“37But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: 38That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. 42Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. 44Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. 45And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. 46I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. 47And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 49For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.” John 12:37-50
The Beloved Disciple comments that the people in Jerusalem have not only heard reliable eye-witness accounts of Jesus performing miracles, but they have actually witnessed many of his miracles for themselves — and even then they did not believe in him. One may legitimately take the fact of Jewish unbelief in Jesus as a red flag. After all Israel rejects him as their Messiah. Israel ought to know their Messiah when they see him and they saw Jesus and they concluded, even in the context of his many miracles, that he was not their Messiah. That certainly seems fair to me. But the Beloved Disciple does not once fret over Jewish unbelief. The Beloved Disciple says that Israel’s unbelief is not a judgement against Jesus, but just the opposite: Jewish unbelief in Jesus is the Father’s judgment against Israel.
“37But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: 38That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.”
The Beloved Disciple, following the teaching of Jesus himself on the matter, presents Jewish unbelief, not as a scandal for the Church, but as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. Israel’s rejection of Jesus is not a problem to the Beloved Disciple, and he cites Isaiah chapter six as a way to understand their unbelief. Isaiah, says the Apostle, saw the glory of the Lord which is a reference to the first two verses of Chapter 6:
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his future glory as the Messiah of Israel high and lifted up and sitting upon the throne of the Kingdom of God — here is the finality of Jesus’ earthly mission to his own people. That is what the Beloved Disciple means when he says that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus. In light of Isaiah’s grand vision of God, the Word made flesh, John the Apostle goes on to draw our attention to two more passages that must be understood in the context of Isaiah’s staggering vision of the Lord Jesus seated upon the Throne of God. The first passage is taken from the introduction to chapter fifty-three, the prophecy of the scorned and rejected slave of God:
“That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Then the Beloved Disciple returns to the aftermath of Isaiah’s vision of the Lord high and lifted up upon his throne:
“39Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.”
In fact this prophecy of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah does not come to Isaiah out of the blue, but strikingly, the word of prophecy is spoken to the Isaiah by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Thus the Beloved Disciple is saying to the Church of God that this unbelief you see, this rejection of Jesus, this betrayal of the Messiah by his own people, this brutalizing of the Lamb of God, this is precisely what Isaiah saw, but he saw it all in the context of the final victory of God over the devil and his kingdom of darkness. God’s victory through his own Son made flesh. The unbelief of Israel does not scandalize the Church who already knew that the enfleshed Word of the Father, “came unto his own and his own received him not.”
But here is something else: the passage from Isaiah could be read like the crudest possible declaration of a doctrine of absolute predestination:
“He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”
One way to read that is that unless God had gone out of his way to blind the Jews and to harden their hearts they would have believed and Jesus their Messiah and God would have to heal them. But I can assure that that is manifestly not the case. The meaning of Scripture in part and in whole has to be taken in the context of the whole passage. Words have meaning in phrases, phrases have meaning in sentences, sentences have meaning in paragraphs, paragraphs have meaning in chapters, chapters in books, and books mean what they mean in the context of the whole canon of Scripture. So first of all think about what we have seen so far in the Fourth Gospel. Nowhere in the Gospel, and furthermore nowhere in John’s other writings, do we have the issue of predestination presented. Within the horizon of the Beloved Disciple there is no conflict between the will, the finality of God and human freedom and responsibility. Read a book within the context of the canon. The language of the Beloved Disciple may well tempt one to project into his texts concepts that are actually alien to his text. If one projects a Reformation horizon onto the Apostle’s text one will misunderstand the Apostle’s meaning.
Through out the Fourth Gospel the Beloved Disciple insist that the place of judgement is the flesh of Jesus. Through the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in his own flesh, the judgement of salvation has come to the whole world. But the Beloved Disciple also insist that ultimate judgment has come upon those who reject Jesus. Israel rejected Jesus and the consequence of their rejection is that they remain dead in their sins and under God’s judgment. But for all the strong language, Israel is responsible for her unbelief. It is manifestly clear to John that God had not made it impossible for them to recognize Jesus as their Messiah. After all take a look at the Beloved Disciple’s conclusion of the Isaiah passage:
“41These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. 42Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him…”
“Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him…” So the Beloved Disciple excludes the position, shuts out the point-of-view, that all Jews were hopelessly predestined to unbelief and final judgment. No. The fact is evident to anyone who will open their eyes that all of Jesus’ disciples are Jews and as John points out here, many of the chief rulers believed on Jesus as well. It is true that the believers within the ruling class were fearful of being put out of the synagogue and thus they kept secret their belief in Jesus. And John expresses his distain for their secretiveness:
“43For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
Their behavior is indeed reprehensible, but is their fear-based behavior any more reprehensible than the behavior of his disciple who were with him behind closed doors that night? As you well know, though they have the place of privilege in Jesus’ ministry, by the time they leave the Upper Room and walk to Gethsemane they will all scatter to their own safe homes and leave Jesus to suffer and die alone, bereft of any human companionship. And, according to Church tradition, these timid believers, all of them including those of the ruling class, became the core of the first Jerusalem Church. So what John presents to us concerning the Jews is the mystery of faith: “Therefore,” he comments, “they could not believe.” And yet the Beloved Disciple also writes, “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him…”
What’s next? This is what is next: the next chapter of John’s Gospel, chapter thirteen, begins with the evening, the eve of the crucifixion of our Lord. Jesus and his disciples enter into what we know as the Upper Room and the door is shut. But, thanks to the Beloved Disciple, we have the privileged position of the insider. On the night in which he was betrayed, the door is shut to the world as Jesus opens up his entire mission to his chosen band. The events of that night, as well as our Lord’s last teachings to his little flock, will fill up the next five chapters of the Gospel. Five chapters dedicated to that night, in fact, quite specifically, five chapters dedicated to the last twelve hours or so before his betrayal and arrest.
One last point I wish make is that the public teaching of our Lord just before he entered the Upper Room may rightly be taken as a gloss of his teaching concerning his relation to his Father. Realize this: Jesus is not just teaching precepts and concepts, he is teaching most of all about relations. Because what we are, what anything is, is not known merely through grasping a concept or an idea, but by grasping the relation between men and things, the relation between the Son and the Father, the relation between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, our relation to Jesus and our relation to one another. In this last sermon before shutting the door on the world, he once again speaks of his relation to his Father. The meaning of his teaching is unmistakable. He does not merely speak, he shouts:
“Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me… For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”
To see Jesus is to see his Father. To hear Jesus is to hear his Father. To know Jesus, to believe in Jesus is to know and to believe in his Father. One cannot know the Father apart from Jesus. This alone is the faith which is entirely effectual for human salvation. This is the faith that removes the believer from the realm of darkness into the realm of Jesus and his Father which is the Kingdom of Heaven.
The time is about to shift right now to the evening before the crucifixion. The place will shift from the streets of Jerusalem to the Upper Room. In a handful of hours Jesus will reveal to his inner circle the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven that have been hidden from all generations. You and I by the grace of God, and the faithfulness of Beloved Disciple — you and I have the privilege position of Jesus’ inner circles of friends.
“For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.”