In name of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.
Welcome to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive. We saw last time in John, chapter 12, how Christ rode on a donkey and went into Jerusalem, the famous Palm Sunday event, where Christ proclaimed Himself as a spiritual king, right?, the kind of our souls. And that's why He was humble, riding on a donkey, unlike how the Jews received Him. They received and perceived Him as a prideful king, as a king that is earthly, that will come and overthrow the Romans. In other words, they would have rather that He would be riding a horse rather than a donkey, but Christ wanted to prove the opposite point: that He's the king of our souls.
And then, the Greeks came into the picture and as soon as they came into the picture, Christ started again to speak about the cross to proclaim that salvation is for all of humanity, Jews and Gentiles alike. Now we'll continue with the remainder of chapter 12. So let us start with verse 27. Christ says:
'' 27 ''Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?' But for this purpose I came to this hour.'' '' (John 12:27)
Obviously here, this is the account of the garden of Gethsemane which St. John does not detail in his Gospel, because he expects his readers to be aware of the details from the synoptic Gospels, from Matthew, Mark and Luke. But at the same time, St. John wants to demonstrate that Christ did have human feelings. He's truly a real and full human being. So, he does express Christ's feelings later on in the chapter. But at this point in time, he wants to demonstrate that Christ wants to give His life voluntarily, selflessly: the sacrificial love that He's giving on behalf of all of humanity. And therefore, he writes this verse 27.
Now we can definitely talk about this verse for hours, because it touches on the point of Christ's humanity, man, that's a very vital subject for us to understand. However, we have done already a video called How is the Son of God Both God and Man?, so, we will put the link to that video in the comment section below and we definitely invite you to check it out, because this subject is crucial for any Christian.
Moving on to verse 28. Jesus continues:
'' 28 Father, glorify Your name.'' Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ''I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.'' '' (John 12:28)
So, why is the cross glory? So, obviously, Christ was glorified through the raising of Lazarus from the dead. He was glorified through other miracles as well. But in this case, He was
about to be glorified once more through the cross, because cross equates power. Cross is this indispensable act of unconditional love towards those who hate you. It's dying for those who love you and those who don't love you, even those who hate you, like I said. So, the cross is not weakness; the cross is power and therefore it is glory.
'' 29 Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ''An angel has spoken to Him.'' 30 Jesus answered and said, ''This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.'' '' (John 12:29-30)
So here, we see the voice of the Father speaking to the Son. Obviously, the Son understood what the Father was saying. Potentially, some believing disciples as well understood, heard clearly and understood what the Father was saying. Some other people that were there, you know, heard noise, but they thought maybe an angel spoke to the Son. They couldn't understand clearly what was being said. Others merely heard some sort of different noise like a thunder and they thought that it had thundered. Potentially, each person heard as per his or her faith.
Verse 31:
'' 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.'' (John 12:31)
A better rendering for cast out is casting out, as if you're dethroning someone. And this dethroning is speaking of the devil, of course. So, the devil is being dethroned. So, people now have authority in God over the devil. It's not the other way around, before Christ's salvific work.
But here also, it says the judgement of this world, right? So, people might have thought, as the Jews, that they are now judging Christ and now He is losing, He is about to die. But in reality, the cross is not His judgement; the cross will be their judgement; they will be judged accordingly. The cross is not Christ's loss, but it is His victory, His victory over death, the healing of His creation.
Verse 32:
'' 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.'' 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.'' (John 12:32-33)
So, one could expect, usually, if someone would die by the hands of the Jews, he would die through stoning, 'cause that's their standard way of killing someone or punishing someone. However, the Jews were now under Roman occupation and they were not allowed to kill
anybody and therefore the people that would die, they would die according to the Roman way of killing or punishing, and that is the cross.
So here, Christ is saying: If I am lifted up from the earth, meaning the cross. So, He wants to demonstrate that He is aware. He has foreknowledge of how He will die. And that foreknowledge hints at His divinity, which complements the humanity we have seen a bit earlier in the garden of Gethsemane. Again, God is both... the Son of God is both God and man at the same time. And by saying this, Christ does not only demonstrate His foreknowledge, but He also demonstrates that He is going through this very shameful death of the cross willingly, out of His love for us. So, it's not a surprise for Him. He's willingly going through that shameful death for our sake.
So, in the latter part of verse 32, Christ says that the cross or through the cross, He will draw all peoples to Himself and this is a reference to Isaiah 2:2. It says:
'' 2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house [the mountain of the Lord's house means the kingdom of God, OK? So, the kingdom of God] shall be established on the top of the mountains [on top of the other kingdoms, the earthly kingdoms], and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.'' (Isaiah 2:2)
So, all nations will come to the kingdom of God in these latter days when Isaiah is saying this, you know, around 700 B.C. So, this kingdom of God, this mountain, is a reference to that cross. God sits on His throne, which is the cross. And through the cross, all nations is drawn to Him. He draws all peoples to Himself.
