John 12:32

John

THE UNIVERSAL MAGNET

Joh 12:32.

‘Never man spake like this Man,’ said the wondering Temple officials who were sent to apprehend Jesus. There are many aspects of our Lord’s teaching in which it strikes one as unique; but perhaps none is more singular than the boundless boldness of His assertions of His importance to the world. Just think of such sayings as these: ‘I am the Light of the world’; ‘I am the Bread of Life’; ‘I am the Door’; ‘A greater than Solomon is here’; ‘In this place is One greater than the Temple.’ We do not usually attach much importance to men’s estimate of themselves; and gigantic claims such as these are generally met by incredulity or scorn. But the strange thing about Christ’s loftiest assertions of His world-wide worth and personal sinlessness is that they provoke no contradiction, and that the world takes Him at His own valuation. So profound is the impression that He has made, that men assent when He says, ‘I am meek and lowly in heart,’ and do not answer as they would to anybody else, ‘If you were, you would never have said so.’

Now there is no more startling utterance of this extraordinary self-consciousness of Jesus Christ than the words that I have used for my text. They go deep down into the secret of His power. They open a glimpse into His inmost thoughts about Himself which He very seldom shows us. And they come to each of us with a very touching and strong personal appeal as to what we are doing with, and how we individually are responding to, that universal appeal on which He says that He is exercising.

I. So I wish to dwell on these words now, and ask you first to notice here our Lord’s forecasting of the Cross.

A handful of Greeks had come up to Jerusalem to the Passover, and they desired to see Jesus, perhaps only because they had heard about Him, and to gratify some fleeting curiosity; perhaps for some deeper and more sacred reason. But in that tiny incident our Lord sees the first green blade coming up above the ground which was the prophet of an abundant harvest; the first drop of a great abundance of rain. He recognises that He is beginning to pass out from Israel into the world. But the thought of His world-wide influence thus indicated and prophesied immediately brings along with it the thought of what must be gone through before that influence can be established. And he discerns that, like the corn of wheat that falls into the ground, the condition of fruitfulness for Him is death.

Now we are to remember that our Lord here is within a few hours of Gethsemane, and a few days of the Cross, and that events had so unfolded themselves that it needed no prophet to see that there could only be one end to the duel which he had deliberately brought about between Himself and the rulers of Israel. So that I build nothing upon the anticipation of the Cross, which comes out at this stage in our Lord’s history, for any man in His position might have seen, as clearly as He did, that His path was blocked, and that very near at hand, by the grim instrument of death. But then remember that this same expression of my text occurs at a very much earlier period of our Lord’s career, and that if we accept this Gospel of John, at the very beginning of it He said, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up’; and that that was no mere passing thought is obvious from the fact that midway in His career, if we accept the testimony of the same Gospel, He used the same expression to cavilling opponents when He said: ‘When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He.’ And so at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of His career the same idea is cast into the same words, a witness of the hold that it had upon Him, and the continual presence of it to His consciousness.

I do not need to refer here to other illustrations and proofs of the same thing, only I desire to say, as plainly and strongly as I can, that modern ideas that Jesus Christ only recognised the necessity of His death at a late stage of His work, and that like other reformers, He began with buoyant hope, and thought that He had but to speak and the world would hear, and, like other reformers, was disenchanted by degrees, are, in my poor judgment, utterly baseless, and bluntly contradicted by the Gospel narratives. And so, dear brethren, this is the image that rises before us, and that ought to appeal to us all very plainly; a Christ who, from the first moment of His consciousness of Messiahship-and how early that consciousness was I am not here to inquire-was conscious likewise of the death that was to close it. ‘He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,’ and likewise for this end, ‘to give His life a ransom for the many.’ That gracious, gentle life, full of all charities, and long-suffering, and sweet goodness, and patience, was not the life of a Man whose heart was at leisure from all anxiety about Himself, but the life of a Man before whom there stood, ever grim and distinct away on the horizon, the Cross and Himself upon it. You all remember a well-known picture that suggests the ‘Shadow of Death,’ the shadow of the Cross falling, unseen by Him, but seen with open eyes of horror by His mother. But the reality is a far more pathetic one than that; it is this, that He came on purpose to die.

But now there is another point suggested by these remarkable words, and that is that our Lord regarded the Cross of shame as exaltation or ‘lifting up.’ I do not believe that the use of this remarkable phrase in our text finds its explanation in the few inches of elevation above the surface of the ground to which the crucified victims were usually raised. That is there, of course, but there is something far deeper and more wonderful than that in the background, and it is this in part, that that Cross, to Christ’s eyes, bore a double aspect. So far as the inflicters or the externals of it were concerned, it was ignominy, shame, agony, the very lowest point of humiliation. But there was another side to it. What in one aspect is the nadir, the lowest point beneath men’s feet, is in another aspect the zenith, the very highest point in the bending heaven above us. So throughout this Gospel, and very emphatically in the text, we find that we have the complement of the Pauline view of the Cross, which is, that it was shame and agony. For our Lord says, ‘Now the hour is come when the Son of Man shall be glorified.’ Whether it is glory or shame depends on what it was that bound Him there. The reason for His enduring it makes it the very climax and flaming summit of His flaming love. And, therefore, He is lifted up not merely because the Cross is elevated above the ground on the little elevation of Calvary, but that Cross is His throne, because there, in highest and sovereign fashion, are set forth His glories, the glories of His love, and of the ‘grace and truth’ of which He was ‘full.’

So let us not forget this double aspect, and whilst we bow before Him who ‘endured the Cross, despising the shame,’ let us also try to understand and to feel what He means when, in the vision of it, He said, ‘the hour is come that the Son of Man shall be glorified.’ It was meant for mockery, but mockery veiled unsuspected truth when they twined round His pale brows the crown of thorns, thereby setting forth unconsciously the everlasting truth that sovereignty is won by suffering; and placed in His unresisting hand the sceptre of reed, thereby setting forth the deep truth of His kingdom, that dominion is exercised in gentleness. Mightier than all rods of iron, or sharp swords which conquerors wield, and more lustrous and splendid than tiaras of gold glistening with diamonds, are the sceptre of reed in the hands, and the crown of thorns on the head, of the exalted, because crucified, Man of Sorrows.

But there is still another aspect of Christ’s vision of His Cross, for the ‘lifting up’ on it necessarily draws after it the lifting up to the dominion of the heavens. And so the Apostle, using a word kindred with that of my text, but intensifying it by addition, says, ‘He became obedient even unto the death of the Cross, wherefore God also hath highly lifted Him up.’

