John 12:27

Honour is here done to Christ by his Father in a voice from heaven, occasioned by the following part of his discourse, and which gave occasion to a further conference with the people. In these verses we have,

I. Christ's address to his Father, upon occasion of the trouble which seized his spirit at this time: Now is my soul troubled, Joh 12:27. A strange word to come from Christ's mouth, and at this time surprising, for it comes in the midst of divers pleasing prospects, in which, one would think, he should have said, Now is my soul pleased. Note, Trouble of soul sometimes follows after great enlargements of spirit. In this world of mixture and change we must expect damps upon our joy, and the highest degree of comfort to be the next degree to trouble. When Paul had been in the third heavens, he had a thorn in the flesh. Observe,

1. Christ's dread of his approaching sufferings: Now is my soul troubled. Now the black and dismal scene began, now were the first throes of the travail of his soul, now his agony began, his soul began to be exceedingly sorrowful. Note, (1.) The sin of our soul was the trouble of Christ's soul, when he undertook to redeem and save us, and to make his soul an offering for our sin. (2.) The trouble of his soul was designed to ease the trouble of our souls; for, after this, he said to his disciples (Joh 14:1), "Let not your hearts be troubled; why should yours be troubled and mine too?" Our Lord Jesus went on cheerfully in his work, in prospect of the joy set before him, and yet submitted to a trouble of soul. Holy mourning is consistent with spiritual joy, and the way to eternal joy. Christ was now troubled, now in sorrow, now in fear, now for a season; but it would not be so always, it would not be so long. The same is the comfort of Christians in their troubles; they are but for a moment, and will be turned into joy.

2. The strait he seems to be in hereupon, intimated in those words, And what shall I say? This does not imply his consulting with any other, as if he needed advice, but considering with himself what was fit to be said now. When our souls are troubled we must take heed of speaking unadvisedly, but debate with ourselves what we shall say. Christ speaks like one at a loss, as if what he should choose he wot not. There was a struggle between the work he had taken upon him, which required sufferings, and the nature he had taken upon him, which dreaded them; between these two he here pauses with, What shall I say? He looked, and there was none to help, which put him to a stand. Calvin observes this as a great instance of Christ's humiliation, that he should speak thus like one at a loss. Quo se magis exinanivit gloriae Dominus, eo luculentius habemus erga nos amoris specimen - The more entirely the Lord of glory emptied himself, the brighter is the proof of the love he bore us. Thus he was in all points tempted like as we are, to encourage us, when we know not what to do, to direct our eyes to him.

3. His prayer to God in this strait: Father, save me from this hour, ek tēs ōras tautēs - out of this hour, praying, not so much that it might not come as that he might be brought through it. Save me from this hour; this was the language of innocent nature, and its feelings poured forth in prayer. Note, It is the duty and interest of troubled souls to have recourse to God by faithful and fervent prayer, and in prayer to eye him as a Father. Christ was voluntary in his sufferings, and yet prayed to be saved from them. Note, Prayer against a trouble may very well consist with patience under it and submission to the will of God in it. Observe, He calls his suffering this hour, meaning the expected events of the time now at hand. Hereby he intimates that the time of his suffering was, (1.) A set time, set to an hour, and he knew it. It was said twice before that his hour was not yet come, but it was now so near that he might say it was come. (2.) A short time. An hour is soon over, so were Christ's sufferings; he could see through them to the joy set before him.

4. His acquiescence in his Father's will, notwithstanding. He presently corrects himself, and, as it were, recals what he had said: But for this cause came I to this hour. Innocent nature got the first word, but divine wisdom and love got the last. Note, those who would proceed regularly must go upon second thoughts. The complainant speaks first; but, if we would judge righteously, we must hear the other side. With the second thought he checked himself: For this cause came I to this hour; he does not silence himself with this, that he could not avoid it, there was no remedy; but satisfies himself with this, that he would not avoid it, for it was pursuant to his own voluntary engagement, and was to be the crown of his whole undertaking; should he now fly off, this would frustrate all that had been done hitherto. Reference is here had to the divine counsels concerning his sufferings, by virtue of which it behoved him thus to submit and suffer. Note, This should reconcile us to the darkest hours of our lives, that we were all along designed for them; see Th1 3:3.

5. His regard to his Father's honour herein. Upon the withdrawing of his former petition, he presents another, which he will abide by: Father, glorify thy name, to the same purport with Father, thy will be done; for God's will is for his own glory. This expresses more than barely a submission to the will of God; it is a consecration of his sufferings to the glory of God. It was a mediatorial word, and was spoken by him as our surety, who had undertaken to satisfy divine justice for our sin. The wrong which by sin we have done to God is in his glory, his declarative glory; for in nothing else are we capable of doing him injury. We were never able to make him satisfaction for this wrong done him, nor any creature for us; nothing therefore remained but that God should get him honour upon us in our utter ruin. Here therefore our Lord Jesus interposed, undertook to satisfy God's injured honour, and he did it by his humiliation; he denied himself in, and divested himself of, the honours due to the Son of God incarnate, and submitted to the greatest reproach. Now here he makes a tender of this satisfaction as an equivalent: "Father, glorify thy name; let thy justice be honoured upon the sacrifice, not upon the sinner; let the debt be levied upon me, I am solvent, the principal is not." Thus he restored that which he took not away.

II. The Father's answer to this address; for he heard him always, and does still. Observe, 1. How this answer was given. By a voice from heaven. The Jews speak much of a Bath-kôl - the daughter of a voice, as one of those divers manners by which God in time past spoke to the prophets; but we do not find any instance of his speaking thus to any but to our Lord Jesus; it was an honour reserved for him (Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5), and here, probably, this audible voice was introduced by some visible appearance, either of light or darkness, for both have been used as vehicles of the divine glory. 2. What the answer was. It was an express return to that petition, Father, glorify thy name: I have glorified it already, and I will glorify it yet again. When we pray as we are taught, Our Father, hallowed be thy name, this is a comfort to us, that is it an answered prayer; answered to Christ here, and in him to all true believers. (1.) The name of God had been glorified in the life of Christ, in his doctrine and miracles, and all the examples he gave of holiness and goodness. (2.) It should be further glorified in the death and sufferings of Christ. His wisdom and power, his justice and holiness, his truth and goodness, were greatly glorified; the demands of a broken law were fully answered; the affront done to God's government satisfied for; and God accepted the satisfaction, and declared himself well pleased. What God has done for the glorifying of his own name is an encouragement to us to expect what he will yet further do. He that has secured the interests of his own glory will still secure them.

III. The opinion of the standers-by concerning this voice, Joh 12:29. We may hope there were some among them whose minds were so well prepared to receive a divine revelation that they understood what was said and bore record of it. But notice is here taken of the perverse suggestion of the multitude: some of them said that it thundered: others, who took notice that there was plainly an articulate intelligible voice, said that certainly an angel spoke to him. Now this shows, 1. That it was a real thing, even in the judgment of those that were not at all well affected to him. 2. That they were loth to admit so plain a proof of Christ's divine mission. They would rather say that it was this, or that, or any thing, than that God spoke to him in answer to his prayer; and yet, if it thundered with articulate sounds (as Rev 10:3, Rev 10:4), was not that God's voice? Or, if angels spoke to him, are not they God's messengers? But thus God speaks once, yea twice, and man perceives it not.

IV. The account which our Saviour himself gives of this voice.

1. Why it was sent (Joh 12:30): "It came not because of me, not merely for my encouragement and satisfaction" (then it might have been whispered in his ear privately), "but for your sakes." (1.) "That all you who heard it may believe that the Father hath sent me." What is said from heaven concerning our Lord Jesus, and the glorifying of the Father in him, is said for our sakes, that we may be brought to submit to him and rest upon him. (2.) "That you my disciples, who are to follow me in sufferings, may therein be comforted with the same comforts that carry me on." Let this encourage them to part with life itself for his sake, if they be called to it, that it will redound to the honour of God. Note, The promises and supports granted to our Lord Jesus in his sufferings were intended for our sakes. For our sakes he sanctified himself, and comforted himself.

2. What was the meaning of it. He that lay in the Father's bosom knew his voice, and what was the meaning of it; and two things God intended when he said that he would glorify his own name: -

(1.) That by the death of Christ Satan should be conquered (Joh 12:31): Now is the judgment. He speaks with a divine exultation and triumph. "Now the year of my redeemed is come, and the time prefixed for breaking the serpent's head, and giving a total rent to the powers of darkness; now for that glorious achievement: now, now, that great work is to be done which has been so long thought of in the divine counsels, so long talked of in the written word, which has been so much the hope of saints and the dread of devils." The matter of the triumph is, [1.] That now is the judgment of the world; krisis, take it as a medical term: "Now is the crisis of this world." The sick and diseased world is now upon the turning point; this is the critical day upon which the trembling scale will turn for life or death, to all mankind; all that are not recovered by this will be left helpless and hopeless. Or, rather, it is a law term, as we take it: "Now, judgment is entered, in order to the taking out of execution against the prince of this world." Note, The death of Christ was the judgment of this world. First, It is a judgment of discovery and distinction - judicium discretionis; so Austin. Now is the trial of this world, for men shall have their character according as the cross of Christ is to them; to some it is foolishness and a stumbling-block, to others it is the wisdom and power of God; of which there was a figure in the two thieves that were crucified with him. By this men are judged, what they think of the death of Christ. Secondly, It is a judgment of favour and absolution to the chosen ones that are in the world. Christ upon the cross interposed between a righteous God and a guilty world as a sacrifice for sin and a surety for sinners, so that when he was judged, and iniquity laid upon him, and he was wounded for our transgressions, it was as it were the judgment of this world, for an everlasting righteousness was thereby brought in, not for Jews only, but the whole world, Jo1 2:1, Jo1 2:2; Dan 9:24. Thirdly, It is a judgment of condemnation given against the powers of darkness; see Joh 16:11. Judgment is put for vindication and deliverance, the asserting of an invaded right. At the death of Christ there was a famous trial between Christ and Satan, the serpent and the promised seed; the trial was for the world, and the lordship of it; the devil had long borne sway among the children of men, time out of mind; he now pleads prescription, grounding his claim also upon the forfeiture incurred by sin. We find him willing to have come to a composition (Luk 4:6, Luk 4:7); he would have given the kingdoms of this world to Christ, provided he would hold them by, fRom. and under him. But Christ would try it out with; by dying he takes off the forfeiture to divine justice, and then fairly disputes the title, and recovers it in the court of heaven. Satan's dominion is declared to be a usurpation, and the world adjudged to the Lord Jesus as his right, Psa 2:6, Psa 2:8. The judgment of this world is, that it belongs to Christ, and not to Satan; to Christ therefore let us all atturn tenants. [2.] That now is the prince of this world cast out. First, It is the devil that is here called the prince of this world, because he rules over the men of the world by the things of the world; he is the ruler of the darkness of this world, that is, of this dark world, of those in it that walk in darkness, Co2 4:4; Eph 4:12. Secondly, He is said to be cast out, to be now cast out; for, whatever had been done hitherto towards the weakening of the devil's kingdom was done in the virtue of a Christ to come, and therefore is said to be done now. Christ, reconciling the world to God by the merit of his death, broke the power of death, and cast out Satan as a destroyer; Christ, reducing the world to God by the doctrine of his cross, broke the power of sin, and cast out Satan as a deceiver. The bruising of his heel was the breaking of the serpent's head, Gen 3:15. When his oracles were silenced, his temples forsaken, his idols famished, and the kingdoms of the world became Christ's kingdoms, then was the prince of the world cast out, as appears by comparing this with John's vision (Rev 12:8-11), where it is said to be done by the blood of the Lamb. Christ's frequent casting of devils out of the bodies of people was an indication of the great design of his whole undertaking. Observe, With what assurance Christ here speaks of the victory over Satan; it is as good as done, and even when he yields to death he triumphs over it.

(2.) That by the death of Christ souls should be converted, and this would be the casting out of Satan (Joh 12:32): If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. Here observe two things: -

[1.] The great design of our Lord Jesus, which was to draw all men to him, not the Jews only, who had been long in a profession a people near to God, but the Gentiles also, who had been afar off; for he was to be the desire of all nations (Hag 2:7), and to him must the gathering of the people be. That which his enemies dreaded was that the world would go after him; and he would draw them to him, notwithstanding their opposition. Observe here how Christ himself is all in all in the conversion of a soul. First, It is Christ that draws: I will draw. It is sometimes ascribed to the Father (Joh 6:44), but here to the Son, who is the arm of the Lord. He does not drive by force, but draws with the cords of a man (Hos 11:4; Jer 31:3), draws as the loadstone; the soul is made willing, but it is in a day of power. Secondly, It is to Christ that we are drawn: "I will draw them to me as the centre of their unity." The soul that was at a distance from Christ is brought into an acquaintance with him, he that was shy and distrustful of him is brought to love him and trust in him, - drawn up to his terms, into his arms. Christ was now going to heaven, and he would draw men's hearts to him thither.

