Year B
John 12:20-33
The Rev. Denise Vaughn
The Seed For All People
This week spring will officially arrive according to the calendar. Many suffering with feet of snow from several nor’easters and winter storms hope the season of spring begins soon. It certainly began here several weeks ago with the barrage of the pine pollen. I believe the pollen has finally peaked…at least we all hope so. The season of spring and the season of Lent have a lot in common they both represent times of new life and growth. In spring, buds burst forth, bulbs break open, daffodils bloom and the birds sing for joy. In Lent, springtime is for the soul. As the light of each day lengthens, so should the breadth and depth of our faith. As the air and earth gradually warm, so should our love for God and for our sisters and brothers. As creation clothes itself in beauty, so should our inner lives be radiant in glory. Newness of life is the theme for spring, as it is one of the Bible’s great themes. From the Genesis account of creation to the last chapters of Revelation, God finds ways, sometimes very innovative ways, to work with and express love, for all of God’s children.
We read of God’s ways of reaching out to us in love in all three of the readings today. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God speaks an amazing word of intimacy and new relationship. No longer is the covenant between God and God’s people one of mere law of rules and regulations grounded in fear and intimidation. The relationship is no longer carved on stone, it would be written within them. There would be an intimate and personal bond between the people and God. And we hear how God repeatedly reaches out offering to “be there God, and they shall be my people.” Yet, sometimes we are not quite ready to receive and participate in God’s new ways. God makes it and we like to break it-again and again and again. No matter how much we love the Lord we can’t do it on our own. Something must change, God says through Jeremiah. We have to strive to live into a relationship God writes on our very hearts.
The new covenant and new relationship with God, since the beginning of the Christian era, rests in Christ and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews shares a unique perspective on Christ’s role in our lives. It is Christ who can meet’s our needs. He helps us to live into the new covenant by encouraging us as we encounter various trials and temptations. He can help because he understands completely our human condition. He is our High Priest who through his suffering and powerful praying connects us anew to our source of life which is God. Through suffering, he learned to be obedient to God thereby becoming the source of salvation for the entire world. This good news of Jesus Christ and the love of God are not for a select few and this is what we begin to understand from the gospel text today.
This text takes place during the festival of Passover. In previous verses, the events leading up to this encounter with the Greeks, finds Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, Mary anointing Jesus’ feet, and Jesus entering into Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is the king of Israel.” The response to these events finds some flocking to hear Jesus and others plotting to destroy him. Momentum begins to build, as all eyes-including those of some of the gentiles-strive to focus on Jesus. This scene is shaped for a powerful statement by Jesus to his disciples regarding not only what is to happen but also what it means. Along with his disciples, there were others who were seeking understanding concerning the events that were taking place. Some God fearing Greeks, John tells us were in Jerusalem seeking to deepen their spiritual lives.
What they find is the whole city talking about this Jesus character so they approach Philip and ask to see Jesus. Philip and Andrew go and tell Jesus, possibly anticipating a different answer then the one Jesus gave them, instead Jesus responds to the gentile’s arrival by saying that “the hour had come for Son of Man to be glorified.” How startling because throughout the gospel of John, at various critical points of Jesus’ ministry, when the crowds are either very upset with his teachings and ready to kill him or very impressed with his miraculous powers and ready to crown him king, we hear him say over and over, “My hour has not yet come.” But here, in today’s reading, after this apparently innocent request by Greek visitors, he announces that the hour has come, that the glory they’ve been longing for was to be revealed, not in wreaking vengeance on his enemies or in doing even greater miracles, but in the need to lose one’s life in order to live. He says, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it cannot bear much fruit.
This single grain of wheat tells the story of salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus must give up life for others to live and within this mystery of salvation and ultimate glory, is the message that “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.” Those who follow him must follow through death, to life, to participate in the new life of Jesus Christ. He says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to me.” By the cross, life and love are offered to all who follow. The lifting up of Jesus on the cross was not only for his glorification but also his revelation to the nations. The Greeks who represent the “other sheep” and their request, is a sign that “the hour” had come. By the cross and resurrection, we are made able to enter into the presence of God and be lifted up as well.
Just as we are, we will never experience the life, power and presence of God. As Jeremiah said so many years ago, something must change. It was Jesus Christ who entered this world, like a seed being planted to bring the power of salvation among us. And because of God’s love, God’s grace, we come not in our differences, Jew or Greek, male or female, young or old, but as one people, a new community with a new common identity as servants of Christ, seen as the fruit of Jesus’ death to show forth his love to the world. Our high priest brought to earth the love that would transform us into the people of God and we must strive to live into this transformation with God’s law within us and his love written on our hearts. I heard an announcer on one of the Christian radio stations say this past week that people will not remember us because of our religion. They will remember us because of our love. He said, think about that. I have been and hope you will also.