NOTES for Joh 12:32

"And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself." Strange words. John goes on to explain that this is about Jesus' Death, not about the Ascension. The word "draw" can be understood in very different ways, and both meanings are probably important. It can be understood as an expression of love. The Cross is the ultimate expression of God's love: God loves us unto death, even death on a cross. With these words Jesus in effect says to us: "I will draw you to Myself by My love, embrace you, take you by the hand, and lead you to the Father."

On the other hand, until Christ's Second Coming, while time has not ended and we live on this earth and sin, there is no other path for us: we too must pass through the cross. Christ has redeemed us, and after the Cross there will be Resurrection. But the path to resurrection and eternal life lies through Golgotha, where we will never be alone - Jesus will be beside us.

Today's reading offers another testimony by Jesus about Himself, the Father and the Kingdom. It is interesting to note that He gave it when He was told that some ‘Greeks’ wished to see Him (verses 20–22). This name was sometimes given to former pagans who had turned to the God of Abraham without accepting the Jewish religion in its entirety. The ancient prophets had already said that at the end of time, when the Messiah promised by God came, the remnant of God's people would be united in His Kingdom into one people with a remnant from among the pagans seeking true faith, who would acknowledge the God of Abraham and turn to Him. That is why Jesus points to the ‘Greeks’ coming to Him as another sign of the Kingdom's arrival (verse 23). At the same time, He testifies that His earthly ministry is drawing to a close, that the day is approaching which will of course bring Him nothing but suffering, but without which His messianic ministry will find neither completion nor fullness (verses 24–28). Here, for the first time, words about Jesus' coming death on the cross are spoken publicly, and more clearly than ever before (verses 29–33). They puzzle His listeners: even the great prophets of Israel say nothing about the Messiah's resurrection, and His death is mentioned only once, in the Book of Isaiah. Those around Him think Jesus is speaking not of Himself but of someone else (verse 34). But Jesus tells the people again that He is not what His own people expected to see: the true Messiah differs both from the Messiah of religious tradition and from the Messiah of popular lore. Jesus says: while God's light remains among you, make use of it; little time remains, and very soon you will be left in darkness, groping your way (verse 35). He calls His listeners to trust the light so that they may become children of light (verse 36). The evangelist explains what prevented many from believing: fear of persecution and unwillingness to see and hear what they did not want to see and hear (verses 37–43). Meanwhile, Jesus says something important about the Judgement believing Jews expected on the last day. He says: I came not to judge the world but so that those seeking the light could find it (verses 46–47). I have brought into the world, says Jesus, the fullness of life I received from the Father; My words are His words (verses 49–50). And it is the ‘word’, Jesus' testimony, that becomes judgement (verse 48). Indeed, no one who met Jesus face to face and heard His testimony about the Kingdom could remain indifferent. Everyone had to choose: either to accept that testimony wholeheartedly and follow Jesus into His Kingdom, or to reject it along with the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. On that choice depended what a person would become before God: an inhabitant of the Kingdom who had found the fullness of life, or an outcast condemned to death.

The Lord mysteriously tells us, His disciples: "The light is with you for a little while longer." Yes, of course, this refers to His imminent death on the cross, for the Word, like a grain of God's sowing, must die in order to bear fruit. And He died - of this, unlike His resurrection, no one doubts - and the light He brought into the world went out forever for the world.

But not for those who believed Him! He promised that those who believe in Him would be sons of light, bearers of this light revealed to the apostles in the Resurrection. And this is both a promise and a task: not to remain in darkness despite His death, obvious to all; to "walk in the light," that is, to live in His presence, believing that He is alive. Then His death, through us - and this is astonishing - will bear much fruit for the world and open access for all to the Kingdom of Light...