[2.] The strange method he took to accomplish his design by being lifted up from the earth. What he meant by this, to prevent mistake, we are told (Joh 12:33): This he spoke signifying by what death he should die, the death of the cross, though they had designed and attempted to stone him to death. He that was crucified was first nailed to the cross, and then lifted up upon it. He was lifted up as a spectacle to the world; lifted up between heaven and earth, as unworthy of either; yet the word here used signifies an honourable advancement, ean hupsōthō - If I be exalted; he reckoned his sufferings his honour. Whatever death we die, if we die in Christ we shall be lifted up out of this dungeon, this den of lions, into the regions of light and love. We should learn of our Master to speak of dying with a holy pleasantness, and to say, "We shall then be lifted up." Now Christ's drawing all men to him followed his being lifted up from the earth. First, It followed after it in time. The great increase of the church was after the death of Christ; while Christ lived, we read of thousands at a sermon miraculously fed, but after his death we read of thousands at a sermon added to the church. Israel began to multiply in Egypt after the death of Joseph. Secondly, It followed upon it as a blessed consequence of it. Note, There is a powerful virtue and efficacy in the death of Christ to draw souls to him. The cross of Christ, though to some a stumbling-stone, is to others a loadstone. Some make it an allusion to the drawing of fish into a net; the lifting up of Christ was as the spreading of the net (Mat 13:47, Mat 13:48); or to the setting up of a standard, which draws soldiers together; or, rather, it refers to the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, which drew all those to it who were stung with fiery serpents, as soon as ever it was known that it was lifted up, and there was healing virtue in it. O what flocking was there to it! So there was to Christ, when salvation through him was preached to all nations; see Joh 3:14, Joh 3:15. Perhaps it has some reference to the posture in which Christ was crucified, with his arms stretched out, to invite all to him, and embrace all that come. Those that put Christ to that ignominious death thought thereby to drive all men from him; but the devil was outshot in his own bow. Out of the eater came forth meat.

V. The people's exception against what he said, and their cavil at it, Joh 12:34. Though they had heard the voice from heaven, and the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth, yet they object, and pick quarrels with him. Christ had called himself the Son of man (Joh 12:23), which they knew to be one of the titles of the Messiah, Dan 7:13. He had also said that the Son of man must be lifted up, which they understood of his dying, and probably he explained himself so, and some think he repeated what he said to Nicodemus (Joh 3:14), So must the Son of man be lifted up. Now against this,

1. They alleged those scriptures of the Old Testament which speak of the perpetuity of the Messiah, that he should be so far from being cut off in the midst of his days that he should be a priest for ever (Psa 110:4), and a king for ever (Psa 89:29, etc.), that he should have length of days for ever and ever, and his years as many generations (Psa 21:4; Psa 61:6), from all which they inferred that the Messiah should not die. Thus great knowledge in the letter of the scripture, if the heart be unsanctified, is capable of being abused to serve the cause of infidelity, and to fight against Christianity with its own weapons. Their perverseness in opposing this to what Jesus had said will appear if we consider, (1.) That, when they vouched the scripture to prove that the Messiah abideth for ever, they took no notice of those texts which speak of the Messiah's death and sufferings: they had heard out of the law that Messiah abideth for ever; and had they never heard out of the law that Messiah should be cut off (Dan 9:26), and that he should pour out his soul unto death (Isa 53:12), and particularly that his hands and feet should be pierced? Why then do they make so strange of the lifting up of the Son of man? Note, We often run into great mistakes, and then defend them with scripture arguments, by putting those things asunder which God in his word has put together, and opposing one truth under pretence of supporting another. We have heard out of the gospel that which exalts free grace, we have heard also that which enjoins duty, and we just cordially embrace both, and not separate them, nor set them at variance. (2.) That, when they opposed what Christ said concerning the sufferings of the Son of man, they took no notice of what he had said concerning his glory and exaltation. They had heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever; and had they not heard our Lord Jesus say that he should be glorified, that he should bring forth much fruit, and draw all men to him? Had he not just now promised immortal honours to his followers, which supposed his abiding for ever? But this they overlooked. Thus unfair disputants oppose some parts of the opinion of an adversary, to which, if they would but take it entire, they could not but subscribe; and in the doctrine of Christ there are paradoxes, which to men of corrupt minds are stones of stumbling - as Christ crucified, and yet glorified; lifted up from the earth, and yet drawing all men to him.

2. They asked hereupon, Who is the Son of man? This they asked, not with a desire to be instructed, but tauntingly and insultingly, as if now they had baffled him, and run him down. "Thou sayest, The Son of man must die; we have proved the Messiah must not, and where is then thy Messiahship? This Son of man, as thou callest thyself, cannot be the Messiah, thou must therefore think of something else to pretend to." Now that which prejudiced them against Christ was his meanness and poverty; they would rather have no Christ than a suffering one.

VI. What Christ said to this exception, or rather what he said upon it. The objection was a perfect cavil; they might, if they pleased, answer it themselves: man dies, and yet is immortal, and abideth for ever, so the Son of man. Therefore, instead of answering these fools according to their folly, he gives them a serious caution to take heed of trifling away the day of their opportunities in such vain and fruitless cavils as these (Joh 12:35, Joh 12:36): "Yet a little while, and but a little while, is the light with you; therefore be wise for yourselves, and walk while you have the light."

1. In general, we may observe here, (1.) The concern Christ has for the souls of men, and his desire of their welfare. With what tenderness does he here admonish those to look well to themselves who were contriving ill against him! Even when he endured the contradiction of sinners, he sought their conversion. See Pro 29:10. (2.) The method he takes with these objectors, with meekness instructing those that opposed themselves, Ti2 2:25. Were but men's consciences awakened with a due concern about their everlasting state, and did they consider how little time they have to spend, and none to spare, they would not waste precious thoughts and time in trifling cavils.

2. Particularly we have here,

(1.) The advantage they enjoyed in having Christ and his gospel among them, with the shortness and uncertainty of their enjoyment of it: Yet a little while is the light with you. Christ is this light; and some of the ancients suggest that, in calling himself the light, he gives a tacit answer to their objection. His dying upon the cross was as consistent with his abiding for ever as the setting of the sun every night is with his perpetuity. The duration of Christ's kingdom is compared to that of the sun and moon, Psa 72:17; Psa 89:36, Psa 89:37. The ordinances of heaven are unchangeably fixed, and yet the sun and moon set and are eclipsed; so Christ the Sun of righteousness abides for ever, and yet was eclipsed by his sufferings, and was but a little while within our horizon. Now, [1.] The Jews at this time had the light with them; they had Christ's bodily presence, heard his preaching, saw his miracles. The scripture is to us a light shining in a dark place. [2.] It was to be but a little while with them; Christ would shortly leave them, their visible church state would soon after be dissolved and the kingdom of God taken from them, and blindness and hardness would happen unto Israel. Note, It is good for us all to consider what a little while we are to have the light with us. Time is short, and perhaps opportunity not so long. The candlestick may be removed; at least, we must be removed shortly. Yet a little while is the light of life with us; yet a little while is the light of the gospel with us, the day of grace, the means of grace, the Spirit of grace, yet a very little while.

(2.) The warning given them to make the best of this privilege while they enjoyed it, because of the danger they were in of losing it: Walk while you have the light; as travellers who make the best of their way forward, that they may not be benighted in their journey, because travelling in the night is uncomfortable and unsafe. "Come," say they, "let us mend our pace, and get forward, while we have day-light." Thus wise should we be for our souls who are journeying towards eternity. Note, [1.] It is our business to walk, to press forward towards heaven, and to get nearer to it by being made fitter for it. Our life is but a day, and we have a day's journey to go. [2.] The best time of walking is while we have the light. The day is the proper season for work, as the night is for rest. The proper time for getting grace is when we have the word of grace preached to us, and the Spirit of grace striving with us, and therefore then is the time to be busy. [3.] We are highly concerned thus to improve our opportunities, for fear lest our day be finished before we have finished our day's work and our day's journey: "Lest darkness come upon you, lest you lose your opportunities, and can neither recover them nor despatch the business you have to do without them." Then darkness comes, that is, such an utter incapacity to make sure the great salvation as renders the state of the careless sinner quite deplorable; so that, if his work be undone then, it is likely to be undone for ever.

(3.) The sad condition of those who have sinned away the gospel, and are come to the period of their day of grace. They walk in darkness, and know neither where they go, nor whither they go; neither the way they are walking in, nor the end they are walking towards. He that is destitute of the light of the gospel, and is not acquainted with its discoveries and directions, wanders endlessly in mistakes and errors, and a thousand crooked paths, and is not aware of it. Set aside the instructions of the Christian doctrine, and we know little of the difference between good and evil. He is going to destruction, and knows not his danger, for he is either sleeping or dancing at the pit's brink.

(4.) The great duty and interest of every one of us inferred from all this (Joh 12:36): While you have light, believe in the light. The Jews had now Christ's presence with them, let them improve it; afterwards they had the first offers of the gospel made to them by the apostles wherever they came; now this is an admonition to them not to out-stand their market, but to accept the offer when it was made to them: the same Christ saith to all who enjoy the gospel. Note, [1.] It is the duty of every one of us to believe in the gospel light, to receive it as a divine light, to subscribe to the truths it discovers, for it is a light to our eyes, and to follow its guidance, for it is a light to our feet. Christ is the light, and we must believe in him as he is revealed to us; as a true light that will not deceive us, a sure light that will not misguide us. [2.] We are concerned to do this while we have the light, to lay hold on Christ while we have the gospel to show us the way to him and direct us in that way. [3.] Those that believe in the light shall be the children of light; they shall be owned as Christians, who are called children of light (Luk 16:8; Eph 5:8) and of the day, Th1 5:5. Those that have God for their Father are children of light, for God is light; they are born from above, and heirs of heaven, and children of light, for heaven is light.

VII. Christ's retiring from them, hereupon: These things spoke Jesus, and said no more at this time, but left this to their consideration, and departed, and did hide himself from them. And this he did, 1. For their conviction and awakening. If they will not regard what he hath said, he will have nothing more to say to them. They are joined to their infidelity, as Ephraim to idols; let them alone. Note, Christ justly removes the means of grace from those that quarrel with him, and hides his face from a froward generation, Deu 32:20. 2. For his own preservation. He hid himself from their rage and fury, retreating, it is probable, to Bethany, where he lodged. By this it appears that what he said irritated and exasperated them, and they were made worse by that which should have made them better.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh_12:27-29

Now is My soul troubled.

This struggle is like one of those fissures in its crust which enables science to fathom the bowels of the earth. It lets us read the very inmost depths of our Lords being. And what do we discover? Just the reverse of that impassive Jesus attributed by criticism to St. John. (F. Godet, D. D.)

Lent, a preparation for Good Friday: or the valley of the shadow of death

It has been well said that all Lent should be regarded as a preparationfor Good Friday and its observance. Just as when we visit some deep and gloomy gorge amongst the mountains, long before we reach the spot where the cliffs rise highest and the daylight is farthest off, the hills begin to encircle us, the bright sunshine is lost and the black shadows of the stern and solemn precipices encompass our path! Thus, for a considerable time before His crucifixion, our Lord by His prophetic foresight entered into the valley of the shadow of death. And we, in sympathy, should follow His footsteps. When the great prehistoric temple of Stonehenge was perfect, a number of huge stone gateways gave access to the central altar, around which they were ranged. So our Blessed Lord may be pictured as approaching the great Sacrifice on the Altar of the Cross by passing through diverse portals. We may look on Him in different aspects of the preparation for the first Good Friday.

I. For instance, we see Him passing through the archway of PAINFUL ANTICIPATION. He knew what awaited Him--He told His disciples--the Son of Man was about to be betrayed--given into the hands of strangers--scourged, mocked, spitefully entreated--insulted--crucified! All, like a harrowing picture, was clear before His eyes, every detail stood out distinctly, and each day the crisis of His obedience drew closer. For though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience by those things which He suffered (Heb_5:8). A middle-aged man said that the most agonizing day he ever spent was the one day before an operation was performed on him; he did not know whether it would be very painful or not, and he was afraid to ask, and every time his thoughts wandered to pleasant matters they came back with a start to the grim recollection that every moment brought nearer and nearer the horrible instant that he could not escape!

II. Again, we may regard our Lord pressing on to the Cross through the portal of a brave and RESOLUTE DETERMINATION. He set His face to go up to Jerusalem. When His disciples objected, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again? the warning cannot stay His footsteps. When the power of darkness is at hand, He says, with a noble resignation, The cup that My Father giveth Me to drink, shall I not drink it?

III. Another aspect in which we may observe our Saviour is, that He was called on to take His pathway under the gloomy arch of MORTIFICATION AND FAILURE. The disciples who walked by His side He knew were about to forsake Him. Peter, their chief spokesman, was going to deny Him, and Judas to betray Him, and the multitude were soon to exchange their welcome of Hosannah into grim yells of Crucify Him! But none of these things daunted the resolution of our Lord. In one golden sentence He summed up His task. (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.)

The Saviours prayer

I. THE EXPERIENCE OUT OF WHICH IT AROSE. Troubled means tortured, racked, torn, as it were, with intense and various emotions.

1. This trouble arose out of the foresight of the Cross. Between Him and His glory lay Calvary. But the anguish was not on account of the physical torture or personal ignominy He would endure, although extreme; He had tasted the bitterness of sin in the intensity and perfection of His redeeming sympathy, and to pass under the shadow of its retribution.

2. This trouble superinduced a great conflict in His mind, What shall I say? Father, etc. Some regard this as a petition; others with more propriety an interrogation implying a natural shrinking which it would have been more human not to feel. Gladly would He have said it but for the stability of His redeeming purpose. Purpose and feeling thus came into distressing collision.

3. The conflict, however, was but momentary. It gave place at once to a calm and heroic resignation.

II. THE PURPORT OF THE PRAYER. Father, glorify Thy name. How concise, yet comprehensive: expressive of

1. Resignation. Do what Thou wilt so long as Thou be glorified.

2. Fortitude. The task before Me is a heavy one, but for Thy sake, I will go forward to it.

3. Benevolence. Self is lost sight of, and the Fathers purpose and the redounding glory is all in all.

4. Faith. What Thou hast promised Thou wilt perform.

III. THE ANSWER.

1. How it was given. By a voice from heaven, mistaken as thunder, as the voice of an angel, but truly interpreted by Christ.

2. What it was. A declaration

(1) That it had been already fulfilled--in the whole of Christs life. How this assurance would animate Christ, and endear to Him afresh the Fathers will.

(2) That the end for which Jesus prayed would be still further attained. Conclusion: Learn to cherish at all times a true and steady regard for the glory of God. (B. Wilkinson.)

