Father, Glorify Your Name

John 12:12-36

Welcome! Today we continue our exploration into the book of John, focusing on the middle of Chapter 12. Last week we read about how Jesus and His disciples had spent an extended time away from Jerusalem in a remote village on the edge of the desert called Ephraim because the Jewish leaders were actively plotting to kill Him. But at long last, just about a week before the Passover, Jesus and His disciples left Ephraim and went towards Jerusalem, stopping at a nearby town called Bethany. Bethany was the location where, earlier, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus came into Bethany, everyone recognized Him, and a meal was prepared in His honor.

Sometime during the meal, Mary came up to Jesus with about a pint of an extremely expensive perfume and poured it all on Jesus’ feet, wiping His feet with her hair. This perfume, made of pure nard, had an extremely strong smell; even a few drops were potent. A jar of it had to be overwhelming. A speaker at the recent Faithwalkers conference suggested that Jesus probably smelled of this perfume even at the crucifixion, and I think he was probably correct. Judas complained about the extravagance, saying that it could have been used for the poor, but Jesus defended Mary, saying “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of My burial.”

After this, very large crowds came to see Jesus and to see Lazarus. The Jewish leaders responded that very night by making plans to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus. This brings us up to the passage we will explore today.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”  – John 12:12-14

So Jesus and His disciples headed the next day west towards Jerusalem from Bethany. In order to get to Jerusalem from this direction, one had to climb the Mount of Olives. Bethany itself was on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives; Jerusalem was just beyond it.

Jesus was already traveling with a crowd, those from Bethany who had come to see Jesus and Lazarus, and as word spread that Jesus had returned, the crowds grew greater and greater. And, incorporating what we know from the other gospels, Jesus sends two disciples into a small village to find a donkey who has a colt or a foal and both of them will be recognized by the fact that they are tied to a post at a house on the edge of the village. The disciples find everything just as Jesus had said, and they begin to take them, as Jesus instructed, telling the people who own them, “The Lord needs them.” We don’t know the whole story about the owners, but perhaps they were disciples or believers in Jesus Christ; I suppose it is even possible that God spoke to them in a dream to let them have the animals. Or perhaps the Holy Spirit brought such conviction to their hearts as the disciples explained things to them that they obeyed knowing that somehow it was what God wanted to have happen.

Regardless, the disciples took the animals, laid their cloaks on them, and then Jesus chose to ride on the colt, the foal. And as this ever-growing crowd came with Jesus into Jerusalem, people are excited. This is really the king! At last, He has come! They begin waving palm branches and shouting Hosannas and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

“Hosanna” means “Save now!” Matthew mentions they also say “Son of David,” so they were definitely thinking of Him as king; they knew that a son of David would be their messianic king. The sayings “Hosanna” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” both come from Psalm 118:25-26. And look what we see if we go on to verse 27:

O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless You. The Lord is God, and He has made His light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. – Psalm 118:25-27

Isn’t that fascinating? “With boughs in hand.” Do you think the people were thinking of this? Yes. The Psalms 113 to 118 are called the Hallel, and they were recited extremely frequently as part of their Hebrew lives. Even orthodox Jews today recite them at least weekly, if not daily. By the way, if you want to see some extreme irony, it is also in Psalm 118 that we find the verse, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone (or cornerstone).” How amazing that the people who recite this so frequently are unknowingly the very people spoken of in this verse! It is amazing, and ironic, and terribly tragic that it is so.

Now note that Jesus does not do anything to stop the crowds from praising and even worshiping Him. He is entering Jerusalem as Messiah, as Savior, as King. Now, most of the people, no doubt, were expecting and hoping for a military leader, one who would overthrow the Romans and restore true Jewish rule. The palm branches are signs of this – the Romans gave palms to the victors in the Roman games and emperors gave them to their subjects following their military conquests. This became also a Jewish tradition at least as far back as the times of the Maccabees, where, at that time, people waved palm branches to celebrate the victory of the Maccabees.

But Jesus did not enter Jerusalem on a war horse, or with an army, or even a small military guard. Instead, he came on a foal, a young donkey. There was another time Jesus rode on a donkey, when He was still in His mother’s womb, when they went to Bethlehem. The donkey was a symbol. A symbol of what? Lowliness. Humbleness. Plainness.

