, and the crowd could not agree on what it was:
The Father had given a public witness that the Son was the One through Whom He was glorifying His Name. The people, unused to voices from heaven, speculated about this public witness. Some said it was thunder, others the voice of an angel. The Lord plainly tells them that it was for their sakes: He Himself, walking always in communion with the Father, needed no such public witness.
Both explanations missed what had happened. Jesus had prayed, heaven had answered, and that link alone should have told them who spoke:
They did not know the Father. They did not truly recognise God. Otherwise they would have seen the hand of God in such an answer to such a prayer. They saw the wonder in answer to "Father, glorify your name," and they said, "An angel spoke," or, "It thundered." If God gave His thunder, then it was God, even the Highest, who answered the words, "Father, glorify your name." So the Lord, the Son of Man, could well say that this voice had not come for His sake. He needed no such evidence. It came "for your sake." They thought it was for His own.
Why some heard thunder and others an angel is not explained. Even so, the Lord turned the moment toward them:
Why did some say the voice from heaven was thunder, while others said an angel had spoken to the Lord? It seems pointless to look for an answer. It was only guesswork by the crowd, and all of them fell short of the truth. Unbelief of Him can weaken or get rid of all testimony until He comes in judgment. Yet it was truly in grace toward them, for Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine."
The grace is sharper still when you look at what these same hearers did next:
The voice was plain and the proof was clear. The Lord says that this voice did not come for His sake, since He knew the truth of these words perfectly. It came for the people. Yet in only a few brief days they joined in crying out for His crucifixion!
This was not the first time heaven had spoken over Jesus:
The closing testimony of the Son begins with the words, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine." When the Son was about to begin His public testimony, the Father's voice declared His pleasure in Him. Now, as that testimony is about to close, the Father speaks again. But the Jews had no ear to hear the Father's voice or to understand it. They had refused the Son's testimony to the Father, and they could not discern the Father's testimony to the Son.
From heaven's answer the Lord moves straight to the cross and what it would settle:
The Lord then declared, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine." Then He looked ahead: "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die (31-33). Soon the crowd would be shouting for His death. They wanted Him crucified as a blasphemer against God and a traitor to Caesar. The ruler of this world led men to crucify Him. Once that crime was done, he might seem to have won a total victory. Could that really be the case? Quite the reverse. Leading the world to crucify Christ would bring down certain and final judgment on the world. He led the world at the cross as its prince, yet he will be cast out all the same.
- Not for Him. The Son lived in unbroken communion with His Father and needed no audible proof. Heaven aimed the voice past Him, at the crowd.
- Not received. Thunder or an angel — every guess fell short. Unbelief can explain away any testimony.
- Still grace. The Lord's correction was kindness to people who would shout for His crucifixion within days.
- Twice spoken. Heaven's voice opened His public testimony, and now it closes it. The same ears that refused the Son missed the Father.
- Pointing to the cross. The voice led straight to the cross. There the world is judged, its ruler cast out, and the lifted-up Christ draws all to Himself.
Now is [the] judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out
Days before the cross, Jesus announced what His death would settle: the world's judgment, and the fall of its ruler. Two questions follow: what did that judgment mean, and why does its ruler still seem so active?
Nothing dramatic happened in the sky when Jesus died. One writer points to what the moment put on display:
When Christ died, no lightning flashed and nothing was destroyed. Yet the full truth about the world came out then. Its judgment was proved, though not carried out. The world showed what it really was by putting the Lord out of it.
The gap between a sentence and its carrying out explains the delay we now live in:
A court passes sentence on a murderer days or weeks before it is carried out. So in this verse you see the judgment was a present thing: the casting out was a future thing. Between the verdict and its carrying out stands this present day of grace. The word "now" covers it, as in 2 Corinthians 6:2. In His patience God delays carrying out the judgment.
The word "world" here points to something people built:
John uses the word "world" for the moral condition of the vast organisation that man built for himself after he was driven out of the Garden of Eden. With his skill and his learning, man slowly formed a great system to run all the affairs of this life without God's help and without recognising Him. Sinful indulgence and selfish ease became the main parts of man's world. When the Son of God came into it, men despised Him, hated Him, and crucified Him.
Older translations call this ruler "the prince of this world." Many assume the cross ended his rule; one writer argues the opposite:
It is strange how many people imagine that the cross put an end to Satan's rule. The opposite is true. The cross was the one great proof, and there never was such a proof before, that Satan is the prince and god of this world. Until Christ had been rejected, Satan was never called the prince of this world. Before that, the LORD was on the earth, and His glory was in the temple. When the Lord comes again, He will be the Prince of the world; but till He comes again, Satan is that prince.
The same writer explains why the Lord could speak of it as settled while using a future tense:
By death He has destroyed the one who has the power of death — that is, annulled his power. Though the verse says "will be," his power is now destroyed. The sentence is passed, but not carried out. It is the cross that is referred to. The world is a judged world. I fully admit that he is not cast into the bottomless pit until Christ comes again. But through Christ's death Satan's power is annulled. To faith his power is annulled now.
Commentators differ over how much has already changed in fact. Some press that a later title given to Satan settles the question:
Does He not also say, when predicting the effect of His cross, "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out"? Has he not, then, been cast out of his kingdom? The Lord only predicts the certain effect of the cross, and the "now" simply declares it to be the effect. , going beyond even that which the Lord uses, is decisive: he calls the devil — long after the cross — "the god of this world."
