John 12:27–33 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
As we continue in John 12 this Holy Week, we hear Jesus thinking out loud. Here is my paraphrase of what Jesus said:
“The time has come to do what I came here to do. Should I ask my Father and your Father to change His mind and let me off the hook? No! This is why I came, to accomplish the payment for the sins of the world so that anyone who wants it can be forgiven. I came to save, and this is how it will be done.”
Jesus was resolute about the task He had been given. He knew that by offering Himself, He was doing the will of His Father and reconciling the world to Himself. So He says,
“Father, glorify your name!” And the Father responds by saying, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” All the glory belongs to God because of who He is and what He has done and what He continues to do and what He will do for us all. The name of the one whose voice thundered on that day is glorified whether we say so or not, but those of us who have been led to faith in what Jesus did for us are happy to join with the heavenly host to affirm what they said at the birth of our Savior:
Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
The one born as one of us to be our substitute, the one who allowed Himself to be our sacrificial Lamb as payment for our iniquity, the one who conquered the prince of this world and death and the grave for all people is the one who was lifted up and wants to draw all men, all people, to Himself. Keep your eyes fixed on Him.
