John 12:37-43 (NIV)
Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 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?”
For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “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.” Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
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; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
There were two groups of people that John identified in the crowds that were listening to Jesus. The first group was composed of the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders, who rejected Jesus in spite of the amazing miracles that He was continuing to do. John noted that their rejection of Jesus as Messiah and Lord was a direct fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah 53:1. Isaiah foresaw that, even though the news of the coming of the kingdom of God should have been a cause of great rejoicing, the hearts of many of God’s people would be so hardened and their necks so stiff, that they would not receive it.
The second prophecy is from Isaiah 6:10, and shows why they were rejecting the Messiah. The Pharisees in particular, and many of the other Jewish leaders in general, had developed a religion in which they believed it was possible to scale the heights to God’s throne by their own efforts. So, they rejected the idea that they needed an intermediary between them and God, or that they would need a better sacrifice than those they continually brought to the temple.
Because they were so secure in their own efforts to achieve godliness, and because they rejected God’s plan, He gave them over to their delusions. He closed their eyes so that they could not see and deadened their hearts so that they could not understand, although in their self-deceived state they believed themselves to be the most clear-eyed, wise people of the day.
The other group consisted of those whose hearts were drawn to follow Jesus. But far too many of them would not publicly proclaim their belief in Him because the Pharisees had sworn to oust from the synagogue any who believed Jesus to be the Messiah (John 9:22). The tragedy is that these were just as lost as those who outright rejected Jesus, because they chose to fear man rather than God, and they craved the praise that came from people rather than the praise that comes only from God to those who are obedient.
Father, we can easily fall into those same two traps today. It is absolutely possible (and clearly evident in some places) for us to build ourselves a “do it yourself” faith in which we strive to reach You in our own effort, to climb over the wall of the sheep pen instead of entering the one and only gate that You have provided (John 10:1-2, 7-8). And it is possible for even those of us who trust in Jesus to pull back and be silent instead of obedient because we fear the disapproval of those who would shame us for our belief. Protect us, Lord, from either of those grievous errors. Instead, help us to put our full faith in Jesus for salvation, and to fully obey Jesus and share the good news of the kingdom with everyone, whether that is approved of by those in authority or not. Amen.
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