If the verdict is already in, the world is not waiting for a better outcome:
That solemn event of the cross is the judgment of this world. The world is therefore no longer under probation, but under sentence of judgment. The cross has ended the world's trial. There the world was shown to be guilty of a crime. By the cross of Christ the strong man, Satan, has been bound. The blessed Lord triumphed over him in the very thing by which Satan meant to destroy Christ.
For those who face the world's hatred, He leaves a plain assurance:
He tells us that the world which will hate and persecute us stands judged. The great prince who governs and guides its affairs is deposed. His power is already broken and made useless, and he himself is doomed to everlasting punishment.
- Verdict. The cross exposed what the world is; its judgment was proved there, though not carried out.
- Reprieve. Between the verdict and the execution stands this present day of grace, in which God delays.
- Ruler. Satan was never called prince of this world until Christ was rejected; the title dates from that hour.
- Deposed. Christ's death annulled his power. Faith counts that real now, though his final removal waits for Christ's return.
- Choice. The world is no longer on trial but under sentence, so safety lies only with the One it condemned.
and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me.
Some Greeks had just asked to see Jesus. His answer speaks of a death, a magnet, and a reach far wider than Israel — and it raises a question commentators still weigh: when is "all" drawn?
The phrase points to how He would die. It rules out other kinds of execution:
The Lord described the way He would die as being lifted up out of the earth. Death by stoning would not have matched this. John 3:14; John 8:28; John 12:32. We also read that He was made a curse for us; for "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:23. So the blessed Lord, in saving rebellious man, went down to the very lowest form of death.
The words "from the earth" matter. One writer ties them to rejection, and to the foundation of Christianity itself:
In His dying for us the foundation of Christianity was laid. He was "lifted up," not crucified on the earth, as He says, "Lifted up from the earth." He had to be a completely rejected Christ, rejected even to death. Otherwise there could be no point of attraction for men.
Verse 31 condemns the world and casts out its prince. Verse 32 opens the way to all. Both meet at the cross:
Note the completeness of verses 31 and 32 of John 12. The death of Christ judges the world, and Satan (shown to be its prince) is cast out. But then, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." See how the cross shows both things at once! It shows the complete condemnation of the world, and with it the overthrow of Satan. It also shows grace — grace in the attractive object, and in its own effective work towards all.
The word "all" covers two groups, and one of them stood outside Israel:
His death opened up the way to glory "above," in the Father's house. It opened it not to Jews only, but to Gentiles. The words "all" and "whoever" include both. The "other sheep" were Gentiles (John 10:14-16).
Here commentators differ. Some read "all" (older translations: "all men") as every kind of person, drawn now:
How blessed to know that He is God's centre of attraction, at the present time, for all men, as we read in verse 32... This means "all men without distinction," but not "all men without exception." Not all men have been drawn to Him. It is in keeping with the character of John's Gospel, which takes in the whole world in its scope, and not just the Jews.
Others hold that the sentence looks past this age to a public, worldwide submission:
The key to this lies in the incident of the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. They can be taken as representatives of all the families, peoples, and languages that will one day bow the knee to Jesus. So when the Lord speaks of drawing all men to Him after being lifted up, we cannot doubt what He means. He points to what will happen in this world, in the world to come, the thousand years, when everyone will confess His supremacy and authority... in virtue of His death and exaltation, all will be drawn, either by His attractions or His power, in subjection to His feet.
So what does the drawing? A death — and a force nothing can resist:
The cross of Christ is the divine necessity of divine light and love. Jesus crucified will always attract people to God. As long as the world lasts, this marvel will stand: the story of the sufferings and the death of Jesus draws men from the glory and the glitter of the world. It draws them from its fame and its shame, right to God Himself... Jesus crucified is the sacrifice for sin and the friend of sinners. He is the mighty magnet God uses to draw us to His heart of love. Christ crucified is the irresistible force that no power of Satan or of the world can withstand.
The attraction is a Man lifted off the earth. That changes where your heart lives:
Three times in the Gospel of John the Lord speaks of being lifted up. Only in John 12 do those significant words follow: "will draw all people to myself." It is lifted up "from the earth." He has left the earth, and we are to leave the earth in our affections as He attracts us.
- Lifted — the phrase names crucifixion. Stoning could not fit it, and hanging on a tree placed Him under the curse.
- Rejected — "from the earth" means a Christ cast out. Only a Christ rejected to death is a point of attraction.
- Judged — one cross condemns the world and casts out its prince. The same cross draws all people.
- All — the word reaches past Israel. "All" and "whoever" cover Jew and Gentile alike. Commentators differ on the timing: drawing now, or full submission when He reigns.
- Drawn — the crucified Christ is the magnet no power can resist. He has left the earth, so hearts drawn to Him leave it too.
But this he said signifying by what death he was about to die.
John stops to explain what the Lord had just said. "Lifted up" could sound like a promise of glory. John says it meant a cross. So why did the manner of His death matter so much?
Other men of God died in other ways. The manner of the Lord's death was fixed, and it took both Jewish and Gentile hands.
The Jews might stone Stephen in an outburst of religious fury. Herod might kill James with the sword. But the Son of man had to be condemned by the Jewish chief priests and scribes, and crucified by the Gentiles. All mankind had to prove its guilt to the last degree.
Crucifixion was the Roman penalty, yet the hatred behind it was Jewish. The method was meant to end Him. It did the opposite.
