The Praise of Men and God

John 12 tells about a few incidents with Jesus right before He was to have the Last Supper, and one of the themes that we see in the chapter is the need for us to love God more than we love man.  We see this explicitly mentioned towards the end of the chapter with these words: “Among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (v. 42-43).  These rulers were afraid to show their belief in the Savior because of what others would think, but the gospel of Christ requires us that we seek the praise of God before the praise of men.  We see that principle taught in several ways in this chapter. 

The “first great commandment” is first for a reason: it is more important than all the rest.  When Mary took “a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus,” Judas objected and suggested that the ointment could be sold and given to the poor.  Jesus responded, “Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.  For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always” (v. 3, 7-8).  Even if Judas had been sincere about helping the poor—which he wasn’t—the money still would not have been better used to buy something to give to the poor.  No, the first commandment is to love God and the second is to love one’s neighbor, and the order is important.  If Mary had simply given to the poor instead of making such a great sacrifice for the Savior, we would not have had that example recorded forever in the holy scriptures of how she, in the best way she knew how, honored her Savior and God through a great sacrifice on her part.  Later in the chapter Jesus likewise showed the paramount importance of putting God first.  As he contemplated the mission that was ahead of Him—which He clearly seemed to know something about it’s terrible nature—He said this, “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. 27).  It’s as if for a small moment He was tempted to not go through with His mission, but immediately He rejected that idea, knowing full well that He must bring honor to His Father and complete it.  So He continued by saying, “Father, glorify thy name” (v. 28).  Christ sought only the praise of His Father and nothing else. 

In the chapter we also have recorded that “certain Greeks among them” came to Philip and “desired him, saying, Sir we would see Jesus” (v. 21).  Likely they had heard of the miracles and wanted to come admire the man who had raised Lazarus from the dead.  Andrew and Philip then came to Jesus and told him.  Jesus responded by teaching them about His upcoming great sacrifice and doesn’t seem to have accepted to see these potential admirers.  Instead of being eager to receive the praise of men, He was concerned with performing the sacrifice His Father required of Him.  He said in response to Andrew and Philip, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (v. 24).  In other words, Christ needed to give His life up in order to bring life to others.  After teaching them “what death he should die,” Jesus “departed, and did hide himself from them” (v. 33, 36).  He did not want the praise of the world and did not need validation from men.  He doesn’t appear to have entertained the Greeks looking for Him in this story and sought only to follow the first commandment: do the will of His Father.  The chapter finishes with one more witness of Christ’s perfect subjection to His Father: “Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak” (v. 50).  Our great challenge is then to do likewise: arrange our priorities in such a way that put pleasing God is always more important than pleasing the world.