Thursday [this week] with John – Named

John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”  When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.ESV

What is the general theme of the passage?
Jesus has come to this hour with a troubled soul and this prayer: “Father, glorify your name.”  The crowd has heard Jesus speak those words to His Father.  The voice of God responds in a shockwave of thunder to glorify His own name.  Those who’ve heard God’s answer understand He has glorified His name, in Jesus. People begin to respond to Jesus with more interest as He tells them the glory story of God’s plan to lift Him “up from the earth ”…to glorify God’s name, “again.” 

What does it say about God (or Jesus or the Holy Spirit?)
God speaks to confirm the glory of His own name — in Jesus.  Jesus has let God speak for Himself to the crowd.  The crowd has heard and now Jesus speaks for God. “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.”  He speaks as the Son of Man and the Light God has placed among them…to “draw all people to myself.”

What does it say about people?
Some hear and understand the voice of God in the thunder is His answer for them, as well as for Jesus.  It’s for their sake His name has been glorified in Jesus. 

Is there truth here for me?
Jesus having a troubled soul would probably not be on any list of His attributes.  It just seems too human. And it is. Jesus has made a deliberate choice to exempt Himself from all the rights of His identity as God in order to complete His identity as the Son of Man.  God in a rare verbal display, thunders His acknowledgment that He’s glorified His name in Jesus’s life and is prepared to glorify His name again in Jesus’s death.  Jesus’s willing choice, despite His troubled soul, is to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice of their Grace.  ”Therefore, He elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names^a His own.  

^aPhil 2:9