In mentioning this He signified crucifixion as the manner of His death. Now this was the Roman way of executing the death sentence, but seeing that all the animosity against Him was in the breast of the Jew, it signified that He would die a death of utmost shame, repudiated by both Jew and Gentile. He was lifted up from the earth in order that He might be contemptuously dismissed — the extinguisher dropped, so to speak, upon His cause and His Name. And the result to be attained is precisely the opposite. He who once was crucified is to be the universal and everlasting Object of attraction!
The Lord said He would be lifted up from the earth. One writer draws out the strange position that puts Him in.
He is no longer of this world at all, nor in heaven either. Here is a Saviour rejected, suffering, dying, who has left the world for ever — a Saviour shamefully rejected, driven away, cast out by the world. He is no longer on the earth, and not yet in heaven. He is exposed to the gaze of men, lifted up from the earth, alone between the two with God, like the altar that was neither in the camp nor in the tabernacle. He is the refuge that draws those who would flee the world that has rejected Him. He opens for them the way into heaven.
Men raised Him from the earth to be rid of Him. God answered with a lifting up of His own.
Our attention is therefore called to the fact that He was cast out of this world, lifted up from the earth, and crucified on that shameful cross. But we behold in this God's triumph over man's sin, and the Lord's own victory over death, the grave, and Satan's power. Man lifted Him up from the earth, as unworthy to live on it any longer. To add to the shame of His death, they crucified Him between two thieves. But God stepped in. After His burial, God lifted Him up higher still — to the highest place in the universe, to His own right hand.
Commentators differ on how far the phrase reaches. John ties it to His death. But the word for lifting up is also the word for being exalted, and one writer asks whether both were meant.
The word for lifting up and being exalted is the same. We are plainly told that the Lord used it to show by what kind of death He was going to die. It is still true that His exaltation comes by His death and follows from it, and that it is the exalted Christ who will draw all men to Himself. So may it be that we are meant to include His exaltation in His being lifted up?
The crowd could not fit a dying Messiah into what they had been taught. Their difficulty came from a partial reading of their own Scriptures.
"We have heard," they said, "out of the law, that the Christ abides for ever: and how do You say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" It was a difficulty they had no answer to. True, the Christ will abide for ever (Ps. 72:15-17; Isa. 9:7; Ezek. 37:25; Dan. 7:14). But that would be in resurrection, when He reigns in power. His humiliation and death were foretold just as clearly, and they had not grasped that.
- Signified — John fixes the meaning. The "lifting up" was not honour but a cross, the death that threw Him out of the world.
- Shame — the death itself was shame by design. Jew and Gentile joined to throw Him out.
- Between — off the earth, not yet in heaven, He hung alone with God. There He became the refuge for all who flee the world that cast Him out.
- Reversed — man raised Him up as unfit to live; God raised Him higher still, to His own right hand.
- Attraction — the cross meant to blot out His Name made Him the One who draws all men. The crowd missed it. They held the promises of His reign and left out the prophecies of His death.
The crowd answered him, We have heard out of the law that the Christ abides for ever; and how sayest thou that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who *is* this, the Son of man?
The crowd has just heard Jesus speak of being "lifted up from the earth." They answer with Scripture in hand: the Christ, they say, stays forever. Their objection holds a real puzzle and a real blindness. How can a Messiah who never ends be a Messiah who dies? And who is this "Son of Man"?
Their starting point was not the mistake. The problem was what they left out of the picture.
It was a difficulty they had no solution for. True, the Christ will remain forever (Ps. 72:15-17; Isa. 9:7; Ezek. 37:25; Dan. 7:14). That, however, would be in resurrection, and when reigning in power. His humiliation and death, equally predicted, they had not grasped. That is where their difficulty came from.
A living Messiah gathering Israel was the picture they held. The other picture was in their own Scriptures, but no one looked for it there.
Christ on the cross is a very different sight from Christ reigning over His people in grace and lasting forever. Yet they should have read this in the law too, for it is there, though dimly. But grace shows Him plainly, lifted up like this — the attractive centre for all, Gentile or Jew, despite their sins, which He was to bear in His own body. A suffering Son of Man was never part of Jewish faith, and still is not, though their own Scriptures do reveal Him.
Their second question — who this Son of Man is — was a real one, not a debating trick.
From this passage we learn that the title was not familiar to the Jews, and that it was not used for "Messiah."
Picture the claim from their side.
To be lifted up would, in their view of things, be a shameful close to a promising career. Who would follow or put any confidence in one who had been put to the shame of crucifixion? Surely the name of the One cut off from the land of the living by a criminal's death would perish forever. Who would speak of His generation?
Something deeper than confusion is at work here. It explains why Jesus gives no direct reply.
The moral disease that clings to man is the very thing that makes the remedy so distasteful. Above all, the cross is utterly an offence... But the Lord does not answer them directly. Their state of heart is not reached by the formal answer to a question. He simply presses on them how quickly the opportunity they now had was passing. They would soon lose the light, unless they used it and made it their own.
Kelly traces the same failure to its root:
Blinded by self and Satan, the Jews saw no beauty in Him. He was a Saviour as well as King, and He could not, would not, reign while His people needed saving from their sins. They were wrong, not only in their thinking, but morally... a Messiah lifted up from the earth was to them an unsolvable riddle and a deadly stumbling block... Why did they look for His glory without His sorrows and His death? Because they had no real sense of their sins, or of God's holy majesty; because they instinctively turned away from what is most humbling to man.