So here we have Christ’s own conception of His death, that it was inevitable, that it was exaltation even in the act of dying, and that it drew after it, of inevitable necessity, dominion exercised from the heavens over all the earth. He was lifted up on Calvary, and because He was lifted up He has carried our manhood into the place of glory, and sitteth at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So much for the first point to which I would desire to turn your attention.

II. Now we have here our Lord disclosing the secret of His attractive power.

‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ That ‘if’ expresses no doubt, it only sets forth the condition. The Christ lifted up on the Cross is the Christ that draws men. Now I would have you notice the fact that our Lord thus unveils, as it were, where His power to influence individuals and humanity chiefly resides. He speaks about His death in altogether a different fashion from that of other men, for He does not merely say, ‘If I be lifted up from the earth, this story of the Cross will draw men,’ but He says, ‘I will’ do it; and thus contemplates, as I shall have to say in a moment, continuous personal influence all through the ages.

Now that is not how other people have to speak about their deaths, for all other men who have influenced the world for good or for evil, thinkers and benefactors, and reformers, social and religious, all of them come under the one law that their death is no part of their activity, but terminates their work, and that thereafter, with few exceptions, and for brief periods, their influence is a diminishing quantity. So one Apostle had to say, ‘To abide in the flesh is more needful for you,’ and another had to say, ‘I will endeavour that after my decease ye may keep in mind the things that I have told you’; and all thinkers and teachers and helpers glide away further and further, and are wrapped about with thicker and thicker mists of oblivion, and their influence becomes less and less.

The best that history can say about any of them is, ‘This man, having served his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep.’ But that other Man who was lifted on the Cross saw no corruption, and the death which puts a period to all other men’s work was planted right in the centre of His, and was itself part of that work, and was followed by a new form of it which is to endure for ever.

The Cross is the magnet of Christianity. Jesus Christ draws men, but it is by His Cross mainly, and that He felt this profoundly is plain enough, not only from such utterances as this of my text, but, to go no further, from the fact that He has asked us to remember only one thing about Him, and has established that ordinance of the Communion or the Lord’s Supper, which is to remind us always, and to bear witness to the world, of where is the centre of His work, and the fact which He most desires that men should keep in mind, not the graciousness of His words, not their wisdom, not the good deeds that He did, but ‘This is My body broken for you . . . this cup is the New Testament in My blood.’ A religion which has for its chief rite the symbol of a death, must enshrine that death in the very heart of the forces to which it trusts to renew the world, and to bless individual souls.

If, then, that is true, if Jesus Christ was not all wrong when He spoke as He did in my text, then the question arises, what is it about His death that makes it the magnet that will draw all men? Men are drawn by cords of love. They may be driven by other means, but they are drawn only by love. And what is it that makes Christ’s death the highest and noblest and most wonderful and transcendent manifestation of love that the world has ever seen, or ever can see? No doubt you will think me very narrow and old-fashioned when I answer the question, with the profoundest conviction of my own mind, and, I hope, the trust of my own heart. The one thing that entitles men to interpret Christ’s death as the supreme manifestation of love is that it was a death voluntarily undertaken for a world’s sins.

If you do not believe that, will you tell me what claim on your heart Christ has because He died? Has Socrates any claim on your heart? And are there not hundreds and thousands of martyrs who have just as much right to be regarded with reverence and affection as this Galilean carpenter’s Son has, unless, when He died, He died as the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and for yours and mine? I know all the pathetic beauty of the story. I know how many men’s hearts are moved in some degree by the life and death of our Lord, who yet would hesitate to adopt the full-toned utterance which I have now been giving. But I would beseech you, dear friends, to lay this question seriously to heart, whether there is any legitimate reason for the reverence, the love, the worship, which the world is giving to this Galilean young man, if you strike out the thought that it was because He loved the world that He chose to die to loose it from the bands of its sin. It may be, it is, a most pathetic and lovely story, but it has not power to draw all men, unless it deals with that which all men need, and unless it is the self-surrender of the Son of God for the whole world.

III. And now, lastly, we have here our Lord anticipating continuous and universal influence.

I have already drawn attention to the peculiar fullness of the form of expression in my text, which, fairly interpreted, does certainly imply that our Lord at that supreme moment looked forward, as I have already said, to His death, not as putting a period to His work, but as being the transition from one form of influence operating upon a very narrow circle, to another form of influence which would one day flood the world. I do not need to dwell upon that thought, beyond seeking to emphasise this truth, that one ought to feel that Jesus Christ has a living connection now with each of us. It is not merely that the story of the Cross is left to work its results, but, as I for my part believe, that the dear Lord, who, before He became Man, was the Light of the World, and enlightened every man that came into it, after His death is yet more the Light of the World, and is exercising influence all over the earth, not only by conscience and the light that is within us, nor only through the effects of the record of His past, but by the continuous operations of His Spirit. I do not dwell upon that thought further than to say that I beseech you to think of Jesus Christ, not as One who died for our sins only, but as one who lives to-day, and to-day, in no rhetorical exaggeration but in simple and profound truth, is ready to help and to bless and to be with every one of us. ‘It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’

But, beyond that, mark His confidence of universal influence: ‘I will draw all men.’ I need not dwell upon the distinct adaptation of Christian truth, and of that sacrifice on the Cross, to the needs of all men. It is the universal remedy, for it goes direct to the universal epidemic. The thing that men and women want most, the thing that you want most, is that your relation with God shall be set right, and that you shall be delivered from the guilt of past sin, from the exposure to its power in the present and in the future. Whatever diversities of climate, civilisation, culture, character the world holds, every man is like every other man in this, that he has ‘sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ And it is because Christ’s Cross goes direct to deal with that condition of things that the preaching of it is a gospel, not for this phase of society or that type of men or the other stage of culture, but that it is meant for, and is able to deliver and to bless, every man.

So, brethren, a universal attraction is raying out from Christ’s Cross, and from Himself to each of us. But that universal attraction can be resisted. If a man plants his feet firmly and wide apart, and holds on with both hands to some staple or holdfast, then the drawing cannot draw. There is the attraction, but he is not attracted. You demagnetise Christianity, as all history shows, if you strike out the death on the Cross for a world’s sin. What is left is not a magnet, but a bit of scrap iron. And you can take yourself away from the influence of the attraction if you will, some of us by active resistance, some of us by mere negligence, as a cord cast over some slippery body with the purpose of drawing it, may slip off, and the thing lie there unmoved.