A foretaste of Gethsemane

I see in the whole event here described a short summary of what took place afterwards more fully at Gethsemane. There is a remarkable parallelism at every step. Does our Lord say here

1. My soul is troubled? Just so He said in Gethsemane: My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death (Mat_26:38)

2. Father, save Me from this hour? Just so He says in Gethsemane: O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me (Mat_26:39).

3. Does our Lord say here, For this cause came I unto this hour? Just so He says in Gethsemane: If this cup may not pass away from Me except I drink it, Thy will be done.

4. Does our Lord say, finally, Father, glorify Thy name? Just so our Lord says, lastly, The cup which My Father hast given Me, shall I not drink it (chap. 18:11). The brief prayer which our Lord here offers, we should remember, is the highest, greatest thing that we can ask God to do. The utmost reach of the renewed will of a believer, is to be able to say always, Father glorify Thy name in Me. Do with Me what Thou wilt, only glorify Thy name. The glory of God after all is the end for which all things were created. Pauls joyful hope, he told the Philippians, when a prisoner at Rome, was that in all things, by life or by death, Christ might be magnified in his body (Php_1:20). (Bp. Ryle.)

Gethsemane in prospect

This world is a world of grief. The infant begins its career with a cry of distress premonitory of all it must suffer from the cradle to the grave. Some suffer more than others--martyrs, e.g. Heb_11:36-38). But one stands out preeminent for suffering (Isa_53:1-12; Psa_69:1-2; Psa_69:20). It was in the foresight of His amazing sufferings that Christ felt this perturbation of spirit, which arose out of

I. AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY UNDER THE TRUST HE HAD ASSUMED. Those most worthy of responsibility feel its pressure most. Some rush into office without sensibility or conscience, prepared to take all responsibility merely to pervert it to private ends. But men who deserve the trusts of life shrink even from their honours--e.g., the conscientious physician, advocate, judge, parent. What was Christs trust? It was

1. To represent the sinner (Gal_5:4-5; 2Co_5:21).

2. To represent God. His holiness, justice, truth, in all the bitter experiences of His Spirit, and that not in His omnipotent Divine, but in His frail human nature.

II. THE VIEW OF DEATH AS THE PENALTY OF THE LAW. The dread of death is natural because it formed no part of our original constitution. Whatever belongs to our nature God makes pleasant--e.g., sleep and food. But death is horrible because it has supervened on our constitution Rom_5:12). But Christ had to die under the Fathers judicial displeasure as the substitute for sinners whom the law condemns. He was made sin for us who know no sin, which sinlessness added to the agony. Who that is in any degree sanctified can help but feel the pain of the sins with which He is brought in contact? How then must it have been with the Perfect Man who bore all sin, and all sorrows that are born of sin, even to the privation of the Divine presence.

III. THE ANTICIPATION OF CONFLICT WITH THE POWERS OF DARKNESS. It was an old quarrel begun when Satan lifted the standard of rebellion in heaven, continued when Adam fell, and after. We know something of the terribleness of striving with the devil, and as we advance in the Divine life it becomes more terrible. What then must it have been for the spotless Jesus to feel the full brunt of all the forces that hell could muster. Conclusion:

1. All these sufferings are the evidences of Christs love to us.

2. They show us the awful demerit of sin. (B. M. Palmer, D. D.)

The internal sufferings of Christ

It became Christ to suffer Heb_2:10). His sufferings were many varied and severe, and His external sufferings, though of no common kind, were the least part of them, as may be judged by the fact that they never extorted a complaint, whereas His inward anguish wrung from Him strong crying and tears.

I. THE SAVIOURS INTERNAL SUFFERINGS. When the mind is free from uneasiness it is said to be calm like the bosom of the lake when no breath of wind ruffles its glassy surface. When sorrow and terror takes possession of it, it is said to be agitated, like the ocean in a storm. The latter was the case with Christ here, and Joh_13:21, and Mat_26:36-46.

1. Its cause

(1) not external circumstances. There was no scourge or cross here, or at Gethsemane. On the contrary, there was much to please. The people had just shouted their Hosannahs to His Messiahship; the Greeks had fulfilled the promise of Isa_49:6.

(2) Not remorse. In no case could He wish that He had thought, or felt, or acted differently from what He had done.

(3) Not fear of impending bodily sufferings (though no doubt they did give rise to uneasy feelings), for He knew that these would be momentary and would be abundantly compensated.

(4) There is but one way of accounting for it. The invisible arm of Omnipotence smites Him. On the head of the spotless, perfect man, Jehovah made to meet, as the victim for human transgression, the iniquities of us all, in all their odiousness and malignity. The more He loved those in whose room He stood, the more would His trouble be increased, just as we are affected more by the crimes of a friend than by those of a stranger. And in addition He was exposed to the attack of malignant spiritual beings whose was that hour and power of darkness.

2. Its purpose.

(1) To make Him perfect, i.e., fully to accomplish Him as Saviour. It formed one important part of His expiation. Mere bodily sufferings could not expiate spiritual wickedness.

(2) To complete His example. This had been incomplete had He not showed His people how to conduct themselves under inward troubles which often form the severest part of their trials.

(3) To render Him sympathetic with His people under those trials which most need His sympathy.

II. THE EXERCISE OF OUR LORDS MIND UNDER THESE SUFFERINGS.

1. What shall I say? has been regarded as a further expression of suffering--My sorrows are too great to be uttered in words. Father, save me from my impending sufferings. Christs sorrows were indeed unspeakable, but He could hardly have asked to be saved from death when He rebuked His disciples for attempting to dissuade Him, and when He was straitened till the baptism of blood was accomplished.

2. The words express the deliberating of our Lords mind as to what course He should follow--to what quarter shall I turn for relief. Men are not disposed to pity Me, and cannot relieve Me. I turn to God: what shall I say to Him? He can sustain and deliver Me. Shall I ask Him to release Me from My covenant engagements? No: for this cause I came to this hour. I will not ask it. I will say, Glorify Thy name; finish Thy work in righteousness. Let the end be gained: I quarrel not with the means.

3. What a display of

(1) Love to God in entire devotedness to His glory!

(2) Love to man in becoming obedient to death.

4. What a call for gratitude, love and devotion from us!

III. THE FATHERS APPROBATION OF THE SAVIOURS EXERCISE OF MIND UNDER THESE SUFFERINGS. I have both glorified it, etc. The whole universe glorifies Gods name, the whole history of the past and future. But this refers to the glorification of Gods name

1. In Christ Jesus. His faithfulness in fulfilling His great promise to His Church; His power in bringing into personal union, the Divine and human natures; His mercy in not withholding His only Son. Gods glory was seen in Christs life, teaching, miracles.

2. In the awful events of that hour.

3. In the glorious results of Christs death (Psa_16:10-11; Exo_1:1-22; Exo_2:8; Isa_53:12; Isa_49:6; Isa_40:5). The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ;the effusion of the Spirit; the salvation of an innumerable company.

The subject

1. Tells the impenitent sinner what he must endure if he refuses to avail himself of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

2. Bids the Christian rejoice that the cup of wrath he deserved has been drunk by Christ.

3. Urges us often to show forth the Lords death in His own ordinance. (J. Brown, D. D.)

The soul trouble of Christ

I. THE MYSTERY OF THE SAVIOURS SORROW. It is usual to explain that the human nature of Jesus shrank from death. But this view lowers Him below the level of the martyrs, and is inconsistent with the haste with which He journeyed to Jerusalem to meet His death; and we cannot think of Him as losing courage.

II. SOME LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY. We are apt to take too corporeal a view of Christs sacrifice. The bodily pain was an essential part of the suffering, but only a part. It was something all His own in dying, from which He shrank, and the shrinking from which He had to conquer. He saw the sin-wrought woes and horrors of all the generations before and after, to the day of judgment, and there was a sense of their being upon Him, and enveloping Him. And so we may hear Him cry, Spare Me not the scourging, the death agony, etc., but the being made one with the world in its sin.

III. THE MEANING OF THE PRAYER. This experience had not been altogether measured beforehand, and now the agony of the incorporation of the sinless with sin is before Him, He prays for deliverance from conscious sin-bearing.

IV. THE ANSWER TO THE PRAYER. There came a voice. Modern unbelief scoffs at voices from heaven. Reverence will not pass hasty judgments. One said, It thundered; another, an angel spoke to Him. Christ alone hears the audible words, and interprets them when He is alone with His people. I have glorified it and will glorify it.

V. PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. My soul is troubled. Christ is not alone in that experience; but His troubles were not His own; ours are our own.

2. Save Me from this hour. Not that He would not suffer for others; but that this going fearfully into the very heart of sin seemed terrible. We may pray this prayer; but let us take care to remember how different is our trouble; and to add, Glorify Thy name, whatever it may cost us.

3. Can we pray, Glorify Thy name? Whatever I suffer for my own sin or for my brothers, only may God be glorified; only may God be seen as He is in His power to save. May this thought take root and grow in us! (Dean Vaughan.)

The sorrow and resignation of Christ

I. THE HOUR WHICH THE SAVIOUR MET. He names it twice in a very emphatic manner: and there is repeated notice of the fact that it had not yet come. There have been many important hours, but none like this. It was the hour

1. For which time was made.

2. To which all the dispensations referred--Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic.

3. Which all the prophets foretold (1Pe_1:11).

4. In which the grandest work was accomplished, and the grandest victory achieved.

5. In which all intelligent creation was concerned.

(1) Angels were not indifferent spectators, for they were confirmed in their bliss.

(2) Devils, for they were deprived of their last expiring hope.

(3) Man, for a full atonement for his sin was made.

II. THE AFFLICTION HE FELT. He hardly knew how to express Himself in the prospect; what then must have been the agony itself? No one had ever such reason to meet death with calmness. He had no guilt, was assured of immortality, and saw the blessed issue. Martyrs--mere men--have suffered with magnanimity and joy. Yet He was troubled. Why? Because He was the surety for sinners and suffered for sin. Learn, then

1. The extreme evil of sin.

2. The greatness of the love of Christ.

3. The indispensable necessity of faith in His atonement.

III. THE RESIGNATION HE EXEMPLIFIED. Father, save Me, etc., is not a petition, but an interrogation. Note that

1. Christs undertaking for sinners was voluntary. He came to this hour, which teaches His inviolable faithfulness, and should encourage our trust.

2. He saw this hour in every period of His existence. It was not unexpected--For this cause.

3. The motives which had influenced Him to suffer were still the same; and as the hour approached they gathered weight.

4. It was but an hour. The conflict was severe but transient. Such considerations contributed to work this resignation.

IV. THE PRAYER HE OFFERED. Father, glorify Thy name is more than resignation; it is a consecration of His sufferings to Gods glory. How is the Father glorified thus?

1. In His perfections. Already His wisdom, power, and mercy were displayed in the Saviours mission and miracles: but now He was to display His holiness and justice.

2. As regards His dispensations. (T. Kidd.)

The Redeemer contemplating His hour as come

I. THE UNIQUE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LANGUAGE.

1. The nature of the hour--the time appointed for the vindication of the Divine government outraged by man, and for the manifestation of Divine love. The world had been spared for this hour.

2. The mysterious agitation with which it was approached. This was natural. Who has not spent anxious days and sleepless nights over an unfinished work, and who does not know the tension as the hour for its completion arrives.

3. The grand consideration which induced Christ to meet this hour--the fact that all the past was summed up in it to the glory of God, and that the glory of God would stream from it.

II. ITS APPLICATION TO US.

1. There is an hour in the life of every man, Christian, Church, for which every previous hour is a designed preparation.

2. Seasons of special service and sacrifice have actually occurred in the history of the Church--Israel on the confines of the promised land; the Reformation; the mission of Wesley; the great missionary movement.

3. Such times of effort should be expected, prayed for, ascertained.

4. The due apprehension of our hour would invest us with a consecrating sense of opportunity.

5. On our discharge of impending responsibilities may be suspended consequences of unknown magnitude.

6. Is not the urgency of the hour now greater than ever? (J. Harris, D. D.)

The hour of atonement

The Redeemer

I. CONTEMPLATED AN IMPORTANT PERIOD.

1. As involving intense and infinite agony--betrayal, desertion, ignominy, corporeal torture, agony in the endurance of imputed sin.

2. As connected with and founding His exaltation (Joh_12:23).

(1) The glory of His personal dignity in His resurrection, ascension, enthronement, and dominion.

(2) The glory of the universal efficacy of His atonement (Joh_12:24, Isa_53:10-12).

II. WAS AFFECTED BY A POWERFUL EMOTION.

1. He was perturbed with anxiety arising from the prospect of His sufferings, which incidentally proves that His death was an atonement. How else shall we explain this intense agitation?

