John 12:15-40

¹⁵‘Fear not, people of Zion; Your king is coming to you, Sitting on the foal of an ass.’

¹⁶His disciples did not understand all this at first; but, when Jesus had been exalted, then they remembered that these things had been said of him in scripture, and that they had done these things for him.

¹⁷Meanwhile the people who were with him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, were telling what they had seen.

¹⁸This, indeed, was why the crowd met him — because people had heard that he had given this sign of his mission.

¹⁹So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing! Why, all the world has run after him!”

²⁰Among those who were going up to worship at the Festival were some Greeks,

²¹who went to Philip of Bethsaida in Galilee, and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

²²Philip went and told Andrew, and then together they went and told Jesus.

²³This was his reply — “The time has come for the Son of Man to be exalted.

²⁴In truth I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains solitary; but, if it dies, it becomes fruitful.

²⁵A person who loves their life loses it; while someone who hates their life in the present world will preserve it for eternal life.

²⁶If someone is ready to serve me, let them follow me; and where I am, there my servant will be also. If a person is ready to serve me, my Father will honor them.

²⁷Now I am distressed at heart and what can I say? Father, bring me safe through this hour — yet it was for this reason that I came to this hour —

²⁸Father, honor your own name.” At this there came a voice from heaven, which said, “I have already honored it, and I will honor it again.”

²⁹The crowd of bystanders, who heard the sound, said that it was thundering. Others said, “An angel has been speaking to him.”

³⁰“It was not for my sake that the voice came,” said Jesus, “but for yours.

³¹Now this world is on its trial. Now the Spirit that is ruling this world will be driven out;

³²and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

³³By these words he indicated what death he was destined to die.

³⁴“We,” replied the people, “have learned from the Law that the Christ is to remain for ever; how is it, then, that you say that the Son of Man must be ‘lifted up’ Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

³⁵“Only a little while longer,” answered Jesus, “will you have the light among you. Travel on while you have the light, so that darkness may not overtake you; he who travels in the darkness does not know where he is going.

³⁶While you still have the light, believe in the light, so that you may be children of light.” After he had said this, Jesus went away, and hid himself from them.

³⁷But, though Jesus had given so many signs of his mission before their eyes, they still did not believe in him,

³⁸in fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isaiah, where he says — ‘Lord, who has believed our teaching? And to whom has the might of the Lord been revealed?’

³⁹The reason why they were unable to believe is given by Isaiah elsewhere, in these words —

⁴⁰‘He has blinded their eyes, and blunted their mind, so that they should not see with their eyes, and perceive with their mind, and turn — And I should heal them.’