And so I come to you now, dear friends, with the plain question, What are you doing in response to Christ’s drawing of you? He has died for you on the Cross; does that not draw? He lives to bless you; does that not draw? He loves you with love changeless as a God, with love warm and emotional as a man; does that not draw? He speaks to you, I venture to say, through my poor words, and says, ‘Come unto Me, and I will give you rest’; does that not draw? We are all in the bog. He stands on firm ground, and puts out a hand. If you like to clutch it, by the pledge of the nail-prints on the palm, He will lift you from ‘the horrible pit and the miry clay, and set your feet upon a rock.’ God grant that all of us may say, ‘Draw us, and we will run after Thee’!

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

12:32-34 when I am lifted up from the earth (see 3:14; 8:28): The crowd did not understand what Jesus meant. The Greek verb refers to being exalted (Matt 23:12) or honored (Luke 10:15). In John, the cross was not a place of shame and disgrace for Jesus, but the place where Jesus’ true glory was shown.

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

Joh 12:32. Κἀγώ) and I, I truly. The antithesis is, the prince of this world.—ὑψυθῶ, I shall have been lifted up) See Joh 12:33, and ch. Joh 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.”—ἐκ τῆς γῆς) from the earth. Comp. Act 8:33, “His life is taken from the earth.” In the very cross there was already something that tended towards glory.—πάντας, all) even the Gentiles, Joh 12:20 [the Greeks, for instance, who applied to Philip, wishing to see Jesus], Satan shall not be able to retain them; and himself shall give way. Here the answer is given to the request mentioned at Joh 12:21, “We would see Jesus.”—ἑλκύσω, I will draw) from earth, upwards. By this word a power is indicated in opposition to the prince of the world, who shall no longer detain his captives.

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

Joh_12:32-33. And I shall establish my own dominion in room of the devils rule.

κἀγώ] with victorious emphasis, in opposition to the devil.

ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τ. γῆς] so that I shall be no more upon the earth. Comp. on ὑψόω ἐκ, Psa_9:14. Probably Jesus (differently in Joh_3:14) used the verb רום (comp. Syr.): אם הרמתי מן הארץ. This exaltation from earth into heaven to the Father (Joh_7:33; Act_2:33; Acts 6:31) was to be brought about by the death of the cross; and this manner of His death, Jesus, in the opinion of John, indicated (Joh_18:32, Joh_21:19) by the word ὑψωθῶ (comp. Joh_3:14, Joh_8:28). According to John, it is then the designation of the return from earth to heaven, which Jesus gives by ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τ. γ., not merely a representation of His death, so far as the latter exalts him to the Father, but an announcement of the manner of the death (comp. Joh_18:32, Joh_21:19), through which He will end His earthly life, because He was to die exalted on the cross. But this interpretation of Johns does not justify us in straightway understanding ὑψ. ἐκ τ. γ. of the crucifixion (so the Fathers, and most older commentators, including Kling, Frommann, Hengstenberg), which is forbidden by ἐκ τῆς γῆς, nor in finding therein[115] a sermo anceps (Beza and several others, including Luthardt, Ebrard, Godet, comp. Engelhardt), since by the very force of ἐκ τ. γ. the double sense is excluded. It belongs to the freedom of mystic exposition linking itself to a single word (comp. Joh_9:7), as it was sufficiently suggested, especially here, by the recollection of the ὑψωθῆναι already employed in Joh_3:14, and is therewith just as justifiable in itself in the sense of its time as it is wanting in authority for the historical understanding. To this mystical interpretation is opposed, indeed, the expression ἐκ τῆς γῆς (comp. Isa_53:8); but John was sufficiently faithful in his account not to omit this ἐκ τ. γῆς for the sake of his interpretation of ὑψωθῶ, and simply adhered to this ὑψ., and disregarded the context.[116]

On ἐάν, comp. on Joh_14:3.

πάντας ἑλκ. πρὸς ἐμαυτ.] all, i.e. not merely adherents of all nations, or all elected ones and the like, but all men, so that thus none remain belonging to the ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου. But to the latter, to the devil, stands opposed, not the mere πρὸς ἐμέ, but to myself, to my own community. Comp. Joh_14:3; ἐμαυτόν never stands for the simple ἐμέ, not even in Joh_14:21 (against Tholuck). The ἑλκύειν takes place by means of the Holy Spirit, who, given by the exalted Lord (Joh_7:39, Joh_16:7), and representing Himself (Joh_14:18-19), wins men for Christ in virtue of faith, and, by means of internal moral compulsion, places them in the fellowship of love, of obedience, and of the true and everlasting ζωή with Him. Comp. Joh_6:44, where this is said of the Father. The fulfilment of this promise is world-historical, and continually in process of realization (Rom_10:18), until finally the great goal will be reached, when all will be drawn to the Son, and form one flock under one shepherd (Joh_10:16). In this sense πάντας is to be left without any arbitrary limitation (Luthardts limitation is baseless: all, namely, those whom He draws to Himself). For the manner in which Paul recognised the way and manner of the last consummation of the promise thus made, see Rom_11:25-26.

[115] His suspension on the cross appears to Him the magnificently ironical emblem of His elevation on the throne, Godet. An ironical touch would here be very strange.

[116] Scholten sets aside the whole comment as an interpolation.

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 12:32 . ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς is explained as indicating or hinting, σημαίνων , “by what death He was to die,” i.e. , that He was to be raised on the cross. Cf. Joh 3:14 . It was the cross which was to become His throne and by which He was to draw men to Him as His subjects. In ὑψωθῶ therefore, although the direct reference is to His elevation on the cross, there is a sub-suggestion of being elevated to a throne. “ σημαίνειν notat aliquid futurum vaticinando cum ambiguitate quadam atque obscuritate innuere.” Kypke. So Plutarch says of the Oracle, οὔτε λέγει οὔτε κρύπτει ἀλλὰ σημαίνει .

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

32. ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, sc. on the Cross. See the note on 3:14; and cf. 8:28. ἐκ τῆς γῆς is “from the earth” and not “out of the earth” as R.V. marg. has it, and as Westcott interprets because he finds the Ascension indicated here by ὑψωθῶ.

πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν. For the verb ἑλκύειν, see on 6:44. For ἐμαυτός in Jn., see on 5:30.

