The crowd in John 12 is waving palm branches because they seek the fulfillment of the scene depicted in the passage they quote, Psalm 118:25–26. There the conquering king of Israel is welcomed into the city by a crowd shouting hosanna (“Save us, we pray”), blessing him because he comes in the name of Yahweh.
How long had Israel yearned for the promised Redeemer? Adam and Eve were told of the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). Noah’s father named him in a manner showing he was looking for a rollback of the curse of painful toil (Gen. 5:29; cf. 3:17–19). Abraham was told that kings would come from him (Gen. 17:6). Moses recorded the oracle of Balaam concerning the scepter and the star (Num. 24:17). David was promised that his seed would sit on the throne forever (2 Sam. 7:1–14). The line of Davidic kings on the throne ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, yet at the return from exile there were hopes for a scion of David. God’s people had been waiting for millennia for this moment.
The crowd in John 12 is attracted to Jesus partly because of the raising of Lazarus (v. 9). They understand what Jesus can do, and they rightly apply Psalm 118:25–26 to him (John 12:13). Jesus also understands the situation, understands what the crowd is doing, and understands the OT. He deliberately enacts the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9–10 in John 12:14–15. His intentionality can be seen as John reports that, “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it” (v. 14).
The disciples did not fully understand what was happening. They believed Jesus was the Messiah. They believed he was the king from David’s line. They believed those OT texts were about him. They did not understand what was happening, however, because they did not know how Jesus would be “glorified,” that is, crucified (cf. 12:23–24, 27–28; 13:31–32; 17:1).
Notice that John asserts here in 12:16 that Psalm 118:25–26 and Zechariah 9:9–10 were “written about him”—that is, about Jesus—and that these things were “done to him,” that is, the fulfillments were enacted during Jesus’ Passion Week. Any Christian reading of the OT has to account for John’s statement that such passages from the OT were “written about him” (John 12:16). An apostle of Jesus, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is teaching followers of Jesus how to understand the OT.
John’s statement in verse 16 that these OT texts were written about Jesus is in keeping with Philip’s statement that Jesus was the one “of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote” (1:45) and with Jesus’ assertions that the Scriptures bear witness about him (5:39) and that Moses wrote of him (5:46). Understanding how these texts are about Jesus requires knowing how Jesus will be glorified, and it is significant that these references to Jesus’ being “glorified” use the same term found in the Greek translation of Isaiah 52:13 to describe the servant’s being lifted up and “glorified.” Jesus will be glorified by his crucifixion and resurrection, and, apart from those events, his disciples cannot understand the fulfillment of the OT. Nor can anyone else.
John narrates how the crowd that saw Lazarus raised continued to testify to Jesus (John 12:17–18) and how the Pharisees were again prompted to act in response to the growing popularity of Jesus (v. 19). John prefaces his depiction of “some Greeks” seeking Jesus (v. 20) with the Pharisees’ lament, “The world has gone after him” (v. 19; cf. also v. 32).
12:20–33 The Judgment of This World. In a scene reminiscent of the interactions between Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael in 1:40–49, some Greeks seek Jesus through Philip, who tells Andrew, and together Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. The Pharisees referenced the world’s going after Jesus in 12:19, and now apparently non-Jewish Greeks come to Jesus in verse 20.
In verse 14, Jesus found a donkey in order to fulfill Zechariah 9:9–10, and it does not seem he would have done so if the awaited hour were not at hand. Jesus knew Mary was anointing him for burial (John 12:7) and knew he was entering Jerusalem in provocative fashion (v. 14). So when Philip and Andrew tell him of the Greeks’ seeking him (v. 22), Jesus announces that the hour has come for him to be glorified (v. 23).
As Jesus continues to speak, the way in which he will be glorified comes into focus: he describes a grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying (v. 24); he says his soul is troubled (v. 27); and he speaks of himself being “lifted up” (v. 32). John explains in verse 33, “He said this to show [lit., “signifying”] by what kind of death he was going to die.” All of this means that Jesus will be glorified through his death on the cross.
How does the crucifixion of Jesus glorify him? In verse 24 he likens his death and resurrection and its results to a grain of wheat falling to the earth and dying, that it might bear fruit. If the grain of wheat does not die, no fruit comes. If Jesus does not die, no one will be saved. But if the grain of wheat dies, fruit results. The death of Jesus will result in salvation for the world.