2. He was resolute in determination. For this cause come I to this hour.

3. He was fervent in prayer. Father, glorify Thy name.

III. RECEIVED A REMARKABLE TESTIMONY.

1. Its mode--a voice from heaven.

2. Its announcement--an approval of the invocation.

Conclusion:

1. Honour the hour of atonement by admitting its unparalleled importance.

2. Seek with supreme earnestness a personal interest in the redemption this period has provided.

3. Promote the glory of the Father and the Son by the zealous diffusion of that gospel which conveys it. (J. Parsons.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 12:27. Now is my soul troubled — Our Lord, having uttered what is above recorded, seems to have paused for a while, and entered on a deep contemplation of the very different scene which lay before him; the prospect of which moved him to such a degree, that he uttered his grief in these and the following doleful words. For he had various foretastes of his passion before he fully entered into it. And what shall I say? — Not, What shall I choose? for his heart was fixed in choosing the will of his Father: but, What shall I say in prayer to my heavenly Father? What petition shall I offer to him on this occasion? Father, save me from this hour — Dr. Campbell reads, What shall I say? [shall I say,] Father, save me from this hour? But I came on purpose for this hour; considering the words as containing two questions: the distress of Christ’s soul first suggesting a petition for deliverance, in which, however, he is instantly checked by the reflection on the end and design of his coming. The passage is understood by Dr. Doddridge in the same sense, who says, “I suppose few need be told, that the pointing of the New Testament is far less ancient than the text. It is agreeable to observe, how many difficulties may be removed by varying it, and departing from the common punctuation: of which I take this to be one of the most remarkable instances. For as the text does not oblige us to it, it does not seem natural to suppose that our Lord actually offered this petition, and then immediately retracted it.” But for this cause came I unto this hour — For this cause was I born into the world, and came even to this present hour, that I might bear the sufferings on which I am entering, and might redeem my people by them; and far be it from me to draw back from such engagements and undertakings. By praying on this occasion, our Lord shows us what is the best method of obtaining support and comfort in deep distress. At the same time, as in his prayer he expressed an entire resignation to the will of his Father, he has taught us, that although the weakness of human nature may shrink at the first thoughts of suffering, his disciples ought not to yield, but to fortify themselves by just reflections on, and a firm faith in, the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, and the happy end he proposes to be answered by their afflictions.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:27 my soul is deeply troubled: John used the same term (Greek tarassō) to describe Jesus’ strong emotion of agony before Lazarus’ tomb (11:33; also 13:21). When Jesus stood before death, he could not be impassive. Jesus experienced genuine anguish, yet he remained strong in obedience to the Father’s will (5:19-23; 6:37; 8:29, 38; 14:31).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 12:27. Νῦν, now) Jesus had various foretastes of His passion, by which lie prepared Himself for it. This now, νῦν, has great weight: a second now occurs, Joh 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world.” [So also ch. Joh 13:31, “Now is the Son of man glorified.” In both instances there follows after the ‘now,’ etc., a declaration of the shortness of the time yet left to Him: in this passage, at Joh 12:35, “Yet a little while is the light with you:” in the other passage (ch. Joh 13:31), at Joh 12:33, “Yet a little while I am with you.”—V. g.]—τετάρακται, is troubled) A becoming declaration. The horror of death, and the ardour of His obedience, were meeting together.[320]—καὶ τί εἴπω, and what shall I say) Jesus immediately sustains [buoys up] His soul in that very νῦν, now. A double-membered speech follows this formula; and the formula itself has this force, that His thought is to be regarded as having conceived the whole idea expressed [sentiment, viz., not only nature’s instinctive shrinking from suffering, but also full approval of God’s will] in one moment, although human language could not comprise the full expression of the whole in one moment; hence, as it were for the sake of προθεραπεία [precaution, lest His following words should be misunderstood, as though He were doubting, should He choose suffering], He saith, what SHALL I Say? not, what shall I choose? with which comp. [the rather different experience of Paul] Php 1:22, “What I shall choose I wot not: for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart.”—σῶσόν με, save Me) The expression, Let this cup pass [Mat 26:39], is akin to the expression here.—ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταὺτης) from this hour of suffering. For the soul of Jesus was vividly realizing to itself this [hour of suffering], Joh 12:23.—ἀλλά, but however) Akin to this is tint expression, πλήν, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt” [Mat 26:39].—διὰ τοῦτο, for this cause) Therefore came I to this hour, that I might come to this hour, and drain its cup of suffering to the dregs. An elliptical Ploce. [See Appendix. This figure is, when the same expression is put twice, once in the simple sense of the word itself, and once to express an attribute of it.]

[320] Truly both the glory and humiliation of Jesus Christ, the Son of GOD, exceed all comprehension. Thence resulted the marvellous attempering [temperamentum; mixture in due proportions] of the sacred affections of mind in the same Divine Being, of His thoughts, words, and whole course of action, in relation to the Father, to His disciples, and to all other men; whilst at one time the one state [that of His humiliation], at another time the other state [that of His Divine glory], claimed to itself the prominent place: with however this proviso, that in both cases the Becoming, that is, what was worthy of His own Divine Majesty, and condescension to His wretched brethren, in an altogether incomparable manner harmonise with one another, and agree together. To express these with propriety, not either the wisdom or skill of man would have sufficed: but the altogether exquisite success of the Evangelists, in this respect, plainly betrays the fact that they used a style divinely taught them.—Harm., p. 451.

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

Joh_12:27-28. The realization of His sufferings and death, with which His discourse from Joh_12:23 was filled, shakes Him suddenly with apprehension and momentary wavering, springing from the human sensibility, which naturally seeks to resist the heaviest suffering, which He must yet undergo. To define this specially as the feeling of the divine anger (Beza, Calvin, Calovius, Hengstenberg, and many others), which He has certainly appeased by His death, rests on the supposition, which is nowhere justified, that, according to the object of the death (Joh_1:29, Joh_3:14, Joh_10:11-12; Mat_20:28; Rom_8:3; Rom_3:25; 2Co_5:21, et al.), its severity also is measured in the consciousness. Bengel well says: concurrebat horror mortis et ardor obedientiae. The Lord is thus moved to pray; but He is for the moment uncertain for what (τί εἴπω), ἀπορούμετος ὑπὸ τῆς ἀγωνίας, Euth. Zigabenus. First, a momentary fear of the sufferings of death (comp. on Luk_12:50) obtains the upper hand, in virtue of that human weakness, in which even He, the Son of God, because He had become man, had His share (Heb_4:15; Heb_5:7-8), and He prays: Father, save me from this hour, spare me this death-suffering which is awaiting me, quite as in Mat_26:39, so that He thus not merely cries for support through it, and for a shortening of it (Ebrard). But immediately this wish, resulting from natural dread of suffering and death,[109] yields to the victorious consciousness of His great destiny; He gives expression to the latter (ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦΤΟ, Κ.Τ.Λ.), and now prays: Father, glorify Thy name; i.e., through the suffering of death appointed to me, let the glory of Thy name (of Thy being in its self-presentation, comp. on Mat_6:9) be manifested. The fulfilment of this prayer was brought about in this way, that by means of the death of Jesus (and of His consequent δόξα) the divine decree of salvation was fulfilled, then everywhere made known through the gospel, in virtue of the Holy Spirit (Joh_14:16 ff.), and obedience to the faith established to the honour of the Father, which is the last aim of the work of Christ, Php_2:11.

Ἡ ΨΥΧΉ ΜΟΥ] not as a designation of individual grief (Olshausen), but as the seat of the affections generally. He might also have said τὸ πνεῦμά μου (comp. Joh_11:33; Joh_11:38), but would then have meant the deeper basis of life, to which the impressions of the ΨΥΧΉ, which is united with the ΣΆΡΞ, are conveyed. Comp. on Luk_1:46-47.

ΠΆΤΕΡ, ΣῶΣΌΝ ΜΕ, Κ.Τ.Λ.] The hour of suffering is regarded as present, as though He were already at that hour. To take the words interrogatively: shall I say: save me? etc. (so Chrysostom, Theophylact, Jansen, Grotius, Lampe, and many others, including Lachmann, Tholuck, Kling, Schweizer, Maier, Lange, Ewald, Godet) yields the result of an actual prayer interwoven into a reflective monologue, and is therefore less suitable to a frame of mind so deeply moved.

ἀλλά] objecting, like our but no! See Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 36; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 13 f.

διὰ τοῦτο] Wherefore, is contained in the following prayer, πάτερ, δόξασον, κ.τ.λ. Consequently: therefore, in order that through my suffering of death Thy name may be glorified. The completion: in order that the world might be redeemed (Olshausen and older commentators), is not supplied by the context; to undergo this suffering (Grotius, De Wette, Luthardt, Lange, Ebrard, Godet; comp. Hengstenberg: in order that my soul may be shaken) is tautological; and Lampe: to be saved, is inappropriate. The τοῦτο is here preparative; let only διὰ τοῦτο … ταύτην be enclosed within dashes, and the sense is made clearly to appear: but notherefore I came to this hour

Father, glorify, etc. Jesus might have said: ἀλλὰ, πάτερ, δόξασον σου τὸ ὄνομα, διὰ τοῦτο γὰρ ἦλθον ἐ. τ. ὡ. τ. But the language, deeply emotional, throbs more unconnectedly, and as it were by starts.

The repetition of πάτερ corresponds to the thrill of filial affection.

ΣΟΥ stands emphatically, in the first place, in antithesis to the reference which the previous prayer of Jesus contained to Himself. On the subject-matter, comp. Mat_26:39.

ΟὖΝ] corresponding to this petition.

ΦΩΝῊ ἘΚ Τ. ΟὐΡ.] The voice which came from heaven: I have glorified it (in Thy mission and Thy whole previous work), and shall again (through Thine impending departure by means of death to the δόξα) glorify it,[110] is not to be regarded as actual, natural thunder (according to the O. T. view conceived of as the voice of the Lord, as in Psalms 29, Job_37:4, and frequently), in which only the subjective disposition, the so-attuned inner ear of Jesus (and of the disciples), distinguished the words καὶ ἐδόξασα, κ.τ.λ.; while others, less susceptible to this divine symbolism of nature, believed only in a general way, that in the thunder an angel had spoken with Jesus; while others again, unsusceptible, understood the natural occurrence simply and solely as such, and took it for nothing further than what it objectively was. So substantially, not merely Paulus, Kuinoel, Lücke, Ammon, De Wette, Maier, Baeumlein, and several others, but also Hengstenberg.[111] Several have here had recourse to the later Jewish view of Bath-Kol (by which, however, only real literal voices, not natural phenomena, without speech, were understood; see Lübkert in the Stud. u. Krit. 1835, 3), as well as to the Gentile interpretations of thunder as the voice of the gods (see Wetstein). Against this entire view, it is decisive that John himself, the ear-witness, describes a φωνὴ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, which was an objective occurrence; that he further repeats its express words; that, further, to take the first half of these words referring to the past, as the product of a merely subjective perception, is without any support in the prayer of Jesus; that, further, Jesus Himself, Joh_12:30, gives His confirmation to the occurrence of an actual voice; that, finally, the ἌΛΛΟΙ also, Joh_12:29, must have heard a speech. Hence we must abide by the interpretation that a voice actually issued from heaven, which John relates, and Jesus confirms as an objective occurrence. It is a voice which came miraculously from God (as was the case, according to the Synoptics, at the baptism and the transfiguration), yet as regards its intelligibility conditioned by the subjective disposition and receptivity of the hearers (so also Tholuck, Olshausen, Kling, Luthardt, Hofmann, Schriftbew. I. p. 391 f., Lange, Ebrard, Godet following the old commentators), which sounded with a tone as of thunder, so that the definite words which resounded in this form of sound remained unintelligible to the unsusceptible, who simply heard that majestic kind of sound, but not its contents, and said: βροντὴν γεγονέναι; whereas, on the other hand, others, more susceptible, certainly understood this much, that the thunder-like voice was a speech, but not what it said, and thought an angel (comp. Act_23:9) had spoken in this thunder-voice to Jesus. This opinion of theirs, however, does not justify us in regarding the divine word which was spoken as also actually communicated by angelic ministry (Hofmann), since, in fact, the utterance of the ἄλλοι is not adduced as at all the true account, and since, moreover, the heavenly voice, according to the text, appears simply and solely as the answer of the Father.

[109] Which in itself is not only not immoral, but the absence of which would even lower the moral greatness and the worth of His sacrifice. Comp. Dorner, Jesu sündlose Vollkommenh. p. 6.

[110] The reference of ἐδόξασα to the O. T. revelation, which is now declared to be closed (Lange, L. J. II. p. 1208), is without any foundation in the context.

[111] See, in answer to him, some appropriate observations in Engelhardt, in the Luth. ZeitsChr. 1865, p. 209 ff. He, however, refers the δοξάσω to the fact that the Son, even in His sufferings, will allow the will of God entirely to prevail with Him. The glorifying of God, however, by means of the death of Jesus, which was certainly the culminating point of His obedience to the Father, reaches further, namely (see especially Joh_17:1-2) to Gods honour through the Lords attainment of exaltation throughout the whole world by means of His death. As ἐδόξασα refers to His munus propheticum, so δοξάσω to the fact that He attains to the munus regium through the fulfilment of the munus sacerdotale.

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 12:27 . The distinct and near prospect of the cross as the path to glory which these Greeks called up in His thoughts prompts Him to exclaim: Νῦν ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται , “Now is my soul troubled”. ψυχή is, as Weiss remarks, synonymous with πνεῦμα , see Joh 13:21 . A conflict of emotions disturbs His serenity. “Concurrebat horror mortis et ardor obedientiae.” Bengel. καὶ τί εἴπω ; “And what shall I say?” This clause certainly suggests that the next should also be interrogative, “Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause (or, with this object) came I to this hour.” That is, if He should now pray to be delivered from death this would be to stultify all He had up to this time been doing; for without His death His life would be fruitless. He would still be a seed preserved and not sown.

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

Vv. 27, 28 a. “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. 28a. Father, glorify thy name.”

The soul, ψυχή, is the seat of the natural emotions, asthe spirit, πνεῦμα, is that of the religious emotions. Weiss disputes this distinction by appealing to the altogether similar emotion described in Joh 11:33. But it is precisely this expression, especially when compared with Joh 13:21, which confirms it. In these two passages the question is of a shuddering of a religious and moral nature at the evil which is approaching Him in the most hateful form. Here, on the contrary, it is the prospect of personal griefs and of death which so violently agitates Him.

The term ψυχή, soul, is therefore perfectly in its place. I do not understand the import of the explanation of Weiss, which is intended to identify ψυχή and πνεῦμα : “The spirit becomes the soul in man” (see Keil). The perfect τετάρακται, is troubled, indicates a state in which the Lord feels Himself entirely overwhelmed. And this extraordinary trouble reveals itself especially to His consciousness by the hesitation which He feels, at the moment when He is seeking to pour out His emotion in prayer. Ordinarily, He has a distinct view of that which He should ask of His Father; now, this clearness fails Him. Like the believer in the state which St. Paul describes in Rom 8:26, He knows not how He should pray. He is obliged to lay before Himself for a moment the question: What shall I say? This question He does not address, properly speaking, to God, nor to man, but to Himself. The sacrifice of His own life is in itself a free act; He could still, if He saw fit, ask of God to release Him from it. And the Father would hear him, as always, even should it be necessary to send Him twelve legions of angels. But would not this prayer, while delivering Him, destroy mankind? Jesus does not feel Himself free to pray thus. He is already too far advanced on the path on which He is to realize the salvation of the world, to stop so near the end. The word now, which begins the sentence, characterizes this distress as an anticipation of that which awaits Him in the presence of the cross: already now, although the terrible hour has not yet struck. After the question: What shall I say? how are we to understand the words: Father, save me from this hour? Is this the real prayer wherein this moment of uncertainty through which He has just passed, terminates?

