John 12:27-36 Whether these thoughts are what
troubled Jesus' soul is unclear. This passage parallels some of Jesus' prayers
in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39 & 42), except that in this case
a crowd was nearby. And when God spoke out of heaven, the crowd heard
something. Some heard a voice, as they had at Jesus' baptism, (Luke 3:22) but
thought it an angel's voice; others heard only thunder. Jesus went on. He spoke
of His imminent crucifixion, being lifted up, and its two-fold fruit: the ruler
of the world, i.e. the devil, will be judged and cast out; and He will
draw all men to Himself. In hindsight we can understand His meaning, but the
crowd at that time could not possibly have grasped it. The crowd understood
that He was talking about His death, because of their question. How could God's
eternal kingdom be established by a Messiah who died? So they questioned
whether Jesus really was the promised Messiah.
Jesus' response to this questioning
was to repeat His earlier teaching on light. (John 8:12, 9:5, 11:9) He
encouraged them to become sons of the light. He had something very specific in
mind. They were to become His sons, and walk as His sons. The darkness was not
a bogeyman that would grab them unexpectedly. Rather, darkness was the freely
chosen alternative to becoming His sons, and walking in darkness they would not
know where they were going, except that it would be away from Him, the light of
the world. And then Jesus hid Himself from them.
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