John 12:36 - Exposition

But he concludes with one more glorious invitation. As , up to this moment, you have the Light, Believe in the Light ; treat it as light—receive the revelation I have given you (cf. the ninth and eleventh chapters); "Work while it is called today;" "stumble not;" make no irreparable mistake. "Become "—so walk that ye may become yourselves sons of Light , illumined and luminous. This fine expression is found in Luke 16:8 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:5 ; and, with alteration of υἱοὶ into τέκρα , in Ephesians 5:8 . This last word, public word, of Jesus, which was in part accepted by some of his hearers, as we see from verse 42, corresponds with the Beatitudes, and sustains one at least of the main theses of the prologue: "The Life was the Light of men." These things spake Jesus, and departed, and was hidden from them . This utterance records the close of the Lord's public ministry, and therefore the solemn termination of the various scenes and discourses preserved in the synoptic narrative. The people of his love saw him no more till he appeared as a criminal in the hands' of the officers of the Sanhedrin, on his way to the Praetorium. In the silence of the home- at Bethany he probably spent the last day of his earthly ministry, which terminated in the marvelous converse at the Last Supper. " This time it was no mere cloud which obscured the sun, for to them the sun itself had set ." And now, through several verses, the evangelist presents his own reflections on the cause of the strange paradoxical proceeding which led " his own" not to receive him.