Their instinct was not wholly wrong. The cross did close down the hopes they were holding, and opened better ones.
The Jew always expected that the Messiah, when He came, would bring in something lasting as well as blessed... But the cross seemed to put an end to all such hopes. And in fact it did, as far as any present earthly realisation went. But through the overflowing grace of God it still became the doorway to heavenly blessings — and for that very reason those blessings were far more real and permanent.
"Who is this Son of Man?" is not left hanging forever. The answer comes — but for unbelief it comes too late.
As Son of Man He was to be "lifted up" as one under man's judgment. Soon we will hear the people saying, "How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" Well, in the coming day they will know who He is, to their unrecoverable ruin!
- Half a Bible. They quoted the truth that the Christ endures, and stopped there. They never read the sufferings written in the same Scriptures.
- Half a Christ. They wanted a Messiah to reign, not a Saviour to die. Yet their sins were what made the dying necessary.
- Half a hearing. The title "Son of Man" was strange to them and never used of the Messiah, so His own words slid past them.
- A whole diagnosis. The block was moral, not just mental. That is why Jesus pointed them to the light instead of answering their doctrine question.
- A whole answer. The cross ended their earthly hopes and opened heavenly, more lasting ones. One day everyone who asks will learn who this Son of Man is.
Jesus therefore said to them, Yet a little while is the light amongst you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness may not overtake you. And he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.
The words come at the very end of the Lord's public preaching. One writer traces the whole arc of John's Gospel through this one phrase — from the light arriving, to the light warning, to the night falling:
John's Gospel opens with these words: "The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world" (John 1:9). In John 9:5 the Lord had said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," showing that He would not always be here. Now, in John 12:35, He tells them plainly that His time was short. In this chapter the Lord speaks His final words of testimony. In the next chapter Judas "immediately went out. And it was night" (John 13:30).
The crowd had just put a question to Him. He answered something deeper than the question:
Their questions betrayed the darkness of their souls. The Lord does not give a formal reply to their questions. Instead, He answers the condition of soul that prompted them. He was the light of the world; yet a little while and the light would be withdrawn. Their wisdom would be to make use of the light, in case darkness overtook them when it was too late.
Another writer points out that obeying this call would have settled their puzzle for them — and would also have exposed whether they genuinely wanted it settled.
The Lord's response to their question was one of true wisdom. It set forth what they needed. If they followed the light then shining, their difficulty would soon be cleared up. And whether they followed Him or not would show if they really wanted to understand what they claimed had puzzled them.
The reason given for the warning is that a man in the dark cannot tell where he is heading. There is no second source of light to fall back on:
How dreadful is the condition of those in the darkness: "whoever walks in the darkness does not know where he is going." Such is the condition of man without the knowledge of God as found in Jesus. There is not a ray of divine light outside of Christ. Nothing in the philosophy or religion of man can guide a man rightly in this world, or lead him to God and to the eternal life that is in His Son.
One writer made the contrast personal, speaking to an unbeliever:
Both you and I are alike sinners before God. But the difference between us is this. You do not believe in the Lord Jesus. You are walking in darkness, and you do not know where you are going — to judgment, and the lake of fire. I do believe in Him. I have got out of darkness by letting in the light, and I know clearly where I am going — "to be with Christ, for that is far better." A man who takes a leap in the dark, when he could take one in the light, must be a downright fool.
Darkness "coming upon you" is not merely a return to how things were before. Refusing light costs more than never having had it:
They were most highly favoured in having the Light of the world among them. He had brought them the most wonderful knowledge, even the full revelation of God in His own Person. But they had rejected Him, and an awful darkness was about to descend upon them. It was bad enough to be in darkness before the light came. But to refuse the light would leave them in greater darkness than they had ever known.
The withdrawal was not a failure of the light. It was the answer to what men did with it:
It is not only that men did not believe in the light; they hated it. And yet it was the light of divine love. But it was the light of holy love, and it revealed and condemned the thoughts of the natural and corrupt mind of man. And because they were determined to go on in their corrupt ways, they rebelled against it. Therefore the light had to be withdrawn.
The verse ended one day, but it did not end all daylight. The same light that set over Judea rose elsewhere:
This Ruler of the day sets in Judea, only to rise in other spheres. For His cry in these closing verses is not addressed to Israel only, but to the whole earth. It is the same "Light of the world," which had lately run His race in Judea, coming out of His chamber to run a longer race. And He is running that race still. "The day of salvation" is still with us. We may still walk without stumbling; we may still know where we are going.
- Light offered. He came as the light of the world, and He warned that His time was almost over. From John 1 to John 13, the day was closing and night was falling.
- Light urged. He did not argue the point. He pressed them to use the light while it was there. Following it would have cleared up their difficulty.
- Light needed. The man in the dark does not know where he is going. No philosophy or religion outside Christ gives a single ray of light.
- Light refused. Rejecting the light leaves a man in deeper darkness than before it ever shone. Men hated the light, so it had to go.
- Light still shining. The day of salvation has not closed. The same light runs a longer race today. We can still walk and still know where we are going.
While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light. Jesus said these things, and going away hid himself from them.
These are the last words Jesus speaks in public in John's Gospel — an urgent appeal to trust the light while it still stands in front of them. The verse holds two things at once: an open invitation to become sons of light, and a door closing.
The word "light" here is not an idea or a teaching. One writer puts it plainly:
"The light." Jesus meant Himself — that is, that He is God.
