5th Sunday in Lent
March 22, 2015
Title: Losing Your Life
Going deeper
John 12:20-33 (NRSV)
[John 12:20-36 tells the story
of the preparation for the Passover, with the specific theme of the coming
hour. This passage is the climax of Chapters 11-12, as the hour of
glorification is near. From the opening, the reader is aware that something
different and significant is happening. Rather than Jesus' offering a sign to
the world (2:11, 4:54), the appearance of the non-Jews who seek him is a sign
to Jesus that "his hour" of glorification is drawing near (12:23).
First, it signals the close of the evangelist's account of Jesus' ministry.
From this point on, Jesus will offer no more signs to the public. Second, this
passage serves as a bridge to Jesus' final discourse to his disciples and to
the passion narrative. While the opening of this scene suggests that a number
of characters will play important roles (Jesus, the Greeks, Philip and Andrew),
the dialogue that John wants to highlight is between Jesus and the Jewish
crowd.]
Jesus, in verses 20-26, offers a
short discourse on the meaning of his death and discipleship. Verses 20-22
concern the coming of the Greeks.] 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 [to believe in] Jesus.”
22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told
Jesus. [The Greeks of this story do not receive further mention. The reader
receives no indication that the Greek inquirers' request is ever granted. Some
scholars suggest that these "Greeks" are also a kind of final
temptation to Jesus before he heads down the passion path. Might these Greeks
not represent the lure of a Gentile mission that Jesus could turn toward at
this time, instead of continuing his clashing mission among "the
Jews" and its tragic outcome? There
is little textual evidence for this tempting interpretation, however. This
passage indicates that Jesus no longer has a place in Judaism - the gospel will
now take root in the Hellenistic world. The highlighting of Philip and Andrew
is due to their non-Jewish names, and the mention of Bethsaida in Galilee may
also be important, for Galilee was often associated with Gentiles. His coming,
crucifixion and resurrection will open the door fully to non-Jews to believe in
the Lord God of Israel, and John is dramatically foreshadowing this shift here.
Jesus has already said that other sheep are welcomed into the fold as part of
his universalism. The appearance of
Gentiles suggests now is the time to lay down his life. The appearance of some
Greeks seeking him doubtless prefigures the spread of the good news about him
beyond Judaism. These Greeks were "God-fearers," who could not
partake of the Passover lamb. It is evidence
of true religious searching. Following
on the heels of the Pharisees' disgruntled observation, "Look, the world
has gone after him" (v.19), John notes the arrival of "some
Greeks" who voice their desire to "see Jesus." The fact that
these "Greeks" have apparently gone up to worship at the temple during
the Passover festival and that they are interested in "seeing" the
now notable Jesus indicates that these figures are either "God
fearers" (Torah observers but not circumcised) or full proselytes to
Judaism. Instead of confronting Jesus
directly, the Greeks first seek out Philip to pull some strings. Philip in turn
consults with Andrew before the two of them finally go to Jesus.] 23 Jesus answered them, “The hour
has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. [Although the Greeks
themselves disappear from sight, they usher in a new age. John is concerned
that if these Greeks must "see" to believe, they then had better
"see" the right Jesus. Those who want to "see" Jesus most
often "see" him only through his reputation as a great teacher,
healer, and miracle worker. At this "hour" of his
"glorification," however, Jesus is revealed (again) as enduring
suffering and death if his mission is to be undimmed.] 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. [This verse is the
parable of the seed that dies. This
verse is the first part of a series of sayings that form commentary on the
theme of death and life. The point is
that Jesus is speaking of death as the means of gaining life. The point stresses the productivity of the
seed. In context, it refers to Jesus'
death through death is fruit borne.
Although this parable has some similarities with the seed parables in
the synoptics and with I Corinthians 15:35ff, it is not exactly the same. Jesus illustrates the fruitfulness of his
death. Jesus' death is necessary in
order to bring abundant missionary fruit.
