John 12:26

John

A NEW KIND OF KING

AFTER CHRIST: WITH CHRIST

Joh 12:26.

Our Lord was strangely moved by the apparently trivial incident of certain Greeks desiring to see Him. He recognised and hailed in them the first-fruits of the Gentiles. The Eastern sages at His cradle, and these representatives of Western culture within a few hours of the Cross, were alike prophets. So, in His answer to their request, our Lord passes beyond the immediate bearing of the request, and contemplates it in its relation to the future developments of His work. And the thought that the Son of Man is now about to begin to be glorified, at once brings Him face to face with the fact which must precede the glory, viz., His death.

That great law that a higher life can only be reached by the decay of the lower, of which the Cross is the great instance, He illustrates, first, by an example from Nature, the corn of wheat which must die ere it brings forth fruit. Then He declares that this is a universal law, ‘He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.’ And then He declares that this universal law, which has its adumbration in Nature, and applies to all mankind, and is manifested in its highest form on the Cross, is the law of the Christian discipleship. ‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me,’ and, as a consequence, ‘where I am, there shall also My servant be.’

In two clauses He covers the whole ground of the present and the future. Many thinkers and teachers have tried to crystallise their systems into some brief formula which may stick in the memory and be capable of a handy application. ‘Follow Nature,’ said ancient sages, attaching a nobler meaning to the condensed commandment than its modern repeaters often do; ‘Follow duty,’ say others; ‘Follow Me’ says Christ. That is enough for life. And for all the dim regions beyond, this prospect is sufficient, ‘Where I am, there shall also My servant be.’ One Form towers above the present and the future, and they both derive their colouring and their worth from Him and our relation to Him. ‘To follow’-that is the condensed summary of life’s duty. ‘To be with’-that is the crystallising of all our hopes.

I. The all-sufficient law for life.

‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.’ Everything is smelted down into that; and there you have a sufficient directory for every man’s every action.

Now although it has nothing to do with my present purpose, I can scarcely avoid pausing, just for a moment, to ask you to consider the perfect uniqueness of such an utterance as that. Think of one Man standing up before all mankind, and coolly and deliberately saying to them, ‘I am the realised Ideal of human conduct; I am Incarnate Perfection; and all of you, in all the infinite variety of condition, culture, and character, are to take Me for your pattern and your guide.’ The world has listened, and the world has not laughed nor been angry. Neither indignation nor mockery, which one might have expected would have extinguished such absurdity, has waited upon Christ’s utterance. I have no time to dwell on this; it is apart from my purpose, but I would ask you fairly to consider how strange it is, and to ask how it is to be accounted for, that a Man said that, and that the wisest part of the world has consented to take Him at His own valuation; and after such an utterance as that, yet calls Him ‘meek and lowly of heart.’

But I pass away from that. What does He mean by this commandment, ‘Follow Me’? Of course I need not remind you that it brings all duty down to the imitation of Jesus Christ. That is a commonplace that I do not need to dwell upon, nor to follow out into the many regions into which it would lead us, and where we might find fruitful subjects of contemplation; because I desire, in a sentence or two, to insist upon the special form of following which is here enjoined. It is a very grand thing to talk about the imitation of Christ, and even in its most superficial acceptation it is a good guide for all men. But no man has penetrated to the depths of that stringent and all-comprehensive commandment who has not recognised that there is one special thing in which Christ is to be our Pattern, and that is in regard to the very thing in which we think that He is most unique and inimitable. It is His Cross, and not His life; it is His death, and not His virtues, which He is here thinking about, and laying it upon all of us as the encyclopaedia and sum of all morality that we should be conformed to it. I have already pointed out to you in my introductory remarks the force of the present context. And so I need not further enlarge upon that, nor vindicate my declaration that Christ’s death is the pattern which is here set before us. Of course we cannot imitate that in its effects, except in a very secondary and figurative fashion. But the spirit that underlay it, as the supreme Example of self-sacrifice, is commended to us all as the royal law for our lives, and unless we are conformed thereto we have no right to call ourselves Christ’s disciples. To die for the sake of higher life, to give up our own will utterly in obedience to God, and in the unselfish desire to help and bless others, that is the Alpha and the Omega of discipleship. It always has been so and always will be so. And so, dear brethren, let us lay it to our own hearts, and make very stringent inquiry into our own conduct, whether we have ever come within sight of what makes a true disciple-viz., that we should be ‘conformable unto His death.’