It has often been suggested (the criticism goes back to Celsus; see Origen, c. Cels. ii.13) that the predictions of His Passion which the evangelists place in the mouth of Jesus are vaticinia ex eventu, and that in particular these predictions, as recorded by Jn., are so precise that they cannot be regarded as historical. It is not, indeed, impossible that in some instances the evangelists, and especially Jn. and Mt., ascribed language to Jesus which was coloured by their knowledge of the sequel of His ministry. But that He foresaw the end is certain. He knew, and apparently was conscious from a very early stage in His ministry, what its issue would be. And wonderful as a prophecy like δεῖ ὑψωθῆναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (v. 34) seems to be, and is, it is not more wonderful than that we should find in a document of the first century the prophecy ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, “I will draw all men to myself” (cf. 10:16). The continuous fulfilment of this prophecy throughout many centuries and among all races of men is a fact of history. It is not any easier to believe that the prophecy is an invention of the evangelist, than that he recorded it because he had heard that his Master uttered it. Whether we have in Joh 12:32 a genuine saying of Christ or a saying which Jn. thought would be appropriate to Him, it is a saying of remarkable prescience. The Word of the Cross (1Co 1:18) has always been a word of power; and the Appeal of the Cross has been the most effective that the world has known. It draws “all men,” πάντας, to the Crucified.

There is a variant reading πάντα (א*D) which, if genuine, would embrace the whole creation within the circle of the attraction of Christ. But πάντας is better authenticated.

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

Chrysostom and Theophylact refer this word, All, to all nations: that is, not to the Jews only.

Christ used a word, which hath a double meaning: for it signifieth either to lift up, or to rid out of the way, for his meaning was to put them in mind of his death, but the Jews seem to take it another way.

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

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me--The "I" here is emphatic--I, taking the place of the world's ejected prince. "If lifted up," means not only after that I have been lifted up, but, through the virtue of that uplifting. And truly, the death of the Cross, in all its significance, revealed in the light, and borne in upon the heart, by the power of the Holy Ghost, possesses an attraction over the wide world--to civilized and savage, learned and illiterate, alike--which breaks down all opposition, assimilates all to itself, and forms out of the most heterogeneous and discordant materials a kingdom of surpassing glory, whose uniting principle is adoring subjection "to Him that loved them." "Will draw all men 'UNTO ME,'" says He. What lips could venture to utter such a word but His, which "dropt as an honeycomb," whose manner of speaking was evermore in the same spirit of conscious equality with the Father?

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

Verse 32. I - will draw all men unto me.] After I shall have died and risen again, by the preaching of my word and the influence of my Spirit, I shall attract and illuminate both Jews and Gentiles. It was one of the peculiar characteristics of the Messiah, that unto him should the gathering of the people be, Ge 49:10. And probably our Lord refers to the prophecy, Isa 11:10, which peculiarly belonged to the Gentiles: "There shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ENSIGN of the people, to it shall the GENTILES seek, and his rest shall be glorious." There is an allusion here to the ensigns or colours of commanders of regiments, elevated on high places, on long poles, that the people might see where the pavilion of their general was, and so flock to his standard.

Instead of παντας, the Codex Bezae, another, several versions, and many of the fathers, read παντα, all men, or all things: so the Anglo-Saxon, [A.S.], I will draw all things to myself. But παντα may be here the accusative singular, and signify all men.

The ancients fabled that Jupiter had a chain of gold, which he could at any time let down from heaven, and by it draw the earth and all its inhabitants to himself. See a fine passage to this effect in Homer, Iliad viii. ver. 18-27.

Ειδ' αγε, πειρησασθε θεοι, ἱνα ειδετε παντες,

Σειρην χρυσειην εξ ουρανοθεν κρεμασαντες·

Παντες δ' εξαπτεσθε θεοι, πασαι τε θεαιναι. κ. τ. λ.

"Now prove me: let ye down the golden chain

From heaven, and pull at its inferior links,

Both goddesses and gods: but me your king,

Supreme in wisdom, ye shall never draw

To earth from heaven, strive with me as ye may.

But I, if willing to exert my power,

The earth itself, itself the sea, and you,

Will lift with ease together, and will wind

The chain around the spiry summit sharp

Of the Olympian, that all things upheaved

Shall hang in the mid heaven. So much am I,

Alone, superior both to gods and men.

COWPER.

By this chain the poets pointed out the union between heaven and earth; or, in other words, the government of the universe by the extensive chain of causes and effects. It was termed golden, to point out, not only the beneficence of the Divine Providence, but also that infinite philanthropy of God by which he influences and by which he attracts all mankind to himself. It was possibly in allusion to this that our Lord spoke the above words. Should it be objected that it is inconsistent with the gravity of the subject, and the dignity of our Lord, to allude to the fable of a heathen poet, I answer:

1. The moral is excellent, and, applied to this purpose, expresses beautifully our Lord's gracious design in dying for the world, viz. That men might be united to himself, and drawn up into heaven.

2. It is no more inconsistent with the gravity of the subject, and his dignity, for our blessed Lord to allude to Homer, than it was for St. Paul to quote Aratus and Cleanthes, Ac 17:28, and Epimenides, Tit 1:12; for he spoke by the same Spirit.

So justice was sometimes represented under the emblem of a golden chain, and in some cases such a chain was constructed, one end attached to the emperor's apartment, and the other hanging within reach; that if any person were oppressed he might come and lay hold on the chain, and by shaking it give the king notice that he was oppressed, and thus claim protection from the fountain of justice and power. In the Jehangeer Nameh, a curious account of this kind is given, which is as follows. The first order which Jehangeer issued on his accession to the throne (which was A.H. 1014, answering to A.D. 1605) was for the construction of the GOLDEN CHAIN of Justice. It was made of pure gold, and measured thirty yards in length, consisting of sixty links, and weighing, in the whole, four Hindostany maunds (about four hundred pounds avoirdupois.) One end of the chain was suspended from the royal bastion of the fortress of Agra, and the other fastened in the ground near the side of the river. The intention of this was, that if the officers of the courts of law were partial in their decisions, or dilatory in the administration of justice, the injured parties might come themselves to this chain, and, making a noise by shaking the links of it, give notice that they were waiting to represent their grievances to his majesty. Hist. of Hindostan, p. 96, Calcutta, 1788. Such a communication, prayer and faith establish between the most just and most merciful GOD, and the wretched and oppressed children of men. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come! Ps 65:2.

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

32. If I be lifted up. Next follows the method by which the judgment shall be conducted; namely, Christ, being lifted up on the cross, shall gather all men to himself, in order that he may raise them from earth to heaven. The Evangelist says, that Christ pointed out the manner of his death; and, therefore, the meaning undoubtedly is, that the cross will be, as it were, a chariot, by which he shall raise all men, along with himself, to his Father. It might have been thought, that at that time he was carried away from the earth, so as no longer to have any interests in common with men; but he declares, that he will go in a very different manner, so as to draw upwards to himself those who were fixed on the earth. Now, though he alludes to the form of his death, yet he means generally, that his death will not be a division to separate him from men, but that it will be an additional means of drawing earth upwards towards heaven.