Donkeys weren’t worth much. In Numbers 16:15, Moses says, “I have not taken so much as a donkey from them.” In 2 Kings 6:25, it says, “There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver.”  With the donkey Jesus was sending a message that He had not come to be served, but to serve. For the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to submit Himself to what He would submit to, ultimately death on a cross, dying for those who hated Him, the Holy of Holies dying for sinners, was the ultimate expression of submission, the greatest example of submission and humility that the universe will ever see.

At first His disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. – John 12:15-16

The quote in verse 14 comes from Zechariah 9:9; here is the verse, in context:

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. – Zech. 9:9-10

The “river” refers to the Euphrates. Symbolically I think the phrase” from the river to the ends of the earth” refers to all of humanity, from the beginning (it was near the Euphrates that Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden) to the present (as people have spread out all over the earth).

And there are other interesting verses that seem to point to this entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Hebrews 7:14 says “For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah…” And in Genesis 49, where Jacob blesses his sons, here is part of what he says about Judah:

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. He will tether his donkey to a vine,
his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. – Genesis 49:10-11

Isn’t that interesting how talks about a donkey and a colt? As for that last part, it seems to refer symbolically to His dying for us but also to events yet to come in the book of Revelation – from Revelation 19:13: “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God.” By the way, in Revelation 19, He doesn’t come on a donkey, which we could say was a symbol of peace. He came on a white horse, and it also says in Revelation 19 that He comes to judge and make war.  But here He came on a colt, a donkey.

Now the crowd that was with Him when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised Him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that He had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet Him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!” – John 12:17-19

I cannot even begin to imagine how the Pharisees felt at this point. People are shouting, “Hey, this is the guy who raised that guy from the dead after four days!” And more and more are joining them. Luke 19:39 tells us that some of the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke His followers, to which Jesus responded that “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out!” Jesus was doing nothing to stop them. And more irony – the “whole world” has, in a matter of speaking, gone “after Him.” Today there are pockets of believers all through the world.

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. – John 12:20-22

Now, it is really easy to gloss over these verses. But I want us to think about this for a moment. What is the most important word in this passage, in these three verses? Greeks! Not Jews, but Gentile Greeks! More precisely, they are Gentile with regards to their race (Greek, specifically), but they are Jewish with regards to their beliefs. They are converts to the Jewish religion. They now follow the Law and adhere to the many practices of Jewish Law. They are here for the Feast, that is, for the Passover, to make sacrifices in accordance with the Law. Why did they go to Philip? We don’t know, but Philip is a Greek name and perhaps Philip spoke Greek well. Also I wonder about Jesus’ healing of the deaf and mute man as described in Mark 7:31-37; in this passage, it says the healing took place in part of the Decapolis, one of the 10 large Greek cities. After the healing, Jesus commanded the man and those around him not to tell anyone, but the passage states that the people “kept talking about it” and “people were overwhelmed with amazement.” Perhaps these Greeks were here because of that event.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me. – John 12:23-26

So the Greeks are here, the excited crowds are here, the palm branches are being waved, Hosannas are being shouted, the Pharisees are sweating and plotting, and Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Stop right there! What do you think they all thought after that? Well, they thought it was show time! They thought Jesus was about to assume military rule of Israel as king! And “Son of Man” was a term the Jews were familiar with, from the book of Daniel, which they knew referred to a coming Messiah. This was great! What a shock Jesus’ next sentence had to be.

“Wait. A kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies? What? Why is He talking about dying? Who is supposed to die? Why does He say the man who hates his life will keep it for eternity? What does He mean about following Him? Is He saying we all have to die, to somehow live? This doesn’t make any sense! Maybe this guy isn’t the coming savior. Maybe we’ve all been fooled!”

That may describe some of the reactions in the crowds. But we know what He meant and what He means don’t we? Jesus died so that there could be a harvest. And we are that harvest! We are the fruits of His death. We have eternity with Him because He died for us. And He calls us to imitate Him, to follow Him, to serve Him. That means to die; maybe not literally, although many around the world have been called to do just that.  We are called to die to self, to die to sin, to die to selfish things we want to do, to die to making comfort our sole concern, or making entertainment our main priority, and we are called to live sacrificially, that is spend out our lives, for others – for those who don’t know Christ, so that they can know Him and find salvation in Him, and for those who do, so that we can be Christ’s body here on Earth. To do this means that we will be honored by God the Father Himself.