Now our modern theology has far too much obscured this plain teaching of the New Testament, because it has been concerned-I do not say too much, but too exclusively, concerned-in setting forth the other aspect of Christ’s death, by which it is what none of ours can ever even begin to be, the sacrifice for a world’s sin. But, mind, there are two ways of looking at Christ’s Cross. You must begin with recognising it as the basis of all your hope, the power by which you are delivered from sin as guilt, habit, and condemnation. And then you must take it, if it is to be the sacrifice and atonement for your sins, for the example of your lives, and mould yourselves after it. ‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me,’ and here is the special region in which the following is to be realised: ‘He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life shall keep it unto life eternal.’

Now, further, let me remind you that this brief, crystallised commandment, the essence of all practical godliness and Christianity, makes the blessed peculiarity of Christian morality. People ask what it is that distinguishes the teaching of the New Testament in regard to duty, from the teaching of lofty moralists and sages of old. Not the specific precepts, though these are, in many cases, deeper. Not the individual commandments, though the perspective of human excellences and virtues has been changed in Christianity, and the gentler and sweeter graces have been enthroned in the place where the world’s morality has generally set the more ostentatious ones; the hero is, roughly speaking, the world’s type, the saint is the New Testament’s. But the true characteristic of Christian teaching as to conduct lies in this, that the law is in a Person, and that the power to obey the law comes from the love of the Person. All things are different; unwelcome duties are made less repulsive, and hard tasks are lightened, and sorrows are made tolerable, if only we are following Him. You remember the old story in Scottish history of the knight to whom was entrusted the king’s heart; how, beset by the bands of the infidels, he tossed the golden casket into the thickest of their ranks and said, ‘Go on, I follow thee’; and death itself was light when that thought spurred his steed forward.

And so, brethren, it is far too hard a task to tread the road of duty which our consciences command us, unless we are drawn by Him Who is before us there on the road, and see the shining of His garments as He sets His face forward, and draws us after Him. It is easy to climb a glacier when the guide has cut with his ice-axe the steps in which he sets his feet, and we may set ours. The sternness of duty, and the rigidity of law, and the coldness of ‘I ought,’ are all changed when duty consists in following Christ, and He is before us on the rocky and narrow road.

This precept is all-sufficient. Of course it will be a task of wisdom, of common sense, of daily culture in prudence and other graces; to apply the generalised precept to the specific cases that emerge in our lives. But whilst the application may require a great many subordinate by-laws, the royal statute is one, and simple, and enough. ‘Follow Me.’ Is it not a strange thing-it seems to me to be a perfectly unique thing, inexplicable except upon one hypothesis-that a life so brief, of which the records are so fragmentary, in which some of the relationships in which we stand had no place, and which was lived out in a world so utterly different from our own, should yet avail to be a guide to men, not in regard to specific points, so much as in regard to the imperial supremacy in it of these motives-Even Christ pleased not Himself; ‘My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.’

And so, brethren, take this sharp test and apply it honestly to your own lives, day by day, in all their minutiae as well as in their great things. ‘If any man serve Me,’ how miserably that Christian ‘service’ has been evacuated of its deepest meaning, and superficialised and narrowed! ‘Service’-that means people getting into a building and singing and praying. Service-that means acts of beneficence, teaching and preaching and giving material or spiritual helps of various kinds. These things have almost monopolised the word. But Christ enlarges its shrivelled contents once more, and teaches us that, far above all specifically so-called acts of religious worship, and more indispensable than so-called acts of Christian activity and service, lies the self-sacrificing conformity of character to Him. ‘If any man serve Me,’ let him sing and praise and pray? Yes; ‘If any man serve Me,’ let him try to help other people, and in the service of man do service to Me? Yes; but deeper than all, and fundamental to the others, ‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me’-Is that my discipleship? Let each one of us professing Christians ask himself.

II. We have here the all-sufficient hope for the future.

I know few things more beautiful than the perfectly naive way in which the greatest of thoughts is here set forth by the simplest of figures. If two men are walking on the same road to a place, the one that is in front will get there first, and his friend that is coming up after him will get there second, if he keeps on; and they will be united at the end, because, one after the other, they travel the road. And so says Christ: ‘Of course, if you follow Me, you will join Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be.’ The implications of a Christian life, which is true following of Christ here, necessarily led to the confidence that in that future there will be union with Him. That is a deep thought, which might afford material for much to be said, but on which I cannot dwell now.

