John 12: also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Transcription

1 John 12: 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. 1

2 The Facts of Life and Death Spring has sprung. That s right, the calendar is correct. The date on the bulletin confirms it. We are officially in the season of spring. The winter was relatively mild. Sure, it got cold, but it didn t snow much at all. In the two winters that I ve experienced in Seoul I don t think that it s snowed more than a couple of centimeters. Interestingly, the last two winters have made New York seem like Alaska, with more snow and colder temperatures than usual. In the Northeast United States it actually snowed on the first day of spring. A friend of mine posted a photo on Facebook of the Princeton Seminary campus [SLIDE]. Despite the mild winters here, it s still nice to turn the page on winter and look forward to warmer temperatures and blue skies (once the and clear, that is). Spring, of course, is a time for planting a time for seeds to be laid by farmers in their fields and by home gardeners in their backyard gardens. If you don t have a backyard, which is the case for most of us who live in the city, there s always the window ledge, which can fit a small plant or two. A few weeks ago I was given a small plant by one of the pastors in the education department. She gave one to each of the associate pastors in my office. It s a type of ivy. In my experience, ivies are hardy plants. They don t need much care, but this one is not doing so well. I m not sure why. My office has a window, so there is sunlight. I have watered it, although perhaps not enough. In English, someone who has a talent for gardening is said to have a green thumb. I don t have a green thumb maybe just a green pinkie finger. I was expecting the ivy to behave more like the plant that Sandy and I used to have in our home back in the States. That was a common household plant known to botanists as Chlorophytum comosum. That sounds better than it s English name, which is really just a description of what it looks like [SLIDE]: a spider plant. 2

3 Spider plants are known for being low-maintenance plants: some water and some sun and they are good to grow. Because they are so easy to grow, we managed to turn one plant into several. A spider plant begins as a flower [SLIDE] that grows from a plantlet a miniature plant attached to a long stem that arches over the side of the pot. To make a new plant you just cut the stem and then plant the flower in a separate pot, or you can even place it in a cup of water to start with. In a short time you will have a new plant. All of the spider plants in our home (we had perhaps three or four) began from one single flower. I remember Sandy plucking it from one of the many spider plants that used to grow in a small garden in front of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. At the time, which was before 9/11, we lived just around the corner from the World Trade Center and we walked past it and that garden every day. One night as we were walking past the garden on our way home Sandy spontaneously plucked one solitary flower from its stem. She brought it home and laid it in a cup of water. Within a few days little white roots began to appear. She then potted the growing plant in hopes that it would continue to mature. Did it ever! That plant flourished, eventually yielding several more plants that decorated our kitchen and living room for years. All of those plants began from a single flower that was plucked from its stem years earlier. A stem is the lifeline of a flower. Once plucked from its stem, a flower begins to die immediately. Yet from one dying flower came so much new life. That is the message that Jesus shares in today s scripture. 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 (Jn. 12:24). I began the sermon by mentioning that the calendar reminds us that spring has begun. Yet spring is not the only season that we find ourselves in the middle of. The church calendar tells us that we are still in the season of Lent, which began back on Ash Wednesday. The word Lent has its origins in Old English, one of the ancestors of the English language as we know it today [SLIDE]. Old English looks and sounds more like German than Modern English. Showing you just how nerdy theology students can be, in seminary there was a club of Old English 3

4 enthusiasts who met to read the Bible in Old English. I was not a member of the club. Anyway, in Old English the word lencten, from which we get Lent, meant spring. So even the word Lent itself ties together the sacred and the secular the new life that is found in Jesus death and resurrection and the new life that is found in the earth as the bright and cheerful colors of spring will soon testify. This passage from John takes place during still another season the season of Passover [SLIDE]. That is the festival that John refers to in verse 20. Passover is a Jewish celebration that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. In Jesus time it was a pilgrimage festival a time when Jews all throughout Israel would gather in Jerusalem to celebrate. Of course, Jews at that time did not live in the nation of Israel, which no longer existed. They lived in the Roman province of Judea, which is what Israel had become when it was conquered by Rome. But Jews from outside Judea would also come to Jerusalem to celebrate. We see this in verse 20, as some Greeks have come to join in the worship and celebration. These may have been Greek-speaking Jews, or they may also have been Greek Gentiles, i.e., non-jews, who were curious to learn about Passover. In any event, they are also curious about this wandering teacher they have heard about. They want to see this Jesus of Nazareth, whose name has come to be known throughout Jerusalem and beyond. They find one of his disciples, Philip, who then tells Andrew, another disciple. At last, they manage to see the man himself. Now, I sympathize with these Greeks. They are curious people. They probably have come to ask questions of Jesus. Yet he doesn t give them the answers that they re looking for. He speaks seemingly in riddles and metaphors. He speaks of the Son of Man and of a grain of wheat, of glory and of death, and of life lost and yet somehow won. What does he mean by all of this? The Greeks have come seeking answers, but Jesus leaves them filled with more questions. Let s look specifically at what he tells them [SLIDE]: 4

