Reasons for Unbelief (John 12:30-42)

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” [Isaiah 53:1]

39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” [Isaiah 6:10]

41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

That Jesus “hid himself from them” indicates the end of his public teaching from his unbelieving detractors. Chapters 13-18 all occur in privacy with his closest of disciples and exclude the people who do not believe in him, except, arguably, Judas Iscariot. John proceeds to give two reasons for their unbelief using passages from Isaiah.

First, they reject Jesus because God has willed it. John cites Isaiah 6:10 and 53:1 as indicated in the text. Following Jesus’ explanation of the Son of Man being lifted up (12:32), Isaiah 53:1 is apropos. In this Servant passage—the Suffering Servant appears several times in Isaiah and pre-figures Christ prophetically—the sufferer is lifted up and highly exalted (Isaiah 12:13). In the latter passage God warns the prophet that the result of his preaching will be the hardening of the hearts of the people, exactly what is happening to Jesus. Some say this sounds like extreme predestinarianism, the meddling of God in human affairs to effect his desired outcome. John Stott explains, “God is not excluded from the response people make to his claims upon them. As he acts in grace to enable and support the faith of those who believe, so he acts to confirm judicially the rejection of those who choose the path of unbelief. This does not, for John, eliminate human responsibility, as his repeated references through the gospel to the challenge of faith indicate, among which Jesus’ appeal for faith in this passage is a particularly clear example. . . . Finally, as John goes on to show, God will use this very rejection to fulfil his purposes of Salvation (20:30). More specifically, since Isaiah “saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (v. 41), the rejection of Jesus by Israel was foretold in these Old Testament passages, and so is not outside God’s eternal purpose."

If you want to know what Isaiah saw 500 years before the birth of Jesus, you should read Isaiah 6:1-10. Here Isaiah sees the pre-incarnate Jesus as part of the divine glory, possibly foreshadowed in the sacrifice on the altar by which Isaiah was cleansed. John never has confined Jesus to his earthly mission, calling him the Word from the beginning who reveals the glory of “the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (1:1 and 18).

The second issue for unbelief is the fear of the Jewish leadership. Perhaps John is thinking of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who will enter the stage in a few chapters. While they believed in Jesus, they did not want to be expelled from the synagogue. They loved the praises of men more than of God. It will prove to be the horror of the crucifixion that finally brings these two men to turn fully to Jesus and “own him” in his death. Unlike all who seek the praises of men, Jesus remained committed to the Father in all things, even death on a cross.

Lord Jesus, when we put the praises of men before our commitment to you, correct us. When we begin to lose focus on you, meddle in our lives through your Spirit, convict us of our sins, and move us back to you. We confess our weakness even as we claim our loyalty to you, knowing that without you we are nothing and that with you we are everything because of you. Amen.