I remarked at an early stage of this sermon how singular it was that our Lord should present Himself as the Pattern for all human excellence. Is it not even more singular that He should venture to present His own companionship as the sufficient recompense for every sorrow, for every effort, for all pain, for all pilgrimage? To be with Him, He thinks, is enough for any man and enough for all men. Who did He think Himself to be? What did He suppose His relation to the rest of us to be, who could thus calmly suggest to the world that the only thing that a heart needed for blessedness was to be beside Him? And we believe it, too little as it influences our lives. ‘To be with Christ’ is ‘very much better’; better than all beneath the stars; better than all on this side eternity.

What does our Lord mean by this all-sufficient hope? We know very little of that dim region beyond, but we know that until He comes again His departed servants are absent from the body. And, in our sense of the word, there can be no place for spirits thus free from corporeal environment. And so place, to-day at all events for the departed saints, and in a subordinate degree all through eternity, even when they are clothed with a glorified body, must be but a symbol of state, of condition, of spiritual character. ‘Where I am there shall My servant be,’ means specially ‘What I am, that shall My servant be.’ This perfect conformity to that dear Lord, whose footsteps we have followed; assimilation there, which is the issue of imitation here, though broken and imperfect, this is the hope that may gladden and animate every Christian heart.

To be with Him is to be like Him, and therefore to be conscious of His presence in some fashion so intimate, so certain, as that all our earthly notions of presence, derived from the juxtaposition of corporeal frames, are infinite distance as compared with it. That is what my text dimly shadows for us. We know not how that union, which is to be as close as is possible while the distinction of personality is retained, may be accomplished. But this we know, that the coalescence of two drops of mercury, the running together of two drops of water, the blending of heart with heart here in love, are distance in comparison with the complete union of Christ and of the happy soul that rests in Him, as in an atmosphere and an ocean. Oh, brethren! it is not a thing to talk about; it is a thing to take to our hearts, and in silence to be thankful for; ‘absent from the body; present with the Lord.’

And is that not enough? The ground of it is enough. ‘If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.’ That future companionship is guaranteed to the Christian man by the words of Incarnate Truth, and by the resurrection of his Lord. The ground of it is enough, and the contents are enough-enough for faith; enough for hope; enough for peace; enough for work; and eminently enough for comfort.

Ah! there are many other questions that we would fain ask, but to which there is no reply; but as the good old rough music of one of the eighteenth-century worthies has it, we have sufficient.

‘My knowledge of that life is small,

The eye of faith is dim;

But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all,

And I shall be with Him.’

‘It is enough for the disciple that he be as’ {that is, with} ‘his Master.’ So let us take that thought to our hearts and animate ourselves with it, for it is legitimate for us to do so. That one hope is sufficient for us all.

Only let us remember that, according to the teaching of my text, the companionship that blesses the future is the issue of following Him now. I know of no magic in death that is able to change the direction in which a man’s face is turned. As he is travelling and has travelled, so he will travel when he comes through the tunnel, and out into the brighter light yonder. The line of a railway marked upon a map may stop at the boundaries of the country with which the map is concerned, but it is clearly going somewhere, and in the same direction. You want the other sheet of the map in order to see whither it is going. That is like your life. The map stops very abruptly, but the line does not stop. Take an unfinished row of tenements. On the last house there stick out bricks preparatory to the continuation of the row. And so our lives are, as it were, studded over with protuberances and preparations for the attachment thereto of a ‘house not made with hands,’ and yet conformed in its architecture to the row that we have built. The man that follows will attain. For life, the all-sufficient law is, after Christ; for hope, the all-sufficient assurance is, with Christ.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 12:26. [319]Τίς) τίς, any man, in this verse, is in the first instance placed after the ἐμοί, and subsequently it is placed before, producing thereby the greater emphasis [ἘΜΟΊ ΤΙς—ΤΙς ἘΜΟΊ]. [The second τίς implies, However much he may have been despised by the world.—V. g.]—ἀκολουθείτω, let him follow) on that road, which has been set before Me. The imperative here promises, and invites by a most immediate perception of glory close at hand.—ἔσται, shall be) The promise. Comp. Rev 14:4, “These are they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth—the redeemed from among men.” [The following of Christ, of itself, leads the servant to the same place where His Master dwells. But by wandering from Him to this or that side, the servant fails in reaching the wished-for end.—V. g.]—τιμήσει, will honour) A comprehensive expression, corresponding with δοξασθῇ, should be glorified, Joh 12:23. [Such a one truly is distinguished by greater honour than what can be devised by the greatest of great men, throughout the wide world’s extent, or can be bestowed on the most deserving person, whether living or dead, in tear or peace.—V. g.]—αὐτόν, him) as fellow-heir of the Son. Rom 8:29, “That He (the Son) might be the first-born among many brethren.”

