Praise from who

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

PRAISE FROM WHO

John 12:37-43

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. 42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

NIV

It is interesting John makes this type of commentary on the state of man, quoting from the prophet Isaiah. There are just some people who are not going to believe. There are blinded, and their ears are deaf to the truth and their hearts are darkened. John uses the pronoun “He”, but the verses in Isaiah do not contain that pronoun. It sounds like it is the Lord who does this to the eyes, ears, and heart of these men, at least from the context. But want is puzzling in the last phrase, “and I would heal them”. So why would God blind them darken their eyes and hearts and if they turned he would heal them? We know the schemes of the evil one is just that, to blind people to the truth, to make their eyes and heart darken to the truth. He is the one who confuses people so they do not understand with their hearts and turn to the Lord and thus is healed from a life which leads to death. It is all about who has believed, as John started with. Who has believed the message and has been revealed the arm of the Lord? There were some, even among the leaders who believed the message, their eyes were opened, their ears were healed and their hearts saw the light and understood. Yet at the same time, they were still not able to make a complete full conversion, expressing their faith out loud. They were afraid of the earthly consequences of speaking up for Jesus. Here it is, where the rubber meets the road. They loved the praise of men more than the praise from God. It is one thing to become a believer, to be a Christian, to embrace the faith. It is entirely different to tell everyone we know that the truth about Jesus, the truth about heaven and hell and the only way to escape death, to have eternal life, to go to heaven is through faith in Jesus Christ, which means being born again. To believe in Jesus means to believe what he said, and he did tell Nicodemus in order for a person to enter heaven is to be born again. How many people have we told? Would we rather live to receive praise from them? “Job well done” “You’re really nice” “You did well” and all the kind of praise, all about us. Would it not be better to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? Who do we want praise from?