John 12:43

These verses close the public ministry of Jesus in John’s Gospel. Just before them Jesus has spoken of being lifted up from the earth to draw all men to himself (John 12:32) and has urged the crowd, “Walk while ye have the light” (John 12:35). After them the account turns to his private teaching of the disciples and to his passion. Verse 37 is John’s summary of how the public ministry was received.

The KJV’s “miracles” translates sēmeîon, a sign, mark or token, something that points beyond itself. The word can name an ordinary token, as Paul’s salutation is in 2 Thessalonians 3:17, so what makes the works of Jesus signs is what they point to. John uses the word from the first one at Cana, where Jesus “manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him” (John 2:11). Each healing, each feeding and each raising of the dead pointed to who Jesus is and why he came. John records seven of them, and the last, the raising of Lazarus (John 11), came shortly before these verses, followed by the entry into Jerusalem (John 12:12–19). The other Gospels often call such works “powers” or “wonders”, and John’s word keeps our eyes on their meaning.

There were “so many” of them, tosoûtos, so many and so great, and they were done “before them”, émprosthen, in front of the people and in their sight. The evidence was abundant and public.

Yet “they believed not on him.” The verb pisteúō means to believe something true or to credit what someone says, and it also means to trust and rely on a person. Here it has a person as its object. The preposition eis, “into” or “to”, points the believing at Jesus, and autós is “him”. The negative is the plain Greek ou, “not”. The verb stands in the imperfect tense, episteuon, which describes something that went on, so the unbelief continued sign after sign.

John explains the unbelief from Scripture: “That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled.” Hēsaḯas is the Greek form of the name Isaiah, and the words John quotes open Isaiah 53:1, in the prophecy of the suffering servant (Isaiah 53). So the rejection Jesus met was something God had told his prophet centuries before, and its fulfilment confirms that Jesus is the one Isaiah spoke of. God was ruling over history even as his Son was refused.

The “report”, akoḗ, comes from the verb to hear. It can mean hearing itself or the thing heard, a message, and here it is the message of God’s saving work through his servant. In John’s setting “our report” is the testimony about Jesus, his works and his words. The question “who hath believed” uses pisteúō again, and it is a lament: few have.

The second question runs parallel to the first. “Arm” is brachíōn, and in Scripture the arm of the LORD stands for his strength put to work in deliverance, salvation and judgment. Earlier in the same prophecy Isaiah says, “The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). In Jesus that arm was bared, in his signs, in his death for sinners, since the servant “bare the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:12), and in his rising again. Many missed it because God’s power came in humility and suffering while they were looking for a conquering king. In Jesus’ day many passed over this suffering servant and dwelt on the prophecies of the Messiah’s glory, and John’s quotation sets the servant before them.

Paul quotes the same question for Israel’s response to the gospel: “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Romans 10:16). Christ crucified was “unto the Jews a stumblingblock” (1 Corinthians 1:23), and yet the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16). The prophecy that mourns the unbelief also names the means by which God’s arm saves.

John says that God’s word through Isaiah stood over their unbelief: “Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again.” “Could” is dýnamai, to be able, and joined with ou it states an inability, a spiritual one, since they had every opportunity and every evidence. “Again”, pálin, marks a second quotation from Isaiah, this time from the prophet’s call in Isaiah 6:9–10.

Verse 40 gives that quotation. “He hath blinded their eyes” uses typhlóō, to make blind and so, figuratively, to obscure. “Hardened their heart” uses pōróō, to turn to stone, and so to make dull and unfeeling. These people had their sight. What was darkened was their perception of who Jesus is, and the heart, the inner person with its understanding, will and affections, had grown unresponsive to God. The verse runs from the eyes to the heart and then to turning and healing. “Be converted” means to turn back to God, and “I should heal them” uses iáomai, to cure or make whole, here of the sickness of sin and unbelief. The “I” is God, so healing is his to give, and he gives it to those who turn.

In Isaiah’s day God sent the prophet with a message that would leave the people dull of hearing, after Israel had again and again turned from what he had shown them. Jesus used the same words to explain why he spoke in parables (Matthew 13:13–15), and Paul applies them to the hardening that has come upon part of Israel (Romans 11:7–10). Paul also speaks of a gospel “hid to them that are lost”, whose minds “the god of this world hath blinded” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).

