A Kind of Death


Sunday, April 2nd, 2006
Lent 5B
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
John 12:20-36

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. 27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.

Did you notice it as you came in this morning? Sometime during the day on Thursday or Friday, our Easter harbinger, that little sparrow that makes her home on whatever wreath happens to be hanging on the front left door settled in for the next few weeks. I had started to wonder if she might not come back this year, since she’d been here earlier, it seems, the last couple of years. No eggs yet, but the nest went up in record time.

Have you enjoyed the warming days, the sunshine, the blooming trees and flowers? I realize for some of us with seasonal allergies, spring is a mixed blessing, but I guess we can’t have everything, huh?

Watching the fields start to turn green with the shoots coming up, when just a few weeks ago they were brown and bare, and the trees likewise, watching bare scraggly branches grow heavier and heavier and fuller and fuller with buds of leaves and flowers makes a clear parallel with what our passage includes this morning. Jesus is presented with a request from the Hellenized Jews – that is, Jews who lived outside the Palestinian homeland of the people of Israel, who had been raised exposed to the prevailing culture of the previous several centuries – the Greeks – one which still, in Jesus’ day, and in decreasing increments over the next three hundred years, would influence the ROMAN culture, they have come asking for an audience with Jesus.

Who they direct the request THROUGH is telling – Philip first and then Andrew, whose names were both Greek, and who were both from Bethsaida, a town that, though within the borders of Palestine, was nonetheless a Hellenized city – it was on the northern boundary with Syria, and because of that proximity to such a strongly Hellenized culture, it had become Hellenized as well.

What’s interesting about the encounter is that we’re never told if Jesus met with them or not. The gospel is silent with respect to the question of whether or not these particular Greeks met Jesus. Instead, we are given Jesus’ response to the request – “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” – the thing is, that glorification he was talking about was not what we would normally consider a glorification – were we coming from a worldly perspective – he was not made famous through the adulation of crowds, through becoming the political and military leader of the people of Israel, through the defeating and eviction of an occupying army, but through his loneliness and isolation – and ultimate rejection – from his own people.

Jesus was glorified – and the world was judged – by and through his death.

That would seem, as Paul said, to be foolishness to the gentiles, and a stumbling block to the Jew.

In all honesty, it WOULD seem to be that. Think about it. How could the execution – as a common criminal – of the leader of a scruffy band of religious nuts possibly have any lasting impact on the world? It would stand SOLIDLY to reason that once the event was done and over with it would be left behind in the rapidly-fading dustbins of history.

What was different about this, then? What made it significant? What set Jesus apart from all the other religious zealots who came before him and who appeared after him?

Just this: Jesus was who he said he was.

As I’ve said before, if we are to hold to the central truth of the Christian faith, it is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God’s self, and that manner of reconciliation was through his self-offering, God’s self-sacrifice in Jesus, God’s building the bridge that spanned the gap between God and humanity so that the relationship could be reestablished. God made a way for us to once again encounter the creator of the universe in a personal way, to walk together side by side.

24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Here’s a perfect picture of the reason Christ died – not JUST for his own people – the Jews, but also for the rest of the world. That was why it wasn’t so important to know whether or not those Greeks that came looking for Jesus at the beginning of the passage spoke to him or not – it was in his answer – in his description of the death of a seed – something we see evidence of all around us as spring … SPRINGS forth – all around us… Jesus died in order that ALL might receive salvation through him.

Jesus wasn’t speaking, though, only of HIS OWN death. He was speaking of the nature of discipleship. What it means to follow Christ. We read a similar passage a few weeks ago, from Mark 8, and indeed, it’s a recurring theme not only in the Gospels, but in Paul’s writings as well. To die to self, to give up one’s own life for the life of others, for the life of Christ, is the daily office, if you will, of a disciple, of a follower of Christ.

In describing it as his own death, Christ ended up confounding those who were listening to him. The concept just couldn’t be grasped by the ones who had spent so many years looking for one thing, only to be faced with the very thing they were looking for – in a form completely the opposite of what they were expecting.

32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

When Jesus said those words – ‘lifted up from the earth’ – it was a literal description of what would be happening to him on the cross. Jesus knew what he was facing. He knew the kind of death he would be suffering. And yet, even in the full knowledge of the kind of death he would die, he willingly accepted it.

What does that mean, what does that imply for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton today; knowing what kind of death is to be expected, what kind of death WE have to die in order to follow Christ?

It means we don’t back away from the commitment, we don’t shirk the responsibility, we don’t shrug off the duty of examining ourselves DAILY … we read about it in our responsive reading a few minutes ago – ‘blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me’ that is a prayer we must pray daily, not just when we are feeling especially sinful. And it’s not purely an introspective exercise. It can’t be. The ‘seed bearing fruit’ through being sown requires what? ACTION! The act of sowing – whether by hand, by machine, or by heart, is one that comes part and parcel with being a disciple of Christ. In dying to ourselves, we are giving our lives to Christ. In giving our lives for others – in meeting needs, in a helping hand, in giving a ride to a friend for her doctor’s appointment, in giving another a ride to the hospital, or the grocery store, in working out the details to have running water in the building when the well goes out, and just as true, in being willing to PROVIDE that water to neighbors, we are living out what it means to give your life to Christ through serving others than ourselves.

So we will, HOPEFULLY, not get in the way of lifting up Christ – and drawing all people to him. Jesus made a point of NOT distinguishing who he was doing it for – not for the Jews alone, but for the whole of HUMANITY.

So our calling is both specific and general. Specific in terms of where we are to carry out the acts that will point people to Christ, and general in terms of whom we are to carry them out FOR; RIGHT here, RIGHT NOW, and FOR EVERYONE.

Let’s pray.