5 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 (Jn. 12:23-24). Son of Man is a title that Jesus frequently uses for himself. Son of Man describes Jesus in relation to humanity, just as the title Son of God describes him in relation to God. As the Son of Man Jesus fully identifies with humanity by actually becoming human. In the words of the affirmation of faith that we say following the sermon, he was born in human likeness. In other words, he became like us. In Presbyterian theology we sometimes talk about the threefold office of Christ office meaning a position of authority, like a political office, not a room with a desk [SLIDE]. The threefold office of Christ means that Jesus is prophet, priest, and king. He is a prophet in his earthly ministry as one who proclaims the word of God. He is the priest who offers himself as a sacrifice in his death. And he is the king who rules over all life for all eternity. The title Son of Man neatly corresponds to this threefold office because Jesus uses the title in three different ways. Depending on the context, it may refer to: (1) his earthly ministry; (2) his imminent death and resurrection; and (3) his future activity as judge and king. In John 12:23, Jesus is referring to that second office, that of the priest who offers himself as the sacrifice. He says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified (Jn. 12:23). What is it that brings the Son of Man glory? Is it fame, riches, or that thing that humans crave above all else power? No, it s none of these. In fact, contrary to all self interest, what glorifies the Son of Man is his death. Jesus probably thinks that people will have a hard time understanding this, and so as he often does, he reaches for a metaphor to help explain what he means. As a grain of wheat must die and undergo transformation if it is to bear fruit, so the Son of Man must die and be transformed so as to rise to new life. It is a potent metaphor. A grain of wheat, or a seed of any kind, is buried in the earth. With time, and while still buried in the earth, that seed will begin to undergo a transformation. Eventually 5

6 it will rise from the earth no longer a seed but as a new plant. Jesus, too, will be buried, will be transformed, and will rise to new life. Through it all he will be glorified in his death on the cross, in his resurrection from the tomb, and in his ascension into heaven. Jesus walks this path for us. He lays down his life willingly for us [SLIDE]. His death, to use a fancy theological term, is expiatory, meaning that it removes or cleanses the guilt of sin. But Jesus death is more than that. It is also exemplary, in the sense that it serves as an example for us to follow. Exemplary means to be worthy of imitation. Christ s sacrificial death is worthy of our imitation. Actually, more than being worthy of our imitation, it demands our imitation. Whoever serves me must follow me, Jesus says in verse 26. [W]here I am, there will my servant be also. To follow Jesus means that we, too, will be led to the cross [SLIDE]. And on the cross we will confront death. We will witness the pride and arrogance of the forces of death that sought to destroy the life and extinguish the light of the Word of God. We will confront a world that misunderstands, that mocks, and that hates the cross and all that it stands for. We will confront sin itself, in all its many forms individual and social, active and passive. In other words, we will see ourselves, for that is who we are sinners. Those are the uncomfortable facts of death that the cross symbolizes. It is the message of Good Friday, the day on which Jesus died. But as we all know, the Gospel doesn t end with Good Friday. Sin and death do not have the last word. Easter is coming [SLIDE]. On Easter we see that God s love is stronger than death, that Jesus, who was crucified, has been raised from the dead. Life, i.e., new life in Jesus Christ, triumphs over sin and death. These are the facts of life that the cross symbolizes. Through the miracle of the resurrection the cross, once a symbol of terror and death, becomes a symbol of life and love. Death and life meet on the cross. Death comes to an end, and life in Christ begins. 6

7 Knowing this, Jesus says [SLIDE], Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn. 12:25). Those who love their life lose it. Those who hate their life keep it. What on earth does he mean by that? you may be thinking. I need to hate my life? But I enjoy my life! I don t want to hate it. The way of Jesus runs counter to the way we would all prefer to live, to the way that comes naturally to us. We are concerned first and foremost with our own well being and our own happiness, which as I mentioned last week, boils down to our fundamental desire to worship not God but ourselves. But the kingdom of God that Jesus inaugurates in his ministry and consummates (completes) with his death and resurrection reverses this natural order. In particular his death and resurrection turn the world and all that the world values on its head. The New Testament is filled with different ways of describing this. Paul writes that God s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God s weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Cor. 1:25). In a wonderful passage from 2 Corinthians he speaks of this upside-down world that Christ s death and resurrection accomplishes for those who receive the gift of faith: We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything (2 Cor. 6:8-10). Jesus death and resurrection turn the world upside down [SLIDE]. The meanings of life and death are radically changed. What Jesus says to us is that if we love our lives, i.e., if we give priority to our personal ambitions and desires rather than to the will of God in Jesus Christ, then we are already dying. We are dead people walking. We are on borrowed time. But if we hate our lives, meaning if we die to our 7

8 old, selfish ways and give our selfish will over to Christ s perfect will for us and for those around us, then we have life. We have life here and now because Christ taught us what it means to live. To be truly alive is to die to our self-centeredness. To truly be alive is to live here and now with the knowledge of, and trust in, God s graciousness toward us. It is to know that God is for us, because that is what the life and death of Jesus reveals to us. Yes, we are sinners, but we are sinners who have been rescued from our self-seeking ways by the selfless way of Jesus Christ. And, yes, of course, eventually we will have eternal life as well, because even death cannot separate us from God s love. Death in living for ourselves; life in dying with Christ. These are the facts of life and death, which together meet on the cross of Jesus Christ. 8