[319] ἐμοί, Me) This is put twice with great force.—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_12:26. Requirement and promise, in accordance with that which was expressed generally in Joh_12:25.

ἀκολ.] on the way of my life-surrender; comp. Mat_10:38; Mat_16:24.

ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγώ] comp. Joh_14:3, Joh_17:24. The pres. tense represents the fut. as present: where I am, there will also my servant be, namely, after I have raised him up (Joh_6:39-40; Joh_6:44; Joh_6:54) in the Parousia. Comp. Joh_14:3, Joh_17:24. That following after me will lead him into blessed fellowship with me in my kingdom. Comp. Rom_8:17; 2Ti_2:11-12. For the counterpart, see Joh_7:34. According to Luthardt (comp. Euth. Zigabenus 1), the being on the same way is meant, consequently the contents of that requirement are simply turned into a promise. A feeble tautology, especially after Joh_12:25 (εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον).

ἐάν τις ἐμ. διακ. κ.τ.λ.] Parallel with the preceding, further designating, particularly and specifically, the promised happiness, and that in the light of the divine recompense contained in it. This thought is expressed by the conjunction of διακονῇ and τιμήσει, which verbs have the emphasis (it is different previously, when ἐμοί … ἐμοὶ bore the emphasis); he who serves me, him will the Father honour, actually, through the δόξα in the everlasting life, comp. Rom_2:10; Rom_8:17. The διακονεῖν, however, is here to be understood with the previously enjoined quality of following Christ.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 12:26 . This law is applicable not to Jesus only, but to all: ἐὰν ἐμοὶ … ἀκολουθείτω . The badge of His servants is that they adopt His method and aim and truly follow Him. The result of following necessarily is that ὅπου … ἔσται , “where I am, as my eternal state, there shall also my servant be”. διάκονος is especially a servant in attendance , at table or elsewhere; a δοῦλος may serve at a distance: hence the appropriateness of διάκονος in this verse. The office of διάκονος may seem a humble and painful one, but ἐάν τις [omit καὶ ] … πατήρ , to be valued or honoured by the Father crowns life.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: If any man serve me, him will my Father honour--Jesus here claims the same absolute subjection to Himself, as the law of men's exaltation to honor, as He yielded to the Father.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 26. If any man serve me] Christ is a master in a twofold sense:

1. To instruct men.

2. To employ and appoint them their work. He who wishes to serve Christ must become:

1. His disciple or scholar, that he may be taught:

2. His servant, that he may be employed by and obey his master. To such a person a twofold promise is given:

1. He shall be with Christ, in eternal fellowship with him; and

2. He shall be honoured by the Lord: he shall have an abundant recompense in glory; but how great, eye hath not seen, ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.

How similar to this is the saying of Creeshna (an incarnation of the supreme God, according to the Hindoo theology) to his disciple Arjoon! "If one whose ways were ever so evil serve me alone, he soon becometh of a virtuous spirit, is as respectable as the just man, and obtaineth eternal happiness. Consider this world as a finite and joyless place, and serve me. Be of my mind, my servant, my adorer, and bow down before me. Unite thy soul unto me, make me thy asylum, and thou shalt go unto me." And again: "I am extremely dear to the wise man, and he is dear to me-I esteem the wise man even as myself, because his devout spirit dependeth upon me alone as his ultimate resource." Bhagvat Geeta, pp. 71 and 82.

The rabbins have an extravagant saying, viz. "God is more concerned for the honour of the just man than for his own."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. If any, man serve me. That death may not be exceedingly bitter and disagreeable to us, Christ invites us by his example to submit to it cheerfully; and certainly we shall be ashamed to refuse the honor of being his disciples. But on no other condition does he admit us into their number, except that we follow the path which he points out. He leads the way to us to suffer death. The bitterness of death is therefore mitigated, and is in some measure rendered agreeable, when we have in common with the Son of God the condition of submitting to it. So far is it from being proper that we should shrink from Christ on account of the cross, that we ought rather to desire death for his sake. To the same purpose. pose is the statement which immediately follows:

And where I am, there shall also my servant be. For he demands that his servants should not refuse to submit to death, to which they see him go before them as an example; for it is not right that; the servant should have any thing separate from his lord.. The future tense, shall be, (ἔσται) is put for let him be, according to the custom of the Hebrew language. Others regard it as a consolation, as if Christ promised to those who should not be unwilling to die along with him, that they would be partakers of his resurrection. But the former view, as I have said, is more probable; for he afterwards adds the consolation, that the Father will not leave without reward the servants of Christ who shall have been his companions both in life and in death.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(26) If any man serve me, let him follow me.—The close connection of Joh_12:23-25 make it certain that the spiritual law of sacrifice is there applied to the life of our Lord Himself. This verse makes it equally certain that the law is applied to those who follow Him. The point of the whole teaching is missed unless we think of the Greeks as present. They had come as volunteer disciples. Did they know what the discipleship was? Were they prepared to follow Him in self-sacrifice, that through sacrifice they may obtain eternal life? It had been the condition of earlier discipleship. It is laid down for the new disciples, but in the presence of the older ones who in the dark days that have now come were to learn what sacrifice meant. The Greeks needed no less than the Hebrews to learn it; the men of a wider civilisation and more philosophic thought no less than the fishermen of Galilee and the scribes of Jerusalem. All self-seeking, whether in the coarser forms of pleasure and power or in the more refined forms of emotion and thought, is self-loving; all self-sacrifice, whether in the daily round of duty to man or in the devotion of the whole self to God, is self-saving. Self-seeking is always akin to, and ofttimes one with, hatred of others; and hatred is death. Self-sacrifice is akin to, and one with, love to others; and love is life.

And where I am, there shall also my servant be.—This is an anticipation of the glory of the Son of man for which the hour had already come. (Comp. Note on Joh_17:24.)

If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.—The condition is the same as in the first clause of the verse, the difference of that which follows upon the condition again bringing out in the fulness of its meaning the law of life through sacrifice:

“If any man serve Me,”

{“let him follow Me” . . . }“he that hateth his life in this world”“him will my Father honour” . . .}“shall keep it unto life eternal.”The honour of the servant after his work is done is in the same relation to that work as the glory of the Son of man is to His work. This honour will consist in his being where the Son of man is; and this will be the Father’s gift (Joh_17:24).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. let him follow me] in My life of self-sacrifice: Christ Himself has set the example of hating one’s life in this world. These words are perhaps addressed through the disciples to the Greeks listening close at hand. If they ‘wish to see Jesus’ and know Him they must count the cost first. ‘Me’ is emphatic in both clauses.

where I am] i.e. where I shall be then, in My kingdom. Comp. Joh_14:3, Joh_17:24. Some would include in the ‘where’ the road to the kingdom, viz. death. ‘I’ and ‘My’ are emphatic.

serve … honour] Here the verbs are emphatic (not ‘Me’), and balance one another. This verse is closely parallel to Joh_12:35 : ‘let him follow Me’ corresponds to ‘hateth his life in this world;’ ‘him will the Father honour,’ to ‘shall keep it unto life eternal.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now is my soul troubled,.... At the hardness and unbelief of the Jews, and the rejection of them, when the Gentiles would be called, and converted, by which he would be glorified: and at the conduct and carriage of his disciples to him, he had a foreknowledge of; at the betraying of him by one, and the denial of him by another, and the flight of them all from him; and at the devil, and the furious and violent attack he knew he would make upon him, though he had obliged him to leave him, when he assaulted him before, and knew he could find nothing in him now, and that as God, he was able to destroy him; but this was to be done by him, as man, and by lying too: he was in his human soul troubled at the thoughts of his death, though it was his Father's will, and he had agreed to it, and was for the salvation of his people, his heart was so much set upon; yet it was terrible to the human nature, and especially as attended with the wrath of God; at the apprehensions of which, his soul was exceedingly troubled; not as about to fall on him on his own personal account, but as being the surety of his people, and as having their sins upon him to satisfy angry and injured justice for:

and what shall I say? this question he puts, as being in the utmost distress, and difficulty, as if he knew not what to say; and yet not as advising with his disciples, what was to be said or done in his case; but is rather used to introduce another question, as the following words may be formed: shall I say,

father, save me from this hour? as requesting his Father, that he might be strengthened under his sufferings and death, and carried through them, and out of them; or rather as deprecating them, desiring the cup might pass from him, as he afterwards did; and then the sense is, shall I put up such a petition to my Father, to save me from sorrows, sufferings, and death? no, I will not: the human nature through frailty might prompt him to it, and he be just going to do it, when he corrects himself, saying;

but for this cause came I unto this hour: this hour or time of sorrow and suffering was appointed for him; it was fixed in the covenant of grace, and Christ had agreed to it; he was sent into this world, and he came into it, on account of this hour; and was preserved hitherto for this purpose; and was now come to Jerusalem, and was there at this instant, for that very reason, namely, to suffer and die. And since this was the case, he would not put up such a petition to his Father, but the following one.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

Ver. 26. If any man serve me, let, &c.] Art thou not glad to fare as Phocion? said he to one that was to die with him; ουκ αγαπας μετα Φοκιονος απαθανουμενος. (Plut.) How much more to die with and for Christ!