The appeal has a time limit. The light was not going to stay. Refusing it would leave people worse off than before.
This was a solemn warning to those who heard the Lord. They were most highly favoured in having the Light of the world among them. He had brought them the most wonderful knowledge, even the full revelation of God in His own Person. But they had rejected Him, and an awful darkness was about to descend on them. It was bad enough to be in darkness before the light came. But to have refused the light would leave them in greater darkness than they had ever been in before.
The crowd wanted their questions answered. He does not answer them. He tells them to trust Him instead.
The Lord does not answer their questions. It was not merely their intellect that needed correction. If they needed enlightening, they must realise that He Himself was the light. They must put their confidence in Him, not in their own understanding, which left them only in confusion... All they really needed was to believe in Him, the true Light, to become children of light. If they refuse this, then they are not ready for teaching. So He leaves them, hiding Himself from them.
Becoming a son of light is a position faith brings a person into. One writer sets this verse beside Ephesians 5:8, where the order is reversed.
In John 12:36 we find the expression "sons of light." Looking at the context, we find that the Lord urged those He addressed to have faith in the light. They were to believe so that they might become — that is, get into the position of — "sons of light." In Ephesians 5:8 we find almost the opposite of this, where the apostle urges them to display in their walk the moral characteristics that were already theirs as "children of light."
This light does more than show things. It makes children of those who believe, and it exposes those who refuse.
Had they believed in it they would have become children of it. It had the power of producing a generation of God on earth, for the light was the light of life. But it is not only that men did not believe in the light, they hated it. And yet it was the light of Divine love. But it was the light of holy love, and it revealed and condemned the thoughts of the natural and corrupt mind of man. Because they were determined to go on in their corrupt ways, they rebelled against it. So the light had to be withdrawn.
The withdrawal at the end of the verse is His own act. It is a judgment on them.
They in their turn force Jesus to take an action for Himself — a last and final one — but in judgment against them: "When Jesus had said these things, He departed and hid Himself from them!" The sun had risen on them in such brightness and shed its beams across their path. Now it has gone down in obscurity, and set until another day, because of their unbelief. They have lost Jesus, and the light of the world has left it!
What makes it heavier is the privilege thrown away.
He had preached among them. He had worked miracles among them. He also kept His ministry to the land God had promised to Abraham, and never ministered outside it. The people in it had enjoyed opportunities granted to none others. What now was the result, as His public ministry was ending in this way? "He departed and hid Himself from them." Who of them all mourned over His departure? Or looked for where to find Him?
The rejection did not put the light out. It shines now from a new place.
Hiding Himself from them, He still speaks of "sons of light" (v. 36). He has in view those to whom the light would be precious and who would respond to it with understanding. He who was "the light of the world" has been rejected and cast out. Yet the light still streams from His blessed face in glory — it has reached us.
- Light — the light in this verse is Christ Himself. Believing "in the light" means trusting a Person, not a message.
- Limit — the invitation has a deadline. The light was about to be withdrawn. Refusing light leaves a person in deeper darkness than before.
- Faith — He met their questions with a call to believe. Their problem was never a lack of information.
- Sonship — faith in the light does more than inform. It produces sons of light — a generation of God on earth.
- Withdrawal — His departure ended His public ministry, and no one mourned it. Yet the same light still shines from His face in glory, and it reaches us today.
But though he had done so many signs before them, they believed not on him,
John's Gospel reaches a pause here: the Lord has finished speaking in public, and the writer stops to weigh the result of everything Israel had seen. The verdict is bleak: full evidence met by full refusal. It leaves us with a question we still ask — why doesn't proof produce faith?
Verse 36 ends the Lord's public preaching. What follows is not more story, but comment on it:
The public ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ closes with the words of the Lord in verse 36... From verse 37 down to verse 43, we can see that the Holy Spirit is commenting on the staggering fact that so few people believed in Him.
John writes of a great number of signs, yet his own book records only a handful. Older translations call them "miracles." That gap tells us how he expected to be read:
"Many miracles," John says; yet he has mentioned distinctly very few. When he wrote "so many miracles," he surely counted on his readers knowing some, if not all three, of the other Gospels. His Gospel has its special place in the New Testament. But it was never meant to replace the use of those written by Matthew, Mark and Luke.
He did the signs "before them" — in front of the very people who refused Him. That is what makes their unbelief so grave:
This was the result of the only perfect testimony ever given in this world — the words, the ways, and the signs of the Son of God. And no one here could plead blank ignorance as an excuse. God had done everything possible to prepare the way by prophecy, and to stir up attention by sign, grace and truth, among a people used to divine intervention. But man's unbelief, left to itself and to Satan, can shut out every sight and sound from God.
If miracles could create faith, this verse could not exist. One writer explains what a miracle can and cannot reach in a person:
Miraculous displays appeal to the senses, but they do not reach the conscience. They may terrify, as with the jailer at Philippi, but in themselves they do not produce conviction of sin or lead the soul to God. Their effect is only surface-level and short-lived. "Neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" is certainly true. The greatest miracle cannot persuade. If it could, then everyone would have accepted the blessed Lord.
Another writer draws the practical conclusion. The lack was never in the evidence:
All this proves that the natural man — even the religious man — is completely unable in himself to receive the things of God, or to know anything about them. The Jews set themselves up as judges. They said in effect to Jesus, "Show us a sign that we may believe You." But when the sign came, they were as far from believing as ever. It shows that what is needed is not miracles on the outside, but the work of the Holy Spirit within, before we can receive God's testimony.