Jesus is our example. You know, He could have gone on that day to be King. He could have defeated the Romans with no effort at all; He could have blinked the Romans out of existence, and the Pharisees, for that matter. He could have set up a kingdom like that in the glory days of David and Solomon, even greater than that in those days. He could have set up a kingdom that ruled the whole earth. And that is exactly what Satan wanted Him to do.

To do that would have been, well, nice. Jesus would be cheered and glorified, the world would seemingly have peace, and Jesus wouldn’t have to go to the cross and suffer and die. But then two things would be true. First, Jesus would no longer be in the will of the Father, in whom He had always served. Second, humanity would still be lost in their sins, destined for eternal separation from God. And so, Jesus chose to die to Himself, to take the hard path, to be the seed that dies, so that we could live. What Jesus asks us to do what He has Himself done to an infinitely greater degree.

“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your Name!” – John 12:27-28a

Do you think Jesus was tempted to take this easier path? I am certain of it. His heart was troubled. Temptation is not sin. We have no idea what He had to face, or what He did face. It was infinitely worse than any death we could ever face, not because of the physical suffering (although it is unlikely we will experience physical suffering that approaches what He did) but because He was the sin bearer. He took on Himself the wrath of God, the punishment for every sin that anyone would ever commit. We have no idea of what that agony was going to be like, or what it was like. But Jesus did have an idea. He knew fully what the holiness of God would demand. And yet, He did not shrink back, but instead called out to God, “Father, glorify Your Name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not Mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die. – John 12:28b-33

This is an audible voice from heaven. This is actually the third time in the New Testament that God the Father speaks audibly. The first time was at His baptism, where God said, “You are My Son,” or “This is My Son, whom I love. With You” or “with Him I am well pleased.” The second time was at His transfiguration. There, God said, “This is My Son, whom I love” or “with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Each of these is at crucial points in Christ’s ministry, and I believe in each case the audible voice was really for the benefit of those around Christ. In the third case, here in John 12, this is stated explicitly – “This voice was for your benefit, not Mine.” At Christ’s baptism, we are looking at the beginning of Christ’s ministry. The audible voice confirmed the identity of Christ to John the Baptist and the others who were there at the beginning. At the transfiguration, Christ was with His closest disciples, and the message was even directed to them, saying, “Listen to Him!” At the transfiguration, Christ in effect peeled back the veil of His flesh, revealing His true glory. God the Father confirmed in the midst of this that Christ was who He claimed to be. And now, here, as Christ is making statements about the fact that His major task ahead is not to take over as a military and political leader, but to die, God the Father is affirming that this is His will.

When, in response to Jesus’ shout, “Father, glorify Your Name!” God says, “I have glorified it,” what did He mean? I think God was looking back on all that Christ had done on Earth, all the teachings, the miracles, everything, and was saying that everything Christ had done had been glorifying the Father. I think that when we serve Christ, when we do the things God instructs us in His word to do, we too are causing God to glorify His Name.

And then, God also says, “I will glorify it again.” This is, again, another case of God confirming the words or actions of Christ.  Jesus has just stated that He plans to die, not be a military/political leader. And God, in response, says, in effect, that doing this will bring glory to His Name every bit as much as everything Jesus had done so far. And so we too, when we die to self, bring glory to His Name.

Now it seems that only the disciples really heard what God said. I think that means it was really just for the disciples’ benefit. The crowds could not hear it clearly, or they refused to accept what they had just heard, and so some said they thought a storm was coming! Others knew it wasn’t thunder, but couldn’t make sense of it, and so they ascribed it to a snippet of a conversation between angels.

Jesus then, in only slightly veiled language, stated that the time had come for the defeat of Satan, for the defeat of death itself, and it would be done through Christ’s death – specifically, by being “lifted up,” that is, by being crucified. And in so doing, He would be drawing men to Him – that is, through His death, there would now be a way for men to be back in unbroken fellowship with God – that Christ’s death on that cross, if we believed in Him, could and would reconcile us to God.

