THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN - Chapter 12 - Verse 27

Verse 27. 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 Lu 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. Comp. Mt 26:38 Lu 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 Mt 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 Lu 23:42.

{c} "but for this reason" Joh 18:37