The hour has come: the anointing, the entry and the end of the public ministry

The Gospel of John names no author. It says the disciple whom Jesus loved bore witness and wrote these things (21:24), and from the second century this disciple has been identified as John the son of Zebedee. Carson and Morris defend this, Richard Bauckham argues for John the Elder as the eyewitness, and others see a Johannine school. The usual date is about AD 85 to 95, with a minority arguing for an earlier one. John wrote so that readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life (20:31). Chapter 12 closes the first half of the Gospel, the public ministry, and its last verses (12:44-50) summarize Jesus' appeal before the private teaching to his disciples begins in chapter 13.

The chapter has three episodes that also appear in the Synoptic Gospels, each in a different form. The anointing at Bethany has parallels in Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13, where a woman anoints Jesus' head in the house of Simon the leper, and in Luke 7:36-50, where a sinful woman anoints his feet in the house of a Pharisee called Simon, at an earlier time. Many scholars hold that John 12 and Mark 14 describe the same event, with John naming Mary and Martha and Lazarus where Mark does not, and with Mark placing it later in the narrative for his own reasons. Others think there were two anointings. The entry into Jerusalem is told in all four Gospels (Mark 11:1-11; Matthew 21:1-11; Luke 19:28-44). John is the only one to mention palm branches, and he gives the shortest account of how the donkey was found. These agreements and differences belong to the synoptic problem. The most common solution is that Mark was written first and Matthew and Luke used it with a sayings source, while some scholars hold that John knew Mark or Luke and others that he wrote independently.

The date is given as six days before the Passover (12:1). John places the temple cleansing at the start of the ministry (2:13-22), where the Synoptics place it after the entry. The scene of the Greeks (12:20-22), the voice from heaven (12:28-30) and the summary of unbelief (12:37-43) have no Synoptic parallel, though 12:27 resembles the prayer at Gethsemane (Mark 14:34-36), which John does not otherwise record.

John 12 is a transition chapter. It gathers three scenes that look toward Jesus' death: the anointing for burial, the entry of the king, and the request of the Greeks that turns Jesus to speak of the hour. Each is told as a witness to who Jesus is and what he is about to do. The 'hour' of 12:23 is the turning point of the Gospel. Until now the hour has not yet come (2:4; 7:30; 8:20). In 12:23 and 12:27 it has.

The chapter is full of Old Testament citations, and John himself supplies them. He quotes Psalm 118:25-26 in the crowd's cry, Zechariah 9:9 for the donkey, Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10 for unbelief. He often says that the disciples understood these things only afterward (12:16). The reader should therefore keep two moments in view, what the crowd saw and what John, after the resurrection, understood.

Sayings such as the grain of wheat (12:24) and 'lifted up' (12:32) are figures that point to Jesus' death. Interpretation should take the images as they stand: a seed buried and fruitful, and a man raised up on a cross, which draws people. John adds his own note on how to take the second (12:33), and the reader need not guess.

Verses 1–8

Six days before the Passover Jesus comes to Bethany, where a dinner is given in his honor. Martha serves, Lazarus is at the table, and Mary takes a pound of expensive perfume, pure nard, anoints Jesus' feet and wipes them with her hair, so that the house is filled with the fragrance. Judas Iscariot objects that the perfume should have been sold for three hundred denarii (about a year's wages for a laborer) and given to the poor. John adds that he said this not because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and kept the money bag and helped himself. Jesus tells him to leave her alone, for she had kept it for the day of his burial. The poor will always be with them, but he will not always be. The saying echoes Deuteronomy 15:11, which commands open-handed generosity because the poor will never cease from the land. Jesus does not cancel that command. He says that this moment is unrepeatable.

Verses 9–11

A large crowd comes, not only for Jesus but to see Lazarus. The chief priests plan to kill Lazarus as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going over and believing in Jesus.

Verses 12–19

The next day, hearing that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem, the crowd takes palm branches and goes out to meet him, crying 'Hosanna!' and blessing the one who comes in the name of the LORD, the King of Israel (Psalm 118:25-26). Hosanna is a Hebrew cry that means 'save now' (Psalm 118:25). Palm branches were a sign of national celebration. Jesus finds a young donkey and sits on it, as it is written: Daughter of Zion is not to fear, because her king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt (Zechariah 9:9, in a shortened form). The disciples did not understand this at first, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered it. The crowd that had seen Lazarus raised was testifying about it, which is why the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees say to one another that they are getting nowhere, and the world has gone after him.