The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?” – John 12:34

This crowd is not the disciples, not the real disciples. Many have come because of the excitement, because of the procession, because of the miracle of Lazarus, because of past miracles, and so on. But the crowds have always had a hard time when Jesus really teaches core truth. They left in droves after hearing Jesus talking about “eating His flesh and drinking His blood.” And they are not happy here. They understand enough about what is going on to hear that Jesus is saying He is not going to be their military/political leader today, that in fact, He expects to die soon, very soon. And they don’t accept this teaching.

Notice the wording – “How can You say…” Wow! Isn’t this the same guy they were shouting “Hosanna” over a little while ago? I would describe this behavior of the crowds as “fickle.” Do you realize these, by and large, will be the same crowds, only a few days from this day, who will be shouting “Crucify! Crucify!” The same people!

The cold hard truth is the same as a cold hard truth that could be seen in the Old Testament – the crowds don’t want God, they want a king. They want a military/political leader to help them be a standalone nation able to hold its own against the nations around them. Worshiping God is not what they want – they don’t really want to serve God. I would go so far to say that they don’t even really like God! And I would argue that what was true then has been true for many people, many “crowds,” over the last 2000 years, and it is unfortunately still true today.

I want to read a somewhat long passage from I Samuel. As you listen, ask yourself if there is anything really different at the time of Christ from what happened so many centuries earlier. And then, ask yourself if there is anything really different today. This is I Samuel chapter 8.

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. – I Samuel 8:1-3

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” – I Samuel 8:4-5

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” – I Samuel 8:6-9

Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. – I Samuel 8:10-13

He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.” – I Samuel 8:14-18

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” – I Samuel 8:19-20

When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.” – I Samuel 8:21-22

Jesus would not be their king, not one in the sense that the crowds wanted. They didn’t want to hear about His dying. They claimed that the Law said, in effect, that Jesus was wrong, but they were ignoring many passages of Scripture to make this claim, passages like Isaiah 53, which at one point says “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,” and “He was cut off from the land of the living,” and “He was assigned a grave with the wicked,” – could anything be clearer than this? And yet it says “After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied.” And it tells why this would happen – “For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” – all of this was exactly as Jesus was telling them!

Another passage that comes to mind is Daniel 9, which talks about the Anointed being “cut off,” a euphemism for death, and yet, after this, He would “confirm a covenant,” that is, a new covenant, one that would put an end to sacrifices. Again, the Old Testament most definitely did not say that the Messiah could not die – in fact, it said exactly the opposite!

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” When He had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid Himself from them. – John 12:35-36

Remember from John 1: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” From John 8, Jesus speaking: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” From John 9, Jesus speaking: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

And now Jesus warns the crowds that they will only have the light a little while longer. That is, Jesus will soon no longer be “in the world.” And then He uses the analogy of “walking” in the light verses walking in the dark. I think we don’t appreciate the force of this analogy because we live in a world that is never really dark. There are street lamps and house lights and car lights and so on everywhere. But imagine you are hiking up in the mountains, far away from civilization, away from other people, and it is getting dark. It’s a new moon, so the moon won’t give you light, and it’s cloudy, so the stars won’t help you either. You are in the mountains, so there are trees and rocks and cliffs and other dangers, and you cannot see them. Suppose you are still a few miles from your car. Actually, you might only need to be a few hundred yards from your car, and, either way, you will be helpless. You will be stuck. Your only smart thing to do is to try to survive the night right where you are. If you try to walk, you will only get lost, and you may easily get injured.

This is what Jesus is talking about. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Walk in the light, before the darkness overtakes you. Maybe you have gone to church for a long time. Maybe you have heard sermons on almost every part of the Bible. But you haven’t truly put your personal faith in Christ. You have tried to pray a little, and read your Bible a little, but there isn’t a real relationship there. With this passage, I believe Jesus is speaking to you. Put your trust in the light, that is, in Him, not the concept of Him, but the Person, enter into a real relationship with Him through prayer, and tell Him that you truly trust Him with your life, that you agree with Him as to your sinful nature and your inability to make things right, and that you ask Him to lead you, not as a secular/political king, but as your Savior, as the one you will worship and, by His grace, lay down your life for. Do this and you will become what He here calls a son of light.