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Serve me - Will be my disciple, or will be a Christian. Perhaps this was said to inform the Greeks Joh 12:20 of the nature of his religion.

Let him follow me - Let him imitate me; do what I do, bear what I bear, and love what I love. He is discoursing here particularly of his own sufferings and death, and this passage has reference, therefore, to calamity and persecution. “You see me triumph - you see (me enter Jerusalem, and you supposed that my kingdom was to be set up without opposition or calamity; but it is not. I am to die; and if you will serve me, you must follow me even in these scenes of calamity; be willing to endure trial and to bear shame, looking for future reward.”

Where I am - See Joh 14:3; Joh 17:24. That is, he shall be in heaven, where the Son of God then was in his divine nature, and where he would be as the glorified Messiah. See the notes at Joh 3:13. The natural and obvious meaning of the expression “I am” implies that he was then in heaven. The design of this verse is to comfort them in the midst of persecution and trial. They were to follow him to any calamity; but, as he was to be glorified as the result of his sufferings, so they also were to look for their reward in the kingdom of heaven, Rev 3:21; “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

We must minister to Jesus by seeking not our own things, but the things of Christ; that is; we must follow him, we must walk in his footsteps, we must perform the corporal works of mercy, and every other good work, for his sake, till we come to put in practice the most perfect act of charity, the laying down our lives for our brethren. Then will he crown us with the greatest of rewards, the happiness of reigning with him. And where I am, there shall my minister be. (St. Augustine, tract. 51. in Joan.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

If any man serve me, let him follow me: this is much the same with that, Mat 16:24, unless following here be more restrained to suffering, let him follow me to my cross; for otherwise it seemeth the same with serving; we must be ready not only to do, but also to die for Christ, to follow him to the cross, if he calleth us to it. And if any man so serveth me, he shall be in heaven where I am; If we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together, Rom 8:17. For my Father, with whom I am one in nature and essence, will honour those that are my servants; so great a thing it is to be a servant to the Son of God. The Father will honour those that are so, and especially those who are so in suffering, with eternal life and felicity.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. There shall… servant be—The Lord’s follower in humiliation and death shall be his follower unto life eternal, shall overtake him in glory, and there forever shall both together be.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In this verse the Lord brings the light of heaven down into this deep paradox. He speaks like an anointed King and great Captain of salvation, who has (diakonoi) "servants" willing to do his bidding. If any man will be my servant, let him follow me along the line which I am prepared to take, in the way of sacrifice and death, which is the true glorification; and where I am, there shall also my servant be. This association of the servant with the Lord, as the sufficient and the transcendent motive, pervades the Gospels. (cf. Joh_14:3, Joh_17:24; comp. also Luk_23:43, "with me in Paradise;" and 2Co_12:2, 4 5:8 Php_1:23) It is remarkable that Christ chose the twelve that they should be "with him". (Mar_3:14) There is no greater blessedness. Still, the Lord adds, If any man serve me, him will the Father honor. For the Father to honor a poor child of the dust seems almost more than we can receive. The conception of the steps by means of which the Lord makes this possible to his followers and servants produced in his own self-consciousness one of those sudden and overwhelming crises and changes from joy to perturbation, as of agony to peace and to reconcilement with the eternal Father"s will, which prove how certainly St. John is always portraying the same Personage, the same transcendent character whom the synoptists describe. (Luk_12:49, Luk_12:50; comp. Luk_19:38, 41 Mat_11:20, 25 16:17, 21) More than this, the whole passage that follows is a solemn prelude to that agony of the garden which the synoptists alone record, while they omit this.

Service and reward.

In both parts of this declaration made by our Lord, there is a condescension to our human ignorance and imperfection. The Master makes use of language drawn from human relations and human experiences.

I WHAT CHRIST REQUIRES.

