Scripture. Prayer. The Life-Giving Power of the Cross John 12:20-33 Sunday, March 22, 2015 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Opening. The theological term for Jesus work on the cross is atonement. If this is a word you don t use much in everyday conversation, you are not alone. If you foresee ever wanting to use this word in everyday conversation, here s a way to remember it. Break it up like this: at-one-ment. At-one-ment. Jesus work on the cross makes us at one with God, where before we were separated from God. Now you have your Christian vocabulary word for the week. There is a time-honored story about an old farmer who was persuaded by his nephew to visit the big city. The young man proudly took the farmer on a tour of the large metropolis. At one point as they walked down the street the old man suddenly stopped and asked, Did you hear that? The young man looked at the milling pedestrians and the traffic and replied, Hear what? A cricket, the old man said as he walked toward a little tuft of grass growing out of a crack next to a tall building. Sure enough, there tucked in the crack was a cricket. The young man was amazed. How could you pick up the sound of a cricket in all this noise? he asked. The old farmer didn t say a word and just reached into his pocket, pulled out a couple of coins and dropped them on the sidewalk. Immediately a number of people began to reach for their pockets or look down at the sidewalk. 1
The old man observed, We hear what our ears are trained to hear. (King Duncan) I. The death-dealing powers of this World. John tells us that our ears are trained to hear what the ruler of this world wants us to hear. One description of Jesus work on the cross is that he died for our sins. He atoned for our personal sins. In the gospel of John, however, personal sin is not the main focus. The main focus is the world. And this world is not the beautiful, healthy, peaceful world that God called good in the book of Genesis. No. This world is dominated by exploitation, violence and death. The way John tells it, Jesus drives out the ruler of this world. It s kind of like an exorcism. Jesus goes to the cross to drive an evil spirit out of the world, so that the world can be beautiful, healthy, and peaceful again. The place that God called good. A place filled with light. The death-dealing powers of this world make a lot of noise. We hear their message in a steady stream of texts and tweets, advertisements and breaking news-er-tainment updates, TV and radio, Netflix and Hulu, and the ever-evolving world of social media. The messages have to do with exploitation, violence and death. They convince you that you have no power to make the world a better place. You don t even have the power to improve your own life. The world, as John presents it, is a devious system of bondage that is so entrenched that there seems to be no way out. It s just the way human beings are together. We exploit one another for our own gain. We use violence to get our own way. We cooperate too readily with the world s culture of death. We only have to look at the violence in our media to see, mirrored there, our addiction to violent revenge. Theologian Walter Wink suggests that the myth of redemptive violence is the primary myth of this world. We want to eliminate threats, as Jesus enemies sought to eliminate 2
him. I would venture to say that none of us has a clue how to bring an end to the violent cycle of terrorism and the response to terrorism. I know I don t have a solution. If anyone had a clue, I think they would implement it, and then we would have world peace. The ruler of this world wants you to believe that this is just the way it is. The ruler of this world wants you to give up on finding alternatives to exploitation, violence and death. Jesus offers an alternative. But his approach is not attractive to us. We prefer violence. It s our go-to strategy. It s not that we actually prefer violence; it s that we think we have no other choice. After all, we live under the power of this world. When Joan of Arc knew that she had been betrayed and was to be burnt at the stake by the leaders of her own people, as George Bernard Shaw has it in his play, she turned to them and said, I will go out to the common people, and let the love in their eyes comfort me for the hate in yours. You will be glad to see me burnt; but if I go through the fire I shall go through it to their hearts for ever and ever (as quoted by Stephen Sizer). II. The life-giving power of the Cross. The power of this world is powerful. It has a grip on us. It s the air we breathe. It has its invisible tentacles in every aspect of our lives. It is a system of world domination perpetrated by the ruler of this world. It traffics in hate and exploitation and death. Here s the thing. You and I know the life-giving power of the Cross. You and I know the life-giving power of Jesus Christ, who drove out the ruler of this world. Jesus exorcised that spirit of evil through the work he did on the cross, for the whole world. By exposing the System, writes one scholar, Jesus casts out its driving spirit; for once we have seen the System for what it is, we begin to be set free from its captivating ways. We are set free to die to a life shaped by the System, in order to live fully and freely in the way 3