I will draw all men to myself. The word all, which he employs, must be understood to refer to the children of God, who belong to his flock. Yet I agree with Chrysostom, who says that Christ used the universal term, all, because the Church was to be gathered equally from among Gentiles and Jews, according to that saying,

There shall be one shepherd, and one sheepfold, (John 10:16.)

The old Latin translation has, I will draw all things to me; and Augustine maintains that we ought to read it in that manner; but the agreement of all the Greek manuscripts ought to have greater weight with us.

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.

(32) And I, if I be lifted up from the earth.—The pronoun is strongly emphatic. “And I,” in opposition to the prince of this world; the conqueror in opposition to the vanquished foe. The conditional form, “If I be lifted up,” answers to the “troubled soul” of Joh_12:27. He knows that it will be so, but He leaves the future to declare its own truths. Comp. the phrases, “If it be possible,” “If this may not pass away from Me” (Mat_26:39; Mat_26:42), and Note on Joh_14:3. The words “lifted up” have occurred before in Joh_3:14; Joh_8:28; but the context here shows that they include the thought of the ascension into heaven. It is from the heavenly throne that the Messiah will rule over His spiritual kingdom.

Will draw all men unto me.—Better, . . . unto Myself. The words “all men” are not to be limited by interpretations which refer them to nations, or to elect persons within nations; but are to be taken in all the fulness of their width as meaning simply what they say—“all.” The drawing unto Himself is the assertion of His reign over the world, from which the prince of evil shall be cast out. He will Himself be the centre of the new kingdom, from which none shall be shut out. These Greeks who are drawn to Him now are the first-fruits of the harvest of which the whole world is the field, and of which the last day is to be the great ingathering. The word “draw” occurs once in the New Testament, besides this passage, in a moral sense (Joh_6:44; comp. Note on it there). It is accomplished in the work of the Holy Spirit, whose mission to the Church was dependent on the ascension of our Lord (Joh_7:39; Joh_16:7); and the promise is fulfilled even in the case of those who resist the Holy Spirit’s influence. They are drawn by the moral power of the life and death and resurrection of Christ brought home to them by the Holy Ghost; but no moral power can compel a will which is free. (Comp. Note on Joh_6:37.) The whole mission-work of the Church and every effort which Christianity brings to bear upon the evil of the world implies this moral drawing; and implies, too, the power of man to reject it. But we may not say this moral power is not leading men to Christ, where we can least trace it, and we may not say that there is any limit where its influence ends. (Comp. Note on 1Pe_3:19.)

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

32. And I] ‘I’ is very emphatic in opposition to ‘the ruler of this world.’ The glorified Christ will rule men’s hearts in place of the devil.

be lifted up] Raised up to heaven by means of the Cross: we need not, as in Joh_3:14 and Joh_8:28, confine the meaning to the Crucifixion, although the lifting up on the Cross may be specially indicated. The words ‘from the earth’ (literally, out of the earth) seem to point to the Ascension; yet the Cross itself, apparently so repulsive, has through Christ’s Death become an attraction; and this may be the meaning here. For the hypothetical form ‘if I be lifted up,’ comp. ‘if I go,’ Joh_14:3. In both cases Christ is concerned not with the time of the act, but with the consequences of it; hence He does not say ‘when,’ but ‘if.’

will draw] There are two Greek words for ‘draw’ in the N.T., one of which necessarily implies violence, the other does not: it is the latter that is used here and in Joh_6:44; the former is used Act_14:19; Act_17:6. Man’s will is free; he can refuse to be drawn: and there is no violence; the attraction is moral. We see from Joh_6:44 that before the ‘lifting up’ it is the Father who draws men to the Son.

all men] Not only the Jews represented by the Twelve, but the Gentiles represented by these Greeks.

unto me] Better, unto Myself, up from the earth.

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.

This he said,.... These are the words of the evangelist, interpreting the design of Christ in the above words, thereby

signifying what death he should die; the phrase of being lifted up from the earth, not only signified his death, but the kind, or manner of it, that it should be by crucifixion; a person crucified being stretched forth upon a cross, and that erected, was lifted up between earth and heaven.

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

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

Ver. 32. And if I be lifted up, &c.] Pope Urban VI said that these words, "Give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s," were abolished when Christ was lifted up from the earth, and drew all things to him; that is (as he expounds it), when Christ ascended, he drew to the pope’s empire all kings and their kingdoms, making him King of kings and Lord of lords. (Jacob. Rev. de vit. Pen.) Is not this a sweet interpreter?

I will draw all men unto me] As the wind called Caecias, being a north-east wind, contrary to the nature of the north wind, drives not away clouds, but draws them to him.

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.

Be lifted up - See Joh 3:14; Joh 8:28.

Will draw - Joh 6:44. The same word is used in both places.

All men - I will incline all kinds of men; or will make the way open by the cross, so that all men may come. I will provide a way which shall present a strong motive or inducement - the strongest that can be presented to all men to come to me.

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

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth: that is, on the cross. See the same expression, John iii. 14. and viii. 28. --- I will draw all things, all nations, to myself by faith. (Witham)

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).

However this term of lifting up Christ is taken in some other scriptures, it is by the evangelist himself in this text expounded concerning his death, so as there is no room for any other interpretation of it in this text. The word that is used, is hardly to be found in any place (except where in Scripture it relates to Christ) signifying to die, or put to death; but is very proper, both to express the kind of his death, which was a lifting up upon the cross, from the earth into the air; and to let us know that his death was a lifting up of his name: as it was the lowest degree of his humiliation, so it was nearest to his exaltation. It was his highest act of obedience to the will of his Father, that for which his Father highly exalted him, giving him a name which is above every name, Phi 2:9; and also that which made his name famous over all the world, by the preaching of the gospel; for as the apostles, so all the ministers of the gospel since their times, preach a Christ crucified. Saith our Saviour, If, or although, I be put to death by the hands of the Jews, lifted up upon the cross between heaven and earth, yet this shall not hinder my Father’s glorifying of himself in and by me; for instead of obscuring or hindering my Father’s glory, by this I shall further promote it. For by the preaching of my cross, and publication of my gospel to all nations, and by the efficacious concurrence of my Holy Spirit, together with the preaching of the gospel, I shall draw (though not all, and every man, yet) multitudes of men and women after me, so as they shall embrace and believe in me, having died and risen up again from the dead, and being by my apostles, and other ministers of the gospel, held forth as the object of people’s faith, to be by them laid hold upon in order to their eternal life and salvation. He used the term of lifting up, (saith the evangelist), to signify the particular death he should die, by being crucified; in which death the bodies of the crucified abode not upon the earth, as when they were at any time stoned, or strangled, or beheaded, &c., but were lifted up from the earth to be nailed to the cross, and hung in the air until they died.

