Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, March 15, 2014 Read John 12:37-50 The final verses of chapter 12 serve as a summary of John’s gospel to this point and serve as a transition into the final days of Jesus’ life. What has the result of Jesus ministry been? Should we call it a success? We have faced this dilemma before. When Jesus was speaking of the meaning of the feeding of the 5000 and its connection with Holy Communion we learned that almost all of those who were fed and supposedly “believed” in Jesus abandoned him. Only a few, the twelve remained – and one of them would become the betrayer. We could have hoped for a better outcome. These verses reveal a similar outcome – Jesus need to “hide” himself. At the conclusion of the feeding miracle Jesus own brothers almost accuse him of doing the same thing – hiding himself instead of doing more spectacular works in hopes that more people will “believe” in him. John tells us in summary fashion that Jesus performed many signs but they did not believe. Once again, the issue of signs comes to the fore. What do signs do? They are ambiguous. They are no guarantee that belief will come. But that has been God’s experience throughout history. At this point John points to two passages from Isaiah – both are harsh in their description of God’s people. The first is from Isaiah 53:1 and the second from Isaiah 6:9-10. Interestingly the synoptic writers also point to this passage. Mark tells us the reason why Jesus tells parables is summed up in this passage from Isaiah 6 – so that people will not understand (Mark 4:10-12). And Luke tells us that at the end of Paul’s debate with the Jews in Rome he concludes that Isaiah was right in his judgment that this is a people who will not see or hear (Acts 28:23-29). The dreadful thing about these verses is that it seems God is the force behind the blindness. Or, is it simply that human beings will refuse to receive life on God’s terms? Once again John tells us that there were some who wanted to “believe” and some of them were even among the authorities but they were afraid of being put out of the synagogue so they were unwilling to believe because they loved human glory more than the glory the comes from God. Once again John is speaking as much or more to people of his own community than to the people at that time. There is one more proclamation of Jesus to end this chapter. This proclamation like so many others is highly theological in nature. Several of John’s themes are summed up. Jesus and the Father are one – to see Jesus is to see the Father. Jesus is the light of the world but people love darkness. Jesus has come not to judge the world but to save it – the judgment is really the work of those who refuse to come to the light. God’s desire is for all to come to eternal life. The stage is now set for the unfolding of the end – an end which will be the beginning for believers in Jesus.