“These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.” The “his” and the “him” are Jesus. Isaiah’s call came in a vision in the temple (Isaiah 6): “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple,” and the prophet cried out, “mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:1–5). John tells us that the one Isaiah saw enthroned in holiness was the Son, long before he came in the flesh. Jesus is the LORD, the God of Israel, eternal and worshipped in the temple centuries before his birth. For readers who knew Isaiah’s vision, this was a direct claim that Jesus is God.

“Glory” is dóxa, glory as something plain to see, splendour, dignity and honour. In the Greek Old Testament it often translates the Hebrew kabod, the weight and splendour of God’s present glory, often called the Shekinah. “Saw” is eídō, the ordinary verb to see, literally or figuratively, and “spake” is laléō, the general verb to talk or utter words. Isaiah saw, and then he spoke, and what he spoke of was Christ. The prophecies of unbelief and blindness that John has just quoted find their fulfilment in the rejection of Jesus, and that is why John can apply them to him.

This agrees with all of John’s Gospel: “the Word was God” (John 1:1), “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), and “we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). Hebrews calls the Son “the brightness of his glory” (Hebrews 1:3), and Paul says God has given “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The one who was in the form of God humbled himself and has been given the name above every name (Philippians 2:5–11). So when the crowds turned from Jesus, they turned from the Lord whom Isaiah saw high and lifted up. His coming was the eternal God of Israel’s faith made visible among us.

“Nevertheless” brings a turn after so dark a verdict. Among the chief rulers, archontes, the people in authority, “many believed on him.” They were likely members of the Sanhedrin or other councils, the very circle opposed to Jesus. Their believing is the same verb, pisteúō, and John gives it as real belief that Jesus was who he said, held at least inwardly.

“But because of the Pharisees they did not confess him.” homologéō means to assent or acknowledge, and the KJV renders it both “profess” and “confess”. It is to say openly where one stands. The Pharisees, the dominant party and the source of their fear, held the power to enforce the penalty that followed.

“Put out of the synagogue” is aposynágōgos, one excluded from the synagogue, with gínomai, “to become”, so the rulers feared becoming outcasts. The synagogue was the centre of worship, teaching and community life, and expulsion cut a person off socially and religiously, often with hardship in livelihood as well. For men of high standing it also meant the loss of position, influence and honour. John has shown this fear before. The parents of the man born blind were afraid, “for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue” (John 9:22). Jesus warned his disciples, “They shall put you out of the synagogues” (John 16:2).

Verse 43 gives the reason. “Loved” is agapáō, and here it describes a preference they held and acted on, a settled leaning of the heart. “Praise” is dóxa, the same word translated “glory” in verse 41, here the honour, approval and good name that people give one another. “More” is mâllon, a plain comparative, “more” or “rather”. So the two verses stand side by side in a sharp irony. Isaiah saw the dóxa of Christ on the throne, and these rulers, who had seen his signs, chose the dóxa that men could give. Men set apart to lead the people to God were ruled by the opinion of their own establishment.

In that society honour, reputation and acceptance were bound up with a man’s whole place in life, which made the choice stark. Jesus had already named it: “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” (John 5:44). He said that “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). Paul asks, “do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10), and the LORD says, “them that honour me I will honour” (1 Samuel 2:30).

Respect from others is a good thing in its place, and it becomes a snare when the wish for it outweighs the wish for God’s approval. People praise appearances, status and conformity. God’s praise rests on the heart, on faith in Christ and obedience to him, and it lasts for ever.

Jesus lived the opposite of verse 43. At the end of his work he told the Father, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). He declared openly who he was, and he “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). He “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2), a public rejection far heavier than being put out of a synagogue. God answered by exalting him, so “that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11). The honour that comes from God came to him in full, and his death and rising have broken the power of the fear that silenced the rulers.

These verses end Jesus’ public call with his words still sounding: “Walk while ye have the light.” They show us a God whose word stands, who foretold even the unbelief of his people and worked his saving purpose through it. They show the Son as the Lord of glory whom Isaiah saw, so the signs we read in John are the works of God himself. And they show how grave it is to keep turning from the light, because the heart that refuses long enough is given over to its refusal.

The same passage holds out what God desires, that people turn and he heal them. To those who receive Jesus he gives power “to become the sons of God” (John 1:12), and he makes them one household, built on the apostles and prophets with Christ as the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:19–22). In that household confessing Christ is the mark of belonging. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18), and the praise that comes from God outlasts every honour men can give.