Death, as the carefully chosen image of the grain of wheat illustrates,
brings forth life, not only for Jesus, but also for all those who follow and
serve him. Although Jesus never addresses the Greeks directly in response, he
does offer yet another lesson on discipleship. Like himself, his disciples must
be willing to follow God's plan to the end, even death itself, if they are to
"bear fruit."] 25 Those
who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will
keep it for eternal life. [The concern here is the theme of living and
hating life. The disciples are confronted with the necessity of discipleship
even unto death. Death is not the end,
but the perfection of life. Jesus refers to his death, and now he refers to the
death disciples of Jesus must experience. John offers his version of the idea
that whoever would save their lives will lose them/whoever would lose their
lives will find them teaching, a truth found in all four gospels (Mark 8:35;
Matthew 16:25; Luke 9:24). The call to discipleship is a call to suffer,
sacrifice, even die for others to live as God lives, to live as Jesus did. This unexpected nature of messiahship is a
messiahship that embraces servanthood and dying is not an easy pill to swallow,
not even for Jesus himself. This hour refers to a return to the Father through
crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. He is ready, resisting the temptation to be
saved from this hour. The implied answer
to the Greeks from Jesus is no, but only because Jesus must first undergo death
before salvation can be brought to the Greeks.
Glorification because the death is the fullness of saving power that is
universal in scope. Jesus draws
attention to the meaning of the hour, given to all people, death bearing fruit
to all.]26 Whoever serves me
must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves
me, the Father will honor. [This verse concerns the following of
Jesus. Parallel to Mk 8:35. The reward for following Jesus is to be with
him and to be honored by the Father. The
verse emphasizes the unity of serving and following Jesus, with the promise of
Jesus' presence and of being honored by the Father. There is a readiness to face death. Following Jesus is taken very literally as
referring to the cross.]
[Verse 27-30 concerns the hour
of glorification and the heavenly voice. One finds victory in submission to the
plan of God.] 27 “Now my soul
is troubled. [Jesus admits that his own soul "is troubled" by the
sacrifice and death that loom in his future. Now is not the time to draw back
or try to sidestep the messianic future.] And
what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason
that I have come to this hour. [We have a Gethsemane scene. Note Hebrews
5:7 referring to Jesus' agony before his death.
This account of Jesus' agony and his submission to his Father's will
comes from the traditional account of the Mount of Olives. Though the cross is the culmination of glory,
it has not lost its human darkness. The verse shows Jesus fully accepting the
terms of his messianic identity and readily accepting the "coming" of
his hour. His obedience mirrors the call to discipleship Jesus extended to
others. He refuses to try to save himself. Instead, he calls to God to
"glorify your name."] 28 Father,
glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified It [in
the course of the life of Jesus] , and I
will glorify it again [in the resurrection and ascension].” [The prayer of Jesus is answered by
the heavenly voice. Jesus comes to terms
with the hour by turning to his Father, who gives assurance of glorification. The
voice from heaven responds directly to Jesus' obedience, affirming his
understanding both of his identity and of his future. Here is the Johannine
form of the Lord's Prayer, requesting God to do the sanctifying of the name. Jesus' submission to God's plan is met with
reassurance from the Father. This is the
first time in John that there is a voice from heaven. There is similarity with the Synoptic baptism
and transfiguration stories. Closely
associated with Jesus' death, it acknowledges Jesus as the Son. There are two tenses to "glorify",
aorist and future.] 29 The
crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An
angel has spoken to him.” [The crowd's presence is noted and they become
the collective foil for the remainder of the drama. While this voice is not
quite a private communication with Jesus, it is decidedly not made clear to the
general crowd. Though John's text suggests that all those gathered near heard
something, there is considerable disagreement over what that something was.
