The Glory that Undoes You (John 12:37–43)

John 12

A Link to John 12

The Glory that Undoes You (12:37–43)

Isaiah was a man who had seen glory. In the year King Uzziah died, he saw a vision of the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with his train filling the temple, while seraphim cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa 6:3). The vision overwhelmed him. “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isa 6:5). A burning coal was pressed to his mouth, and then came the call: go and preach to a people who would not listen.

John makes a startling claim about that vision. Having recorded that Jesus performed signs, and still the crowd would not believe, he cites two passages from Isaiah to explain their unbelief. The first is from the Servant Songs:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (John 12:38, quoting Isaiah 53:1).

The second is the hardening oracle from Isaiah’s own call:

“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” (John 12:40, quoting Isaiah 6:10).

Then John writes:

“Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (John 12:41).

The pronoun refers to Jesus. The vision Isaiah had in the temple— the one that overwhelmed him and motivated him to preach— was a vision of the preincarnate Son. What Isaiah saw enthroned was the glory of the one who would one day stand in the very city where that temple had been built, performing signs the crowd refused to accept.

The irony deepens in vv. 42–43. Many of the authorities believed, but they would not admit it, fearing expulsion from the synagogue. John’s verdict is brief and precise:

“They loved the glory that comes from man (τὴν δόξαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων) more than the glory that comes from God (τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ)” (John 12:43).

Isaiah saw the glory of God and was overwhelmed by it. The authorities caught a glimpse of God’s glory but chose a different kind of glory instead. The word δόξα carries multiple senses: radiance, honor, and reputation. The approval of the Pharisees, the standing they had spent years building, was more important to them than what God was offering.

This issue isn’t restricted to the first century. The glory that comes from men is visible, immediate, and measurable. The glory of God undoes you before it commissions you. That cost is more than most are willing to pay.

John is asking us today whether we prefer the glory of man or the glory of God. From my limited perspective, most Christians today prefer τὴν δόξαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

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The Wrong Festival (12:12–19)

The triumphal entry is one of those events in the life of Jesus recorded in all four Gospels, an occurrence that is rarer than one might think. Along with John 12:12-19, there are parallel passages in Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; and Luke 19:29-40. While John makes clear that the time of year is around the Passover (John 12:1), the scene of the triumphal entry is reminiscent of another Jewish festival.

John already mentions the Feast of Dedication, as he calls it, in 10:21. Today, that festival is more commonly known as Hanukkah. This festival commemorates the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC. As part of this revolt, Judas Maccabeus and his brothers reclaimed Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Notice the similarities in the scene as Judas Maccabeus enters Jerusalem.

On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred seventy-first year, the Jews entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel (1 Macc 13:51, NRSV).

⁶ They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the festival of booths, remembering how not long before, during the festival of booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. ⁷ Therefore, carrying ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. ⁸ They decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year. ⁹ Such then was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes (2 Macc 10:6–9).

Now here’s John’s account of the triumphal entry:

¹² The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:12–13).

At the triumphal entry, the people aren’t welcoming the Passover sacrifice. They are welcoming (they think) the second coming of Judas Maccabeus. They don’t want a Passover lamb. They want a king, and so they welcome him as one, expecting him to do what Judas and his brothers had done before when they brought an end to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in Judah.

Jesus is a king, but not like they expect. He comes low and riding on a donkey. The Jews are, in effect, celebrating the wrong festival at the wrong time. It wasn’t Hanukkah. It was Passover, and, for the most part, they failed to see the lamb of God right in front of their eyes.