As Jesus continues in verse 25, he makes plain the futility of a selfish approach to life: the one who loves his life loses it. When Jesus speaks of hating life in this world, he does not mean hating the goodness of God enjoyed in this world. After all, Jesus loved Lazarus, wept over his death, and restored him to life in this world (11:3, 33–36, 43–44). Jesus received Mary’s extravagant gift when she anointed him with pure nard (12:1–8). If Jesus does not mean that we should hate God’s goodness in this world, what does he mean?
We must understand the last phrase in the statement, “Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (v. 25). The word “keep” carries connotations of possessing or retaining eternal life, as though we must hate life in this world if we want to have eternal life in the next. The Greek word used here, however, is less about keeping in the sense of having or retaining and more about keeping in the sense of protecting or guarding. The one who loses his life because he loves his life is the one who lives as though life in this world is ultimate and therefore is to be protected, retained, and maximized as one’s fundamental purpose. By contrast, the one who guards himself for eternal life by hating his life in this world is the one who sees his life in this world as being like a grain of wheat that has to fall into the ground and die so that it can bear fruit in the resurrection.
Guarding oneself for eternal life, therefore, means protecting oneself against the temptation to think and live as though this life is all there is. If we think this life is all there is, we will not want to lay down our life for other people. When Jesus speaks of the need of those who would serve him to follow him (v. 26), he means that, just as he will be a grain of wheat that dies to bear fruit (vv. 23–24), so must his followers be (vv. 25–26). We do not lay down our lives in a fatalistic way, as though our death was the end of all experience. We lay down our lives because we are guarding them for eternal life.
Jesus continues in this vein when he speaks in verse 26 of how those who would serve him must follow him. Jesus lives to die because he dies to live. He is guarding his own life for eternal life and is thereby opening the way to eternal life for others. Living to die and dying to live ensures that we are following Jesus and ensures that we will be where Jesus is because we are serving him. The Father will honor those who serve Jesus (v. 26).
No one should be glib about how easy it is to lay down one’s life. It troubled even the soul of Jesus, as we see from his first words in verse 27. Jesus explains that he will not seek the Father’s deliverance from the hour of his death—and the excruciating pain it will involve—on behalf of others, for his very purpose in life was to arrive at that hour and be slain for others.
Because Jesus knows why he has come, he prays as he faces death for the Father to glorify his own name (v. 28). He does not pray to be delivered from making the sacrifice. Rather, he prays that the Father would be glorified in the way that Jesus makes his sacrifice, in the way he conducts himself, in the way he endures.
The Father answers the prayer of Jesus in verse 28, asserting that he has glorified his name, and will do so again. John records the crowd’s varied response to the voice of the Father (v. 29), and then presents Jesus’ explanation that the audible sound was for the benefit of the crowd, not for him (v. 30). This implies that Jesus knew what the Father’s reply would be (cf. 11:41–42).
Among the reasons why life in this world is not to be loved as an end in itself (12:25) are the facts that this world is broken because of sin and that dominion over the world has been usurped by Satan. Jesus speaks to this in verse 31 when he says that, at his cross, the world will be judged. The cross of Christ judges the world as it condemns the world’s sin, showing how awful sin is—so awful that nothing less than the death of the second person of the Trinity could pave the way to salvation from sin. The cross of Christ judges the world because it exposes the selfishness of the world, showing how the world was made to be a place where people unselfishly lay down their own desires for the benefit of others. The cross of Christ also judges the world because it condemns worldly ways and brings an end to Satan’s dominion over the world, showing that Satan’s usurpation and rebellion will not succeed against the Almighty.
Jesus articulates this when he asserts that the ruler of this world will be cast out (v. 31). Jesus unseats the usurper by showing that he is the one who will give himself for others, exposing and condemning the selfishness of Satan, breaking his fierce power, and piercing the darkness with the light of his self-giving love.
The Greeks came to Jesus in verses 20–22, and Jesus responded by declaring the hour had come for him to be glorified (v. 23), using a term from the Greek translation of Isaiah 52:13. Now Jesus uses another term from the Greek translation of Isaiah 52:13 when he speaks in John 12:32 of his being “lifted up,” going on to say that when he is lifted up, all men will be drawn to him. The background to the promise that all men will be drawn when Jesus is lifted up is also found in the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah 5:26 prophesies, “He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 11:10 declares, “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious,” and the next verse asserts, “In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains” (Isa. 11:11).
The Lord extended his hand the first time at the exodus to redeem Israel. The second time he extended his hand was at the new exodus, when Christ the Lamb of God died in a new and better passing-over of death so that his blood could cover his people, sheltering them from the avenger. The lifting up of Jesus at his crucifixion signals him as the prophesied root of Jesse, the sign and signal for the nations to inquire of him.