34:
'' 34 The people answered Him, ''We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up?' Who is this Son of Man?'' (John 12:34)
So, in their interpretation, they thought that Christ, the Messiah, will live forever on earth, right? That's in their interpretation. And obviously, Christ, who is the Messiah, will live forever, because He's divine, He is God, but He will not live forever on earth. But because they have an earthly understanding of who the Messiah is, they're not able to grasp what Christ is telling them. And because they're not able to understand, they ask at the end: Who is the Son of Man? Are you talking about a different Son of Man? Are you talking about a different Messiah? But Christ doesn't waste Him time responding to them. He wants to lead them to repentance. This is the last public discussion He has with them, so He switches the tables around. He redirects the discussion. And then, He says, in verse 35:
'' 35 Then Jesus said to them, ''A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you [lest darkness overpower you]; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.'' These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.'' (John 12: 35-36)
So, Christ hides from them for the sake of celebrating the Passover, and more importantly, for the sake of instituting the mystery of the Eucharist and potentially other reasons. But again, His main response was this: be careful; walk in the light; do not let darkness overtake you, overpower you. There's a very scary verse in the second Epistle of Peter, chapter 2, verse 20. It says:
'' 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.'' (2 Peter 2:20)
It's this verse that talks about Christians that believed in God and lived with Him for a time and therefore, they overpower...they overpowered the darkness, yet they fell again and they were overcome and their end was not a good end. And therefore, we need to take this verse as a strong message for us to repent, especially in these dark times. It's very easy for us to fall again into darkness.
And that's why the Fathers always talk about being watchful, being watchful in terms of our thoughts, being watchful in terms of our actions. Do not let our feet lead us into dark places, but always walk in the light, as Christ was saying. We ought to remember this very much in these dark days, that we may keep ourselves united to God through His grace, obviously.
Verse 37:
'' 37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:...'' (John 12:37-38)
So here, before quoting Isaiah, St. John is so perplexed that the Jews do not believe that He is the Messiah, or that Christ is the Messiah, after so many miracles. So, he mentions this, like I don't... I don't understand, in other words, how this could be. But then, he goes and reflects on the prophecy of Isaiah and he quotes Isaiah when Isaiah says:
'' 38 (...) ''Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'' [arm of the Lord meaning the power of the Lord, again, this idea of... that the Messiah will make miracles] 39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:
40 ''He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.'' 41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.'' (John 12:38-41)
Now, a natural question that stems from verse 40 is why is God blinding these people's eyes and hardening their hearts, and yet He stands and judges them? However, for us to understand this, we have to go back to the Septuagint. You know, that's the version of the Old Testament that the early Church used, right? It's the Greek translation. And it says the following in Isaiah 6:
« 10 For the heart of this people has become insensitive, and their ears hear with difficulty. They have closed their eyes [notice here: it's not Christ that is blinding them, but the people themselves closed their eyes]; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and I should heal them.'' (LXX Isaiah 6:10) - [excerpt from the Septuagint, https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek- texts/septuagint/default.asp]
So, obviously, God wants the healing, the recreation, the salvation, redemption of His people, but they are the ones who were refusing. Also, an interesting verse in this passage is verse 41. It says:
'' 41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.'' (John 12:41)
What is he saying here? This is a reference, again, to Isaiah 6. In the beginning of the chapter, Isaiah sees the Son of God, right?, and he sees the angels and they're saying Holy! Holy! Holy! and this whole story about how Isaiah's unclean or he's a man of unclean lips, and then the coal is taken and put on his lips and now he is clean. And then after this, St. John wants to say, because Isaiah saw that glory, he recognized that this is God. And therefore he spoke of Him.
But the idea, here, is that he's contrasting or St. John is contrasting Isaiah with the Jews. Isaiah saw the glory, recognized it and proclaimed or spoke that this was God. Here, the Jews, in contrast, they saw, but don't believe. They don't believe that the Messiah, after all of these miracles, that He is the Son of God or the Son of Man, God incarnate. And Isaiah, here, wants to demonstrate or to say: if Jews ought to be true to their prophets, they must conclude that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, like Isaiah concluded that He was God when he saw that glory.
'' 42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue [or the Jewish social life]; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. » (John 12:42-43)
So here, because the miracles were so obvious, many rulers believed in Him, but they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God and they did not follow Christ. We have to be very afraid as well, because we are not immuned from this. Many of us or all of us fall into this, you know, in one way of another, and therefore we ought to always live a life of repentance and keep away from that scary sin.
Now verse 44:
'' 44 Then Jesus cried out and said [So, first we saw, in verse 36, how Christ left and was hidden. So, it's unclear if this passage is part of Jesus' last public address to the congregation or was it said as He was leaving, or it's entirely independent. It's not clear. We can only assume things, but this is what He says.], ''He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.'' (John 12:44-40)
So, in this passage, Christ equates Himself with the Father again or He relates Himself to the Father. He's... in other words, He's telling them: if you reject Me, you are rejecting the Father, because the words that I'm speaking, I'm speaking based on what the Father has told Me, right? So, if you reject Me or if you reject My teaching or if you reject My interpretation of things, then you also reject the Father. You cannot be sons and daughters of God if you reject Me.
The second point is that these words are alive. They might think that what He's teaching is incorrect and is blasphemous, but these words themselves will judge them. It's not the other way around. These words are alive and on the last day, these words will be judging them.
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.
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Remember:
Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.
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