God's Commandment is Eternal Life (John 12, Lent 5B)

In John 12, Jesus suddenly becomes aware that the hour has come for his glorification (on the cross!).  Unfortunately for the Greeks that have come to see Jesus (John 12.20), Jesus never gets around to seeing them. But Jesus begins his final revelation, and perhaps these Greeks get to see Jesus more clearly than we might think. Jesus speaks of grains of wheat dying and rising, of walking in the Light while it is still present, of his own lifter up death.

But the rest of John 12 never makes an appearance in our lectionary. We miss this:

After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them. ³⁷Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. ³⁸This was to fulfil the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

‘Lord, who has believed our message,

   and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’

³⁹And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said,

⁴⁰ ‘He has blinded their eyes

   and hardened their heart,

so that they might not look with their eyes,

   and understand with their heart and turn—

   and I would heal them.’

⁴¹Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him. ⁴²Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; ⁴³for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God.

44 Then Jesus cried aloud: ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. ⁴⁵And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. ⁴⁶I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. ⁴⁷I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, ⁴⁹for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. ⁵⁰And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.’

It's all beautiful, of course, but the part that jumps out to me is the last paragraph. Jesus echoes John 3.17 - God desires not to judge but to save the world! Yet, Jesus continues to speak about judgement, saying that his word will serve as judge. 

But what is this word? God's commandment, Jesus reveals, is rather simple - Eternal Life. Ok, perhaps not so simple. What does it mean that God's commandment is eternal life? Is this a teaching that believers must accept? Is this some secret wisdom?

Or, do we remember that Jesus has just heard a voice from heaven (12.28) saying that God has glorified Jesus and will glorify him again. The commandment of eternal life, it seems, has less to do with what people come to believe and more to do with death and resurrection. God's commandment of eternal life is about to be lived out (died out?) by Jesus. This eternal life is one of dying and rising. This eternal life is being connected forever to Jesus' mighty act upon the cross and his rising for us and the world. 

The cross is "the judgement of this world; [when] the ruler of this world will be driven out" (John 12.31). God's judgement is condemnation for the ruler of the world, but eternal life for us.

Keep your eyes, dear people, on this Judge.

If you're curious about that odd phrasing that Jesus "cried aloud" (12.44) check where else that occurs in John's Gospel. Something important is always afoot when Jesus "cries out."

Image: Hartman, Craig W.. Cathedral of Christ the Light, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54202 [retrieved March 20, 2024]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sicarr/3251258111/.