The Gospel of John · Day 12 of 21
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Today's reading
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
John 12 is a chapter of arrivals and farewells, of things coming into focus and things slipping away. Six days before the Passover, Mary of Bethany, the same woman who sat at Jesus' feet while her sister fretted, takes a pound of expensive ointment and anoints His feet, wiping them with her hair. The house fills with fragrance. Judas objects on the grounds of economy. Jesus defends her: she has done this for His burial, He says. She may not have fully understood what she was doing, but love had given her a kind of knowing that calculation never could.
Then comes the triumphal entry, the crowd waving palm branches, shouting "Hosanna," spreading their coats on the road. It looks like a coronation. And it is one, just not the kind anyone expects. The disciples themselves, John tells us, did not understand what was happening until after the resurrection. We rarely recognize the most important moments while we are living inside them.
Then some Greeks come to Philip with a simple request: "Sir, we would see Jesus" (John 12:21). It is one of the most quietly profound lines in the Gospel. These are Gentiles, outsiders, people who had no ancestral claim on the promises of Israel, and they want to see Jesus. Their arrival seems to trigger something in Him. He announces, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified" (John 12:23). He speaks of a grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die before it can bear fruit. He is talking about Himself. He is talking about us.
Then He prays aloud, and the Father answers from heaven with a voice like thunder, and the crowd is divided over what they heard. Some say an angel spoke; others heard only noise. The same sound, heard differently, depending on the ear that receives it. Jesus says, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:31-32). The cross is not defeat dressed up as victory. It is the actual victory. Today, let that lifting up draw you closer.
Pause & reflect
Mary anointed Jesus extravagantly while Judas calculated the cost. In your own relationship with Jesus, do you tend more toward Mary's abandon or Judas's ledger, and what might that reveal about where your heart truly is?
Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it bears no fruit. Is there something in your own life, a plan, a comfort, an identity, that God may be asking you to release so that something greater can grow?
The Greeks simply said, 'We would see Jesus.' As you go through this day, what is one practical way you can create space, in your schedule, your attention, your conversation, to actually see Jesus more clearly?
A prayer for today
Lord, I come today with the same request as those Greeks: I would see Jesus. Draw me to the cross, to the One who was lifted up, and let that drawing go all the way down to the roots of who I am. I offer You whatever grain of wheat You are asking me to surrender, trusting that You make all things fruitful in Your time.