Speak about him

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

SPEAK ABOUT HIM

John 12:37-41

37 Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"  39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: 40 "He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn — and I would heal them."   41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.

NIV

Although Jesus did so many miracles including raising Lazarus from the dead, people just would not believe in him. Is it any different today? It seems it does not matter how much we testify to the healing power of Jesus, or whatever else we say about him, there are always going to be people who refuse to believe in him. People just cannot see with their eyes, nor can they understand with their hearts the glory of Jesus. The most interesting truth in this narrative is not just the fact that Isaiah spoke about it years before, but that he saw Jesus’ glory. John records the words of Isaiah which we know as Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah was standing in the presence of God almighty and tells of the glory of ‘Adonaay’ and ‘Yehwah’ which are the two words Isaiah used to describe who he saw. It certainly appears God had inspired John to make the statement Isaiah saw Jesus, thus making it clear Jesus is Yehwah, Jesus is God in the flesh, as he started the whole of his gospel with. If Isaiah saw Jesus, before he came to earth and if his disciples saw Jesus while he was here, and Paul saw Jesus on that road after his resurrection and ascension, would it make sense that it is possible for us to see Jesus? Although we will read later in this gospel that Jesus tells his disciples they believe because they have seen him, but blessed are those who believe who have not seen him, it still is possible we could see the glory of Jesus. There have been records of people having a vision of Jesus. Of course we do not know if that is actually true or not, but it could be. What hinders us from seeing the glory of Jesus? Is it our lack of belief? It is because Jesus does not want us to see him, that he desires us to believe simply on faith? Yet we have witnessed and experienced miracle after miracle, material, physical and spiritual and thus we could say we have seen the glory of Jesus, seated high and lifted up. Some of us have actually heard the voice of God, or perhaps it was the voice of Jesus, or the Spirit, which are all one, telling us we are healed, or this is where you are to live, as this man has. Even if we have never heard his voice or experienced his miracles in our life we can see the glory of Jesus all around us, if we just looked at his creation. We can be like Isaiah in that as we see his glory, we can speak about him.