One Died that All May Live
The Eschatology of John Part 5: An Overview of John Part 4
Read the first article in this series here:
Read the previous article in this series here:
Before we begin this study on the death of Jesus, let’s start with a prayer.
God, as we talk about the death of your Son, I pray that the seriousness of this discussion isn’t forgotten. I pray that we can leave behind any labels, theories, or preferred interpretations and just stand in awe together at the foot of the cross as your children. God, you revealed your love to us in ways that we cannot understand though we might try. I pray that this study will be a reflection of that love and how it has transformed my life. May your life-giving Spirit whom you have poured out into our hearts reveal to us new ways that you love us each day. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.
We’ve talked about the incarnation, the signs in John, and the teaching of Jesus, but now we come to the pinnacle of Jesus’s revelation of God: the cross and resurrection. The hour has come. Jesus will glorify the Father through his humble obedience. He will lay down his life—no one will take it from him. And through this he draws all people to himself.
Last week when Laura was in the hospital following her car accident (she is fine besides some soreness), I took the time to read through the Gospel of John and take note of any passages alluding to Jesus’s death. We won’t be going through each of those, but we will look at three categories of passages: (1) passages that speak of Jesus glorifying God, (2) passages that mention Jesus being lifted up, and (3) a prediction of Jesus’s death from the high priest.
Notably, we are leaving out Jesus’s expression “I am going away,” but I think this will be more appropriate to discuss in the eschatology section of this study on John.
The Glory of the Cross
The Meaning of Glory
The Greek word doxa (glory) is used nineteen times in the book of John. This word is used to describe the glory of the Father, glory from humans, and the glory of Jesus. John sees no difference in the glory of the Father and the glory of Jesus:
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
The Hebrews writer likewise says, “He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3a).
But what is glory? One lexicon (BDAG) offers several definitions including brightness, magnificence, honorable, and majestic.
Jesus revealed God’s glory through his incarnation, teaching, and signs, but the chief way through which Jesus glorified God was through the cross.
Of the nineteen mentions of glory in John, only about five of them refer to Jesus’s death; however, when we take into consideration the verb “glorify” the number increases dramatically.
Glory in John 7 and 12
To begin, in John 7, Jesus offered the river of life to his disciples, but John clarified what he meant by adding “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive, for as yet there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). The Spirit would only come when Jesus would “go away,” and as we will see, this referred to Jesus’s death, not his ascension (John 20:22).
In John 12:23-33, Jesus makes an extended comment on the glory of the cross. I’ll paste it here for you with a few comments here and there:
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
The “hour” in John is John’s way of talking about Jesus’s death. See John 2:4 and John 7:30
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.
Jesus’s point here is that his death will create many sons and daughters of God. If Jesus doesn’t die, he would be the only “Son of God.” Unlike other emperors and kings who retain this title for themselves, Jesus’s willing death “brings many children to glory” and and through it he becomes “the firstborn within a large family” (Hebrews 2:10; Romans 8:29).
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
This line is similar to one found in the synoptics in which Jesus invites his disciples to take up their cross and be willing to lose their own lives (e.g. Matthew 16:24-26).
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.
Where is Jesus? In John 17, Jesus said “I am no longer in the world” because “I am coming to you” (John 17:11).
Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”
The cross was not a mistake or an unforeseen event. Jesus had the power to lay down his life and take it up again (John 10:17-18).
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. John 12:23–33
Through glorifying God in the cross, Jesus judged “the world” and "the ruler of this world.” I think this is analogous to the “binding of the adversary” in Revelation 20. The cross revealed the futility of both the empire and the religion married to the empire.
Following this teaching of Jesus, the people express confusion which John interprets as fulfilling Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 56. Isaiah 53 had already been alluded to once by John in chapter 1 when John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
John then explained,
Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him. Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God. John 12:41–43
This last line jumped out at me when I was reading through this text in preparation for this article.
Remember what Jesus said earlier in this passage: those who seek to save their lives will lose it. Human glory is found in survival, in power, and in inclusion in the acceptable social circles. The glory that comes from God requires sacrifice, death, and then and only then resurrection.
Glory in John 13
Next we come to another prediction of Jesus’s death in John 13. This one further explains where and when Jesus was “going away.”
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ John 13:31–33
The hour had come. Judas had left the supper to go out and betray Jesus. Jesus was about to go away, and the disciples couldn’t follow at this time. Peter wanted to know exactly what all this meant, so Jesus explained further:
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times. John 13:36–38
The disciples would betray Jesus, but they would return to him after his resurrection. His death would produce much fruit.
The disciples would indeed lay down their lives for Jesus but not in the way they thought. Instead of dying as revolutionaries, they would die as sheep led to the slaughter, as Peter later learned and discussed in his own letters (1 Peter 2:21).
Glory in John 17
Now we come to Jesus’s prayer for his disciples in John 17. Jesus’s first words in this prayer set the tone for the rest of the chapter: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1).
Mutual glorification and mutual indwelling are common themes in John. The Son glorifies the Father, and the Father glorifies the Son. Similarly, the Son dwells in the Father just as the Father dwells in the Son. You and I enter into this relationship through the Spirit. John 17:22 explains that Jesus gives this glory to the disciples.
