A Warning and a Call
Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Lord, who has believed our message,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said,
“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”
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 12:36-43
When Jesus called Isaiah into service as a prophet, He sent Isaiah out into the world to warn everyone about their blind condition. They were blind yet they thought they could see. Shortly before surrendering to authorities, Jesus looked at crowds and quoted the words He had spoken to Isaiah ages before. For us, here, today, His words are both a warning and a call. He warns regarding our propensity for blind hard-heartedness, and He calls us to recognize that others share our propensity so that we might, with kindness, mercy and compassion, share with them the good news of Christ Jesus.
Events rapidly escalated after Jesus raised Lazarus from the tomb. The size and fervor of crowds seeking and following Jesus grew rapidly; great crowds traveled to Bethany to meet Lazarus; and many came to believe in Jesus as Christ because of Lazarus’ story. As the number of Jewish people believing in Jesus multiplied, religious leaders urgently planned to stop what they saw as a threat to their authority, and they planned to kill both Jesus (see John 11:53) and Lazarus (see John 12:10).
Tremendous crowds followed Jesus as He rode a donkey into Jerusalem. Word spread that this was a sign that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. They had seen the miracles. They had heard about Lazarus. They had heard His teaching. And now they saw Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, another sign of the coming Messiah. So they welcomed Him as a king.
In response to their warm embrace, Jesus says, “Now my soul is troubled” (John 12:27). He knew the pain that rapidly approached, and He knew that He had come to earth to endure the pain, but His torment was much greater than that because He knew the eternal destiny of all the blind people in the crowd. His hour had come, yet many still failed to see.
Jesus says, “Father glorify your name” (John 12:28), and God responded audibly and the crowds heard His voice, and immediately after the exchange Jesus explained to the crowd that He would be “lifted up from the earth” (John 12:32). We may not readily understand what the words meant, but the crowd did. The crowd understood that Jesus was saying that He would be crucified, and we know this because the crowd immediately pondered the implication of His words – isn’t the Messiah supposed to live forever? How then can this man, who we thought to be the Messiah, say He is about to die?
In response to His words regarding His impending death, the crowds began to turn on Him. Their joyous welcome would soon turn to cries for His execution. Jesus left and hid from the crowd. John writes,
Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Lord, who has believed our message,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said,
“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”
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 12:36-43
John looks to the Messianic prophecy proclaimed in Isaiah 6, revealing that the crowd’s inability to believe was yet another fulfilment of prophecy. Please take a moment to consider Isaiah 6. It begins with God granting Isaiah an amazing heavenly vision. Isaiah sees the Lord sitting on a throne and angels attending above Him saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). Isaiah recalls the events like this:
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” And he said, “Go and say to this people:
‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’
Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed.”
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.
Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump. Isaiah 6:8-13
God’s holy word makes it clear that the Lord in Isaiah 6 is Christ Jesus (see John 12:36-43). Isaiah saw Christ Jesus’ glory; Isaiah spoke about Christ Jesus; and Christ Jesus gave Isaiah the prophecy regarding people’s inability to comprehend that Christ Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, the Christ, God. They hear the words but fail to understand. Their minds are simply unable to process the message.
Jesus was not surprised that people might see the miracles and hear His teaching yet fail to believe who He is. Long before He came to earth as a man, Jesus explained that many were unable to see, hear and understand during Isaiah’s day. Through God’s holy word we see that it continued to happen during Jesus’ ministry on earth, and we are left with the inescapable conclusion that it continues happening today. How long will this continue? Until the end of time.
This is our warning. We are warned to guard against our own blind hard-heartedness. Even as believers, with the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we veer toward rebellion. We must stay continually receptive to God’s holy word to discern and understand His teaching.
Most scholars believe the Book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers. Referring to Psalm 95, the writer of Hebrews says,
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors put me to the test,
though they had seen my works for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.’
As in my anger I swore,
‘They will not enter my rest.’”
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:7-13
Writing to brothers and sisters in Christ, the author clarifies the possibility of believers becoming hard-hearted and rebellious, turning away from God. We must each guard against evil, unbelieving rebellion entering our hearts, and recognizing the risk we each face, we should help each other along the way.
It is a warning and a call, within and outside the community of faith. We must recognize that many around us are unable to process His holy word, and with that in mind, we must be ready to help them understand because their lives depend on it.
Paul understands that most of the people he encounters are simply unable to process the message of the gospel because Satan blinds their minds (see 2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Paul understands that he is nothing, merely a clay jar, expendable and far from perfect, yet by God’s mercy he is God’s slave speaking God’s gospel to people who are only able to process the message if God opens their minds to hear. God calls His people, those within whom His glory shines and through whom His light shines, to be out in the dark world revealing His light, planting His seeds, sharing His gospel. We cannot save a single person, but God can, and by His mercy He engages each of us in His ministry. Paul writes,
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18
Our experience with Christ and His power within us cause us to act with boldness, explaining the good news of Christ Jesus to others because only through Him is the veil lifted. Apart from Christ we are unable to see the truth of the gospel, as if we view the world through a cloudy lens restricting our vision. Apart from Christ Jesus, none of us can see and we have no idea that we are blind, so God sends His people, those who have sight, to plant seeds of truth and serve as guides.
Discussing certain religious leaders of His day, Jesus says, “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14). Only through Christ Jesus is the veil removed. Through Christ Jesus, blind gain sight, deaf hear and hearts soften.
Paul continues writing,
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 2 Corinthians 4:3-5
May you have eyes to see, and when you see, help others around you.
Jesus calls each of us much in the same way He called Paul into service. When Paul was on trial before Agrippa, he testified about meeting Jesus while walking to Damascus. As part of his testimony Paul says,
I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ Acts 26:15-18
Jesus sent Paul as His slave to share His good news with an express purpose – “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). Paul could not save single person, but Jesus can, and Jesus sent Paul to testify about the things He saw and experienced through Christ Jesus so that Jesus might work through him.
He calls each of us in the same way. He calls each of us to recognize the darkness of the world, to recognize the condition of people we encounter, and to genuinely love them enough to demonstrate mercy, kindness, compassion and light, and to plant seeds of the hope we have in and through Christ Jesus so that they may see the light, so that through Christ Jesus the veil covering their view might be lifted and He will free them from bondage.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem on the donkey, His soul was troubled. Surrounded by joyous cries of the crowd, the welcoming song of “Hosanna!,” Jesus saw their blind hard-heartedness. Just as He sees the condition of our hearts, He saw theirs. The words Jesus spoke to Isaiah are both a warning and a call. He warns regarding our propensity for blind hard-heartedness, and He calls us to recognize that others share our propensity so that we might, with kindness, mercy and compassion, share with them the good news of Christ Jesus.
Go in peace. Amen.