The words carry grief, and where they lead is final:
There seems to be a particular sadness in the words that begin this section of Scripture — a tone of mixed regret and pity running through them... As though everything had been tried, but with no result. He performed miracle after miracle, as undeniable proof that He was the sent One of the Father. At last nothing more remained to be done, and patience had reached its utmost limit. Then a blindness set in as God's judgment, and it left every rejecter of the testimony in utter darkness.
The verses that follow say they "could not believe." One writer keeps the order clear, pointing back to Pharaoh, the king who resisted God in Egypt:
The divine comment is solemn: His many miracles did not persuade them to believe Him personally, as Isaiah 53:1 had prophesied. No doubt many knew this prophecy, but blindly fulfilled it in refusing Him. More solemnly still we are told "they could not believe," because God had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart (vv. 39-40). But we must not suppose that God did this without reason. Just as Pharaoh first hardened his own heart against God before we read of God hardening his heart (Ex. 5:1-2; Ex. 7:3), so when the Jews hardened themselves against the Lord Jesus, then God confirmed their blindness by blinding them in judgment.
- Signs given. The Lord worked far more signs than John records, and He did them in front of the whole nation. John could assume his readers knew the other Gospels.
- Signs refused. This was perfect testimony to a people prepared by prophecy. No one could plead ignorance.
- Signs cannot save. Miracles reach the senses but not the conscience. Belief built on them is short-lived — even the Lord Himself was turned away.
- Something else is needed. The cure is not more proof outside, but the Holy Spirit's work inside, before anyone can receive God's testimony.
- Then the blinding. Blindness in judgment fell only after they refused the evidence. As with Pharaoh, man hardened himself first, and God confirmed it.
that the word of the prophet Esaias which he said might be fulfilled, Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
The nation had seen sign after sign from Jesus, and still would not believe. John explains that with words Isaiah wrote centuries earlier, and they raise the hardest question of all: why does evidence not produce faith?
(Older translations read "who has believed our report." The quotes below follow that wording.)
Isaiah asks two questions. Each one names a gift the people had received and thrown back.
First, according to the prophet Isaiah, they had rejected both the "report" of the Lord, and the "arm of the Lord". In the wonderful words of the Lord they had heard the report; in the many signs they had seen the arm of the Lord. They refused outright to accept the report as coming from God, saying that the Lord's words came from the devil (John 8:49, 52). They rejected the arm of the Lord by crediting His works to the power of the devil (John 10:20-21).
"The arm of the Lord" is not a figure of speech about strength in general. It is a name, and the shock of the verse lies in where that name landed.
"The arm of the Lord" is a divine title. In chapter 51 of the prophecy, Isaiah calls on the arm of the Lord to wake up and deliver the people as in the ancient days… At the Red Sea the arm of the Lord showed such glorious power that even the doubters in Israel's army must have been convinced. But now, where do we see the arm of the Lord? Not in the thunder, the lightning, the earthquake or the fire. Not in the mighty wind that divided the sea, but in a Babe in the manger at Bethlehem.
Isaiah does not ask whether God reveals His arm. He asks to whom. The answer sets a condition, and it shuts nobody out.
The arm of the Lord is revealed to souls where there is repentance and faith in the report which God sends. Isa. 53:1; Rom. 10:16. Even the distant islands of the nations are to trust in it — that is, sinners everywhere in creation. Isa. 51:5.
Isaiah's question expects an answer, and that answer is not "nobody."
By the Spirit, the prophet foresaw that the nation would refuse the Lord's testimony, and that only a remnant would accept it. Christ is "The Arm of the Lord." He had the divine power that did the great signs: opening the eyes of the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from death and decay. Yet no one knew Him except those whose eyes God in grace had opened.
Isaiah wrote this unbelief down in advance. That did not cause it, and it does not excuse it. God had left them nothing to plead.
This was the result of the only perfect testimony ever given in this world: the words, and ways, and signs of the Son of God. And it did not happen where people could plead complete ignorance as an excuse. It happened where God had done all He could to prepare the way by prophecy, and to wake up attention by sign, grace, and truth, among a people used to seeing God step in. But man's unbelief, left to itself and Satan, can shut out every sight and sound from God.
John says first that they would not believe. Only later does he say they could not. That order matters.
It also helps to note that Scripture always keeps this order. God does not show His sovereignty until man's will sets itself against His. It is when man will not that he cannot.
More signs would not have helped them. The problem was never the evidence.
They refused that testimony. Only then do we read, "Therefore they could not believe." All this proves that the natural man — even the religious man — has no power in himself to receive the things of God, or to know anything about them. The Jews set themselves up as judges and said to Jesus, in effect, "Show us a sign so that we may believe You." But when the sign came, they were as far from believing as ever. It shows that what we need is not miracles outside, but the work of the Holy Spirit inside, before we can receive God's testimony.
- Report. Isaiah's first question names what they heard — the Lord's words. They refused them, and said the devil was behind them.
- Arm. Isaiah's second question names what they saw — His works of power. The same power that once divided the sea now stood among them in lowliness, and they refused that too.
- Revealed. God reveals His arm where there is repentance and faith in the message He sends — and that welcome reaches sinners everywhere.
- Remnant. The prophet foresaw both the refusal and the few — those whose eyes God in grace had opened.
- Order. They would not believe first; only then came the word that they could not. What no sign can do outside a person, the Spirit does inside.
