We Have Seen the LordExemplo

A Summary Proclamation

It is Tuesday of Holy Week. The John 12:44-50 passage signifies a crucial segue in Jesus’ life—a segue between His public ministry and His final days with His disciples, leading up to His crucifixion. Throughout His public ministry, Jesus reiterates that He is sent from the Father, signifying an intimate relationship, the very basis of His mission.

At this juncture in John’s Gospel, Jesus has already visited Bethany, where Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, anoints Him. Then, entering Jerusalem for the Passover in the Triumphal entry, Jesus predicts His death and resurrection. Yet, despite all of Jesus’ miraculous signs, many Jews vehemently oppose Him and desire to kill Him.

John 12:44-50 succinctly summarizes the main themes of Jesus’ entire life and ministry: (1) the Father sends Him, and (2) He is the light of the world, offering salvation to all who believe. In a summary proclamation, Jesus cries out in response to the Jews rejecting Him, declaring: “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness” (John 12:44-46).

Jesus emphatically reiterates what He has been saying all along—He is sent by the Father to provide salvation for the world. Applying the metaphor of light, Jesus declares again that He is the light of the world (cf., John 8:12). Those who do not believe in Him remain in darkness. By its very nature, light exposes the darkness. Jesus affirms that what He has said precisely reflects what the Father has told Him. Hence, rejecting Jesus and His teachings amounts to rejecting God Himself. Receiving Jesus leads to light and life, whereas rejecting Jesus leads to darkness and death.

Early Church Father John Chrysostom captures the significance of Jesus’ humility and obedience demonstrated in this passage: “In the first part of the gospel, which here closes, Jesus lives in complete obedience to the Father; in the second part, he will die in the same obedience.”

During this Holy Week, let us surrender ourselves afresh to God in humility and obedience as those Jesus is sending into the world to bear testimony of the light (cf., John 17:18).

Prayer

Father, in preparation for Easter, we thank You for sending Your Son into the world as the very embodiment of light, humility, and obedience. May the world know that You sent Jesus to dispel the darkness and extend the promise of salvation to all who believe. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, shine upon us; we pray so that the light of Christ may reflect in all that we think, say, and do and that the world may know that Jesus is the Savior of the world. In Jesus’ matchless name. Amen.

Diane J. Chandler, Ph.D., serves as an associate professor of Spiritual Formation for the Regent University School of Divinity.