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

32. If I be lifted up—This lifted up is beautifully ambiguous. It is at once the humiliation and the exaltation. It is the shame and the glory. For, lifted on the cross, he is the central object, the divine magnet, attracting by its secret power the spirits of all men unto him. He draws, not drags. He exhibits an element of affinity for all his brethren of the human race. To him they all experience a secret gravitation, which, would they but obey, would make them one with him. Yet they are not pieces of iron but living agents. The magnetic attraction is divinely natural, but not physically necessitating. Its strongest attractions may be rejected; its gentlest drawings may be obeyed. All, of every age and every land, have sufficient to enable them to come, and to render them responsible for the great rejection. “I will draw them unto me; and this means ultimately, away from the earth into heavenly places; yet only through the cross, and, therefore, first of all, to Me on the cross. This is the sense of where I am, Joh_12:26.”—Stier.

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

Vers. 32, 33. And I, if I be lifted out of (or, from) the earth, will draw all (men) to myself. Now this he spake, signifying by what death he was about to die. Uqwyw has been by Meyer, as well as many of the Fathers, referred to the Lord"s resurrection and ascension. The ek thv ghv would certainly be in favor of it, and be a possible rendering if we hold (with Westcott and others) that resurrection and uplifting from the earth involve and presuppose a previous death, or that John always speaks of Christ"s death as itself a glorious thing, as itself the commencement of the supreme glory of the Son of man. On the other hand though this idea is reiterated by the opponents of the Fourth Gospel there is nothing in the New Testament which makes the cross of Christ in itself a symbol of the exaltation of Jesus. Moreover, the next verse compels a closer reference to "the way in which he was about to die a mode of departure admirably expressed by the term "uplifting." The language of Jesus to Nicodemus, in which the same word occurs in describing the lifting up of the Son of man after the fashion in which the serpent was uplifted in the wilderness, confirms this interpretation of the evangelist, which we have no claim to traverse. (cf. also Joh_18:32 Joh_21:19) Christ declared that the attraction of the cross would be mightier than all the fascination of the prince of this world. The word elkusw , "I will draw," is applied elsewhere (Joh_6:44) to the Father"s work of grace, which preveniently prepares men to come to Christ. In these words we learn that the attraction of the cross of Christ will prove to be the mightiest and most sovereign motive ever brought to bear on the human will, and, when wielded by the Holy Spirit as a revelation of the matchless love of God, will involve the most sweeping judicial sentence that can be pronounced upon the world and its prince. In Joh_16:11 the belief or the conviction that the prince of this world has been already condemned (kekritai) is one of the great results of the mission of the Comforter.

Divine attraction.

The shadow of the cross lay athwart the path of Jesus. His soul was troubled, for the hour was come. The grain of wheat was about to fall into the soil, and there to die. Yet our Savior looked beyond the near to the distant future. He knew that, though the hour was come, it was the hour in which God should be glorified; that though the seed should die, it should bear much fruit; that though he himself was about to be lifted up from the earth, he should draw all men unto himself.

I WHO WAS HE WHO LOOKED FORWARD TO A PROSPECT SO GLORIOUS? This must be asked, because the words used are such as from ordinary lips might naturally be deemed but vain boasting. How often have conquerors hoped to subdue the world, thinkers to convert all mankind to their opinions, preachers and promulgators of religious systems to win the empire over the hearts of the race! Experience has dispelled many such illusions; and we are slow to accept claims to universal dominion. Who, then, was he who uttered this confident expectation that all men should be drawn to him? To all outward appearance a peasant, a teacher, a healer, a reformer, a benefactor of his fellow men. What prospect was there of one in such a position realizing a hope so vast? And how, if he was about to be crucified, could he find the cross a means to such an end? The thing seemed incredible, even to his own adherents and friends. If Jesus had been a mere man, although a saint or a prophet, such language would have been egotism. But Jesus knew the purpose of the Father, and felt within him the consciousness of power to achieve a work so great. And the events which followed the Resurrection and Ascension, and especially the Pentecostal outpouring opened the eyes of his disciples to the glory of their Master"s Person, the power of his Spirit, the certainty of the prospect he beheld,

II WHAT WAS THE CONDITION OF THE EXERCISE OF THIS SUPERHUMAN" POWER? The expression, "lifting up," as applied by Jesus to himself, is interpreted for us by the evangelist. Used three times, it denotes, in each instance, the manner of Christ"s death, the lifting up upon the cross. This was, indeed, to be followed by the lifting up to the Throne of empire and of glory. As a Savior, Jesus was crucified; as a Divine Savior, he was exalted. The wisdom of God, the power of God, were to be displayed in this triumph of humiliation, suffering, and death.

III WHAT WAS THE NATURE, THE ACTION, OF THIS ATTRACTIVE POWER? It is very significant that the "drawing" which Jesus exercised displayed itself even whilst he hung upon the tree. The multitude gathered around; and if the soldiers viewed the scene with indifference, there were women who watched and wept, and there were among the people those who smote their breasts in sorrow and in fear. But we have to notice, not the curiosity or the natural emotions excited by the spectacle of one suffering crucifixion, but the spiritual attraction of Calvary. The incomparable love and pity manifested by the Crucified possess a mysterious charm. It is the Shepherd smitten for the flock he came to save, it is the Friend laying down his life for his friends, who exercises this Divine magnetism. They who discern in the Lord"s sufferings and death the appointed means of man"s redemption, who know that "with his stripes we are healed," can understand how a spiritual force emanates from the cross as gravitation from a central sun. Man"s nature is such as to be affected by the exhibition on Christ"s part of love stronger than death, of compassion worthy of a God. That the sacrifice of our Redeemer had its bearing upon the government of God this is clearly taught in Scripture. But here our Lord lays stress upon its bearing upon the heart of man, upon human society and human prospects.

IV WHITHER DOES THE CRUCIFIED ONE DRAW THOSE WHOM HIS INFLUENCE AFFECTS? The suffering, the glorified Redeemer draws men away from sinful affections and sinful courses; he draws them unto safety, peace, and life. But it is observable that Christ declares his purpose to draw them "unto himself, i.e. to enjoy his fellowship, to participate in his character. A personal power draws men to a personal Savior, Friend, and Lord. Men are drawn by the cross, not to Christianity, but to Christ.

