John 12:37-43

John 12:37-43

Intro

You know that feeling when you are trying to convince someone of something that you know to be true, but they just don’t get it. I remember sitting in class in community college, and having a conversation with this man who was convinced that the earth was flat. At first I laughed, I had never encountered one of these flat-earthers in the flesh. But then as the conversation got going, I just became frustrated. He seemed determined to reject what seemed to me like sound logic and clear evidence. I said, what about when you’re gazing at the ocean, and you watch a ship far out disappear below the horizon. It looks as if it went under the sea. Surely that is because of the curvature of the earth. Nope, optical illusion. What about picture of earth from space? Nope, those are fake, photoshopped.

One of the hardest things for us to wrap our head around as Christians, is why people don’t believe in Jesus. The person we find most compelling in the world, who with incredible signs and wonders confirmed he was the Christ, the Son of God, and yet he was rejected by His own people, murdered, and continues to provoke that same ire, same response of persistent unbelief. How can that be? Why do some reject Jesus?

This is not the first time this topic has come up in John’s gospel, we saw this in Ch. 2, 4, and again in Ch. 5. Although he does marvelous signs, some people continue to reject Jesus. Now as the Jesus begins the last week of His ministry, he comments on just why it is that some reject him as the Christ, the Son of God and savior of the world. Partly this is to fulfill scripture, partly because some simply could not believe, and others believe but for fear they keep silent. The truth as we’ve seen throughout John’s gospel is only those called by God can accept Jesus' word and work as compelling evidence for salvation, and will escape the hardening that comes from persistent unbelief, willingly confessing their faith, even when it's costly.

Some dismiss his word and work, fulfilling scripture.

Jesus, having made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and delivered one of His final public sermons, now departs and hides Himself from the crowds. John offers an explanation for the crowds' rejection of Jesus. Note the incredulity in his voice when he recounts, "though He [Jesus] had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in Him." Remember, John has only chosen a few of these signs to record, but Jesus had performed many more. It's the still that strikes you—they still don't believe. Despite compelling evidence and awe-inspiring wonders, these signs fail to provoke the intended response. Yet without hesitation, John tells us this was to fulfill scripture, and quotes Isaiah 53:1:

"Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

This portion of Isaiah, known as the servant's song, portrays the Lord's servant as one who will be despised and rejected by His people. John identifies Jesus as that suffering servant. Remarkably, John claims that what Isaiah saw in the temple in Isaiah 6 was the glory of the pre-incarnate Son of God. It was from this vision that Isaiah spoke about the suffering servant.

Notice the two aspects of their rejection of the servant: a rejection of His message—"Lord, who has believed what he heard from us"—and a rejection of His work—"to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, the good news that the time had come for the Lord to redeem His people from their sin through His suffering servant. Accompanying this message were demonstrations of His power and authority—signs and wonders that authenticated His message. Jesus proclaimed liberty to captives and set people free from sin's enslaving power by casting out demons and healing them.

Now, let's consider the context in which John is writing. It's late in the first century. The Romans have destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, leaving the Jews struggling to forge a new identity. They're grappling with what it means to be God's people without a temple and, essentially, without a nation. It's against this backdrop that John pens his gospel—an apologetic for why you should believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But many Jews stumbled over a crucial question: How could Jesus be their Messiah when so many Jews, especially their leaders, rejected and killed Him?

John's response is multifaceted. First and foremost, he aims to demonstrate that the widespread rejection of Jesus by the Jews wasn't a hindrance to God's plan of redemption—it was part of it. This rejection, John argues, was something God had foretold in scripture. God is not left reeling at the rejection of His Son, rather their rejection fulfills his plan. So some dismiss clear evidence Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God rejecting Him, and that was to fulfill scripture. Other’s as we will see, simply could not believe.

Some “could not believe.”

John further supports his claim that Jesus' rejection was planned and foretold in scripture by citing one of Isaiah's most challenging texts. His preface to the quotation is equally striking: "Therefore they could not believe" (emphasis mine). This sounds as if they had no choice—as if the Jews' only option was to reject Jesus. I won't try to soften Jesus' statements to fit a particular system. So, what's really happening here? Why can't some believe? Is this fair? To answer these questions, we need to delve into theology, unpacking the concept of theodicy and exploring the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Let's start by examining Isaiah 6:10 and God's hardening of Israel.