This is what is supposed by Lucke, Meyer, Hengstenberg, Ebrard, Luthardt, Westcott. What would be its meaning? “Release me from the necessity of dying,” as when He offers the prayer in Gethsemane: “Let this cup pass from me”? This is held by the first three. But there he adds: if it is possible, and by the πλήν which follows, He commits it immediately to the Father’s will (Mat 26:39). And how can we explain the sudden change of impression in the following clause? After having uttered seriously and without restriction the petition: “Save me from this hour!” could He add, as it were in a single breath: “But for this hour am I come”? Luthardt, Ebrard, and Westcott perceive this clearly. So they propose to understand the σῶσόν με, save me, not in the sense: “Deliver me from death,” but in the sense: “Bring me victoriously out of this present inward struggle,” either by shortening it or by giving it a happy issue. But how are we to explain the following adversative particle ἀλλά, but? Here Westcott proposes an absolute tour de force. “But to what purpose say this?

The favorable issue is not doubtful.” This sense of but is altogether forced; and there is no more opposition between: to come forth from the struggle, and: to have come for it. However we may turn this phrase, we are always brought back to see in it a hypothetical prayer. It is the voice of nature which at first makes itself heard in answer to the question: What shall I say? Then, in the following words Jesus represses this voice. To address this petition to God would be to deny all that He has done and endured until now. And finally, giving vent to the voice of the spirit, He definitely stays Himself in the prayer which alone remains, when once this moment of trouble is past: Glorify thy name! that is to say: “Derive from me Thy glory, by doing with me what Thou wilt. Nothing for me, everything for Thee!” What more instructive than this conflict between these two factors which solicit the will of Jesus? It allows us to penetrate into the inmost recess of His heart. What do we there discover? Precisely the opposite of that impassive Jesus whom our critics assert the Christ of John to be.

The expressions: for this cause, and: for this hour, seem to constitute a pleonasm. We might make this clause a question: “Is it then for this that I am come to this hour?” that is, to try to put it off indefinitely? Or we may make the words for this hour an explanatory apposition to for this: “It is for this that I am come, that is, for this hour.” These two meanings are forced, the first, because of the two questions which already precede; the second, because the εἰς is not the natural resuming of the διά, but rather the direct objective word to ἦλθον and the antithesis ofσῶσον ἐκ . Hengstenberg explains: “It is that my soul may be troubled that I am come...,” which is still more forced.Lucke and Meyer make the words for this bear upon the idea of the following prayer (Joh 12:28): Father, glorify thy name. This is to do violence to the sentence beyond measure. Is it not quite simple to see in the neuter this the expression, in a slight degree mysterious, of that something which has just brought trouble upon His soul, and which He is tempted to seek to remove by His prayer, the dark and unutterable contents of the hour which is approaching? “It is because of this death which I am to undergo, that I have persevered in this path until this hour.” All that he has done and suffered in view of the cross does not permit Him to give way at the moment when the hour of this terrible punishment is about to strike. Comp. Joh 3:14

The pronoun thy (Joh 12:28), by reason of the place which it occupies, is emphasized. It is opposed, as Weiss says, to the personal character of the preceding prayer which Jesus has set aside.

Colani, in his criticism of the Vie de Jesus by Renan, by a strange inadvertence makes Jesus say: “Father, glorify my name,” an expression which, he says, “has no meaning except from the standpoint of the Logos- doctrine.” The more involuntary this alteration is, the better is it fitted to make us see the difference between the profoundly human Jesus of John and the fantastic Christ whom criticism ascribes to the evangelist. That, after this, Colani sees in this scene only “an emblematic, almost simulated, agony” is easy to understand; to whom does the fault belong? Reuss, who claims that the silence of John respecting the scene of Gethsemane arises from the fact that “even a passing weakness would have been a feature incompatible with the portrait of the Johannean Christ,” finds himself greatly embarrassed by the narrative which occupies us. The following is the way in which he escapes from the difficulty. “The emotion of Jesus is not that of a momentary and touching weakness..., it is that of a great soul, of a divine heroism...whose resolution is rather strengthened than shaken in the presence of the supreme catastrophe.” We leave the reader to judge whether this exegesis reproduces or contradicts the true tone of the text to be explained, particularly of these words: “Now is my soul troubled.” What we admire in this passage, is the perfectly human character of the struggle which, at the thought of His approaching death, takes place in the heart of Jesus between nature and spirit. And then it is the sincerity, the candor, shall we say, with which He expresses His inmost feelings, His weakness (Heb 5:2), before all this company of people, not hesitating to make them acquainted with the perplexity into which the prospect of His approaching sufferings plunges Him.

This scene is, as has always been acknowledged, the prelude to the one in Gethsemane. Only in the latter, Jesus, at the highest point of His distress, really utters the cry: Save me from this hour! while at the moment which we have now reached, He only asks whether He shall pray thus. This delicate shade is suited to the difference of the two situations and proves the strictly historical character of each of them. The opinion that John suppressed the scene of Gethsemane as incompatible with the divine character of the Logos, falls of itself before this passage. Finally, let us establish the remarkable gradation in the three analogous scenes, Luk 12:49-50, Joh 12:27 and the one in Gethsemane. This comparison makes us understand the increasing emotion with which Jesus was slowly approaching the cross. These three features borrowed from the four narratives easily unite in one single picture. How can Reville express himself as follows, in the Revue de theologie, 1865, III., p. 316, “The fourth Gospel makes Jesus an exalted being, as to His moral life, above temptation and internal conflict, and it removes from its narrative all the traditional statements which might suggest a contrary idea.”Renan, on the contrary, observes with reference to this passage: “Here are verses which have an indubitable historical stamp. They are the obscure and isolated episode of the Greeks who address themselves to Philip.”

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.

Whilst Christ went about to suffer all the punishment which is due to our sins, and whilst his divinity did not yet show his might and power so far as this satisfaction might thoroughly wrought, now when he is stricken with the great fear of the curse of God, he crieth out and prayeth , and desireth to be released: yet notwithstanding he preferreth the will and glory of his Father before all things, whose obedience the Father alloweth even from heaven.

To wit, of death that is now at hand.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Now is my soul troubled--He means at the prospect of His death, just alluded to. Strange view of the Cross this, immediately after representing it as the hour of His glory! (Joh 12:23). But the two views naturally meet, and blend into one. It was the Greeks, one might say, that troubled Him. Ah! they shall see Jesus, but to Him it shall be a costly sight.

and what shall I say?--He is in a strait betwixt two. The death of the cross was, and could not but be, appalling to His spirit. But to shrink from absolute subjection to the Father, was worse still. In asking Himself, "What shall I say?" He seems as if thinking aloud, feeling His way between two dread alternatives, looking both of them sternly in the face, measuring, weighing them, in order that the choice actually made might be seen, and even by himself the more vividly felt, to be a profound, deliberate, spontaneous election.

Father, save me from this hour--To take this as a question--"Shall I say, Father, save me," &c.--as some eminent editors and interpreters do, is unnatural and jejune. It is a real petition, like that in Gethsemane, "Let this cup pass from Me"; only whereas there He prefaces the prayer with an "If it be possible," here He follows it up with what is tantamount to that--"Nevertheless for this cause came I unto this hour." The sentiment conveyed, then, by the prayer, in both cases, is twofold: (1) that only one thing could reconcile Him to the death of the cross--its being His Father's will He should endure it--and (2) that in this view of it He yielded Himself freely to it. What He recoils from is not subjection to His Father's will: but to show how tremendous a self-sacrifice that obedience involved, He first asks the Father to save Him from it, and then signifies how perfectly He knows that He is there for the very purpose of enduring it. Only by letting these mysterious words speak their full meaning do they become intelligible and consistent. As for those who see no bitter elements in the death of Christ--nothing beyond mere dying--what can they make of such a scene? and when they place it over against the feelings with which thousands of His adoring followers have welcomed death for His sake, how can they hold Him up to the admiration of men?

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 27. Now is my soul troubled] Our blessed Lord took upon him our weaknesses, that he might sanctify them to us. As a man he was troubled at the prospect of a violent death. Nature abhors death: God has implanted that abhorrence in nature, that it might become a principle of self preservation; and it is to this that we owe all that prudence and caution by which we avoid danger. When we see Jesus working miracles which demonstrate his omnipotence, we should be led to conclude that he was not man were it not for such passages as these. The reader must ever remember that it was essentially necessary that he should be man; for, without being such, he could hot have died for the sin of the world.

And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour] Και τι ειπω; πατερ, σωσον με εκ της ὡρας ταυτης· which may be paraphrased thus: And why should I say, Father, save me from this hour? when for this cause I am come to this hour. The common version makes our blessed Lord contradict himself here, by not attending to the proper punctuation of the passage, and by translating the particle τι what, instead of why or how. The sense of our Lord's words is this: "When a man feels a fear of a sudden or violent death, it is natural to him to cry out, Father, save me from this death! for he hopes that the glory of God and his welfare may be accomplished some other way, less dreadful to his nature: but why should I say so, seeing for this very purpose, that I might die this violent death for the sins of mankind, I am come into the world, and have almost arrived at the hour of my crucifixion."

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

27. Now is my soul troubled. This statement appears at first to differ widely from the preceding discourse. He had displayed extraordinary courage and magnanimity by exhorting his disciples not only to suffer death, but willingly and cheerfully to desire it, whenever it is necessary; and now, by shrinking from death, he confesses his cowardice. Yet there is nothing in this passage that is not in perfect harmony, as every believer knows by his own experience. If scornful men laugh at it, we need not wonder; for it cannot be understood but by practice.

Besides, it was highly useful, and even necessary for our salvation, that the Son of God should have experience of such feelings, In his death we ought chiefly to consider his atonement, by which he appeased the wrath and curse of God, which he could not have done, without taking upon himself our guilt. The death which he underwent must therefore have been full of horror, because he could not render satisfaction for us, without feeling, in his own experience, the dreadful judgment of God; and hence we come to know more fully the enormity of sin, for which the Heavenly Father exacted so dreadful a punishment from his only-begotten Son. Let us therefore know, that death was not a sport and amusement to Christ, but that he endured the severest torments on our account.

Nor was it unsuitable that the Son of God should be troubled in this manner; for the Divine nature, being concealed, and not exerting its force, may be said to have reposed, in order to give an opportunity of making expiation. But Christ himself was clothed, not only with our flesh, but with human feelings. In him, no doubt, those feelings were voluntary; for he feared, not through constraint, but because he had, of his own accord, subjected himself to fear. And yet we ought to believe, that it was not in pretense, but in reality, that he feared; though he differed from other men in this respect, that he had all his feelings regulated in obedience to the righteousness of God, as we have said elsewhere.

There is also another advantage which it yields to us. If the dread of death had occasioned no uneasiness to the Son of God, which of us would have thought that his example was applicable to our case? For it has not been given to us to die without, feeling of regret; but when we learn that He had not within him a hardness like stone or iron, we summon courage to follow him, and the weakness of the flesh, which makes us tremble at death, does not hinder us from becoming the companions of our General in struggling with it.

And what shall I, say? Here we see, as it were, before our eyes, how much our salvation cost the Son of God, when he was reduced to such extremity of distress, that he found neither words to express the intensity of his sorrow, nor yet resolution as man. He betakes himself to prayer, which is his only remaining resource, and asks to be delivered from death. Again, perceiving also that, by the eternal purpose of God, he has been appointed to be a sacrifice for sins, he suddenly corrects that wish which his prodigious sorrow had wrung from him, and puts forth his hand, as it were, to pull himself back, that he may entirely acquiesce in the will of his Father.

In this passage we ought to observe five steps. For, first, there is the complaint, which breaks out from vehement sorrow. Secondly, he feels that he needs a remedy, and, in order that he may not be overwhelmed with fear, he puts the question to himself, what he ought to do. Thirdly, he goes to the Father, and entreats him to deliver him. Fourthly, he recalls the wish which he knows to be inconsistent with his calling, and chooses rather to suffer anything than not to fulfill what his Father has enjoined upon him. Lastly, he is satisfied with the glory of God alone, forgets all things else, and reckons them of no value.

But it may be thought, that it is unbecoming in the Son of God rashly to utter a wish which he must immediately retract, in order to obey his Father. I readily admit, that this is the folly of the cross, which gives offense to proud men; but the more the Lord of glory humbled himself, so much the more illustrious is the manifestation of his vast love to us. Besides, we ought to recollect what I have already stated, that the human feelings, from which Christ was not exempt, were in him pure and free from sin. The reason is, that they were guided and regulated in obedience to God; for there is nothing to prevent Christ from having a natural dread of death, and yet desiring to obey God. This holds true in various respects: and hence he corrects himself by saying,

For this cause came I into this hour. For though he may lawfully entertain a dread of death, yet, considering why he was sent, and what his office as Redeemer demands from him, he presents to his Father the dread which arose out of his natural disposition, in order that it may be subdued, or rather, having subdued it, he prepares freely and willingly to execute the command of God. Now, if the feelings of Christ, which were free from all sin, needed to be restrained in this manner, how earnestly ought we to apply to this object, since the numerous affections which spring from our flesh are so many enemies to God in us! Let the godly, therefore, persevere in doing violence to themselves, until they have denied themselves.