Just as for some, the message of a Suffering Servant, a crucified Christ, a
mortal Messiah, was beyond the pale of their comprehension, so for some who
witnessed the heavenly voice's response to Jesus' obedience, the message is
impenetrable. To others, those who had listened to Jesus' teachings and heard
his calls to discipleship and service, the heavenly voice sounded like that of
an angel. Though they could not yet discern the whole implication of what was
to come, they sensed the presence of the divine in their midst. For a great
many, however, Jesus' teachings remained scrambled, turning whole notions of
messianic leadership, divine power and glorification over hard and on their
heads. To those who simply cannot "get it," the voice is only so much
noise the din of thunder.] 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. [That the Greeks
recognize what the Jews do not is the cause for the judgment of the world and
the casting out of the "ruler of this world," who is Satan. John
identifies the Jews as being part of Satan's world - reminiscent of the
connection John has made between the Jews and Satan, or the devil, before (8:44).
Judgment takes place through unbelief itself.
From where is this ruler cast out?
The verse may refer to a loss of influence over believers, thereby
becoming powerless. Pannenberg says the
world as a whole has come under the tyranny of an ungodly force, the prince of
this world.[1] He also
says that the eschatological truth is already a present reality even if in
hidden form. Thus, judgment as well as life is already present with Jesus
Christ in the world.[2]
Verses 31-34 concern the lifting up of Jesus and the problem of the Son of
Man. Darkness is closing in but the hour
brings judgment upon the Prince of this world and life to those who follow
Jesus. The glorification of Jesus brings
expulsion of the enemy. The victorious
hour of Jesus is a victory over Satan in principle; yet the working out of this
victory in time and place is the gradual work of believing Christians. Jesus'
death is not a sign, but the realization of God's plan. The writer stresses the announcement of the
crucifixion. ] 32 And I, when
I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross and later ascent to the Father], will draw all people to myself.” [The
more important and positive aspect of Jesus' hour is the salvation of
believers, extended to all persons.
Triumph over the enemy and drawing people to himself are drawn
together.] 33 He said this to
indicate the kind of death he was to die. [It is well known that
crucifixion indicates a monstrous Roman capital punishment, but to John the
gruesomeness of crucifixion becomes a gracious posture of an open-armed
welcome. Pannenberg says of verses 32-33 that this gospel can call the
crucifixion exaltation, a statement possible only in the light of the
resurrection and the return to the Father.[3]
The text concludes with Jesus' revealing more of the events that make this the
hour for his glorification. It is a time for judgment, a time for the Devil
("the ruler of this world") to get his due and be run out of this
world. The power that can accomplish these feats, and also "draw all
people" to the risen Christ, offers readers the merest hint of what the
glorified Jesus will be like. His primary message here is that he will achieve
this glorification through a shocking means: suffering and death. Nevertheless,
his Father will raise him in glory and power.]
[This is a suitable conclusion
to the public ministry of Jesus as John views it. The crowds are the Jews, as usual deaf to the
meaning of Jesus' words. Jesus is
speaking to the disciples.]
Introduction
So why did these Greeks want to see Jesus? Why would you want
to see Jesus? Are you expecting to learn something? You want to be inspired?
You want to admire him? You want to congratulate him? You want to ask him some
questions? How would the experience change your life?
John is making it clear that if we want to “see” or “believe”
in Jesus, we need to seem him in the fulfillment of the “hour” for which he has
come. The hour is the time from the Last Supper, his betrayal, his arrest, his
trial before Jews and Gentiles, his execution, and his resurrection.
If you want to see or believe in him, John lets us know that
there is a painful step to take.
We must be willing to look at suffering and death in
different way.
The Son of
Man in Jewish writings would come in power and glory at the end of the age.
That sounds quite wonderful. Yet, Jesus says the Son of Man must suffer and
die.
Are you
ready to see Jesus?
Application
First, to
see Jesus is to believe that his death of Jesus will bear fruit.
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.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.
Jesus fully
participated in this human life. Therefore, he would have to die.
This little saying raises a painful
issue for many of us. Birth and death place a limit upon our lives. This was
not easy for Jesus to face. Yet, he accepted it as part of the plan of God.
There is a beautiful little story about one of the
Greek gods, one that these Greeks who wanted to see Jesus would have
known. It seems that Zeus
fell in love with a mortal woman.