On this account they could not believe, because Esaias said again,
They had seen the signs and heard the words. Still they would not believe. So John explains their unbelief with a second quotation from Isaiah. The verse raises a hard question: if they could not believe, were they still to blame?
The unbelief John records was no surprise to God. The prophet had already described it.
The nation still would not believe, though Christ had done so many miracles. Should that unbelief surprise us? It might, if we think only of the Lord's ministry. But not, if we remember the prophetic words of Isaiah 53:1. And John, guided by the Spirit, here takes us back to them. The nation's rejection of Christ was foreseen, and also foretold. Then blindness fell on them as a judgment, just as another word from the same prophet had said (Isaiah 6:9-10).
The order matters. Their inability came second. A refusal came first.
God shows His sovereignty only when man's will sets itself against His. It is when man will not that he cannot. This Gospel shows it clearly enough… It is plain that they would not believe (John 5:40), though they had ample proof. Then the passage goes on: "Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart"… So we see they could not believe because they would not.
God's answer was to hand them over to the very thing they had chosen.
God hardened them in judgment… They had steeled their hearts against His words and closed their eyes to His works of power. So God gave them up to the blindness and hardness that they themselves had chosen.
Commentators refuse both easy answers. The blinding is God's own act. Yet it falls only on a heart that has already hardened itself.
God never gives poor man up to Satan like this, however wretched and sinful he is, until that man rejects His love and holiness and truth. These are shown above all in the Lord Jesus and in this Gospel. Then He may harden him in judgment, and He does, and the ruin is beyond recovery. But this comes only after the heart has steeled itself against the appeals of His most patient goodness. Still, hardening in judgment is a real thing on God's part. Some argue against it, because they are unwilling to admit openly that God is at work on one side and Satan on the other. The opposite school is no better. It seems to banish from the conscience the solemn fact of responsibility.
The timing of the sentence shows how long God waited.
The second quotation, though it comes earlier in Isaiah, points to the solemn fact of blindness sent in judgment. God never pronounces that sentence, still less carries it out, until His patience has had its perfect work and man has filled up the measure of his guilt beyond measure. Under such a sentence of hardening they could not believe, no doubt. But the sentence came because their wickedness was complete. They wilfully rejected God and His will and did not believe, despite the fullest appeals to their hearts and consciences.
This verse comes just after Jesus hid Himself. One writer shows where that left them.
"Jesus said these things, and departed and hid Himself from them." They were now to lose their privileges… Now the light was hidden from their eyes. One thing remained for them to do: to put out that light in the blood of His cross, as far as human power could do it. What a terrible creature man is!
The blinding fell on the nation as a whole, and even then mercy kept working.
But this hardening was only national, and it was not apart from mercy. The passage adds at once: "Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him."
One writer turns the warning on the reader.
Are you proud, and do you reject the truth of God's election of grace? Then beware as you read this. He may give you up too, to blindness and hardness of heart. How long has God held out His hands ready to receive you? And are you still a rejecter, like self-righteous Israel? God may, in righteous judgment, give you up to hardness of heart, and to the darkness that is closing in.
- Refused — The light shone in signs and words; they would not have it. That refusal came first, before any hardening from God.
- Sentenced — Because they would not, they could not. God gave them the blindness they had already chosen for themselves.
- Delayed — The sentence is real, and it is God's own. But He never passed it until His patience had done its full work and their guilt was complete.
- Hidden — The light was hidden from them. One act was left: the cross. They had despised their privileges, and they lost them.
- Spared — The hardening was national, not without mercy: some still believed. God still holds out His hands, so the warning stands for you too.
He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they may not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them.
Near the end of His public ministry, John explains why crowds who had watched sign after sign still turned away. He quotes Isaiah, and the answer is hard: God Himself blinds and hardens — so where does human responsibility fit?
The verse follows a statement that the people could not believe. Commentators tie that inability to a choice already made.
John, however, looks at their conduct at a stage after their wilfulness. They hardened their own hearts, and then their hearts were hardened as a penalty. They would not believe, therefore they could not believe. John's words are emphatic that a judicial punishment from God had fallen on the people.
One writer traces the same order right through Scripture.
It is not until man's will actively opposes God's that He shows His sovereignty. It is when man will not that he cannot.
Nothing here is hasty. God's sentence comes last, not first.
The first citation proves the guilt of rejecting God's testimony. The second, though really earlier, points to the solemn fact of judicial blindness. God never pronounces it, still less carries it out, until His patience has had its perfect work. He waits until man has filled up the measure of his guilt beyond measure. Under such a sentence of hardening they could not believe, no doubt. But the sentence came because of wickedness completed in wilful rejection of God and His will. They did not believe, despite the fullest appeals to their hearts and consciences.
Commentators point to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt in the book of Exodus, as an earlier case of God hardening a man. They note which came first.
More solemn still is the word that "they could not believe," because God had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. But we must not suppose that God did this without reason. Pharaoh first hardened his own heart against God, and only after that do we read of God hardening his heart (Ex. 5:1-2; Ex. 7:3). In the same way, the Jews hardened themselves against the Lord Jesus, and then God confirmed their blindness by judicially blinding them. Let men dare to go too far in opposition to God, and this may be the awful result.
The blinding was not total. One writer limits it to what the Son was bringing in, and traces it to what they had already refused.