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees Jesus' glory, as John tells us. After being cleansed, he is commissioned and sent with a message of judgment. While it's not unusual for a prophet to have such a message, typically its purpose was for Israel to know her sin so she could turn from it in repentance. However, in Isaiah 6, the prophet's message serves a different function. Instead of leading the people to see and understand their sin, it would cause them to not see and not understand, as Isaiah's message would harden their hearts. This is what we might call a judicial hardening. The context in Isaiah clarifies that this judicial hardening follows a progressive experiential hardening of their own hearts.

When His people repeatedly broke covenant with Him, preferring their sin, He eventually gave them over to that state, making it impossible for them to return. They hardened their hearts, and He confirmed it by judging them with hardness of heart. The idea is that they knew better. The clearest example, which Paul uses in Romans 9, is Pharaoh. The Lord told Moses that when he demanded Pharaoh let the people go, Pharaoh would harden his heart. Sign after sign, wonder after wonder, Pharaoh persisted in unbelief, refusing to let God's people go. So, on top of Pharaoh's own hardening, the Lord also hardened his heart.

Like clay formed and set out to harden in the sun, persistent unbelief hardens more and more, until the Lord takes that clay vessel and fires it under the intense heat of His judgment, creating a vessel that can never be softened again. Yet at no point does Scripture absolve the repeat offender. Israel is fully responsible for her unbelief, which Scripture repeatedly shows as irrational and foolish.

But that's not really where people bristle. Most find it upsetting not that this happens—that people are judged for their hardness of heart with a harder heart—but that this is part of God's plan to bring about redemption. John uses this text from Isaiah to teach us what Peter preached in his sermon on Pentecost.

Acts 2:22–23 (ESV) — 22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God, from the foundation of the world, had planned the crucifixion of His Son, but lawless men, who should have known better, are responsible for carrying this out. They did so freely, of their own volition and will, and are therefore accountable for their actions. Scripture never pits these two things against each other, always holding them as mutually compatible truths: God is absolutely sovereign and man is totally responsible for all His actions.

John engages in what theologians call a theodicy, which is a defense of God's providence, defending Him from the charges of being the author of sin or of violating the free will of His creatures.

Clearly, not all of Israel was hardened in this way. As we'll consider next, some did believe but kept silent about their faith out of fear. Others openly followed Jesus, growing in their trust as their understanding deepened. The disciples belonged to this group. When the book of Acts opens, we find a small band of 120 gathered as the first church. Yet, with the outpouring of the Spirit, we witness the unstoppable spread of the gospel. Many more within Israel saw and believed that Jesus was the Christ, though likely not a majority. Otherwise, why would the New Testament authors continue to defend against the widespread rejection of Jesus by the Jews? The Jews thought this rejection must indicate Jesus was a fraud, but in reality, it points to God's plan to harden the Jews' hearts so that the gospel could reach the nations.

Some believe, but for fear keep silent.

John continues by showing us that there were in fact many who believed in Jesus, presumably because of the signs he had done, but for fear they kept their faith silent. Even among the elite, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, there was faith, but what kind, and would it last?

Jesus, in synoptics, tells us the parable of the Sower, to illustrate four different hearts by the different soils the seed of God’s word falls upon. Some “seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns choked them” (Mt. 13:7), which Jesus explained this way: “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Mt. 13: 22).

It’s clear that the intended purpose of Jesus’ signs has cracked open many hearts, even some of the religious elite, but for fear, they say nothing about it. They have worldly cares, reputations to guard, images to keep up. What would it look like if they were excommunicated from the synagogue? So they keep quiet. And John levels a devastating critique of their priorities. For while this may have seemed prudent and wise to them, John shows that it was because they loved the glory of men most.

Fear and man-pleasing go hand in hand as bedfellows. Where you find one, you can be sure the other is lurking in the dark. Here, we see the power of social pressure to coerce and produce conformity. It’s not nothing. These are real threats. Their social standing would be on the line, which could mean economic hardship, loss of friendships, and being ostracized from their community. Here we see in action Jesus’ warning that “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Fear leads some to believe that what really matters is right here, right now. John’s stinging rebuke is they were drawn to this conclusion because “they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” (Jn 12:43). Which helps us understand something of the nature of true faith. Faith is more than just a mental assent, its experiential.

Application

Although John uses these arguments as an apologetic to defend Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God against the notion that because he was rejected by the Jews he was not. Still, there are several warnings here for Christians about the nature of sin, and cost of faith, and the danger of misplaced priorities.