Verses 20–26

Some Greeks who had come up to worship at the feast ask Philip, who is from Bethsaida in Galilee, to see Jesus. Philip tells Andrew, and the two tell Jesus. His answer does not mention the Greeks directly: the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Then he gives the figure of the grain of wheat: unless it falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world keeps it for eternal life. Those who serve him must follow him, and the Father will honor them.

Verses 27–36

He says that his soul is troubled, and asks whether he should say, Father, save me from this hour. No, it is for this hour that he came. 'Father, glorify Your name.' A voice from heaven answers that it has glorified it and will glorify it again. The crowd thinks it is thunder or an angel. Jesus says the voice is for their sake. Now is the judgment of this world; the ruler of this world will be cast out; and when he is lifted up from the earth he will draw all people to himself. John adds that he said this to show by what kind of death he would die. The crowd objects that the Law says the Christ remains forever, so who is this Son of Man who must be lifted up? Jesus tells them that the light is with them a little while longer and that they should walk while they have it. Then he departed and hid from them.

Verses 37–43

Although he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in him. John says this fulfills Isaiah 53:1, the prophet's complaint that no one has believed his message, and he quotes Isaiah 6:10, that God has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him (12:41). Even many of the leaders believed, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for they loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God.

Verses 44–50

Jesus cries out a last time. To believe in him is to believe in the one who sent him, and to see him is to see the one who sent him. He has come as a light into the world, so that no one who believes in him should remain in darkness. He did not come to judge the world but to save it. The one who rejects him will be judged on the last day by the word he has spoken, because he has spoken only what the Father commanded him, and his commandment is eternal life.

The chapter ties together the death of Christ, the gathering of the nations and the judgment of the world. Jesus' death is described as the fruit-bearing death of the seed, the casting out of the ruler of this world, and the drawing of all people to himself. This is the Bible's pattern of a death that gives life, seen in the sacrificial system and in Isaiah 53, where the servant's suffering brings justification to many (Isaiah 53:11).

The chapter also confronts the mystery of unbelief. John quotes Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10 together and says that people could not believe. He does not let this stand as an excuse. In the same chapter, Jesus calls for belief and says that the word will judge those who reject him (12:48). Reformed readers take the Isaiah quotation as showing God's sovereign hardening; Arminian readers take it as God's confirmation of a refusal already made, and John himself ties the hardening to the people's own love of human praise (12:43). Paul uses the same text of the same problem in Romans 11.

Finally, the closing summary links the whole public ministry to the Father. Jesus says that he speaks only what the Father told him (12:49-50). This is the chapter's claim that the word of the Son is the word of God, and that those who hear it have to do with God.

This is a chapter of fulfillment. John himself applies Zechariah 9:9 to the donkey ride (12:14-15), Psalm 118:25-26 to the crowd's cry, and Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10 to the unbelief, adding that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory (12:41). That last statement is startling. Isaiah 6:1-4 describes a vision of the LORD, enthroned and surrounded by seraphim, and John says that what Isaiah saw was the glory of Jesus. John thus identifies Jesus with the LORD of Isaiah's vision, as he does in 1:1 and 20:28.

Jesus also gives a picture of his own death: the grain of wheat that dies to bear much fruit and the Son of Man lifted up to draw all people to himself (12:24, 32-33). The lifting up echoes the bronze serpent of Numbers 21:8-9, which John 3:14 has already connected with the cross. Mary's anointing foreshadows his burial, and Jesus' own words (12:7) say that it was kept for the day of his burial; many readers hear in it an acted prophecy, though Mary may not have understood it so. The entry of the king on a donkey shows what kind of king he is: Zechariah's king comes humble and brings peace to the nations (Zechariah 9:9-10).

The request of the Greeks is the sign that the Son of Man is about to draw the nations, as Psalm 2:8 and Isaiah 49:6 had promised, and Jesus' reply makes plain that this will be through his death.