The Response of the Crowds (John 12:34-43).
‘The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up. Who is this Son of Man?”
The crowds were puzzled by His words, which raise a number of questions. We must ask firstly whether this is to be looked on as one question, with the Messiah equated with the Son of Man, or whether the crowd were yelling out a number of questions with the questions about the Messiah and the Son of Man being two or three selected out of many? Either way they are selected by John as illustrating the following words of Jesus. And they emphasise to the reader both His Messiahship and His future triumph at God's right hand.
Furthermore we then have to ask whether when they spoke of the Son of Man the crowds themselves had Jesus in mind, or whether they were just speaking of a theological figure spoken of in current thought and literature. The impression given by the third question is that they had not related the Son of Man directly to Jesus.
In John's use of the questions the answer to these questions is not too important, for Jesus does not answer the questions directly. What He does do is refer them to Himself as the Light of the world (compare John 8:12; John 9:5) Who is now about to be with them for only a short time so that response to Him is urgent. John clearly therefore sees this reply as in some way answering the questions. John's purpose in selecting the questions is thus to bring out to his readers that what mattered was not speculation about Messiahs and Sons of Men, both of which Jesus was (there was no point in bringing them up if He was not), but response to Him as the Light shining out of darkness.
It also stresses that at this stage Jesus was not prepared to enter into such theological questions. His main concern was on the fact that He was about to die, and that it was urgent that they face up to the truth. There had been times when He was prepared to deal with such questions in detail, but not now when His departure was just around the corner. Theological titles are of secondary importance when the Light of the world is there before them. That being said, for the sake of completeness, we will look at the questions more deeply.
The crowds said that they had been taught from ‘the Law' that Messiah, their great expected leader, would remain for ever. They used the term Law loosely (compare John 10:34). They really meant that they had had it from the teachers of the Law who had so interpreted the Scriptures. The verses utilised may have included Psalms 89:36; Psalms 110:4; Isaiah 9:7; Ezekiel 37:25; Daniel 7:14 taken literally. Psalms 89:36, for example, speaks of David's "seed" remaining forever, and later in the same Psalm, in Psalms 89:51, mention is made of the "anointed one" (Messiah). This Psalm was interpreted messianically in both the New Testament (Acts 13:22; Revelation 1:5; Revelation 3:14) and in the later rabbinic literature (Midrash Rabbah 97 on Genesis). But if this was so, they asked, how could Jesus be the Messiah if He was to be ‘lifted up'?
The inference is that they recognised that by being lifted up He was referring to His own death of which He has been speaking clearly. In this case Jesus' reply stresses that the time is now urgent because the Light will soon be taken from them. It is therefore essential that they respond immediately. It is confirming that such a question about the Messiah has no simple answer if related to Him because He is about to die. (He still preferred to leave in the air the question as to whether He was the Messiah).
With regard to the second question(s) there are two ways of looking at them. Firstly that they equated the term Son of Man with the Messiah. (‘How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up if the Messiah remains for ever'). This is quite possible. Writings about the Son of Man as a heavenly figure are known around the time of Jesus, and there may well have been others, and some may well have seen him as a ‘Messianic' figure.
Alternately the questions about the Son of Man might have been from a different section of the crowd and have been totally unrelated to that about the Messiah. They may have referred back to what Jesus had earlier taught in John 8:28; John 3:14. And they may or may not have associated the Son of man with Jesus.
Either way Jesus replies by pointing to Himself as the Light of the world. Thus with His death soon approaching He is not prepared to discuss theological niceties and speculation, but preferred to face them with the challenge of why He was here. Immediate response was required. He was here in order that they might come to the Light and not walk in darkness, and might do it urgently while He was still here, with the warning that darkness might soon overtake them. He leaves it to be implied that He Himself is this Son of Man.
By ‘who is this Son of Man?' they may basically have meant ‘of what nature is the One described by the title?'. It is at least clear that they are now being made to think. Jesus reply answers their question. Let them now look to the Light of the world, that is, to Himself.