20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”
35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. 36 Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
I thought the following quotes from MacArthur were very powerful
First, how Jesus was troubled by the thought knowledge of what was to come (emphasis mine)...
He begins to feel the pressure of the hour and the extreme agony that's going to be involved and the anxiety fills up inside of Him and finally bursts out. You know, in Hebrews 12:2 the Bible says that "For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame." That's an interesting verse. Notice it. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross despising the shame. Mark this, will you please? He did not enjoy the cross. The joy was not in dying, the joy was in contemplating the results. He merely endured the cross. Do you see it? The joy was in what it accomplished, not in dying. There's no joy in that kind of death. For this moment right here He is sensing the suffering and the enduring of the cross, not the joy in what it accomplishes. And don't you ever think for a split second that Jesus went to the cross detached. Don't you ever think that He stepped outside of His human suffering. Don't you ever imagine that He was sort of sitting up there in heaven watching that body hang on a cross. Jesus was there. He did not die indifferently. He did not die without feeling. He did not die detached. He felt every single pain that there was and every bit of the curse of sin.
In fact, if you really think about it, His death wasn't even the death of a Christian. We as Christians in the sorrow and the agony of death, we realize that all the terrors of dying have been taken care of, don't we? We realize that all our sin is forgiven. We realize that God has cancelled all the record of our iniquity. We realize that we are merely going into the presence of God. Jesus didn't have that luxury. Jesus was not dying having sins forgiven, He was bearing sin, all of the sin of all time He was bearing it. He was not dying knowing it was gone, He was dying knowing it was on Him and He was totally guilty. And He was not dying to go to the presence of God, He was dying saying, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And not only that, Jesus' death was not the death of an unbeliever either. An unbeliever goes to death with a note of mystery, he doesn't know what to expect. Jesus knew everything that was going to be there. There wasn't even the comfort of mystery. It was the death of the vilest sinner that ever lived and every other vile sinner that ever lived and every sin of every man that ever lived heaped on one individual, that kind of death. Every sin and all the guilt on Jesus and He knew every pain and every feeling of the curse. He was to die with the world's sin and guilt and He could anticipate it standing right here in Jerusalem. He knew it was coming. And when He said, "I am troubled," the word "my soul" there ispsuche, it means my person, I...I am troubled, the God/Man sensing the horrors of the cross. In fact, the writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us of the anxiety of Jesus at this time resulted in strong crying and tears as well as prayers to the Father. You see, the Bible says He was made sin. Did you get that? He was made sin for us who knew no sin, the spotless, pure, without blemish Lamb of God with every sin of every man who ever lived put upon Him. And then to die in the guilt of all that sin. The Bible says He was to bear our sins in His own...what?...body.
And here He is, He can see all that. He knows it's coming, doesn't He? And no power made Him go to the cross. Nobody compelled Him to go. He said, "I lay down My life by Myself." And though all that was inside of Him was shrinking and recoiling back from the pain and the agony that He was about to suffer, He submitted still. The sinless, holy Jesus, God's only begotten Son, was to stoop beneath the damning guilt of the world and by His own death as a man take away that guilt. He had already given great emotion over His death. Remember back in chapter 11 when He came to the tomb of Lazarus and it says He groaned within Himself? He became indignant over death. It tore Him up on the inside to see what death had done and to think about His own death. And here again you see it. Deeply moved. Later on He showed more emotion when He went to the Garden. Luke chapter 22 verse 42 and following tells us that He knelt down to pray to the Father and He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. His whole system started to break down from the agony.
Listen, Jesus was a for real person. He was totally human as He was totally divine and He felt every single thing that ever took place on that cross. He felt every pain, every aching muscle, every torn piece of flesh, every thorn pierced His blessed brow, He felt every single dislocation of every limb and organ. He felt the stifling suffocation, the gasping for breath. He felt the flies, the dripping blood that He couldn't wipe away. He felt the naked shame, the dried mouth and lips that were cracked. He felt the parched throat. He felt it all, every bit of it. And beyond that, He felt the curse of every sin that was every committed and all of its guilt. Listen, I know people that have gone cuckoo because of their own guilt. He bore every bit of guilt from every person whoever lived.
And let me lay this thought on you. Think of this, it would have been enough if Jesus had endured it just once on the cross. But do you realize that from eternity past He knew every single detail of His crucifixion and that He must of in His mind in anxiety gone over every detail constantly, constantly, constantly throughout His entire existence and especially in His lifetime as a man. With perfect knowledge of every detail that would happen at the cross, in anticipation mentally He must have been crucified ten thousand times ten thousand. No wonder the New Testament never tells us Jesus laughed. Even in the times of great joy was the constant shadow of the cross. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And those nails, those nails that had gone through His hands and feet a hundred times a day, every time He looked at them. The agony of the sinless Jesus knowing that He would be stained not with some sin, but with all sin, must have torn into His soul with a relentless fierceness of every waking day. And now it's only a few days from the actual event.
How the cross gives glory to God (emphasis mine)....
the greatest manifestation of the attributes of God in history took place on the cross. Was ever the love of God more clear? Was it? That was it, wasn't it? Was ever the wrath of God against sin more clear than at the cross when He slew His own Son? Was ever the justice of God more clear than at the cross when He went to the extent of His own Son to take care of sin? Was ever the grace of God more clear than when He substituted Jesus for you? Was ever the mercy of God more clear than on the basis of Christ's death He forgave you and me? Was ever the wisdom of God more clear than in such a master plan as that? Every attribute of God became singled at the cross in one event...Jesus death. And God knew and Jesus knew that by His death God would be glorified. Not only that, but do you know that there's only one way that you can I can glorify God? And that's by accepting Christ's death on our behalf, isn't it? So if Christ didn't die, we couldn't give God glory. Since He did die, all kinds of men from all over the world through all the ages glorify God. God gets glory in the cross.
So the Father is to be glorified whatever the cost to the Son. That's the kind of divine love the Father and the Son share. And so, in the horror of Jesus' death is the glory of God displayed.
And the thought of glorifying the Father through His death is what comforted Jesus' anxiety. And He turned His focus away from the horror of the cross, and on to the results of what the cross will accomplish instead. Love, justice, grace, mercy, wisdom - all collided at the cross, revealing the fulness of God's glory.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 12:37-43
1 comment:
Very powerful. Great post.
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