It must also be observed, that we ought to restrain not only those affections which are directly contrary to the will of God, but those which hinder the progress of our calling, though, in other respects, they are not wicked or sinful. To make this more fully evident, we ought to place in the first rank the will of God; in the second, the will of man pure and entire, such as God gave to Adam, and such as was in Christ: and, lastly, our own, which is infected by the contagion of sin. The will of God is the rule, to which every thing that is inferior ought to be subjected. Now, the pure will of nature will not of itself rebel against God; but man, though he were wholly formed to righteousness, would meet with many obstructions, unless he subject his affections to God. Christ, therefore, had but one battle to fight, which was, to cease to fear what he naturally feared, as soon as he perceived that the pleasure of God was otherwise. We, on the other hand, have a twofold battle; for we must struggle with the obstinacy of the flesh. The consequence is, that the most valiant combatants never vanquish without being wounded.

Father, save me. This is the order which ought to be maintained, whenever we are either distressed by fear, or oppressed with grief. Our hearts ought instantly to be raised up to God. For there is nothing worse, or more injurious, than to nourish inwardly what torments us; as we see a great part of the world consumed by hidden torments, and all who do not rise to God are justly punished for their indolence by never receiving any alleviation.

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.

(27) Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?—The word rendered “soul” is the same word as that rendered “life” in Joh_12:25. (Comp. especially Mat_16:25-26.) It is the seat of the natural feelings and emotions, and, as the fatal hour approaches, our Lord is in that region of His human life troubled. There is a real shrinking from the darkness of the death which is at hand. The conflict exists but for a moment, but in all its fearfulness is real, and then the cup of the world’s woe is seized and drunk to its bitter dregs. Men have sometimes wondered that St. John passes over the agony of the garden of Gethsemane, but the agony of Gethsemane is here, and the very words of Mat_26:39 are echoed. Men have wondered, too, that in the life of the Son of man a struggle such as this could have had even a moment’s place. Not a few, indeed, would at any cost read the words otherwise. But they cannot be read otherwise, either on the written page or in the hearts of men. That troubled soul asked, “What shall I say?” Blessed reality! In that struggle humanity struggled, and in that victory humanity won.

Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.—It is uncertain whether the first words of this sentence are a prayer, or whether they should be read as a question. In the latter case the meaning would be, “What shall I say? Shall I say, Father save Me from this hour? But no: for this cause came I unto this hour. I cannot shrink back or seek to be delivered from it.” As a prayer the meaning would be—“Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause, that I may be saved from it, came I unto this hour. The moment of agony is the moment of victory.”

The real difficulty of the verse lies in the words “for this cause,” for which a meaning must be sought in the context. No interpretation of them is free from objection, but that which seems to have, upon the whole most probability, understands them as referring to the words which follow, and reads the clause, “Father, glorify Thy name,” as part of this verse. The sense of the whole passage would therefore be, “Father, save Me from this hour; but Thy will, not Mine, be done; for this cause came I unto this hour, that Thy name be glorified; Father, glorify Thy name.” (Comp. Note on Luk_12:49-50.)

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

27. This is a verse of well-known difficulty, and the meaning cannot be determined with certainty, several meanings being admissible. The doubtful points are (1) the position of the interrogation, whether it should come after ‘I say’ or ‘from this hour;’ (2) the meaning of ‘for this cause.’

Now is my soul troubled] The word rendered ‘soul’ is the same as that rendered ‘life’ in ‘loveth his life’ and ‘hateth his life.’ To bring out this and the sequence of thought, ‘life’ would perhaps be better here. ‘He that would serve Me must follow Me and be ready to hate his life; for My life has long since been tossed and torn with emotion and sorrow.’ ‘Is troubled’ = has been and still is troubled; a frequent meaning of the Greek perfect.

what shall I say?] Or, what must I say? This appears to be the best punctuation; and the question expresses the difficulty of framing a prayer under the conflicting influences of fear of death and willingness to glorify His Father by dying. The result is first a prayer under the influence of fear—‘save Me from this hour’ (comp. ‘Let this cup pass from Me,’ Mat_26:39), and then a prayer under the influence of ready obedience—‘Glorify Thy Name’ through My sufferings. But the Greek means ‘save me out of’ (sôson ek), i.e. ‘bring Me safe out of;’ rather than ‘save Me from’ (sôson apo), i.e. ‘keep Me altogether away from,’ as in ‘deliver us from the evil’ (Mat_6:13). S. John omits the Agony in the garden, which was in the Synoptists and was well known to every Christian; but he gives us here an insight into a less known truth, which is still often forgotten, that the agony was not confined to Gethsemane, but was part of Christ’s whole life. Others place the question at ‘from this hour,’ and the drift of the whole will then be, ‘How can I say, Father save Me from this hour? Nay, I came to suffer; therefore My prayer shall be, Father, glorify Thy Name.’

for this cause] These words are taken in two opposite senses; (1) that I might be saved out of this hour; (2) that Thy Name might be glorified by My obedience. Both make good sense. If the latter be adopted it would be better to transpose the stops, placing a full stop after ‘from this hour’ and a colon after ‘unto this hour.’

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.

Father, glorify thy name,.... The perfections of his nature, particularly his justice and holiness, meaning in himself; by his sufferings and death; intimating hereby, that his Father's glory was what he had in view, and that the securing of that would give him an infinite pleasure amidst all his sorrows. The Arabic version, and Nonnus, read "glorify thy Son", as in Joh 17:1, and the Ethiopic version takes in both, "glorify thy name, and thy Son": and indeed, what glorifies the one, glorifies the other; see Joh 13:31.

Then came there a voice from heaven; as at his baptism and transfiguration, and which came from the Father, and was an articulate one, and what the Jews call "Bath Kol", or "the daughter of the voice":

saying, I have both, glorified it; meaning in the incarnation, ministry, obedience and miracles of Christ; and particularly in that late one in raising Lazarus from the dead:

and will glorify it again; by supporting him under, and carrying him through his sufferings and death, and by raising him from the dead, and setting him at his own right hand.

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

27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

Ver. 27. Now is my soul troubled] Christi perturbatio nos tranquillat, et infirmitas firmat, saith Augustine.

Father, save me from this hour] As man, he naturally feared and deprecated death; such a dreadful death especially as he was to suffer. Δι αγνωστων σου παθηματων, saith the Greek litany; by thine unknown sufferings, good Lord, deliver us. Howbeit, this was but with his sensitive will; for his rational will was ever the same with that of his Father.

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.

Now is my soul troubled - The mention of his death brought before him its approaching horrors, its pains, its darkness, its unparalleled woes. Jesus was full of acute sensibility, and his human nature shrunk from the scenes through which he was to pass. See Luk 23:41-44.

What shall I say? - This is an expression denoting intense anxiety and perplexity. As if it were a subject of debate whether he could bear those sufferings; or whether the work of man’s redemption should be abandoned, and he should call upon God to save him. Blessed be his name that he was willing to endure these sorrows, and did not forsake man when he was so near being redeemed! On the decision of that moment - the fixed and unwavering purpose of the Son of God depended man’s salvation. If Jesus had forsaken his purpose then, all would have been lost.

Father, save me - This ought undoubtedly to have been read as a question - “Shall I say, Father, save me?” Shall I apply to God to rescue me? or shall I go forward to bear these trials? As it is in our translation, it represents him as actually offering the prayer, and then checking himself. The Greek will bear either interpretation. The whole verse is full of deep feeling and anxiety. Compare Mat 26:38; Luk 12:50.

This hour - These calamities. The word “hour,” here, doubtless has reference to his approaching sufferings the appointed hour for him to suffer. Shall I ask my Father to save me from this hour - that is, from these approaching sufferings? That it might have been done, see Mat 26:53.

But for this cause - That is, to suffer and die. As this was the design of his coming as he did it deliberately - -as the salvation of the world depended on it, he felt that it would not be proper to pray to be delivered from it. He came to suffer, and he submitted to it. See Luk 23:42.

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

Now is my soul troubled. Christ permitted this fear and horror to come upon his human nature, as he did afterwards in the garden of Gethsemani. Father, save me from this hour; yet he presently adds, but for this cause I came unto this hour; that is, I came into this world for this end, that I might die on a cross for all mankind. In like manner, when he had said in the garden, let this cup pass from me, he presently joined these words: but not my will, but thine be done. (Witham) --- Lest the disciples, upon hearing our Saviour exhorting them willingly and courageously to suffer death, should think within themselves, that he could well exhort them to these things, being himself beyond the reach of human misery, he assures them in this place, that he himself is in agony, and yet does not refuse to die for them. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. lxvi. 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).

Now is my soul troubled; by soul is not here to be understood only the sensitive part of the soul, but his whole human soul. So Joh 13:21, He was troubled in spirit. Our inward troubles arise from our passions; and there are passions of grief and fear, which give us most of our inward trouble; fear respecteth some evil at a distance from us; grief is caused by evil fallen upon us, or so near that we seem to be already in the power of it. The word here used is τεταρακται, which signifieth no mean, but a great and more than ordinary, degree of trouble. Christ was greatly troubled, though not so as we sometimes are, when our trouble leadeth us to despair: Christ was capable of no sinful trouble. Hence two questions arise:

1. For what the soul of Christ was troubled?

2. How such a degree of trouble could agree to the Lord Jesus Christ?

He tells us, Mat 26:38, that he was exceedingly sorrowful, so as sorrow was one part of his trouble; and we may learn from what he afterward saith in this verse, Father, save me from this hour, that fear made up the other part of it. He was grieved, and he was afraid; some say it was at the apprehension of that miserable death he was to die; others say, at the sense of the Divine wrath which he was to undergo, death being not yet overcome, and his conflict with his Father’s wrath for the sins of men being yet to be endured. Though Christ at this time was in the most perfect obedience to his Father’s will, offering up a most acceptable and well pleasing sacrifice unto God; yet he, sustaining our persons, had a conflict to endure even with his Father’s wrath upon that account, though not upon his own personal account; for so he was at this time doing that which was most acceptable and well pleasing in his sight. As to the second question, nothing could more agree to Christ than this, both with respect to his human nature, which had the same natural (though not sinful) infirmities which other men have; and with respect to his design and end, to help and relieve his people under their troubles of spirit; and, as the apostle saith, Heb 2:15, to deliver them who through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage. So as this trouble of spirit agreed to him both as man and as Mediator. But there must be a vast difference observed between this trouble of spirit in Christ, and that which is in us. Our troubles are upon reflections for our own sin, and the wrath of God due to us therefore; his trouble was for the wrath of God due to us for our sins. Our troubles are because we have personally grieved God; his was because those given to him (not he himself) had offended God. We are afraid of our eternal condemnation; he was only afraid by a natural fear of death, which naturally riseth higher according to the kind of death we die. Our troubles have mixtures of despair, distrust, sinful horrors; there was no such thing in his trouble. Our troubles in their natural tendencies are killing and destroying; only by accident, and the wise ordering of Divine providence, prove advantageous, by leading us to him, as the only remedy for troubled souls: his trouble was, in the very nature of it, not only pure and clean, but also sanative and healing. But that he was truly troubled, and that in his whole soul, and that such a trouble did very well agree, as to the human nature he had assumed, so to his office as our Mediator and Saviour, and the foundation of a great deal of peace, quiet, and satisfaction to us, is out of question. The chastisement of our peace in this particular lay upon him; and they were some of those stripes of his, by which we are healed.

And (saith he) what shall I say? It is the natural language of a spirit troubled.

Father, save me from this hour; this hour of my passion; it is the same with that in our Saviour’s last prayer, Let this cup pass from me; and must be understood with the same qualifications there expressed, if it be thy will, if it be possible, &c. By his blessed example he hath taught us, under the distresses of our spirits, whither to flee, what to do.

For my love (saith David to his enemies, Psa 109:4) they are mine adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer; I give up myself to prayer. God hath bidden us, Psa 50:15, call upon him in the day of trouble; and St. James saith, Jam 5:3, Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Herein Christ hath himself set us an example, that we should follow his steps. But how doth our Saviour pray to be saved from that hour, when for this cause he came into the world? Here was in Christ a conflict between the flesh and the Spirit; not like ours, which is between corrupt flesh and the Spirit, but between his natural flesh, and the natural affections of it, and his spirit; that was fully conformed to the will of God, and gets a present conquest.

But for this cause (saith he) came I to this hour: he checks himself, correcteth the language of his natural flesh, acquiesceth, rejoiceth in the will of God. I was not (saith he) forced, I came of my own good will to this hour; and I came on purpose to die for my people.

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

27-33. A drop of his humiliation thus described, a moment of anticipated agony, is, in the presence of these Greeks, experienced by Jesus. It is as it were a premonitory pang of Gethsemane. But instantly the glorification follows. A voice from God the Father endorses the Son, and he responsively predicts before these Greeks his triumph over the prince of this world. Thus vividly is enacted before them in quick succession the Redeemer’s cross and coronation.

27. My soul troubled—The term soul here, in contrast with the word spirit, designates the lower sensitive part of the human nature. As at Gethsemane, so here, the conceptions of sin and hell, which are to be exemplified in the cross, fill his vision with amazement. By the punctuation which we should adopt, an interrogation point should be placed after the word hour. In his amazement therefore, the Lord exclaims, What shall I say? Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But no, he would add, For this cause, for the endurance of this agony, came I unto this hour. His sensitive nature would have cried for exemption; his higher spirit realized the greatness and the necessity of his mission. Between the two the great struggle results in the persistence in the path of suffering and glory.

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

Vers. 27-30. (2) The anticipation of Gethsemane.

