John 12:7-36

7 While facing the terrible ordeal of death our Lord found no fellowship with His disciples in the sorrows before Him. Like Peter, they could not entertain such a thought. But it seems that Mary alone, of all His friends, had learned to believe His words. She looked forward to His death and the tomb. Is it any wonder that she is first at the tomb on the resurrection morning and first to speak to the risen Christ?

12-19 Compare Mat_21:4-11; Mar_11:7-10. Luk_19:35-40.

13 See Psa_118:25-26.

15 See Zec_9:9.

21 Perhaps the surest index of the spiritual state and experience of believers is the way in which they use the name and titles of our Lord. The prevalent use of His personal name is shocking to the spiritual ear. Only His enemies and those unacquainted with Him, as these Greeks, addressed Him or spoke of Him familiarly by the name given Him at His birth. Those who knew Him and had learned to love Him always gave Him a title suited to the occasion. He was Teacher to His disciples, Adept, or Doctor, in reference to His wisdom, Lord or

Master to His slaves, and Christ or Messiah to His loyal subjects. To them He was Jesus the Christ, in humiliation. To us He is Christ Jesus, in glory. Surely it is a small thing for us to speak of Him as He deserves! Let us not degrade His high dignity by using His human name without at least one of the titles of His glory.

23 It seems that here we have a preview of the coming kingdom. He enters Jerusalem in triumph exactly, to a day, as foretold by Daniel the prophet (Dan_9:25). The indignant Pharisees acknowledge that the world went after Him, and even the Greeks seek His acquaintance, as the nations will come up to Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom. There is no intimation that the curiosity of the Greeks was satisfied. In the kingdom they will have their place, but before that, immediately athwart His path, is the death that will open the way for the blessing of all. The Greeks must wait until the grain of wheat has died.

24 The millennial vision fades away and gives place to the black shadows of Golgotha. The King has come, but they do not know Him. The kingdom proclamation is withdrawn. Death looms large ahead. The Wheat kernel must die. Only in resurrection can be realized the close unity with His own which He craved.

25 We fail to feel the force of this if we confound the soul with life. We could hardly say, in verse Joh_12:27, "Now is My life disturbed," yet it is the very same word. The soul has to do with sensation. Some forms of life, as plants, have no soul, or sensation. He who is fond of his soul will shrink from discomfort and suffering. He will not endure the affliction which precedes the kingdom. He will lose the joy and blessedness of the reward. He who hates his soul will not allow any sorrow to stand between him and faithfulness to God.

27 The Lord Himself is the first to hate His own soul. His darkest hour has come. Shall He shrink from its horrors? No! Let God's name be glorified whatever the bitter cost! The rendering "life", in place of "soul", fails to give the true thought. A man may love life, yet hate his soul. Those who fear persecution and distress for Christ's sake are fond of their souls, and they will forfeit the very ease and delight which they crave, when the kingdom comes.

31.'Now is the judging of this world" suggests that God was, at that time, about to judge mankind. But He did not. Judgment still waits. It is the world that was doing the judging. This is confirmed by the same form of the word in "the judging of Gehenna" (Mat_23:33), "the just judging of God" (2Th_1:5). See also Rev_14:7; Rev_16:7; Rev_18:10; Rev_19:2. The world would hardly judge Satan, so the Chief here spoken of must be Christ Himself. This title is used again in Joh_14:30 and Joh_16:11, where further evidence is given that our Lord is speaking of Himself. The judging is His exaltation on the cross, for it was a reference to the manner of His death. So it was that the throng understood the term. We should not give one of His titles to Satan. Christ is the world's Chief.