“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. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die. 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?” Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. 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 12:27–36, NKJV)
I imagine that the Jewish celebration of Passover looked very different to the sacrificial lamb. To the people attending it was more or less a time to celebrate God’s mercy in delivering them from their bondage in Egypt. There was laughing, and eating, and catching up with old friends (since this feast required every Jewish male over the age of 12); there was the ritual of remembering and there was the ceremonial sacrifice of a lamb as the Lord had instructed Moses nearly 1400 years earlier. Of that lamb, the Bible says in [Ex. 12:3, 5-8]:
“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.” “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”
You might say that until that little lamb was killed that it had no idea it was going to suffer or why – not so with Jesus Christ whom John the Baptist declared in [John 1:29] to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus knew that He was coming into Jerusalem to die and He knew why; nevertheless, He said in [v.27] “My soul is troubled.”
Suffering Soul…
As we come to this passage the Lord Jesus had already arrived in the city for the most important Passover ever to be celebrated. Jesus was teaching great truths about Himself and about true discipleship (see vs. 23-26) when He declared that His soul was troubled or agitated. Unlike the sacrificial lamb which was bred for the very purpose of dying but never knew it, Jesus knew that His mission from God would involve His death from the beginning. The Bible declares Him in [Rev.13:8] to be “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” which is to say that before time had begun to tick away it had been understood that mankind would sin and that Jesus Christ would die to redeem sinful men.
Even though Jesus knew that He would have to “suffer and rise on the third day” (Luke 24:46) fulfilling all scripture and ushering in the way of repentance and remission of sins – He was still a man.
This is the tension of the duel nature of Jesus Christ – fully God and fully man; Almighty God has never feared or been afraid but what man has not feared or trembled or at least been grieved by circumstances which they knew could not be avoided?
Who among us has never known fear, or trouble or grief?
Did Jesus fear the cross? No! Did He fear death? No! Did He fear our tormentor Satan? No! Was He afraid of anything man could do to Him? No! I believe that the Lord was troubled by at least two things, the most important of which was the separation from His Father which He would experience from His cross. We have the promise of [Hebrews 13:5-6] which declare:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?””
But we have that promise because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross – He endured the forsaking of God (see Matt. 27:46) and I think that His foreknowledge about that moment troubled His soul. That, and if I may be so bold, the fact that mankind was so unworthy of His sacrifice – He knew that the majority of those for whom He had come would not believe in or turn to Him.
Nevertheless, He was resolved – this was the mission He came to complete; it was His Father’s will and Jesus would be faithful to complete it.
Suffering’s Purpose…
[v.28-31] “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”
The purpose of the Lord’s suffering is in many ways unique to Him in the sense that no one else has or ever will give his or her life for the redemption of all mankind.
Jesus was in Jerusalem for a fight. At His disposal were all the angels of heaven and the limitless power of His deity and yet the weapons of His warfare were a whip, a crown of thorns, three nails, a hammer and a cross all to which He willingly submitted Himself. Not one of those things did He wield against the “ruler of this world.” Simply because there was no power in the whip, the crown, the nails, the hammer or the cross but there is power in His blood!!! By His blood, He redeems! By His blood, He overwhelmed the enemy!!! By His blood, He forgives!!! By His blood, He sets captives free!!! By His blood, Satan is defeated and by His blood, the world owned and controlled by Satan is and will be judged!!!
Jesus won the fight for the souls of men by His death and by His rising again from the dead!
The Lord’s sufferings were also unique in that no other man or woman could ever glorify the name of God or restore the honor due His name which had been trampled upon by mankind’s many sins – but Jesus could restore the honor and fulfill the righteous requirement of God’s justice. He glorified the name of His Father among men through His willing obedience and humility and He would soon glorify it again in paying the debt of men owed to God on account of their disobedience, pride and sin – He would pay it completely.
Suffering’s Platform…
[v.32-33.] “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die.”
The cross was many things – an instrument of torture, an agonizing and humiliating form of capital punishment, a spectacle to be seen and a platform from which the glory of God and the story of the gospel is declared to the world.
The word used in (v.32) for lifted up is the (GK) word – hupsŏō which actually speaks to two truths of the cross; it speaks to the actual elevating of a person from the ground such as is done in crucifixion but it also speaks of exaltation. Both of these truths are fulfilled in Jesus – He has been crucified and He is exalted by all who believe today and one day (soon to come, I think) He will be exalted by all people!!! It is because of His cross that Jesus is given a name that is above every name (Phil. 2:9-11) and the eventual reverence of all mankind – willing or not.
Those to whom He was speaking expressed consternation and maybe even doubt at the Lord’s insinuation that He who presented Himself as the Son of Man would die – they asked “who is this Son of Man?” Daniel taught that the “Son of Man” whom they were to expect would be as everlasting (see Dan. 7:13-14) as the Kingdom He was establishing but Jesus implied that He would have to die first. Their misunderstanding ultimately led to Israel’s rejection of their Messiah as Isaiah the prophet foretold in (Isaiah 53:1) concerning Jesus: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed?” To them Jesus said:
“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:36, NKJV)
Since His ascension the people for whom Jesus was sent have walked in the blindness of their rejection of Him and the eyes of many gentiles (like you and me) have been opened to see and believe in Him but there is a day coming when “the light of the world” (John 8:12) will return to dwell among mankind and at that time (Zech 12:10):
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
Then they will see the light and believe.
In our day, the fact is that Jesus Christ on His cross draws the attention of many people. It causes them to ask questions like “why did this happen?” or “how could God allow the innocent to die?” It leads to even bigger questions once we realize that His death was not for His sins but for ours – questions that lead to forgiveness, reconciliation with God, the salvation of our souls and eternally changed lives. All of this because He was lifted up and since He was the attention of every generation of people in the world to this day has been drawn to His suffering on the cross.
Have you seen the light and believed?
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