Daily Scripture Reading John 12:23-43
Most people have a desire to enjoy life. They seek to find a career that fits them, a spouse who completes them, and activities to entertain them. The ultimate goal is to love life.
However, we will see in today’s passage from John 12 that Christians should have a different goal.
Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey while the crowd greeted Him with palm branches and shouted “Hosanna”. The Pharisees were alarmed at the number of people who went after Him. Then some Greeks who were in Jerusalem for the feast went to Philip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Jesus had stated several times that His time had not yet come. See John 2:4 and 7:6. In this verse Jesus stated the opposite. It was His hour.
John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Just as a grain of wheat needs to die in order to bear fruit, so too Jesus needed to die in order to save people.
John 12:25 He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
Most people have a desire to enjoy life. They seek to find a career that fits them, a spouse who completes them, and activities to entertain them. The ultimate goal is to love life.
However, Jesus said it is better to hate life here on earth. The issue is not that it is wrong to enjoy life. He is not telling us to hate our life. Instead, Christians should hate sin so much that we hate having to live in this world.
John 12:26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
John 12:27 ¶ “Now MY SOUL HAS BECOME DISMAYED; and what shall I say, ‘Father, SAVE ME from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.
Jesus knew He came to earth to die on the cross; therefore, He knew it was illogical to ask the Father to save Him from His suffering.
Humans naturally ask God for deliverance from suffering. However, what if God put you or me on earth to suffer? Should we ask Him to spare us from our suffering?
If our role on earth is to suffer, then we are probably not going to love life. If our goal is to love life, then we will do everything we can to avoid suffering, which may not be what God wants us to pursue.
John 12:28 Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
John 12:29 So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
John 12:30 Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sake.
Jesus did His miracles and healings in public to prove He is God. The purpose of the voice from heaven was to further affirm the deity of Jesus.
John 12:31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
John 12:32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
Notice the phrase “lifted up from the earth”.
John 12:33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was about to die.
“Lifted up from the earth” was a reference to crucifixion.
John 12:34 The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how do You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
Sometimes the word “Law” refers to the first five books of the Old Testament. Sometimes it refers to the complete Old Testament. In this verse it refers to the entire Old Testament.
This verse indicates the crowd grasped several facts about Jesus. He was the Christ, the Son of Man, and would be crucified. However, the crowd knew being crucified was contradictory to the Old Testament teaching that the Christ would remain forever.
John 12:35 So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.
The light is a reference to Jesus. Jesus warned that His time on earth was drawing to a close and the crowd should benefit from Him while they could.
John 12:36 While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” ¶ These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.
Notice the word “hid”. Jesus knew the religious leaders were trying to kill Him, so He hid from them.
John 12:37 But though He had done so many signs before them, they still were not believing in Him,
Jesus performed signs to prove He is God. However, not everyone believed.
If people in the 1st century AD did not believe in Jesus even after they saw His miracles with their own eyes, then we should not be surprised there are people today who refuse to believe in Jesus no matter how much evidence we show them.
John 12:38 so that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?”
This is a quote of Isaiah 53:1. Chapters 52 and 53 of Isaiah contain a description of the ministry of Jesus, and in the midst of the description is the question of whether anyone will believe.
John 12:39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,
John 12:40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, LEST THEY SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART, AND RETURN AND I HEAL THEM.”
This is a quote from Isaiah 6:10. Yahweh said the Israelites living in the days of Isaiah would have hardened hearts so that they would not understand and repent. Likewise, many of the Jews living in the days of Jesus were hardened so that they would not believe and repent.
John 12:41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke about Him.
John 12:42 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;
Notice the good news and bad news in this verse. The good news is many of the rulers believed in Jesus. The bad news is they were not confessing Jesus for fear of being put out of the synagogue.
John 12:43 for they loved the glory of men rather than the glory of God.
The previous verse says many of the rulers believed in Jesus. That appears to be a positive statement. However verse 43 is critical. The reason they did not confess Jesus is because they valued the glory of man more than the glory of God.
This is a common problem in humanity. If men praise us or condemn us, we know it because we hear and see it. If God is pleased or displeased with us, we can’t see or hear the pleasure or displeasure. Therefore, we naturally care about the glory of men, which is tangible, more than the glory of God, which is not tangible.
However, that is the opposite of what we should value. We should be willing to endure anything for the sake of God.
Most people want to love life. However, Jesus said the way to gain eternal life is to hate life in this world. The issue is not that it is wrong to enjoy life. He is not telling us to hate our life. Instead, Christians should hate sin so much that we hate having to live in this world.
What do you love about your life?
What do you hate about your life?
What sin do you see in our world that should cause us to hate life in this world?
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”