of Jesus (12:25-26). Exposing the System revealing this world for what it is is scary. It s frightening to stand up to the powers of this world. We have to remember -- they crucified Jesus. Down through the centuries, they have always killed those who sought to expose them. The ruler of this world strives to remain hidden. As Jesus says in today s reading, People loved darkness rather than light all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed (vv.19-20). We recently celebrated, remembered and honored the 50 th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, for voting rights. They shot Martin Luther King, Jr., didn t they? But before he died, Dr. King led countless marches in the name of civil rights. There were actually three marches in Selma in 1965, the first of which was organized, in part, to protest the murder of activist and deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot on Feb. 26. The first Selma march took place about a week later, on March 7. During the second Selma protest, on March 9, the Rev. James Reeb, a civil rights activist and Unitarian Universalist pastor from Boston, was beaten and murdered. The marchers faced police with billy clubs and tear gas. The third Selma march was protected by 2,000 U. S. Army soldiers, 1900 members of the Alabama National Guard under Federal command, plus FBI agents and Federal Marshals, and began on March 21, 1965. In Birmingham in 1963, Dr. King had also been a part of protests that were met with high pressure water hoses and police attack dogs. Dr. King had this to say: Let them get their dogs, and let them get the hose and we will leave them standing before their God and the world spattered with the blood and reeking with the stench of their Negro brothers [It is necessary] to bring these issues to the surface, to bring 4
them out into the open where everybody can see them. The world, and its ruler, are driven out when they are exposed to the light, when their evil deeds are brought to the surface, brought out into the open where everybody can see them. That s what Jesus did on the cross, according to John s telling of the story. By going to the cross, Jesus brought out into the open the corrupt, violent, dominating, death-dealing ways of the Roman and Jewish authorities. Pilate and Caiaphas. The ruling elite of the political and religious powers. Jesus says, And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (in v. 32). In his death on the cross, Jesus does two things. He exposes the corruption of the ruling powers; He shines light on them, so all can see their evil. He also inaugurates a new movement in history, a new movement of the Spirit, in which all people will be drawn to Him. All people will be drawn to His way of life -- and not to the world s way of death. He drives out the System of this world. He drives out the ruler of this world, the spirit of the System that opposes the Spirit of God. III. A Methodist response. Our Confirmation Class is learning a lot about how to be a Christian, and how to do that in a distinctively Methodist fashion. One of the things they are learning is John Wesley s Rule of Conduct. John Wesley wrote the following Rule of Conduct to his people called Methodist: Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, 5
At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can. What more practical advice could we have for how to align ourselves with Christ s lifegiving power of the cross? Let me read it for you one more time [Wesley s Rule of Conduct]. Or here s a simpler 3-part summary of Wesley s advice on the matter: Do no harm. Do all the good you can. Stay in love with God. [Repeat]. If we do these things, we show evidence that we have a true and sincere desire to follow Christ. Closing. We sang a hymn earlier, called Now the Green Blade Riseth. It addresses Jesus parable of the grain of wheat. Jesus says, 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 (v. 24). I like Eugene Peterson s interpretation of this passage in his book, The Message. It reads, Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is, destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in love, you ll have it forever, real and eternal. Jesus is that grain of wheat. When he dies on the cross, the fruit he bears is life-giving power. He drives out the death-dealing ruler of this world and reclaims the world for Himself. The fourth verse of Now the Green Blade Riseth goes like this: 6
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain, Jesus touch can call us back to life again, Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been. Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green. Standing up to the powers of this world can be scary. After all, they crucified Jesus. They burned Joan of Arc at the stake. They shot Martin Luther King, Jr. It s Jesus touch that gives us the courage to expose the evil systems of this world, and the evil of the ruler who is behind them all. If your heart is wintry, grieving, or in pain, cling to the life-giving power of the cross. Know that Jesus has driven out the ruler of this world. His days are numbered. Believe in the light, so that you may become children of light (v. 36). Amen. 7