Mercury told him, "Look, you're Zeus ,
you can do anything you want. So why
don't you declare a little war down in Greece Zeus thought this
was a good idea, so he did it. When he
came back to the heavens, Zeus is very reflective on
what the gods are missing by being immortal.
"She was saying, 'when I am young,' or 'when I am old,' or 'when I
die.' This stabs me Mercury. We miss something Mercury. We miss the poignancy of the transient, the
sweet sadness of grasping for something we know we cannot hold."
Yes, we have limits. However, the limit can help us
see the precious quality of the time and place God has given us.
I like the way John Wesley put it on his 85th
birthday:
"I have only to say: My remnant of days I spend
to his praise, who died the whole world to redeem; be they many or few, my days
are his due, and they all are devoted to him."
Second, to
see Jesus, the follower of Jesus is willing to hate their life in this world.
25
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this
world will keep it for eternal life.
The early
church father Tertullian wrote in 197 AD, a time when many Christians faced persecution
and death at the hands of the Romans. He once said that the blood of the
followers of Jesus of his time was the bait that wins people to our “school.”
“We multiply whenever you mow us down.” He exaggerated a bit. Many Romans
enjoyed seeing these people die, since they did not think of them as
courageous. They died rather than fight, and Romans valued fighters. The Romans
ridiculed them, one writer saying that Romans should kill them and see if they
rise from the dead.
However,
over time, the martyrs truly became evangelists in their deaths. It happened
because they saw that the values of Roman civilization led to corruption of
human lives. They started looking for something new.
On a
personal level, many of us have had experiences times of forced retreat from
the daily routine. Maybe it was the death of a friend or family member. Maybe
it was a brush with death. Maybe it was being fired from a job you liked.
Something happened, and you woke up to the reality of your life and to God. You
realized what was important in your life.
Eugene Peterson writes:
Suddenly,
instead of mindlessly and compulsively pursing an abstraction – money, or
happiness, or the elusive “good life” – the person is reduced to what is
actually there, to the immediately personal – family, geography, body – and
begins afresh in love and appreciation. The change is the direct consequence of
forced realization of human limits. Pulled out to the limits by a God who is
conditioned and confined to the reality of the human condition, the person is
surprised not to be living a diminished life, but a deepened life, not a
crippled life, but a zestful life. God – intensity begins to replace
self-importance.[4]
Sometimes, in those confined places in life, when we are
trapped, nowhere to escape, we are pushed close to God and to what really
matters in life. For instance, it is fascinating to consider how much important
biblical material was written by people in jail – by Paul in prison, by John in
exile on the Island
of Patmos Birmingham
As a pastor, I have constantly been surprised by how
often people will report how situations in life, situations that by all
accounts ought to be terrible, turn out to be good.
Third, to
see Jesus is to see that following Jesus is
what serving Jesus is all about.
26
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant
be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
The story is told of a little boy
whose sister needed a blood transfusion.
The boy had recovered from the same disease two years before. Her only chance for recovery was to have a
transfusion from someone who had recovered from the disease. Since the boy had the same rare blood type
and had recovered from the disease, he would be the ideal donor. The doctor asked if he would be willing to do
this. At first, the boy hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. But then he said, "Sure, for my
sister." The two were wheeled into
a hospital room. They were side by
side. They did not speak, but when their
eyes met, the boy smiled at his sister.
He was so healthy, while she was very pale and sickly. The nurse put the needle into the boy's arm,
and the boy's smile faded. He watched
his blood flow into the tube. When the
ordeal was almost over, his voice slightly shaky, he said, "Doctor, when
do I die?" Only then did the doctor
realize why the boy hesitated, and why his lip trembled. In that brief moment, he made a great
decision.[5]
Conclusion
Following
Jesus means the pattern of all the way to the cross. Losing your life to Jesus
places your life in the proper perspective. You see your life through the lens
of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This allows you to see your life from
the perspective of eternity. It is so easy to grasp onto that which you cannot
hold forever. You will have anything here only temporarily. However, if you
lose your life for Jesus, you will actually gain life. In fact, John will refer
to this as abundant life.
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