The Glorified Hour (John 12:20 —33)

Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour” (12:27).

He was a student in my Bible class, 'The Introduction to the New Testament'. In my weekly lectures he very often raised many questions, clever ones. He was virtually one of the best. All the exams in my class, he received A+s. I had hoped he might have become a Biblical scholar in the future. Well! For whatever reason that I was unaware of, he dropped out of the class before the final exam! A year has quickly elapsed. And out of the blue, today he turns up at the door of my office. And, at once he shares with me,

— “Sorry, for personal reasons, I had to drop out of the school. But still, I study the Bible at my own leisure time. I am actually reading the Gospel of John...”.

Mama Mia! I don’t believe what I am hearing. Looking at him, I almost want to exclaim, “Really?” I think he might have come to my office this morning for a favour, perhaps, a letter of recommendation. But, he becomes pensive for a moment, and then poses to me a question with an uneasy face (so uneasy that one can see a few wrinkles on his forehead),

— “Why does Jesus keep saying a lot about ‘the hour’ in the Gospel of John? At the wedding in Cana, having denied his mother’s indirectly request, he then excused himself by saying, ‘My hour has not yet come’ (2:4).”
He shows me his confused face,

— While having a chat with the Samaritan woman by the well, again Jesus mentions to the woman about the concept of the hour. He says, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (3.21). And many more instances in the Gospel when Jesus repeats the same word, “the hour…” to different people.

You can tell how delighted I am when I see him again. Above all, I love the way this guy approaches the Bible, i.e., self-studying at his leisure time. What a student!

I close the book that I am reading. Putting the book aside, I invite him (still standing in front of my desk) to sit down,

— Please… I feel uneasy to look up to…heaven. Sit down, please.
It is my turn to speak up. Actually I give my former student a lecture,

— You’re right. Jesus says a lot of about the hour in the Fourth Gospel. At the well with the Samaritan woman, twice he mentions the hour (4:21, 23). And there exists in the Gospel many more occasions when the words “the hour” come from Jesus’ mouth. For example, Jesus said to the Jews: “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (5:25); “Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice” (5:28).

I look at his face and pose to him a question,

— What hour is Jesus talking about?

Just like a teacher standing in a big hall for a lecture, I become enthusiastic with the theological meanings of the hour in John’s gospel,

— And when the authorities want to arrest Jesus, the author of the Fourth Gospel writes, “They tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come” (7:30).

Again, I ask,
— What hour is the evangelist implying at this moment?

I remind him of one of the famous stories in the Bible,

— Do you still remember the story of the anonymous adulterous woman in John (8:3 -11)? After this encounter, Jesus proclaimed in public something that really offended the authorities, but the evangelist observed, “no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come” (8:20). Again, I ask you, “What hour is he talking about?”

And when Andrew and Philip tell Him that some Greeks want to see Him, Jesus turns to his disciples, saying: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). What is the hour that Jesus implies at this moment?”

“At the end of the very long discourse while he and his disciples enjoy the Last Supper together, Jesus looks up to heaven and prays to God, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you” (17:1). And on many more occasions, he specifically talks about the hour…
I explain to him the theological implication of the hour in the Fourth Gospel,

— All the hours mentioned in the Gospel point to the hour that Jesus is crucified on the cross…

I carefully enunciate my words,

— Unlike the other three, the Synoptic gospels, the hour Jesus is crucified on the cross is the hour that Jesus is glorified by God, His Father.
I ask him,

— Do you still remember the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 4? Jesus compares him on the cross with the bronze serpent hung on the pole in the desert. All who looked up the serpent on the pole were cured from the snake’s venom. Similarly, whoever believes in the glorified Jesus on the cross, they will be redeemed (3:14-15).

I explain,

— God in the Fourth Gospel loves the world so much that God sends Jesus (His only Son) to the world, not to condemn it, but rather redeem all the earth’s inhabitants (4:16). Jesus from heaven is born for this sole purpose. And the hour Jesus is lifted to the cross is that of the glorified hour, the hour of redemption for all humanity, the hour that the darkness of sin is defeated by the light from heaven.

To conclude the unexpected lecture, I summarise one of the cardinal theologies of the Gospel of John,

— God in the Gospel of John is illustrated by Jesus as a loving one. And during the hour that Jesus is hung on the cross, that loving God glorified His only Son as a sign of eternal love for human beings.

Fruit of the Day:
If I believe in Jesus as a Saviour, I will be redeemed. The hour God’s only Son dies for me, that hour is the time that my soul is saved.

Note: Some of the additional sayings in John’s Gospel that contain the word “hour”:
— “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour” (12:27)

— Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (13:1).

— “They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God” (16:2)

“But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.” (16:4).

— “When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world” (16:21).

— “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father” (16:21).

“The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me” (16:32).

— Before his passes away into heaven, the dying Jesus said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home (19:27).