Now, at this moment, has been and yet is my soul troubled ("concurrebat horror morris et ardor obedientisa," Bengel). In Joh_11:33 we hear that he troubled himself, and shuddered wrathfully in his "spirit" ( pneumeti) at the contemplation of all the evils and curse of death; now his whole quch , i.e. his life centered in its corporeal environment as a man, the self which the Son of God had taken up into the Divine essence, was in depth of agony, precluding the strong crying and tears to which Heb_5:7 refers. These perturbations of his soul and spirit can only be accounted for by the uniqueness of his Personality, the capacity for suffering, and the extent to which he was identifying himself with the sinful nature with which he had invested himself. Sin is the sting of death. He had by the nature of his incarnation become sin for us. Martyrs, freed from sin, delivered from its curse and shame and power through him, face it with calmness and hope; but there was infinite space in his breast for all the curse of it to rain its horrible tempest. He felt that the hour of his extremest travail had come upon him. And what shall I (must I) say? What is the regal passion of my heart? What is the right revelation for me to make to you? What is the prayer for me to offer to the Father? It remains a great question whether the next utterance is the primary answer of the question itself, or whether it continues the interrogation whether, i.e., the Lord lifts up for a moment the cry of heart-rending grief, Father, save me from this hour!or whether he said, Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? The first view supposes in the first place actual uncertainty and awful bewilderment, and then a most intense cry (Heb_5:7) to him who was able to save him from death. Save me either from the death itself, or from the fear and horror which accompanies it (Lucke, Meyer, Hengstenberg, and Moulton). It need not be a prayer to leave the world unsaved, to sacrifice all the work on which he had come. We are told by the apostle (Heb_5:7) that he was "heard" (apo thv eulabeiav) and delivered from human weakness which might have rebelled in the intolerable darkness of that hour. Father, save me from this hour; the equivalent to the prayer, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me," with its grand "nevertheless," etc. If this be its meaning, we have a scene nearly, if not closely, identifiable with the agony of the garden. The correction which immediately follows augments the comparison with the scene in Gethsemane recorded by the synoptists. The R.T. and Revised Version have put their note of interrogation after tauthv into the margin, and not into the text. Ewald, Lange, Kling, Tholuck, Lachmann, accept this punctuation, and Godet regards it as a hypothetical prayer, although he does not place the interrogation after tauthv . The self-interrogation of the previous utterance at least reveals the presence of such a desire, but one which vanishes as the mysterious hour engulfs and wraps him round. If this be the true interpretation, then the clause that follows must be, Nay this I cannot say, for on account of this very conflictfor this cause only to fight this great battleI came steadily forward to this hour. I cannot pray to escape from it. If, however, we have the expression of an actual though momentary prayer, and if we give it the meaning, "bring me safely through and out of this hour," it corresponds with the Divine trust in the Father"s love which, in the extremity of the anguish and desertion, he yet reveals, and the alla becomes equivalent to "Pray, this I need not say; the end is known" (Westcott). I know that I shall be delivered, for this cause, viz. that I should encounter and pass through the hour I came into the world, and have reached the final crisis. This is, to my mind, more satisfactory; the interrogative prayer gives a sentimental character to the utterance out of harmony with the theme. Godet thinks that the fact that, according to the synoptists, our Lord in the garden did actually offer the prayer which he here hesitates to present, is evidence of the historic character of both accounts. I differ from him, because the sublime answer to the prayer here given would seem to preclude the necessity of the final conflict. The circumstance that he did offer the prayer as interpreted above, a prayer which was veritably heard, is in harmony with the narrative of the agony.

The soul-conflict of Christ.

Only now and again do we observe the Savior"s regard turned inwardly upon himself, upon his own feelings and anticipations. Usually his thoughts and his speech concerned others. But in this passage of his ministry he gives us an insight into his inmost heart.

I THE CRISIS OF THIS CONFLICT. The approach of the Greeks marks "the beginning of the end." Now the Son of man began to feel by anticipation the burden of the cross. Opposition and persecution were at hand. He was about to tread the winepress alone. Pain, humiliation, sorrow, death, were close upon him. The "hour" which he had long foreseen was now nearly marked upon the dial of his life; it was the hour of his enemies" power and of the prince of darkness.

II THE CHARACTER OF THIS CONFLICT.

1. On the one side was personal feeling, which expressed itself in the cry, so human, so touching, so sincere, "Father, save me from this hour!" This was the voice of human weakness, to be repeated afterwards in the form, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" This shrinking from all that was involved in the sacrifice was real. Our Lord"s human nature was reluctant to endure the anguish of Gethsemane, the agony of Golgotha.

2. On the other side was the perception that all the past experience of his humanity led up to just this distressful burden, the pressure of which he was now beginning to feel. He had consented to live in order that he might consent to die. The baptism of sorrow must overwhelm him, the bitter cup must be drained to the dregs, in order that his ministry might be complete. The Incarnation itself contemplated, and virtually included, the sacrifice. The past would prove to have been endured in vain, if the future should be evaded; and the life of the Savior, with the cross left out, if such a conception be possible, would be all but powerless in the spiritual history of humanity.

3. Hence the distraction of mind evinced in the exclamation, "What shall I say?" The two wishes were inconsistent with each other. With which of them should the deliberate and decisive resolve identify itself?

III THE DECISIVE CRY OF THE CONFLICT. The issue of the struggle within the Savior"s Spirit was apparent when he uttered the exclamation, the prayer, "Father, glorify thy Name!" For this revealed the fact that Jesus was turning away from himself and from his own feelings, and was turning to his Father. He was sinking the consideration of himself and his sufferings in a filial regard to his Father"s honor, to the Divine purposes which underlay the whole of his mission. God was exalted in the completion of the Mediator"s work. Jesus learned obedience, and displayed obedience, in the things which he suffered. Our salvation was assured when the decision was reached, when the cry was uttered, when the Father"s glory, by its dazzling brightness, its burning radiance, consumed all beside.

IV THE CLOSE OF THE CONFLICT. The solemnity and grandeur of the crisis is shown by the audible interposition with which the Father responded to the cry of his beloved, chosen Son.

1. The voice from heaven was a reminder. How the Father had glorified his Son we know from the record of what took place at the baptism and at the Transfiguration. But to the spiritually enlightened and discerning there had been apparent, all through our Savior"s ministry, a moral glory which was hidden from the thoughtless world.

2. The voice from heaven was a promise. The further glory of the Father in his Son was to be manifested in all the events to follow the perfect obedience unto the death of the cross. Especially in the resurrection of Christ did God "give him glory." The Ascension, the marvels of Pentecost, the signs accompanying the preaching of the gospel, were evidences that the Divine purposes were in course of fulfillment. The whole dispensation of grace is "rather i.e. in a superior measure and degree glorious." The establishment of the kingdom of God among men, the introduction of a new and higher life into our humanity, the salvation of untold myriads of sinners, the peopling of heaven with the redeemed from every nation, these are signs that the Lord has seen of the travail of his soul and is satisfied, that the purposes of the Father are accomplished, that the glory of the Father is secured. T.

Through trouble to triumph.

I JESUS IN TROUBLE. He was not a stranger to trouble, but this was a special one.

1. Trouble arising from a vivid realization of his approaching death and sufferings. They already cast their awful shadows upon his pure soul. The unparalleled tragedy of his death, with all its sinfulness on the part of his foes, and all its cruelties, agonies, and shame, was now acted in his soul, and it caused him to shudder. He was far from being a coward, but quite so far from being a heartless Stoic. He was courageous, but human; most heroic, but still most sensitive.

2. Trouble arising from the immediate effect of his death on others. The Gentiles were already knocking at his door for admission; but the opening of the door involved his death and the rejection of that people whom he came to save. The more remote joy of his death was hushed in its immediate effects upon his own nation. This judgment which his death involved troubled him.

3. Trouble which affected his Whole nature. "Now is my soul troubled," etc. The soul here represents his whole human nature, of which it is the highest and most important part, and most capable of refined and spiritual sufferings, and even his flesh quivered at the prospect of such treatment at the hands of those from whom he expected and deserved kindness. There is a close connection between the soul and the body sympathy between them. Suffering is contagious.

II JESUS IN PRAYER.

1. It was a prayer in trouble, and trouble sent him naturally to his Father for succor. Inward and outward trouble naturally drives the devoted soul to God. It had this effect on Jesus now. And who could approach God with such confidence and certainty of success as he? He had not brought the trouble upon himself, but bore it for others in accordance with the eternal will.

2. It was a prayer in which he found it difficult to express himself. "What shall I say?" This difficulty arose:

(1) From the troubled state of his soul. When a man is in great trouble, accurate expression to God or man is difficult. It will be inaccurate, or he must pause and ask, "What shall I say?

(2) From a severe conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Jesus was thoroughly human, and was now young and in the bloom of life, and also innocent and pure. In him the claims of life and the terrors of death would be naturally great. There was a severe conflict between the weakness of the flesh and the readiness of the spirit; and the natural prayer of the former would be, "Father, save me from this hour," etc.

(3) From the conflict between the possibility of escape, and the law of obedience in his heart. The possibility and advantages of escape were now doubtless presented to his mind one of the last temptations of the prince of this world. The temptation in the wilderness was not the only one he encountered. It was only the introduction. He was tempted through life. His own power and superiority were used as instruments of temptation. The possibility and present advantages of escape were presented to him to the last; and, if such a consideration triumphed, his natural prayer would be, "Father, save me," etc.

(4) The ruling principles of his soul immediately triumphed. The question, "Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?" The loyalty of his soul immediately answered, "No, I shall not say that, because for this cause came I to this hour." Such a prayer would be a contradiction to his whole spirit and history before and after the incarnation; would be against the very purpose of his coming, which was well known to him; would be a victory for the enemy. But his loyalty triumphed, and the prince of this world was cast out.

3. It is a prayer, the burden of which is his Fathers glory. "Glorify thyself." This implies:

(1) An intense desire that his Father should be glorified. This is the prayer of his soul and the soul of his prayer, and the affectionate cry of his agonies, that the Divine power, wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy, and love, should be crowned, and the reputation of the Divine name should be advanced.

(2) An intense desire that his -Father should be glorified in him in his life and death; that he should be the medium of his glorification; that in his incarnate life and death his Father"s glory should be increased here and everywhere.

(3) A self-sacrificing submission to his Fathers will. He is entirely lost in the Divine will. His prayer is not, "Father, save me," but "Glorify thyself." In what is coming never mind me; take care of thy Name. He would not be saved at any risk to the Divine Name. He offers himself a willing Sacrifice on the altar of his Father"s glory. Selfishness is conquered, and love is all ablaze.

(4) The highest note of devotion. "Glorify thy Name." This, as uttered by our Lord, is the highest note of human devotion, the climax of human worship, and the sweetest music of self-sacrifice.

III THE PRAYER OF JESUS ANSWERED.

1. The answer is full and direct. "I have both," etc. We have here the glorification of the Divine Name in Jesus.

(1) In relation to the past. "I have," etc. His past life and work had been in the highest degree acceptable and efficient, and satisfactory to the Divine Being, and served the highest interests of the Divine nature.

(2) In relation to the future. "And will," etc. Jesus"s past is only an earnest of even a brighter future. In him the Divine Name will be ever glorious, the Divine glory will ever shine, and the Divine attributes blaze with special and increasing brilliancy. In him the Divine nature will reach its highest and brightest manifestations.

2. The answer was immediate. "There came a voice," etc. There was no delay. The prayer went up in agony, and immediately came back in glory. Jesus was near heaven when on earth, and heaven was near him, and ever ready to respond. Heaven is ever near and responsive to the prayers of earnest faith.

3. The answer was audible. A voice," etc. The prayer went up in a voice, and in a voice the answer returned. This was the third time Heaven spoke audibly respecting Christ at his baptism, transfiguration, and now at his Passion.

(1) All heard it. "The people who stood by and heard." It was loud enough for all to bear. This is like Heaven; when it speaks, it speaks in clear and mighty tones. When the material heaven speaks, it often speaks in storms and thunders.

(2) A few only understood it. To the majority it was a mere sound like thunder. To some it suggested the broken articulations of an angel, whilst to the disciples, and perhaps many others, it was the very voice of God. John fully understood it, and copied its Divine meaning, and handed it down to us. Only those who have ears to hear can hear and understand what the Spirit saith. John had a good ear for the Divine voice. What seems to us only thunder may be the immediate voice of God.

4. The answer was audible for the sake of others. Jesus required no voice from Heaven. He understood the language and thoughts of Heaven intuitively. Christ was not dependent upon the human voice as a medium of revelation. He knew what was in man; he was conscious of what was in God. God spoke in him; but man requires a voice, and Heaven supplied it now.

(1) As a public testimony to the life and death of Christ.

(2) As a test and confirmation of faith.

(3) As a Divine indication of the special importance of the hour which included the Passion of Christ. Its importance to earth, to heaven, to the Gentiles, to Jesus, to the Father, and to the universe. B.T.

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

Now is my soul troubled - He had various foretastes of his passion. And what shall I say? - Not what shall I choose? For his heart was fixed in choosing the will of his Father: but he laboured for utterance. The two following clauses, Save me from this hour - For this cause I came - Into the world; for the sake of this hour (of suffering) seem to have glanced through his mind in one moment. But human language could not so express it.

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

The manner of Christ’s glorification:

v. 27. Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour.

v. 28. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

v. 29. The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered; others said, An angel spake to Him.

v. 30. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes.

v. 31. Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

v. 32. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.

v. 33. This He said, signifying what death He should die.

