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.