NOTES for Joh 6:40-44
Why does Jesus say that on the last day, that is, on the day of Judgment, it is He who will raise those who believe in Him, and that this is the Father’s will? What, then, will happen to everyone else? Will they not rise at all? Or does the former order remain for them, so that God Himself will raise them? It would hardly be possible, of course, to think that the resurrection will affect Christians alone. It seems more likely that those who have established a special relationship with the Messiah sent by God will preserve that relationship until the very day of Judgment. Indeed, everyone who shares one life with Christ participates in the Kingdom that He brought into the world. The Kingdom is revealed in its fullness only on the last day; until then, although it abides in the world, it remains partially hidden, so that even those who participate in its life see it only in part. It is not surprising that Christians also come to the Judgment differently from everyone else: they come as inhabitants of the Kingdom, for whom the One who brought this Kingdom into the world can vouch. The likelihood of a favorable outcome of the Judgment naturally rises sharply in such a case. Does this mean that God has a kind of privileged community at the Judgment? On the one hand, one could say yes. But where do the privileges of its members come from, and why do they have them? Jesus answers this question: no one will come to Him, into His Kingdom, unless His Father leads the seeker there. This is not about predestination or about a person’s path being decided beforehand in such a way that it cannot be changed. Jesus says nothing about the criteria by which the Father is guided when He shows the path to Christ and the Kingdom to those to whom He shows it. It is quite possible that a person’s choice and persistence on the chosen path play, if not a decisive, then at least a substantial role. The point is that a person’s choice alone is not enough: a special revelation is needed to see the Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth. If the seeker is ready, God can give such a revelation, and then the Kingdom will open before him. In the Kingdom he will find a new life, new relationships with God, and also Judgment: for every face-to-face encounter with God inevitably becomes for a person not only revelation and joy, but also a moment of truth and therefore Judgment. It is not surprising that on the day of Judgment the inhabitants of the Kingdom find themselves in a special position: by that time God will already have had many occasions to test and try them, and they will truly have had time to become His own. The last Judgment will therefore be less frightening for them than for those who had previously tried to flee from God, from Judgment, and from the Kingdom alike.