The Nature of Sin

One thing rings clear from the pages of scripture sin is never static. It is always developing. Scripture portrays this in terms of hardness. When you allow sin to go unchecked, you harden yourself. Proverbs 29:1 teach us that “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.” When you persist in sin, sometimes God gives you over to it, to suffer its consequences, but also so that you feel the absence of His presence. And, if this continues it may become permanent, for what God hardens can never be softened again. By cultivating the practice of regular confession of sin, both in private and one to another, we learn to make habitual the discipline that enables us to see sin for what it is, to name it, expose it to the light, and find freedom from it. When you refuse to confess you harden yourself from the liberating assurance of the forgiveness of Christ.

The Cost of Faith

As these Jews reject Christ through the hardness of their hearts and to fulfill scripture as God’s judicial hardening, we see also the cost of faith. Some believed, but presumably it was a faith in signs. Which is good but will only go so far. Much more is needed to withstand the cultural pressure than an acknowledgement that Jesus seems to be the Christ. Experiential knowledge is participatory, willingly sharing in Christ’s sufferings. This was a lesson hard won by all the disciples. For all of them scattered from Him at the hour of His death. For they had not yet learned how costly the call of faith would be. All but the Apostle John would learn that cost, when faith called them to love “not their lives even unto death.” (Rev. 12:11). Not because we don’t value life, but because we know Christ conquered death by His death, and calls us to follow Him. And the costly sacrifice we must offer is a willingness to hold fast our testimony by confessing Christ. That confession, more than a bald statement—Christ is Lord—reaches down into the nitty-gritty of your life and compels change. For, if Christ is Lord, that means you are not. Which means all, including family, job, money, house, hobbies—all belong to him, and must be devoted to him—some to destruction, others to be reborn in the light of God’s mercy and grace. You may not fear the threat of excommunication by the Pharisees, but all of us fear something. What is it that makes you shrink back? What fear keeps you from making the good confession?

Danger of Misplaced Priorities.

But in order for us not to be driven by fear, we must have our priorities aligned by God so that we glory in Him and not in the glory of men. Again we need to return to earlier in ch. 12 and Jesus’ insistence that His Glory was the cross. Unless the cross becomes the paradigm for you for what true glory looks like, you will always be distracted by worldly glory, which is to say glory that doesn’t last. The whole of the Christian life is conforming our life to the standards of God. Through the spiritual disciplines, we are being shaped to see the world as God does, and not just see it but live by it, and love it. Its learning to love what God loves and hate what he hates. Which means having a clear understanding of just what seeking the glory of God is versus seeking the glory of men.

A good test of this is to look closely at where you spend most of your time, energy, and resources. What do you pay the most attention to? That might also be where you are seeking glory. I’m not suggesting that you can only pay attention to God and that all your time, energy, and resources must be focused on Him. Rather, you must make sure that of all the things you pay attention, of all the things you focus on, he is the preeminent. That what takes center-stage, and is therefore the controlling and most dominate aspect of your life, is your relationship with God. The principle rings true from scripture that when you seek first, the kingdom of God and His glory, all these things will be added unto you.

John’s apologetic for the reason the Jews rejected Jesus, shows with compelling force that only those who have been called by God can accept Jesus’ word and work. As we saw in John 9, Jesus came to give sight to the blind, to those desperate to see and believe He is the Christ, the Son of God, those who sat in darkness, longing for the light. But for others, the light of Christ, blinded them, keeping them from seeing and accepting the word and work of Christ. But even this was part of the plan, fulfilling scripture as a judicial hardening for those who persisted in their unbelief. But for others who did believe but were afraid of others, to them, Jesus will always provoke a response. You can either accept him, confess him before men, and have Him as Lord, or you can reject Him, and lose the only possibility of salvation. There is no in between. Christ has no room in his train for fence-sitters, for those who calculate that the cost is too high socially for them to publicly claim Christ as Lord. I will end then, with this exhortation, which God gave through the Prophet David:

Psalm 95:7–9 (ESV) — Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

Don’t harden your heart, trust in Christ, reject the glory of men, and learn to glory in the cross of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Charge

Only those called by God can accept Jesus' word and work as compelling evidence for salvation, and will escape the hardening that comes from persistent unbelief, willingly confessing their faith, even when it's costly.