Church of All Nations

delivered 29 March 2009
by Rev. Dr John Evans

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (John 12:23)

Lives can change in a second.  In the split second of a car accident, or an incident in war, personal and national destinies can be changed forever.  We all remember moments in our lives when great choices were made about career, where we will live, whether to marry, move to Australia and so on.  In our lives and the lives of communities and nations, there is the time, the hour when a choice is made and the direction of history is altered.

Our gospel reading today depicts one such time, in fact the time in the life of Jesus – and if you want to be dramatic, it is a time when the course of human history also changed.

In the preceding chapter of John, Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead and declared:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

He has had his feet anointed with costly perfume by Mary and then he has entered Jerusalem in a triumphal way with people waving palms and shouting “Hosanna!”  They greeted him as the Messiah.  At this point, when Philip and Andrew bring some Greeks, Gentiles to meet with him, the momentous decision is made:

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Jesus makes the fateful decision, he will now be bound for death; no use avoiding it – he would be killed.

Throughout the gospel of John, up until this point, Jesus would declare – like he did at the wedding at Cana, “My hour has not yet come” (Jn 2:4).  Then later Jesus’ teaching astonishes Jerusalem.  The leaders attempt to arrest him, but fail “because his hour had not yet come” (7:30). Again in 8:20 the narrator explains that Jesus could not be arrested because his hour “had not yet come.”   However, here abruptly, in 12:23, the situation changes, and Jesus announces that the “hour” has now come. This was now the time; this was the time when things were different.  The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  He was going to be killed.

What prompts Jesus to make this pronouncement about his crucifixion?  Why now, and not earlier?  Or why not avoid it altogether?

Christ before Caiaphas (Giotto, 1304-06CE)

The preceding verses give us a clue.  Following the incident with Lazarus, the Pharisees and the Chief Priests called a special meeting.  What are we to do about this man?  At this meeting it was Caiaphas who put forward the ironic, but true suggestion – ‘it is better for one man to die for the people, than to have the whole nation destroyed.’  Things here were getting out of hand.  There was a new movement arising; it was better to destroy the leader, than the nation and relations with the Romans.

So, John records, “from that day on they planned to put him to death” (John 11:53).   Jesus would have been aware of such a political reality.  He possessed great power with the people, with the ordinary folk and would have seen that he would have been a threat to the Jewish leaders, let alone the Roman authorities.  The sort of thought a Mahatma Gandhi or a Martin Luther King Jnr – both of whom were assassinated – I am sure countenanced.  Here Jesus could not avoid it any longer.  The great triumphal entry into Jerusalem would have confirmed in his mind: his life was a political inconvenience, and death was inevitable.

However, this very popularity would have been the basis of for his second reason to face his death at this time.

Again it is the Pharisees, after what we call Palm Sunday, who say, just before our passage, “You see, you can do nothing.  Look, the world has gone after him!” (v19)  And as if to confirm this very thing, these Greeks wanted to see him at the start of the festival week.  His message was beginning to transcend religious and ethnic boundaries.

His hour had come – he was now both hated, and he was popular.  At one level, Jesus may have thought he must have been on the right path.  He might have thought, like the government recently, both business and the trade unions object to our replacement to Work Choices, it must therefore be right.

However, Jesus sees dangers in both paths: the political direction or the a mass movement influencing popular culture. He announces he needs to die.  Neither political supremacy, nor just being popular will suffice, or are God’s way, to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven.  He simply says this:

“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.” (12:24)

These values of the world must die; they cannot be redeemed.  There needs to be death – then, and only then will there be new life – bearing much fruit.  There needs to be a new start; a complete break.  This thus becomes Jesus’ great moment of decision, as recorded in John’s gospel.  We usually think of this tussle, this decision in the context of the anguish of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. However, here in John his struggle, his moment of decision, is much more public: “Now my soul is troubled,” he says.  Should he seek God’s assistance to avoid this decision to die?  No!  He decides to continue, and seeks God to glorify him. (12:27)

This confirmation happens.  It is like when at Jesus’ baptism, there was a voice from heaven announcing, “This is my beloved Son”.  Here a voice from heaven says, “I will glorify his name” (v28). This is far more public than in the other gospels, but the crowd does not seem to sense the significance of the moment, or what is happening.  They do not understand or comprehend that there is a divine seal on his decision to go through with his death.

The ways of power within the world, even the way of popularity within the world, will not do.  They are not God’s ways.  In such mass movements and religious revivals, people just do not understand what is required of them – all they want are the signs, the miracles, the thrills, the amazing.  Just like the crowds with Jesus have done all along.  Jesus wants people to put all of this behind them.  If you want this new relationship with God, Jesus simply seeks our commitment:

“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will be my servant also.” (12:26)

Only through death – like a grain of wheat falling to the earth – can there be new life, resurrection – and can the grain bear much fruit.

Jesus in fact pronounces a radical judgement on the world and its ways:

“Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.” (12:31)

Here in this one moment in history, you might say one crowded hour, at the lead up to the festival of the Passover – Jesus with all possibilities before him sees that only a radical break with the past will change our relationship with God.  There needs to be death and resurrection; something new, something completely different.  The old must pass away.  Incremental change, or being successful in a worldly sort of way – will not suffice.  It is tempting, but unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies . . .

What does this mean for us?

Our lives can change in a split second.  And we are presented, like Jesus himself was presented, with a choice.  Indeed, Jesus issues us with a challenge.  Are we prepared to take up his path, to take up his cross?  Only then, echoing Jeremiah 31:31, can there be a new covenant, a new relationship with God. Just tinkering here, a bit of picking and choosing there, will not do.  A radical break is needed.  In turn, this becomes hope: a new way of life — especially for those who feel they can’t beat the system, or cope with the demands of modern life — is possible.  He promises -

“Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.” (12:26)

His death and resurrection will be new way to relate to God for all:

When he is lifted up from the earth, when he is glorified, he will draw all people to himself. (12:32)

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday – the week after will be Good Friday and Easter.  As we approach this time, do we understand that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it does not change?  It remains just a single grain (v24).  Are we prepared, do we dare to choose as Jesus chose, to judge the world and its ways and see there is a full life, a new life is possible, if we follow Jesus?