But we must remember this. He has blinded them judicially in relation to the things of Christianity, not to the things He promised them in the prophets… It was after they had refused Christ as their Messiah that God closed their eyes to the greater things the Son was bringing to pass… They closed their own eyes to what their prophetic word had clearly set out. So God judicially closed their eyes to what was not obvious, and what came to light in the ministry of our Lord.
John quotes the prophecy only in part. The gap is deliberate.
Notice that the Fourth Gospel quotes only part of the original prophecy, and leaves out the clause about their hearing. The context shows that the Gospel writer is speaking of the signs of Jesus, not of His teaching (v. 37). His miracles were for the eyes of the people, while His teaching was for their ears. So John brings forward only the clauses about their eyes and heart, which God had blinded and hardened because of their stubborn opposition.
Isaiah's prophecy and John's Gospel do not name the same speaker. Commentators say there is no clash.
It is Jehovah in the prophecy, Christ in the Gospel; but they are one — as, indeed, Acts 28:25-27 lets us include the Holy Spirit.
The verse ends with the healing they never reached. The offer behind it was real.
The Lord was the Great Physician come to heal them. And He had given repeated proofs of His power and readiness to do it. But they "would not," and so their blind eyes were made more blind.
Even at the time some did believe, and the hardening had a limit.
However, this hardening was only national, and it was not apart from mercy. It is added at once: "Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him."
And it is not the last word on the nation.
However, Israel's blindness is not permanent.
- Refusal first. They would not believe; only afterwards could they not. The hardening is a penalty on a choice, never the cause of it.
- Patience first. God held back the sentence until His patience had run its full course and man had filled up his guilt beyond measure.
- Precedent first. Pharaoh hardened his own heart before God hardened it. Go too far against God, and this may be the result.
- Sight first. The signs were for their eyes, so John quotes only the clauses about eyes and heart, leaving out the ears.
- Healing last. The Great Physician came ready to heal them. They would not. Yet the blindness is national, not permanent.
These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
John has just recorded a long list of unbelief. Now he tells us who Israel was rejecting: the glory Isaiah saw, long before, was the glory of Jesus.
One writer notes that the wording reads either way — "because" or "when" he saw His glory. He then traces what the sight did to the prophet.
"Isaiah said these things because (or when) he saw His glory and spoke of Him." When the prophet saw the King, the Lord of hosts, he saw the glory of the Son of God. This was the Word who would in time become flesh and live here below, full of grace and truth. The light had its effect. The prophet owns that he is a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. But fire from the altar touches him and cleanses him. Then he goes out with the message of blindness in judgment to the people who did not see His glory when it stood before their eyes in divine love.
Isaiah's own words were that his eyes had seen the King, the Lord of hosts. John says those eyes saw Jesus.
Isaiah 6 is another proof. Isaiah was in the presence of the thrice holy God… And John says of that very passage that Isaiah "saw His glory and spoke of Him" (12:41). John is referring to the Lord Jesus, the wonderful glory of the Son of God, coequal with God… Isaiah saw the glory of Jehovah, and John tells us this was the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again we have no hesitation in saying that the Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old.
Scripture credits the words Isaiah heard to more than one speaker.
Isaiah 6 records the words of verse 40 in our chapter as "the voice of the Lord." In Acts 28 Paul quotes the same words as what the Holy Spirit said. This casts a helpful light on the unity of the Divine Persons. We may not divide, though we may distinguish.
Verse 41 comes right after the hardest words in the chapter: they could not believe. But the order matters. The blindness came after the refusal, not before it.
God never pronounces this blindness, and never carries it out, until His patience has had its perfect work and man has filled up the measure of his guilt. Under such a sentence of hardening they could not believe. But the sentence came because of wickedness brought to its full in the deliberate rejection of God and His will. They did not believe, despite the fullest appeals to their hearts and consciences… It is Jehovah in the prophecy, Christ in the Gospel; but they are one… And the darkness increased as the light shone out.
Why mention the vision at all in a passage about failure? Because it changes what we are left looking at.
John 12 sets a dark picture before us. But the Holy Spirit does not only show us Isaiah 6 fulfilled in the unbelief of the people. In His grace He also adds a word or two for our comfort, reminding us of the glory of the One they rejected… Here we have a man in the secret of God. And a man in the secret of God always speaks of the glory of Jesus.
Isaiah did not walk away from that vision congratulating himself. The light showed him what he was.
Christ is the perfect standard, and He measures every one of us. It does not matter what I may think of myself, or what others may think about me. The question is this: what am I in the presence of Christ?… Only when the bright light of Christ's moral glory pours around me can I form a right estimate of what I am.
And what Isaiah saw in vision is what we now need by faith — the same Person, hidden under an ordinary life in Galilee.
Isaiah "saw His glory, and spoke of Him"… And we need that same sight, by faith. We need the faith of the Son, the faith of Jesus, the faith of His name, the grasp of His person. We need the sense of the glory that lay behind a veil thicker than a seraph's wing — the covering of the lowly, earth-rejected Galilean.
- Seen — Isaiah's vision was a sight of the Son of God, long before He became flesh and lived among us.
- Named — Because the glory Isaiah saw was the Lord's glory, the Jesus of the New Testament is the Lord of the Old.
- Shared — Scripture credits Isaiah 6 to the Lord, to Christ and to the Spirit. Distinguish the Persons; never divide them.
- Refused — Blindness fell on Israel only after they refused the light. The darkness deepened as the light shone brighter.
- Sought — The glory that humbled Isaiah and then cleansed him still measures us. Faith is how we see it now.