V WHAT IS THE RANGE OF THIS ATTRACTION? Jesus is a universal Savior. He proposes and promises to draw all men unto himself. The firstfruits of this harvest were yielded whilst he still hung upon the tree. The conversion of the dying malefactor, the enlightenment of the centurion, were an earnest of greater victories. It was the intention of Christ to save friends and foes, Jews and Gentiles. And the facts of history are a proof of the extent to which this intention has already been fulfilled. The idolater has forsaken his "gods many;" the Jewish rabbi has abandoned confidence in the "letter," and has learned to rejoice in "the Spirit;" the philosopher has found the wisdom of God better than the wisdom of this world. Human beings of all grades have felt and yielded to the Divine attraction of the cress. The young and the old, the profligate and the ascetic, the tempted, the aged, and the dying, are day by day being drawn unto the heart of Immanuel. The marvels of Pentecost were an omen of a new life for all nations of mankind. The apostles themselves witnessed enough to convince them of the truth of their Master"s words, the depth of their Master"s insight, the vastness of their Master"s prophetic view. Looking back, and looking around, we learn to look forward with an inspiring confidence to the realization of a promise so benevolent and so glorious as this from the lips of him who was about to die. T.

The saving influence of Christ.

Notice it

I IN SOME OF ITS CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES.

1. It is the influence of the greatest Person. "And I," etc. To know something about influence, let us ask who influences?

(1) The Son of God. The eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God, and is God. Thus the source of the influence is Divine, infinite, and exhaustless.

(2) The Son of God in human nature. The eternal Word manifested in the flesh, assumed the nature he came to save, and in that nature taught men by precept and example, and manifested before them the most powerful and fascinating attributes of the Divine and human, in a beautiful combination, and led them on to their highest destiny.

(3) The Son of God in personal contact with the human race, with a full knowledge of, and an intense sympathy with their spiritual wants, inspired with the purpose of salvation, and a passionate desire to advance their spiritual welfare. Thus the fallen human nature is brought again within the moral attraction of the Divine.

2. The influence of the greatest Person, having made the greatest sacrifice. "And I, if I be lifted up." The incarnate Word laid down his life as a sacrifice for sin. This sacrifice is infinite, perfect, and matchless.

(1) It is the manifestation of the greatest love. Divine love for the salvation and happiness of the fallen human family. The tongues of men and angels together could not set forth the greatness of the Divine love so eloquently as the Divine sacrifice offered on Calvary. If it be asked how great is God"s love towards fallen man, the most expressive answer is in the words of the evangelist, "God so loved," etc.

(2) It removes all difficulties to reconciliation with God. In it all Divine claims are satisfied, and human enmity slain, and the mightiest hindrances to Divine attraction are removed.

(3) It furnishes the most powerful motives to reconciliation. In the light of this sacrifice sin appears most hateful, its consequences moat disastrous, while virtue appears most charming, and God most attractive. As an instrument it is calculated in the highest degree to arouse the conscience in condemnation of sin, to melt the heart, to bend the will, and to attract the whole nature from sin to holiness, from the kingdom of darkness to that of light. The supreme and all-conquering motive furnished by it is God"s love.

(4) It procures the most powerful helps to reconciliation. The

Holy Spirit, with all his influences, gifts, and blessings. All that man requires in order to return to God is furnished through Christ and the sacrifice of his blood.

3. The influence of the greatest person in the most advantageous position. The lifting up from the earth refers to the consequent exaltation as well as to the crucifixion.

(1) A position of the most complete triumph, a triumph achieved under the most disadvantageous circumstances, on a cross, achieved over the mightiest foes of God and man, and achieved on behalf of God and man. Man now has only a conquered foe to encounter.

(2) A position of the highest honor and glory. Glory won through shame, life procured by death, the glory of victory and self-sacrifice. If he achieved so much on a cross, what can he not do under a crown?

(3) A position of the greatest authority and power. Authority and power native and acquired. "All power is given me," etc. All the realm of spiritual forces, good and bad, is under his control.

4. The influence of the greatest Person exercised in the most efficient way. "I will draw," etc. Man is to be drawn, not driven. The saving influence of Christ is voluntary, not compulsory; it is moral and spiritual, influences man through his mental and spiritual nature, and binds the heart and will with the cords of love, and gently draws them Godwards.

II IN ITS GLORIOUS TRIUMPH. This we see if we consider:

1. The objects of its attraction. In order to estimate the drawing power of any influence, let us consider who are drawn, and from what.

(1) The greatest sinners sunk in the deepest sin.

(2) Inspired with the deadliest enmity against God and virtue.

(3) Backed up by the mightiest spiritual opponents of God and virtue. But in spite of all, "I will draw," etc.

2. The c ompleteness of the drawing. "Unto me," etc.

(1) Unto faith in him.

(2) Unto his character and likeness.

(3) Unto his position and society. The drawing will be most complete; hence the glory of the influence his triumph.

3. The extensiveness of the attraction. "All men," etc. Jews and Gentiles? More than these. We shall not, in the presence of the cross of our Lord, venture to limit this phrase, but let it tell its simple but grand tale of the glorious triumph of saving grace through Christ.

(1) This extensive idea is in perfect harmony with human need. All have gone astray from God, and require to be drawn to him. The greater the want, the greater the mercy.

(2) It is in perfect harmony with the Divine will. "Who willeth that no man should perish, but that all should turn," etc.

(3) It is in perfect harmony with the infinitude of the sacrifice. Is it not naturally adapted to draw, and does it not deserve to be universally successful?

(4) It is in perfect harmony with our highest notion of the supreme Being as a God of infinite love.

(5) It is in perfect harmony with many other expressions of Gods revealed will.

(6) It is in perfect harmony with our highest motions of the ultimate glory of God.

4. The certainty of the attraction. This lies:

(1) In the Divine purpose.

(2) In the Divine provision.

(3) In the Divine promise. Jesus has not promised to do more than he has purposed, is willing, and fully able to do.

LESSONS.

1. What the foes of Jesus thought would punish him, was the very thing to advance his interests. They said, Crucify him, and his influence will be at an end." He said, "Crucify me, and I will draw," etc.

2. Time and eternity are on the side of Christ, and also the superior power of Divine principles. Truth is more powerful than error, good than evil, and the attractions of Jesus mightier than the evil one. Let Christ have time, and his promise will be fulfilled, and Divine love triumphant.

3. It is better for the sinner to yield now than to battle with Divine love. It would be far better for the prodigal to return soon after leaving his father"s house, than after experiencing the keenest pangs of hunger. Return he did at last. B.T.