Jesus’ words that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified were spoken in response to the news brought by the disciples that the Greeks wished to see Him. The Evangelist mentions neither who these Greeks were nor whether the meeting took place; apparently, it did not. Most likely, this is one of the instances in which Christ does not give the answer expected of Him, but says what His listeners actually need to hear. It is possible that even at this moment the disciples do not fully understand that the Teacher must pass through suffering, and to them the Greeks’ interest is evidence of new opportunities for preaching. They think in quantitative terms, but Christ is preparing for the self-sacrifice that will change everything qualitatively. For the salvation of divided humanity, including the Greeks, He goes to His death, after which the disciples’ preaching will be able to succeed.

One might object to the words, “Now the ruler of this world will be cast out,” by saying that evil still reigns in the world today. But the forces of evil no longer possess the authority they had before Golgotha. The agony may be long and violent, but the enemy has already received the mortal blow.

There are turning points in human history that may remain outwardly unnoticed, yet still be the true cause of major historical events. When “some Greeks” ask the apostle Philip to arrange a meeting with Jesus, just such a turning point arrives, and the Lord says of it: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

The fact is that the entire history of the Old Testament religion unfolded amid a glaring contradiction between the universal character of the divine revelation given in it and the narrowly national character of the religion itself. To be a participant in the Covenant with God and to be a Jew by blood were regarded as one and the same thing. The prophets repeatedly proclaimed that the day would come when the Lord would call all nations to Himself, but this time was associated with the future coming of the Messiah. And now that day had arrived.

It is in this universal context that Christ’s words, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself,” should be understood. This is why the Greeks’ desire to meet Christ becomes such a turning point in history.

When the Greeks come to Jesus, they ask Philip for help. For some reason he goes to Andrew. It is hard to think the apostle was afraid to approach the Teacher himself. It is just as unlikely that Andrew was Christ's personal secretary, in charge of the Teacher's schedule. The matter is something quite different.

Something unusual is happening. For the first time, other peoples responding to Jesus' preaching are mentioned, even if they believe in the same God as the Jews. The community of Christ's disciples is encountering something new. And therefore Philip behaves very naturally: he does not hurry to act on his own. Jesus sent the apostles out to preach not one by one, but two by two (see Mark 6:7).

Who knows: perhaps Philip went to Andrew precisely because he was "paired" with him? Besides, Philip surely remembers how Christ said, "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them" (Matt 18:20).

The Lord lays the foundation of the Church in this way: not scattered believers, but disciples coming to Him together. When we do not understand what to do, when we want to know God's will, we should not rely exclusively on how we ourselves hear it. God has given us His Church to help us: He has given us elders, He has given us brothers and sisters with whom we can turn to Him together. And so His word is fulfilled: "If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven" (Matt 18:19).

When it comes to the Savior's earthly ministry, we understand that something unique is at issue: indeed, He alone was destined to be born and to live His earthly life as the Messiah; this was given to no one else. And yet His life became a kind of spiritual model suitable for every one of His followers. Moreover, there is simply no other model that allows one to enter the Kingdom, and apparently there cannot be, at least in our world that has undergone the fall.

This model is very simple in theory and not so simple in practice: a person must agree to part with his own life in order then to receive it again, but now as another life, in a new quality suitable for the Kingdom. The one who loves his life ("soul") as it is, in its present condition, cannot count on the Kingdom. The demand appears excessively harsh, but as we can see, this harshness is caused precisely by the specific nature of the fallen world, of which the life of each of us is a part. Even Jesus Himself, over whom original sin has no power, was not, during His earthly ministry, completely free from this specific nature: He, being fully and to the end an inhabitant of our untransformed world and part of it, became subject, if not to sin, then to death - though, of course, not in the same way as we are: death was possible for Him, not inevitable as it is for us.

And the only thing that can help us is readiness to renounce our life in its present quality, what Jesus calls "hating one's own life." It is worth remembering that in biblical language love and hatred denote not the emotional states we often mean by them, but an attitude of acceptance or nonacceptance toward that to which our will is directed. Nonacceptance of life, including first of all one's own life, in its present quality and state, and readiness to part with it for the sake of another, new life, constitute the necessary preliminary condition for beginning the path into the Kingdom: the path during which our former life will be remelted into a new one, fit for eternity.