1. Service. This is not equivalent to bondage, but to personal ministration. It is a just and helpful view to take of the" Christian life, to regard it as consisting of a personal attendance upon the Lord Jesus, and a reverent and affectionate obedience to him. A Savior he is; but he is also the kindest and the best of Masters. The twelve felt this, and their life was a practical acknowledgment of it, both during the Lord"s ministry and more especially after his departure. The Greeks, whose coming suggested this language, may have cherished some desire and hope of being admitted into the number of Christ"s servants. It is the highest ambition any man can cherish to be counted an adherent, a retainer, a minister, of Jesus.

2. Following. This involves:

(1) Obedience to Christ"s commands. His people obey him from love, but still they do obey him.

(2) Conformity to his character. He not only says, "Do what I bid you!" but, "Be what I am!

(3) Endurance of the trials incident to his service. It is for Christ"s people to bear their Leader"s cross.

II WHAT CHRIST PROMISES. It is observable that Jesus addresses to his followers no promise of worldly or carnal advantage, such as Mohammed, for example, made use of to allure and inspire his adherents. Jesus invited men to become his, even when he saw the cross before his eyes. There was sublimity in such an invitation given in such an hour. And as the service to which he invited men was not without its perils, so the recompense he offered was unworldly and spiritual.

1. His own fellowship and society. They who know and appreciate Christ deem it the highest and purest happiness to be "with" him, to share his conflict, to hear his encouraging voice, to participate in the glory of his victory.

2. The honor of the Father. The honor which men seek from their fellow men is often inadequate, often misplaced, often pernicious. There are no such disadvantages attaching to the Divine Father"s approbation. It is indeed well with him "whom the Lord commendeth." What brighter prospect can there be than this, "Then shall every man have praise of God"? T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let him follow me - By hating his life: and where I am - In heaven. If any man serve me - Thus, him will the Father honour.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

That is, "If any man assumes the title, and enters into the sacred engagement of being Christ’s servant, let his conversation correspond with his profession, and let him be willing to follow me in the thorny path of affliction and sufferings from this assurance, That all his grievous sufferings shall end in eternal joys; Where I am, there shall my servant be, and him will my Father honour.

Learn hence, 1. That all that will be Christ’s servants, must be his followers: they must obey his doctrine, and imitate his example.

2. That Christ’s servants must not expect better usage at the hand of an unknown world, than he their master met with before them.

3. That such as serve Christ by following of him, shall at death see him as he is, and be with him where he is: Where I am, there shall also my servant be.

4. That God will crown the fidelity and constancy of Christ’s servants, with the highest dignity and honour: If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. If any man serve me, let him follow me. This is Christ's direct answer to the Greeks. His service is to be rendered, not by secret interviews, but by obeying him, for so the word “follow” is to be understood.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

26. ἐμοὶ ἀκολουθείτω. In My life of self-sacrifice: Christ Himself has set the example of hating one’s life in this world. These words are perhaps addressed through the disciples to the Greeks listening close at hand. If they ‘wish to see Jesus’ and know Him they must count the cost first. Ἐμοί is emphatic in both clauses. Note the pronouns in what follows. Where I am, i. e. ‘in My kingdom, which is already secured to Me:’ the phrase is peculiar to this Gospel (Joh 14:3, Joh 17:24): Winer, p. 332. The ἐκεῖ possibly includes the road to the kingdom, death. On ὁ δ. ὁ ἐμός see on Joh 8:31.

ἐάν τις. The offer is all-embracing: Joh 6:51, Joh 7:17; Joh 7:37, Joh 8:52, Joh 10:9. Note the change of order. Here the verbs are emphatic, and balance one another. Such service is not humiliating but honourable. The verse is closely parallel to Joh 12:25.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26.] Connexion:—The ministering to, or intimate union with, Christ (the position of Philip and Andrew and the rest, and that into which these Greeks seemed desirous to enter) implies following Him,—and that, through tribulation to glory.

εἰμί, the essential present—in My true place, i.e. (ch. 17:24) in the glory of the Father.

τιμήσει—by glorifying him in My glorification, ch. 17:24.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. In this verse is the third illustration of the paradox of v. 23, that the Passion of Jesus is His glorification. The life of ministry is a life of honour.