The all-attracting Jesus.

I THE AIMS AND HOPES OF JESUS DIFFERENT FROM THOSE TO WHOM HE SPOKE. Those who questioned and criticized him cared for no country but their own. Not that they were ignorant of other Countries, for they went to live in them, but they still kept communion and close touch with Jerusalem. The Jew liked to make money out of the Gentile, and so he would go and live in the Gentile city, but it never seemed to strike him that the God of the Jew was God also of the Gentile, and that the Christ for whom the Jew waited was needed by the Gentile just as much. But Jesus, being himself the Christ, longed inexpressibly for the hour when he should begin to draw all men to himself. Even in the days of his flesh he began to draw the Gentiles. For even as Jews went to dwell in Gentile lands, so Gentiles came to dwell in the Jewish land; and when Jesus went about doing good, humanity in all its pressing need overleaped the bounds of nationality, and came to him for help.

II OUR AIMS AND HOPES ARE ALSO DIFFERENT. Most part of men certainly do not care to be drawn to Jesus. Jesus is interested in everybody, while our deep, underlying desire is to get as many people as possible interested in us. We are mightily grieved if other people do not think almost as much about us as we do about ourselves. But it is not quite so much a matter of course to be interested in other people. And to be interested in Jesus, to set ourselves in real sober earnest to find out all we can about him, may strike us as an eminently unpractical thing.

III Look AT THIS DRAWING POWER IN THE EXERCISE OF IT.

1. The purpose of Jesus is clear. He made that abundantly plain while he lived under the conditions of ordinary humanity. The times of retirement and avoidance of men were only exceptional. The miracles of Jesus were advertisements in the best sense of the word. His wondrous works were things that people talked about, and were meant to have this effect.

2. The motive also is clear. All were to be drawn, because of the need of all. We all need Jesus, just as every growing plant in the field needs the sunshine and the rain. As none can live the natural life without air and food, so none can live the higher life without Jesus. We can never be what we were meant to be, until Jesus the Christ is using us for himself. We are like unlighted candies, and Jesus alone can light us. The glory of a candle is in its burning, and the glory of a human being is in his shining Christianity. We ourselves feel the paramount claim of need upon us, and shall Jesus not feel it?

3. The means must be noticed. Drawing, not driving. The only effectual compulsion is that of love. We must be drawn because we cannot help it. So long as we prefer self-indulgence, ease, mere drifting, we shall not be drawn. We must come within the circle of which Jesus is the Center. Then shall we ever tend more and more toward that Center. Y.

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

Lifted up from the earth - This is a Hebraism which signifies dying. Death in general is all that is usually imported. But our Lord made use of this phrase, rather than others that were equivalent, because it so well suited the particular manner of his death. I will draw all men - Gentiles as well as Jews. And those who follow my drawings, Satan shall not be able to keep.

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

32. If I shall be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Lifted up, first, to the cross; second, from the grave; third, to heaven and the eternal throne.

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.

General Information:

In verse 33 John tells us background information about what Jesus said about being "lifted up" (See: Background Information)

When I am lifted up from the earth

Here Jesus refers to his crucifixion. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "When people raise me high on a cross" (See: Active or Passive)

will draw everyone to myself

Through his crucifixion, Jesus will provide a way for everyone to trust in him.

He said this to indicate what kind of death he would die

John interprets Jesus' words to mean that people will crucify him. AT: "He said this to let the people know how he would die" (See: Background Information)

translationWords

earth

die

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

32. κἀγὼ ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ. Ἐγώ in emphatic opposition to ὁ ἄρχων τ. κ. τ. The glorified Christ, raised to heaven by means of the Cross, will rule men’s hearts in the place of the devil. We need not, as in Joh 3:14, Joh 8:28, confine ὑψωθῶ to the Crucifixion; ἐκ τῆς γῆς seems to point to the Ascension. Yet the Cross itself, apparently so repulsive, has through Christ’s death become an attraction; and this may be the meaning here. For the hypothetical ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ comp. ἐὰν πορευθῶ (Joh 14:3). In both Christ is concerned not with the time but the results of the act; hence not ‘when’ but ‘if.’ Comp. 1Jn 2:8; 1Jn 3:2.

ἑλκύσω. Not συρῶ (see on Joh 6:44). There is no violence; the attraction is moral and not irresistible. Man’s will is free, and he may refuse to be drawn. Previous to the ‘lifting up’ it is the Father who ‘draws’ men to the Son (Joh 6:44-45). And in both cases all are drawn and taught: not only the Jews represented by the Twelve, but the Gentiles represented by the Greeks. Πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, unto Myself, up from the earth. The two verses (31, 32) sum up the history of the Church; the overthrow of Satan’s rule, the establishment of Christ’s.

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.

32.] See reff. Here there is more perhaps implied in ὑψ. than in either of those places: viz. the Death, with all its consequences. The Saviour crucified, is in fact the Saviour glorified; so that the exalting to God’s right hand is set forth by that uplifting on the Cross. There is a fine touch of pathos, corresponding to the feeling of ver. 27, in ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ. Hermann’s description of the meaning of ἐὰν τοῦτο γένηται exactly gives it: “sumo hoc fieri, et potest omnino fieri, sed utrum vere futurum sit necne, experientia cognoscam.” Viger, p. 832. The Lord Jesus, though knowing all this, yet in the weakness of his humanity, puts himself into this seeming doubt, ‘if it is so to be:’ cf. Mat 26:42. All this is missed by the shallow and unscholarlike rendering ‘when,’ which I need hardly remind my readers ἐάν can never bear. See on ch. 14:3: 1Jn 3:2.

ἑλκύσω—by the diffusion of the Spirit in the Church: manifested in the preaching of the Word mediately, and the pleading of the Spirit immediately. Before the glorification of Christ, the Father drew men to the Son (see ch. 6:44 and note), but now the Son Himself to Himself. Then it was, ‘no man can come except the Father draw Him:’ now the Son draws all. And, to Himself, as thus uplifted, thus exalted;—the great object of Faith: see ch. 11:52.

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

Be lifted up [υψωθω] . See on 3 14. The primary reference is to the cross, but there is included a reference to the resurrection and ascension. Bengel says : "In the very cross there was already something tending towards glory." Wyc., enhanced.

From the earth [εκ της γης] . Literally, out of the earth.

Will draw [ελκυσω] . See on 6 44.

All men [παντας] . Some high authorities read panta, all things.

Unto Me [προς εμαυτον] . Rev., rightly, unto myself : in contrast with the prince of this world.

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