John 12:20-33
As a youngster of about 6 or 7, I can remember waking up early Saturday mornings and watching tv as it just came back on the air. CBS was the only channel we could get, and it was of course black-and-white; with snow.
One of the shows that I remember was a historical series about World War 2 called crusade in Europe.
I was too young at that time to realize that this series was based on a book by a fellow named
Dwight Eisenhower, who just happened to be the president at the time. And, that crusade in Europe is his personal memoir as his role as the supreme commander of all Allied Forces in Europe during the war.
Some 60 years later I’m finally reading his book. He is a very engaging writer and it’s quite interesting seeing his perspective on so many actions and events that I now know about.
One of the things that struck me as I read this book was that no matter what the circumstances, no matter how bad things seemed to get, he was able to see it all in relation to his final objective.
He always kept the end, the overall objective of this crusade in sight; the ultimate destruction of Nazism. He kept his eyes focused on achieving that victory.
I could not but help but think about this same characteristic as I read the gospel for this Sunday. Jesus is focused on the big plan—on accomplishing the objective- achieving victory.
Our gospel opens this morning noting there were some Greeks who came to Philip, saying to him: “‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’”
Gentiles were outsiders, spiritually unclean to the Jewish mind, yet here they are asking Philip to introduce them to Jesus. They want to get to know him, engage him personally.
They were spiritual seekers, looking to Jesus to show them something beyond, something more than they had. Maybe provide answers to their greatest questions about the nature of reality and truth, how to make sense out of life.
They are not so different from many today. People who find the philosophies, religions, worldviews shaping this culture meaningless, and devoid of answers for which our souls yearn.
They are just like those Greeks asking: Sir, we would see Jesus.
The text shows that Jesus saw this moment as significant. The coming of these Gentiles seeking an intimate personal encounter with Jesus is the moment the world at large, the world beyond Jerusalem and Judaism, begins to look seriously at Jesus.
This becomes the moment he initiates the final and decisive part of the plan toward victory over evil.
Jesus proclaims: The hour has now come for the son of man to be glorified. That for which he is destined has come.
Jesus then goes on to reveal what his mission is and what victory will look like.
Through the analogy of the seed and speaking directly about being lifted up, he speaks about his eventual death on the cross.
In his humanity he is in turmoil; he feels the natural human reaction of shrinking from death. But then he acknowledges that this death is the very reason for which he is come. He keeps focused on the big plan—the plan his father has put in play.
He stays focused on accomplishing his father’s will. That is how he brings glory to the father, and why the father glorifies him.
Thus he is focused on the Cross because that is his mission. That is where victory is won. That is the purpose of his crusade in the world.
He speaks of the Cross as the judgement of the world, because the cross itself points to the corporate and universal guilt of a self-centered world.
The collect for today states this mildly as mankind being of unruly wills and affections. It is a self- centered human condition that crucifies him there— the cross is irrefutable proof of the evil in the world; the sinfulness of mankind.
Yet he knows that this is the very event in which victory is actually won. His death becomes the final battle—the event by which the prince of this world is driven out and defeated.
It is the event in which the devil’s power, the power of sin and guilt, is broken and a way opened to reconcile the broken world to God the Father. The cross of Jesus is God’s power of reconciliation released.
Jesus speaks to the consequence of the Cross, of its implications to life. He and his cross defines a distinction between mere life in this world and eternal life.
He points out that the man who loves his own life: the self-focused life, the self-sufficient, self-serving, self- satisfying life, will destroy his life. Loving the self-life is a self-defeating process. It destroys the very life it seeks to retain.
But the person who sees Jesus for who he is, who sees the Cross for what it is, will have such an attitude of love for the things of God that, by comparison, makes their dis-interest in the things of this life appear as hatred—and that perspective directs their life into eternity.
The Cross is the power of transforming grace that allows us, as the collect for today states, to love what God commands, and desire only what God promises. The cross of Jesus empowers this change of heart.
Jesus’ attitude and ultimate action on the Cross become the model of this eternal life. He remains obedient to the Father’s will—he stays focused on the plan, on the Cross, undeterred by distractions, seeming setbacks, or personal cost.
And in his absolute obedience and unwavering focus he brings glory to his father, acknowledging his father’s sovereignty and lordship over all.
The father himself voices this reality to Jesus before (hearing) witnesses. It is not a secret but something to be proclaimed into the world—God has spoken his approval of Jesus and his work.
Jesus speaks to the personal implications of the Cross. It is the personal relationship to Christ which is important.
In following Jesus as Lord, his follower is to be where his Lord is. Being where the lord is, entails suffering; it means losing this life, the worldly life, for the master’s sake. This is the type of life that God will honor.
Jesus is focused on the big plan—it’s what his crusade is all about. It reveals him to be a Jesus of the Cross; a Jesus whose glorification is found in death. A Jesus who dies to give life.
A plan that Jesus, when he is raised up on the Cross, opens a gate through which he would draw—invite—all who would to follow him into a new and eternal life, where true joy is to be found.
It is a plan which reveals that, in following Jesus in this world, we will go against our very nature. In following him—we find a life of dying to self— of dying to this world – just as Jesus has done—if we are to find life indeed.
Eisenhower in his book seemed always to keep the big plan before himself—never wavering, never shirking, never discouraged. He focused on the goal; destroying the evil power of the Nazi regime. A victory he accomplished.
Similarly, Jesus kept the father’s plan before himself—never wavering, never shirking, never discouraged. he focused on the goal — destroying the power of sin and the devil. A victory he accomplished by his death on the Cross.
But what about us? What is the big plan in our lives? What defines our lives?, our sense of purpose? How do we define victory in our lives?
Lent points us to Good Friday—to Jesus—to the Cross.
What place does Jesus and that Cross have in our lives?
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
5th Sunday of Lent
18 March 2018