And why did Jesus glorify God through the cross? It really comes down to one major reason: “to give eternal life” which he defines as knowing God (John 17:3).
One again, John emphasizes knowledge of God, which is more than head knowledge. John wants to reveal Jesus so that we might have a relationship with the Father. Thus, Jesus is the “Way” to the Father.
To do this, though, John had to show us that Jesus, who explains God, would rather die than succumb to the people’s popular view of God and the Messiah.
Jesus could only glorify God if he finished the work that God gave him to do:
I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. John 17:4–5
Entering into the depth of suffering wasn’t a way of God abandoning Jesus or being separated from Jesus; instead, it was the ultimate expression of God’s love. As Jesus said just a few verses before this, “The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered…and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me” (John 16:32).
The Father was with Jesus in his rejection and suffering because that is who God is and always has been.
The cross is not something Jesus faced apart from the Father. Instead, Jesus insisted over and over that when he “went away” it would be to go to the Father. Jesus would be glorified “in your own presence.”
This glorification didn’t come after the cross at some point; it came when, at the pinnacle of his suffering, Jesus cried out, “It is finished” and gave up his spirit. Jesus was going away, and while the disciples would have momentary sadness, their sadness would be turned to joy at the resurrection.
Lifted Up
Three different times in John, Jesus predicted that he would be “lifted up.” These instances can be found in John 3:14, John 8:28, and John 12:32.
As Craig Keener points out in his biblical background commentary, the term “lifted up” is taken from the Septuagint version of Isaiah 52:13 which says, “See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be very high” (Isaiah 52:13).
We’ve already noted how Isaiah 53 is used in other places in John, including the context of the “lifted up” passage in John 12:32, so this connection makes sense and is more than just similar language.
The “kind of death” Jesus was to die was crucifixion (John 12:34). This physical lifting up of the Messiah was the means by which Jesus returned to the Father. It was not, as the ruler of the world intended, to be Jesus’s downfall or shame.
That One Should Die for the Nation
Following Lazarus’s resurrection, the leaders of the people didn’t know what to do. Jesus was obviously a teacher who came from God. For the leaders, though, there was a major problem as stated in John 11:48:
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” John 11:48
This fear was not unwarranted. As Gamaliel pointed out in Acts 5, there had been other revolutionaries who had led factions of people in rebellion against Rome, and these were all killed, and their movements dissolved (Acts 5:34-39).
The difference between these other usurpers and Jesus was obvious: Jesus clearly came from God.
Since his followers were growing by the day, it was only a matter of time before they caught the attention of Rome. From the leaders’ perspective, nothing would stop Rome from finally destroying both the temple and the people.
Caiaphas’s response has two meanings: one understood by the leaders and one understood by the reader.
The Political Sacrifice of Jesus
You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed. John 11:50
If Jesus’s ministry really would bring on the wrath of Rome, then it would be better to kill this man, even if he was from God, in order to save the whole nation and to preserve their current arrangement. By scapegoating Jesus, they could delay the inevitable. Jesus’s death would be like a healing ointment that would soothe the wound of the empire that various zealots had festered.
But this approach to sacrifice as appeasement can never take away sins, as the Hebrews writer explained in Hebrews 10. This kind of sacrifice has to be offered continually in order for it to be effective because people sin year by year.
Thus, not only was Jesus offered up on the altar of the empire, but his followers were as well. Stephen was killed because of the threat he was perceived to be to the holy place, Law, and customs (Acts 6:13-14). Paul was likewise persecuted because he was thought to be “teaching everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place” (Acts 21:28).
After these events, Paul contemplated that he was “completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Colossians 1:24). That is, the death of the saints may have been a way for those in power to appease Rome, but they were actually “filling up the measure of sin” and would soon meet their inevitable end by the very one to whom they pledged their allegiance at the foot of the cross (John 19:15).
The nation would be saved by the death of Jesus, but unless they realized the true significance of his death, this physical salvation would only be temporary.
The Religious Sacrifice of Jesus
He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. John 11:51–52
Here John reveals the true meaning of the high priest’s words—a meaning he nor anyone else understood until after Jesus’s resurrection.
Through death, Jesus would “draw all people” unto himself. Instead of being a victory of the state or the religious establishment, Jesus’s death was the moment of his glorification. It is what he came to do.
Through death, he judged the ruler of this earth, released his people from the fear of death, and kickstarted the new creation—a theme we will explore in the next article.
The significance of Jesus’s death wasn’t the physical preservation of the nation but the transformation of the nation. Through death, Jesus would bring eternal life, salvation, and freedom to “whosoever will.”
We’ll end here on a line from Gerald Borchert, author of the New American Commentary on John:
But the reader of John must not skip over the death of Jesus too quickly. This evangelist took the death of Jesus seriously because it was in the death of the Son that God revealed most clearly the loving purpose of the divinely initiated work of salvation.1
If you want this series to continue, please like, comment, or message me to let me know of your continued interest. Also, ask questions, point out typos, and engage in kind discussion.
Borchert, Gerald L. John 1–11. Vol. 25A. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996. Print. The New American Commentary.
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