John 12:36b–50 – “What did Isaiah see? Isaiah saw his glory.”
(Josiah Hall)
John 12:36b–50 When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
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These verses mark the end of Jesus’s public ministry in John’s Gospel. Although the crowds will be present at Jesus’s trial before Pilate and will call for his execution, Jesus will never again directly interact with them. John, therefore, provides a poignant reflection in 12:36b–43 on why Jesus received such a mixed response, before including a final remark from Jesus that comes from “off-stage” (12:44–50).
In John’s reflection, he quotes from two different but well-known passages in Isaiah and intends us to interpret them in consideration of one another. Both passages speak of the people of Judah rejecting Isaiah’s message. I will consider the second passage first.
In 12:40, John cites Isaiah 6:10, where God tells Isaiah to proclaim a message to the people and to “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Note that what in Isaiah is a command with an expectation of future fulfillment has become in John something that has now been accomplished: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them” (John 12:40). Why the change?
God gave Isaiah a message of warning and repentance to Jerusalem, which God promised would divide the people. Most would reject the message and be destroyed, but a remnant would be left (see Isaiah 6:11–13). John is telling us that Jesus’s ministry has accomplished the same outcome as Isaiah’s: Jesus’s ministry has divided people with only a minority recognizing and accepting Jesus’s identity.
The first passage from Isaiah which John quotes clarifies why Jesus’s ministry was so polarizing. John quotes Isaiah asking “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (John 12:38 citing Isa 53:1). This quotation comes from the middle of Isaiah’s vision of a suffering servant who would be rejected by God’s people but through whose suffering God would heal Israel from their transgressions and sins (Isa 52:13–53:12). By citing Isaiah’s exclamation about the difficulty of accepting this message of a suffering servant, John is helping us recognize that Jesus is that servant. Jesus is the servant who will suffer for his people and who (importantly for the present context) will be rejected by his own people.
John, therefore, closes his account of Jesus’s public ministry by stating that Isaiah anticipated Jesus’s coming. Isaiah preached a message of coming judgment, the necessity of repentance, and deliverance through God’s suffering servant; yet Isaiah’s message was rejected. Jesus fulfills this message, suffering on behalf of God’s people to deliver them from judgment when they repent and believe in him.
We should find a warning in the fact that people living five centuries apart rejected both Isaiah’s and Jesus’s message. Are we willing to accept a Savior who delivers through suffering rather than power? As John has already indicated, the revelation of Jesus’s glory occurs at the cross, in a moment of shame and suffering. Can we accept such a countercultural Messiah?
In 12:42–43, John raises a second challenge for us when he notes that many believed but kept their faith private because of fear of opposition and suffering. Throughout the Gospel, John often uses “believed” to describe peoples’ initial receptiveness to Jesus rather than to make a statement about their eternal destiny. So, here, John uses the term “believed” to highlight the fundamental tension between an openness to Jesus that remains unwilling to publicly identify with him.
John is warning us that even we who claim to believe can be particularly susceptible to this temptation to privatize our faith in a manner that ultimately denies it. Jesus’s challenge in 12:44–50 applies to us as much as John’s audience. Which glory will we choose: the glory of acceptance and praise from other humans or the glory of a crucified Messiah? Opposition and persecution amplify this challenge, which is why John will spend significant time in the Farewell Discourse preparing his audience for persecution in John 15–16.
Weekly Prayer Focus: Ministry to the University
Daily Prayer Request: “International Students.” Each year, thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of graduate students arrive in Pittsburgh to advance their studies. Pray that we would be welcoming to them and find opportunities for ministry.