ἐὰν ἐμοί τις διακονῇ κτλ. The doctrine of διακονία, i.e. of the dignity of ministry, occupies a large place in all the Gospels. It is, naturally, an instinct of discipleship to minister to a master; and the ministry of women disciples to Jesus (Mar 1:31, Mar 15:41, Luk 10:40, Joh 12:2) needs no special comment. A servant is not thankworthy because he thus ministers (Luk 17:9). But the repeated teaching of Jesus goes much beyond this. He taught that the path to pre-eminence in His Kingdom is the path of service, of ministry (Mar 10:43), and that true greatness cannot be otherwise attained (Mar 9:35). Actually, the test by which His professed disciples shall be judged at the Last Judgment is the test of ministry; have they ministered to man, and therefore to Christ? (Mat 25:44). This is the essentia of discipleship, for ministry was the essential characteristic of the life of Christ, who came not διακονηθῆναι ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι (Mar 10:45); and the issue of His ministry was death, δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν.

In the present passage, He suggests that this, too, may be the portion of His faithful disciples. He has laid down the universal law of sacrifice, “he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal” (v. 25). And He warns those to whom He has just foretold His death (v. 23), that His discipleship means following Him, and this may mean a following in the way of death.

ἐὰν ἐμοί τις διακονῇ. This is the true order of words (אABLW), although the rec. has διακονῇ τις. ἐμοί here is emphatic. It is the service of Christ that involves a perilous following.

ἐμοὶ ἀκολουθείτω, “me let him follow.” See on 21:19.

καὶ ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγώ κτλ., “and where I am, there shall my minister be,” in spiritual companionship, both here and (as is promised later) hereafter (14:3, 17:24). εἰμί is the essential present, not necessarily conveying the idea of the visible presence of Christ (cf. 8:58). He does not say ἐγώ εἰμι—that would suggest different thoughts (see Introd., p. cxx)—but εἰμὶ ἐγώ. On the other hand, He had said to the Jews ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγώ, ὑμεῖς οὐ δύνασθε ἐλθεῖν (7:34, where see note).

The rec. inserts καί after ἔσται, but om. אBDLWΘ.

ἐάν τις ἐμοὶ διακονῇ. Here τις is the emphatic word; the promise that follows is for all true disciples.

τιμήσει αὐτὸν ὁ πατήρ, “him shall the Father honour”; but the honour may be the kind of honour with which Christ was honoured (v. 23). For τιμᾶν, see on 5:23.

Jesus’ Agony of Spirit (V. 27); A Voice from Heaven (vv. 28-30); The World’s Condemnation (V. 31); The Universal Appeal of the Cross (V. 32)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Serve [διακονη] . See on Mt 20:26; Mr 9:35; 1Pe 1:12. Me [εμοι] . Notice the emphatic recurrence of the pronoun in this verse.

My Father. Rev., rightly, the Father. "Very much of the exact force of St. John's record of the Lord 's words appears to depend upon the different conceptions of the two forms under which the fatherhood of God is described. God is spoken of as 'the Father ' and as 'my Father. ' Generally it may be said that the former title expresses the original relation of God to being, and specially to humanity, in virtue of man's creation in the divine image; and the latter more particularly the relation of the Father to the Son incarnate, and so indirectly to man in virtue of the incarnation. The former suggests those thoughts which spring from the consideration of the absolute moral connection of man with God; the latter, those which spring from what is made known to us through revelation of the connection of the incarnate Son with God and with man. 'The Father ' corresponds, under this aspect, with the group of ideas gathered up in the Lord 's titles, 'the Son" 'the Son of man; ' and 'my Father ' with those which are gathered up in the title 'the Son of God, ' 'the Christ ' " (Westcott).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 26. “If any one serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be; if any one serves me, him will my Father honor.”

To follow, here: on the pathway of sacrifice, which alone leads to the glorious metamorphosis. The Greek term: where I am, is a present of anticipation; it refers to the state of the celestial glory of Jesus, as the promise: shall be there also, refers to the participation of the faithful disciple in that state (Joh 17:24). Τιμήσει, shall honor, recalls the shall be glorified,δοξασθῇ, of Joh 12:23. The Father will honor the faithful servant who has consented to bear the shame of His Son in renouncing all glory of his own; he will make him participate in the glorification of this Son. Herein is for both thekeeping of the life which they have given up. Perhaps Andrew and Philip had seen with a somewhat carnal satisfaction the conduct of these strangers desirous to render homage to their Master. Jesus, accustomed to silence continually within Himself even the most lawful aspirations of the natural life, in view of His divine mission, suppresses by a word these ambitious thoughts on the part of His disciples. Then, immediately after having thus declared the law which obliges Him to die, He feels in His whole being the reaction of this formidable thought.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.