John 12:17-18

John 12:17-18. The multitude therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, bare witness. For this cause also the multitude went to meet him, because they heard that he had done this sign. These verses are not a returning to the story after a digression in John 12:16, nor a continuation of the narrative, as if the picture had not yet been complete. They are a recapitulation of two leading facts already mentioned, the first of which seems to be closely connected with the second (1) that many of ‘the Jews,' led to believe in Jesus by the miracle which they had seen (John 11:45), became now, like the disciples, themselves His witnesses; (2) that ‘the multitude,' although they had not seen the miracle, yet hearing of it, had also been led to faith and homage (John 12:12-15). At the same time, however, there is an important and instructive difference between the two acts thus referred to. The first proceeds from those who had been ‘with Him when He raised Lazarus from the dead;' the second from those who had not themselves been witnesses of the miracle, but had ‘ heard that He had done this sign.' The difference corresponds precisely to that alluded to in chap. John 20:29; and it thus forms an interesting illustration of the manner in which, throughout all this Gospel, the Evangelist seizes upon those aspects of events that bring out the great principles of which his mind is full. The correspondence appears still further in this, that the homage of those who 'did not see' is that of the second picture which, as always, is climactic to the first (comp. John 20:29); for the impression produced upon the mind of John by the second act of homage is not due to the simple circumstance that this multitude ‘went to meet' Jesus. It is due to the titles which they had ascribed to Him at John 12:13, the one expressing His peculiar Messianic distinction, the other rising to the highest point of Old Testament prophecy (comp. on John 1:49). It has only further to be noticed that the effects allude! to are connected with the miracle as a 'sign.' As such, embodying life in the midst of death, life triumphant over death, it draws out faith to a spectacle so glorious, to a Worker accomplishing so mighty a work.