John 12:20-33
This morning we look at today’s Gospel (John 12:20-33) as sort of part two of last week’s talk from John chap. 3 and the magnificent v.16
Its theme follows on from last week’s sermon; what does it mean that Jesus is exalted, or ‘raised up,’ and what does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus.
In our identity as Children of God, what does it mean to believe.
But first some context. We skip ahead today in the sense that Jesus has already triumphantly entered Jerusalem for Passover. (We will be celebrating that next week on Palm Sunday).
This passage is his last public discourse, or speech, for the world before the Last Supper speech to his disciples. Jesus and the disciples have come in from the village of Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
So, some Greeks arrive on the scene, find Philip, and make a request, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (v.21). Jesus’ response is anything but simple!
He essentially replies that if you really want to see me, then this is what you will and must see. There is a reason this verse finds itself carved on or engraved on the front of some pulpits – ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’
It is a summation of the way to preach John’s gospel. Any sermon on the Gospel of John has this as its goal, the very real presence of Jesus that needs to be experienced by any or all of our human senses.
What does grace taste like, smell like, feel like, look like, sound like? This gets to the essence of what John’s gospel is all about.
Jesus’ response to the request from the Greeks in announcing that the hour has come (meaning the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension), is, in many respects, an interpretation of that hour for the world to hear. These are his last public comments before the last supper and his crucifixion.
Both these comments and the whole five chapters in John that follow that record the last supper, are based on the fact that the ‘hour has come.’
His last public words foreshadow his own private words to the disciples. Jesus says, “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” (v.24).
The metaphor of bearing fruit will receive fuller treatment in the private speech he gives to his disciple in ch.15 with the image of the vine and the branches.
V.25 takes this short little metaphor and makes it very personal indeed; “Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
By losing our life in this world, we are then opened up to the fullness of life in the Kingdom of the love of God
So much of Jesus’ last words, public and private, are about discipleship. To ‘believe’ in the sense that John 3:16 means, is to follow Jesus and to follow Jesus is to do the works that he did - to feed and tend his sheep (John 13:36-37; 21:15-19).
Jesus then goes on to say that he is willing to undergo what happens next. God the Father is in control here; he says in v.27 of today’s reading; “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.”
He willingly lays down his life in the events that are to come.
God the Father then gloriously confirms the absolute union of Father and Son, that reminds us of the baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration, both of which we have looked at this year. “Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again” (v.28).
Jesus then adds that this voice was not for his benefit.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus does not need confirmation of who he is (John 12:30). He is perfectly aware of his origin, his relationship with God, and his identity (John 1:1).
The voice from heaven does not confirm Jesus’ origin, his relationship to God, or his identity, but rather testifies that in Jesus, God’s name has been glorified (John 12:28-30).
His next statement, “Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out,” can be heard in two ways, I think. Firstly, it is the moment of judgment because this is the last time the “world” will hear Jesus’ words. To listen to Jesus is to believe in him and this, for all intents and purposes, is the last chance.
Secondly, Satan will literally be cast out at the very moment of Christ’s crucifixion, and we’ll speak more on that on Good Friday. Jesus acts out this ‘casting out’ though, in the very next chapter of John, ch.13, with his ‘casting out’ of Judas, and the departure of Judas to the dark side (13:27-30). This I think explains what Jesus means here.
Now all of this has been leading up to our final verses. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.”
One way to imagine what Jesus means here is to imagine the cross laid down flat on the ground, with the wretched Roman soldiers nailing his feet and hands deep into the wood.
As distressing and as horrible as that is, now imagine really strong, yet invisible ropes attached from the wooden beams of the cross to every human soul that has ever lived, is living now, and will ever be born.
As they raise up the cross, as they lift up the crucified Christ, it draws every single one of us to him.
At the same time, literally, “what sort of death he was about to die” suggests that the “the sort of death” means that his specific death leads to his resurrection and ascension.
When Jesus is lifted up from the earth to draw all people to himself, that lifting up is simultaneously all three events: crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. As we said last week, in John’s gospel the three events are collapsed into the cross itself.
These last public words of Jesus confirm that what is about to take place is not just in anticipation of his death, but in anticipation of his resurrection and ascension. This is what is meant by drawing us to him.
If it was just his death, we would be filled with a worldly grief, as death robs the body of every single faculty, a corpse can’t do anything. But his resurrection and ascension to God is exactly what happens to us as well.
Just as the Lord God Almighty drew Jesus up from the tomb into beating life with the Father; we too will be drawn up to true everlasting life.
This is a perfect reading for Lent. I pray that this last public conversation of Jesus might help us imagine the full implications of the coming crucifixion, and also to what we know lies beyond; the resurrection and ascension.
The image of Christ drawing all people to himself on the cross is profoundly and deeply full of hope and, ironically, life in abundance. This is what we believe when we see the majesty and wonder of the verse from last week. For God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son, so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have eternal life. Let me pray...