Fifth Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:1-12 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who draws us to himself. Amen “We wish to see Jesus” the request the Greeks make to Philip seems so simple We identify with these strangers who have heard great things about this teacher and even though they are on the outside -they’re not Israelites, nor any close connection to the people that Jesus has been living and working among- they want to be included, they want to see Jesus, they want to believe that Jesus could be something for them as well as the disciples gathered around him, the ones who have seen the miracles and traveled with him. We want that too. We wish to see Jesus We never actually find out if their request is granted, Philip goes and tells Andrew and Andrew and Philip go and tell Jesus and Jesus starts teaching right away. But I’d like to think the Greeks were there to hear the teaching that their request set off, that they were part of the crowd. Philip goes and tells Andrew and Andrew and Philip go together to tell Jesus, and upon hearing the request of the Greeks Jesus says “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” All throughout the gospel Jesus has been saying “it’s not time yet.” Now the time has come, people from other nationalities are starting to seek him out, and in response to the Greeks, whose simple open ended request is not attached to preconceived visions of a messiah or anything else, Jesus gives the unvarnished truth that what he means by glorified is to die for the sake of the world. And he does this because of who he is, the Word made flesh dwelling among the people, Jesus is the unmediated presence of God, all along Jesus has been teaching that to see him is to see his Father, to know Jesus is to know God, to serve Jesus is to serve God, the God who chose to become human, embracing the entire experience, even suffering and death. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. We wish to see Jesus But are we prepared to see Jesus as he is rather than as we want him to be? The Jesus who says that death is a necessary reality The Jesus who says the way to eternal life is to reject the life of the world The Jesus who washes the disciples’ feet and says that those who serve him will do the same to those they encounter Whether it is what we want or not this is Jesus As Jesus teaches the crowd who has come to see him the voice of God comes from heaven, and even though the voice speaks for the sake of the crowd they are unable to understand what the voice says, to some it sounds like thunder, others interpret it as an angel speaking. They don’t understand the unmediated voice of God just as they don’t understand that Jesus is the unmediated presence of God. Many times we are like the crowd, we seek Jesus, we even follow him, but we miss the message when the voice of God speaks and we fail to see Jesus right in front of us. And Jesus know this, and he prays for and dies for those who wish to see, those who are unable to see and those who do not yet know what it is they seek. Jesus prays for all, dies for all, for the whole world “and I when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” he tells the crowds knowing that they have already felt his pull even if they are missing exactly what is going on, even if they will only understand what he was telling them after his crucifixion when he was lifted up from the earth on the cross, and after his resurrection when he was lifted up from the earth by God and after his ascension when he was lifted up from the earth to be seated at the right hand of God. We wish to see Jesus We are drawn to him Like paperclips are drawn to a big magnate We feel the pull of one stronger than ourselves and Jesus calls us to himself, even if we are not prepared to see him as he truly is, even if we struggle to resist the temptations of the world, even if we balk at washing one another’s feet, even if we’re not sure of who Jesus is, Jesus draws us to himself offering life in the presence of God, eternal life, to all no questions asked, a gift of grace. We wish to see Jesus And Jesus prays for us and draws us to him In the waters of baptism, in the bread and wine at the table, in the words of scripture and the hymns, in our neighbors near and far Jesus is present So Come, come and see Jesus.
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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