Monday 19th August
Read John 12:37-41
“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfil the word of Isaiah the prophet:
‘Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 ‘He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn – and I would heal them.’
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.” (NIVUK)
One of the abiding mysteries for the early church was why so many of their fellow Jews refused to follow Jesus despite everything they saw with their own eyes. John concludes the ‘Book of Signs’ with some reflections on why unbelief was so persistent (v37-43) before very appropriately giving Jesus the final word (v44-50).
John has been reflecting on Isaiah’s final Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) and begins by citing Isaiah 53:1 (v38). The immediate context of Isaiah 53:1 echoes almost perfectly the arc of Jesus’ experience in John 12. John then cites Isaiah 6:9-10 (v40), the glorious throne-room commissioning of one whose message will not be believed. The glory Isaiah saw was the incongruous glory of One who serves in humiliation and lowliness.
So, in answer to the question, ‘Who is Jesus and why did they not believe in Him?’, John says Jesus is both the Suffering Servant foreseen by Isaiah (Isaiah 53) and the Lord triumphant in glory and lifted up on the throne (Isaiah 6). It is precisely this combination of suffering and glory that served to hide the truth from the Jews. A truth that was hidden even from Jesus’ closest followers until they grasped it after His resurrection from death.
Glory flows from humiliation – a concept I daresay is just as difficult for us to grasp today.
