Judge Judy Jesus

John 12:31-50

Two Kinds of Trouble

A few years ago I had a surgery. I had chronic sciatic pain, shooting all the way down my left leg, painful enough to keep me up all night and make me walk like Quasimodo. I examined a lot of options. I didn’t like the idea of surgery so I tried toughing it out for months, then a couple of physical therapists for more months, then cortisone injections for more months. Nothing helped so I started interviewing surgeons. I checked backgrounds, I got recommendations, I interviewed them. I carefully picked the guy who was going to carefully pick little bits of cartilage jelly out of my spinal cord. I want that guy to be the best.

And my guy was awesome, did this surgery all the time, fantastic, really nice too (which isn’t necessary but it make the experience better). All in all, I give him 5 out of 5 stars.

A few months ago a friend of mine had a very different medical experience. He arm was sore, but he had worked out that morning and figured it was that. All day it kept hurting and he was feeling nauseous and short of breath.

And he was on a business trip in a hotel room all by himself. He thought about taking a nap, but fortunately thought through his symptoms and realized he was having a heart attack. He called 911.

As they rushed him into the ER his heart stopped and he died. Briefly. A few of the “CLEAR!” shocks restarted his heart and he is alive today.

I am so glad he is alive but I have some criticisms for his method. At no point did he try alternative therapies. He did not rule out other options, which might have been cheaper health care strategies. He did not interview his doctors and choose a hospital and staff that would ensure the best possible experience.

We were both in trouble… but he was in a very different kind of trouble.

And Jesus says...

John 12

31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

Words of urgency. Words of emergency! NOW is the judgment.

32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the 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.”

There is this open invitation to believe. That Jesus will “draw all people to” himself.

But even in this passage we see that all people do not in fact come to Jesus. Still, here at the very end of Jesus’ public ministry (and we are going to read his final words in a bit) there are people who reject Jesus. Here the stated objection is that they have an expectation that the Messiah is going to be around forever when he comes… but Jesus says he is going.

Jesus invites them to walk in the light, but the truth is that most Jews do not. And this is a major objection to Christianity in the first century. Why did most Jews not recognize, not believe that Jesus was the Messiah? Why, as John said in the very first chapter, did he “came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

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.

This is God hardening the hearts, blinding the eyes, so that people would not believe in Jesus!

God is keeping people from believing in Jesus!

Why? And what does that say about God?

He is sovereign, God can do whatever he wants… but Jesus JUST SAID he would draw all men unto 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.

Nevertheless… even though God has hardened hearts, blinded eyes STILL there were those, even among the religious leaders, the Pharisees who were thought leaders and, if anyone should have understood Jesus’ theology, they were the closest… and indeed, even though God has hardened hearts MANY believed in him.

But they didn’t say anything, because they knew the consequences. They were afraid of losing what they had, they weren’t willing to give up everything, bet everything on a man condemned to die. As much as they had to lose, it is amazing that men like Nicodemus spoke up for Jesus in the Sanhedrin, and Joseph of Arimathea burying Jesus in his own tomb.

But John is holding them absolutely responsible for their own decision not to believe in Jesus. He sees into their reasons.

So God is hardening their hearts. That’s an act of sovereign determinism.

AND for their own reasons they are either not believing in Jesus, or believing and not confessing.

We can get all twisted up in our heads about this as we try to systematize everything, but John is not fixated on Divine Will overwriting human freedom OR about human choice somehow cancelling out God’s sovereignty. He is a compatibilist. Both are true, everything is fine, move on.

God can move in the hearts of men to accomplish his purposes. Men have a choice to believe or not, confess or not, and are held culpable for their choice.

Judging Jesus

But here is what is ludicrous. This whole argument, and much of the narrative has been about us, human beings, judging Jesus. Is Jesus the Messiah? Is he the Son of God? Is he powerful enough? Do I like him? Do I like what he says about God?

Do I like Jesus enough, believe Jesus enough to say something about him to my friends? We are in the judge’s seat and Jesus is on trial.

Is this the doctor for me?

The religious leaders are judging Jesus, the people are judging Jesus, we ourselves (as we read) are judging Jesus.

So Jesus in this powerful teaching ministry to the world plants seeds, calls humanity to repentance, to follow, to believe that they might be saved… and very, very few listen and believe. Now in his final words, Jesus is going to sum up his teaching ministry.

We will see three powerful themes of Jesus reiterated here:

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.

That’s the first: Jesus comes on behalf of God the Father.

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.

The second is that the world is already judged, the word of judgment has already been spoken, Jesus who is the Word is speaking the Word has spoken the Word: it is done. John always uses the word “world” to refer to darkness. In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God. John puts the focus of Jesus’ teaching that he records on two metaphors that express the same idea: light vs dark, and the “world” which is always associated with the dark. And the world is doomed. The situation is urgent, it is emergency, it is drastic.

It is life and death. It is dark vs. light. It is judgment vs. salvation.

Which brings us to Jesus third and biggest point: the world is doomed and judged and everyone in it BUT… I didn’t come to tell you that. It’s true, it’s happening, the sip is sinking, the heart attack is in full swing.

But I, Jesus, didn’t come to just announce your doom. I didn’t come to judge and go home.

“I came to save the world.”

Jesus came to save the world. A world that is already dead, already judged, already lost… except that Jesus has come to save the world.

And he ends it, lest you think he is a crazy person, he ends it where he started, citing his credentials again. He speaks the Words of God.

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.”

What Kind of Trouble Are We In?

If the world really is the way Jesus says it is… then there are no options here. There is not time, there is no reviewing the background of the Doctors. If Jesus is right, and he is speaking for God, and the proof of that is in his signs, but the ultimate proof of that is really coming in less than a week in an empty tomb.

If Jesus is right, the world’s heart has already stopped beating. And there is one beautiful chance.

It isn’t about whether you like Jesus enough? It isn’t about whether you like God or “approve” of all the things he has done or said. And it isn’t really about whether you are good enough for Jesus or if Jesus likes you enough. We have this internal picture of us kind of deciding if we like Jesus enough and him deciding if he likes us enough back to then spend eternity together.

This is not a Dating Game.

If the world is the way that Jesus said it is, then this world is already judged and dead and dark and we have this beautiful sliver of a hope of salvation, this single thread, a lifeline thrown into the middle of absolute and utter disaster.

And Jesus in his final public teaching address “cried out.” Is their desperation there, frustration, just a heartfelt wish that they would hear and know, or remember later and believe…

Guys, you are dying, you are in darkness. And I didn’t come to play the judgment game, you are already judged. You are dying of a heart attack, you already have the condition. I came to save the world, on the mission of God the Father.

Invitation

Jesus came to save the world. And he says that this is how salvation works: believe with your heart and confess with your tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Why does it work like that? I have no idea. Why does saying clear and shooting lightning bolts at my friends heart bring him back?

But I believe in the testimony of a man who said he would die for and come back to life and then did it and is still alive and present today and acting in me and for and through me. He came to save the world.

I want to invite us to do what the Pharisees were afraid to because they were too afraid of the men and women standing on their left and right. They believed but they did not confess it, they could not declare it. Believing in Jesus and confessing him is not the one-time act of a moment, it is the act of a lifetime, but we can make a moment in this lifetime.

So as church-cheesy as this is, before we sing, ‘cause we are going to confess our need for Jesus in song. If you believe and are ready to confess, just turn to the person on your left and the person on your right and say the simplest confession possible: “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.”

I will give you a few moments to do that, and then we will sing. But I will do it first.