Widow’s Mite

Greatly Distressed

▴John 12:20–36a

4 SOME GREEKS WHO HAD COME up to worship at the feast approached Philip (the one from Bethsaida in Galilee) and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew, and the two of them told Jesus.

But Jesus answered, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. Where I am, there My servant will be as well. And the Father will honor anyone who serves Me.

    4“Now I am greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, save Me from this time’? No! This is the very reason I have come to this time. Father, glorify Your Name!”

At that moment a Voice from heaven said, “I have glorified it already, and I will glorify it again.”

The crowds standing by who heard this said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”

Jesus said, “This Voice did not come for My sake but for yours. The time for the condemnation of the world has arrived. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out! And when I am lifted up from earth, I will draw everyone to Myself.” He said this to describe the kind of death He would undergo.

The people answered, “We have heard that the law says the Messiah will live forever. Then how can You say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

“The light is with you for only a little while longer,” Jesus replied. “Walk while you still have the light so the darkness will not overtake you. No one who walks in the dark knows where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have the light; in that way you will become children of light.”

Cheney, Johnston M., Stanley A. Ellisen, and Johnston M. Cheney. Jesus Christ The Greatest Life: A Unique Blending of the Four Gospels. Eugene, OR: Paradise Publishing Inc., 1999. Print.