Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• Immediately following this passage, in verse 19, the Pharisees made an unwitting prediction confirming the promise made in John 3:16-17, that Jesus had come to save the whole world. This passage starts with the arrival of “Greeks” (Hellenes) which should be distinguished from Greek-speaking Jews (Hellenistai). The fact that they have made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover means they well have been Greek proselytes, but the point the writer of John was making was that non-Jews, representatives of the Gentile world, are now coming to see Jesus.
• The role of Philip and Andrew echo their role in the beginning of the Gospel. In John 1:39-40, Jesus called Andrew to “come and see.” And in 1:43-46, Jesus found Philip, and then Philip found Nathanael with the same “come and see” invitation. Now in chapter 12, the first Jewish disciples respond to the first Gentile disciples request to “see” Jesus, which could also be read as a request by the Greeks to become disciples of Jesus.
• Verse 23 marks the turning point in John’s Gospel. Up until here, Jesus said his hour had “not yet come.” From here on, now that “The hour has come,” Jesus will begin a direct journey to the cross. The arrival of the Greeks is the final piece, a foretelling of the church’s future mission to the Gentiles and the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s promise.
• While agrarian metaphors are common in the synoptics, John’s Gospel is doing something different in verse 24. Throughout John’s Gospel, “fruit” is a metaphor for the life of the community of faith (15:1-8 is a good example of this). The only way for the “fruit” to grow, per this metaphor and the more specifically stated in v. 32, is for Jesus to die.
• Verse 25 is John’s version of one of the best-attested sayings of Jesus (see also Matthew 10:39; 16:25; Mark 10:39; Luke 9:24; 17:33). While all of these have the same basic pattern, in John the word “life” (psyche) is the same one used by Jesus to describe his gift of life (see the Good Shepherd discourse, 10:11, 15, 17).
• Verse 26 also echoes a well-known synoptic saying (Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27). While the synoptics contain only a condition for following Jesus (“taking up one’s cross”), in John there is both condition (“whoever serves me must follow me”) and promise (“where I am, there my servant will be” and “Whoever serves me, the Father will honor”). This promise is made more fully in the Farewell Discourse, that Jesus and the believer will be together forever.
• Verse 27 echoes the Gethsemane agony scene of Mark 14:32-42, but considering how in control of the passion story Jesus is in John, there is no reason to assume that is the reference. Rather, this is probably an ironic play on the tradition of Jesus’ agony at death. For John, the focus is on the urgency and immediacy of the hour.
• The words of “agony” in v. 27 allude to Psalm 42:5, 11 (“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help”). The reference to Psalm 42 helps build the irony, because Psalm 42 is an affirmation of the psalmist’s trust in God. The first prayer, framed as a question (“and why should I say”) is never prayed by Jesus. The true prayer of the section is the second (“Father, glorify your name”). All of these are examples of how John’s Gospel takes traditional material and reshapes it to fit John’s understanding that Jesus’ ultimate purpose of ministry was to die.
• Verse 29 is often framed as the crowd not understanding what was unfolding. But thunder was commonly viewed as the voice of God, and angels were traditionally understood as messengers. So it seems the crowd understood at some level they were witnesses to a revelation of the divine, but not the whole scope of God’s presence in the relationship with Jesus.
• Verse 32 is the third prediction of “lifting up” (3:14; 8:28). Once again there is a double meaning at play, both his being lifted up on a cross, and being lifted up to glory, an act that will lead to the universal salvation of all.
• The most common understanding of the purpose of Jesus’ death in the North American tradition is as a sacrifice or a payment for humanity’s sin. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ death is both necessary and life-giving not as a ransom or sacrifice, but because it reveals the power and promise of God’s love to the world.
Works Sourced:
O’ Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
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