The thought of the coming ordeal, in a way, filled the soul of Christ with dread, He was deeply moved and agitated at the prospect. He felt something of the dread and fear of death. For Jesus was true man, whose flesh and blood shrank from the idea of death. Death is a judgment of God upon sins and sinners. To die in the stead of all men, as their substitute, and thus as the greatest sinner of all times, was a thought which filled the soul of Jesus with dread. He hardly knows what to say in this emergency. As though seeking counsel from His disciples, He asks: Shall I say, Father, deliver Me out of this hour? Should He plead to be saved the ordeal which His human nature dreaded? Every Christian may say a similar prayer when the hour of tribulation comes upon him; only he must never set his own will above the will of his heavenly Father. But even the thought of becoming unfaithful to His Father’s trust Jesus repudiates, since it is for this reason that He came into this hour. It is the goal and culmination of His life’s work. He cannot disappoint His Father at this time. Without His death His life would be fruitless. And so He corrects His prayer by asking that the work for which He came into the world continue: Father, glorify Thy name Jesus had fully regained His assurance, the spiritual balance necessary for the carrying out of the plan for the salvation of men. His death would redound to the glory of the Father, as would the whole work of salvation. And so Christ was ready, even at the cost of the greatest agony. And no sooner had He finished His prayer than a voice from heaven came in answer that God both had glorified, and would again glorify, His name. His name had been glorified in countless instances, but especially at the incarnation of the Son, and it would be glorified in a still more wonderful manner by the great Passion. So the answer of the Father was both an assurance and a promise. But it was made principally for the sake of the people. They should understand that it was God giving testimony of His Son, on account of the essential intimacy that obtained between them. The ignorant Jews had heard the sound, but had not understood the words. And so they expressed their opinion, some thinking that there had been a clap of thunder, others, that an angel had spoken with Jesus. The Lord therefore explains to them that the voice came for their sakes, in order that, if possible, they might accept Him as their Savior even now yet, in the eleventh hour, and thus be saved. For in the events that were beginning now, and that would transpire in the next few days, they should know that a great judgment was taking place, that the universe was on trial. The time of Christ’s suffering and death was the hour of decision for the whole world, and especially in this, that the prince of the world, the devil, would be cast out, conquered, and subdued. Through His Passion and death Christ took from the devil the right which he had assumed on account of the sins of mankind, namely, of keeping all men in subjection to him. By bearing the sins of the world and by effecting a complete reconciliation for them all, Jesus has taken away from the devil the power to keep men in his service. In this. way the hour of the world’s redemption is also the hour of decision, the hour of trial. In the end, the question will be whether men will stand by Christ, the Redeemer, or by Satan, the destroyer of their souls. To gain this great victory and eject the devil from his dominion, it was necessary that Jesus be lifted up from the earth, that He be elevated on the cross. But the accursed tree in this case was transformed into a throne of victory and grace. Through His death on the cross He would make it possible for all men to be drawn to Him; the redemption would be complete; the reconciliation would be assured to all men without exception. The cross of Christ is the ladder between earth and heaven. Here is glorious comfort for every person in all the great wide world.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whilst our Saviour was thus preaching of his own death and sufferings, a natural horror of his approaching passion (though such as was without sin) seizes upon him; his Father giving him a taste of that wrath which he was to undergo upon the cross for our sins.

Hereupon he takes himself to prayer, Father, save me from this hour; this was the harmless inclination of his sinless nature, which abhorred laying under wrath, and therefore prays again unto his Father to dispose of him as may most and best conduce to the purposes of his glory; Father, glorify thy name.

Learn hence, 1. That mere trouble is no sin; Christ’s soul was troubled; Christianity doth not make men senseless; grace introduceth no stoical stupidity.

2. That fear of death, especially when accompanied with apprehensions of the wrath of God, is most perplexing, and soul amazing. My soul is troubled, and what shall I say?

3. No extremity of sufferings ought to discourage us from laying claim to that relation, which God stands in to us as a Father; Our Saviour, in the midst of his distress, calls God Father: Father, save me from this hour.

4. In the extremity of our sufferings, we may be importunate, but must not be preemptory in our prayers; as Christ in his agony prayed more earnestly, so may we in ours, but always submissively; Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

5. That our exemption from suffering may sometimes be inconsistent with the glory of God. Father, save me from this hour; Father glorify thy name.

Observe lastly, The Father’s answer to the Son’s prayer: There came a voice from heaven, saying, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. That is, as God the Father had been already glorified in his Son’s life, doctrine, and miracles: so he would farther glorify himself in his death, resurrection, and ascension; as also by the mission of the Holy Ghost, and the preaching of the gospel for the conversion of the Gentiles to the ends of the earth;

Learn hence, That the whole work of Christ, from the lowest degree of his humiliation, to the hightest degree of his exaltation, was a glorifying of his Father: he glorified his Father by the doctrine which he taught, he glorified his Father by the miracles which he wrought, by the unspotted innocency of his life, and by his unparalleled sufferings at his death; by his victorious resurrection from the grave, and by his triumphant ascension into heaven.

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

27. Now is my soul troubled. It is the shadow of the cross and the tomb. The best comment on this verse is to compare it with the account of the agony in the garden. Here he exclaims: Father, save me from this hour. There, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” Here, he adds: But for this cause came I unto this hour. There, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Here the perfect resignation that follows the struggle in his soul is in the prayer, “Father, glorify thy name.”

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.

what should I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'?

This remark appears in the form of a rhetorical question. Although Jesus desires to avoid crucifixion, he chooses to be obedient to God and to be killed. AT: "I will not pray, 'Father, save me from this hour!'" (See: Rhetorical Question)

Father

This is an important title for God. (See: Translating Son and Father)

this hour

Here "this hour" is a metonym that represents when Jesus would suffer and die on the cross. (See: Metonymy)

glorify your name

Here the word "name" is a metonym that refers to God. AT: "make your glory known" or "reveal your glory" (See: Metonymy)

a voice came from heaven

This represents God speaking. Sometimes people avoid referring directly to God because they respect him. AT: "God spoke from the heavens" (See: Metonymy and Euphemism)

translationWords

soul

God the Father

save

hour, hours

glory

name

voice

heaven

angel

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

27. A verse of known difficulty: several meanings are admissible and none can be affirmed with certainty. The doubtful points are (1) the interrogation, whether it should come after τί εἴπω or ταύτης; (2) the meaning of διὰ τοῦτο.

ἡ ψυχή μ. τετάρακται. My soul has been and still is troubled. It is the ψυχή, the seat of the natural emotions and affections, that is troubled; not the πνεῦμα, as in Joh 11:35. But, to bring out the connexion with Joh 12:25-26, we may render, Now is My life troubled. ‘He that would serve Me must follow Me and be ready to hate his life; for My life has long since been tossed and torn with suffering and sorrow.’

τί εἴπω; What must I say? This appears to be the best punctuation; and the question expresses the difficulty of framing a prayer under the conflicting influences of fear of death and willingness to glorify His Father by dying. The result is first a prayer under the influence of fear—‘save Me from this hour’ (comp. ‘Let this cup pass from Me,’ Mat 26:39), and then a prayer under the influence of ready obedience—‘Glorify Thy Name’ through My sufferings. But σῶσόν με ἐκ means ‘save me out of,’ i. e. ‘bring Me safe out of;’ rather than ‘save Me from’ (σῶσόν με ἀπό), i. e. ‘keep Me altogether away from,’ as in ‘deliver us from the evil one’ (Mat 6:13). Note the aorist, which shews that special present deliverance, rather than perpetual preservation, is prayed for. S. John omits the Agony in the garden, which was in the Synoptists and was well known to every Christian; but he gives us here an insight into a less known truth, which is still often forgotten, that the agony was not confined to Gethsemane, but was part of Christ’s whole life. Comp. Luk 12:50. Others place the question at ταύτης, and the drift of the whole will then be, ‘How can I say, Father, save Me from this hour? Nay, I came to suffer; therefore My prayer shall be, Father, glorify Thy Name.’

διὰ τοῦτο. These words are taken in two opposite senses; (1) that I might be saved out of this hour; (2) that Thy Name might be glorified by My obedience. Both make good sense. If the latter be adopted it would be better to transpose the stops, placing a full stop after ‘from this hour’ and a colon after ‘unto this hour.’

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.

27.] “Concurrebat horror mortis et ardor obedientiæ” (Bengel). And to express both these together in human speech was impossible: therefore τί εἴπω;

The following words must not be taken interrogatively (as by Theophyl., Grot., Tholuck, al.) [as if our Lord were doubting whether to say them or not]: for thus the whole sense is destroyed, besides the sentiment being most unworthy of Him who uttered it. The prayer is a veritable prayer; and answers to the prophetic Messianic prayers in the Psalms, which thus run—“My soul is troubled; Lord, help me” (Psa 69:1; Psa 40:12, Psa 40:13; Psa 25:17; Psa 6:3, Psa 6:4 al.); and to that prayer afterwards in Gethsemane, Mat 26:39.

διὰ τοῦτο] The misunderstanding of these words has principally led to the erroneous punctuation just noticed. διὰ τοῦτο = ἵνα σωθῶ ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης. ‘I came to this hour for this very purpose,—that I might be saved from this hour:’ i.e. ‘the going into, and exhausting this hour, this cup, is the very appointed way of my glorification.’ Das Hineinkommen ist selbst das Hindurchkommen, das Leiden selbst die Erldsung! Stier, v. 77, edn. 2: so also Lampe. This interpretation does not, as Luthardt says, fall with the interrogative punctuation of the previous clause, but holds equally good when that is relinquished. The other interpretation, that of Meyer, al., is, that Thy Name may be glorified. But surely this is to do violence to the order of thought. This particular does not come in till the next clause, and cannot without an improbable trajection be drawn into this.

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

27. Jn. does not give any account of the Agony in Gethsemane (see on 18:1); but the prayer recorded here corresponds very closely to the prayer in the garden recorded by the Synoptists (Mar 14:35, Mar 14:36, Mat 26:39, Luk 22:42); and it may be that he intends vv. 27-29 to be his version of that tremendous spiritual crisis (see on v. 23). Thus ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται corresponds with Mar 14:34 περιλυπός ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή μου ἕως θανάτου : σῶσόν με ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης corresponds to Mar 14:35 προσηύχετο ἵνα εἰ δυνατόν ἐστι παρέλθῃ ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ ἡ ὥρα: and the repeated πάτερ … πάτερ may reflect ἄββα ὁ πατήρ of Mar 14:36 (cf. Luk 22:42). Indeed, no passage in Jn. illustrates so powerfully as this the words of Mar 14:38 τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα πρόθυμον, ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής. And, finally, in Lk.’s narrative the sequel of the Agony is ὤφθη δὲ αὐτῷ ἄγγελος ἀπʼ οὐρανοῦ ἐνισχύων αὐτόν (Luk 22:43). Is this another version of Joh 12:29 ἄλλοι ἔλεγον, ἄγγελος αὐτῷ λελάληκεν?

It is noteworthy that while Mk., followed by Mt., asserts that John the son of Zebedee was present with Peter and James when the Agony of spirit began (Mar 14:33), Lk. does not mention the names of any disciples as specially witnesses of the scene in the garden. The tradition of Mk. is different from the tradition of Lk.; and it would seem that the tradition of Jn. as to the Agony is different from both of his predecessors. Such a crisis of spiritual decision may, indeed, have recurred, Jn. mentioning the earlier occasion, while the Synoptists tell only of the later. But even this does not give a complete solution of the questions raised by the divergences of the evangelists in regard to the Agony; for Jn. at 18:11 puts the saying, “The cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (cf. Mar 14:36, Luk 22:42), into the mouth of Jesus at Gethsemane (although after His arrest) and not in connexion with the narrative of c. 12.

Nor, again, is it a sufficient explanation to say that Jn. does not narrate the Agony in the garden because he wishes to bring out the Divine self-surrender exhibited in the last scenes; for Jn. all through his Gospel lays special stress on the human emotions which Jesus felt. Jn. knew of the Agony in the garden, but we cannot tell why he chooses to reproduce some of the words then spoken by Jesus at the point in the narrative which we have now reached, rather than in what is (apparently) the proper place, viz. c. 18.

νῦν, “now, at last”: the hour had come; cf. v. 23.

ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται. Cf. 13:21 and 11:33, where see the note. As is there shown, we cannot in such phrases distinguish ψυχή from πνεῦμα. His “soul” was troubled. See the note on 4:6 for the emphasis laid by Jn. on the complete humanity of Jesus; and cf. Psa 42:7 πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν ἡ ψυχή μου ἐταράχθη (cf. also Psa 6:4). This troubling of spirit was truly human (Heb 5:7).

καὶ τί εἴπω; “and what shall I say?” εἴπω, the deliberative subjunctive (see Abbott, Diat. 2512), being used to express a genuine, if momentary, indecision.

πάτερ, σῶσόν με ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης. This is the natural, human prayer of One face to face with a cruel death.

For σώζειν see on 3:17.

πάτερ. So Jesus was accustomed to begin His prayers; see on 11:41. For the aor. imper. σῶσον, see on 2:5.

ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης: the hour had come (v. 23), and He wished to be saved from its horrors. No distinction can be drawn between ἐκ and ἀπό in a constr. like this (see on 1:44, 6:38).

ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο κτλ., “and yet for this very purpose,” sc. that His ministry should be consummated in the Passion, “did I come to this hour”; cf. 18:37. He cannot now draw back from the accomplishment of what He had come to do, in fulfilment of the mission He had received. “Concurrebat horror mortis et ardor obedientiae” (Bengel).

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

My soul. See reff. on ver. 25. The soul, yuch, is the seat of the human affections; the spirit [πνευμα] of the religious affections.

Is troubled [τεταρακται] . The perfect tense; has been disturbed and remains troubled. The same verb as in Joh 11:33. Notice that there it is said He groaned in the spirit [τω πνευματι] . His inward agitation did not arise from personal sorrow or sympathy, but from some shock to His moral and spiritual sense.

What shall I say? A natural expression out of the depths of our Lord 's humanity. How shall I express my emotion? Some commentators connect this with the following clause, shall I say, Father, save me, etc. But this does not agree with the context, and represents a hesitation in the mind of Jesus which found no place there. 41 Save me. The shrinking from suffering belongs to the human personality of our Lord (compare Matthew 39); but the prayer, save me from this hour, is not for deliverance from suffering, but for victory in the approaching trial. See Heb 5:7. The expression is very vivid. "Save me out of this hour."

For this cause. Explained by glorify thy name. For this use, namely, that the Father 's name might be glorified.

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