John 112:20 - 33
If you read the prophets of the Old Testament -- Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and so on -- you get the sense that the Jewish people saw themselves as having a twofold purpose in the world. One was to be the people God called them to be -- to live holy lives, to set themselves apart from the ways of th4e rest of the world. As God declares to them over and over again, “I will be your God; you will be my people''. The Pharisees lived for this. Their religion wasn’t just going to synagogue on Sundays; it was 24 - 7. It was spending all your time learning the law and carrying it out. There are people like that today especially in Israel, where they are kind of a thorn in the side of the rest of the citizenry, because they don’t work; they live on welfare and spend all their time studying. The priesthood in Jesus’ time was different. For those who belonged to this branch of Judaism, and they weren't just the priests, religion consisted of offering holocausts properly. If you had an account at the temple, you could do about anything you wanted, because your sacrifices were constantly appeasing God. Both Pharisees and those who belonged to the priestly class thought that they were fulfilling what God called them to do. But there was another aspect of all this. The Jewish people understood that they were going to be the vehicle by which God saved the world. They might be a small and downtrodden nation now, but in time the whole world would be coming to Jerusalem to learn from the Jews.
And that’s what is happening here. Just before this passage begins, the Jewish authorities are saying to one another, “ Look, the whole world is coming to him” and sure enough, some Greeks show up -- looking for him. And that is why Jesus now says that his hour has come. Because Jesus is the embodiment of what the Jews believed about themselves; he is the one who will perfectly satisfy the law, and the one who will offer the perfect once and for all sacrifice.
In the other gospels, Jesus undergoes an agony in the garden of Gethsemane. He sweats blood, he weeps, he cries out “If there is another way, Father, take this cup from me”. But in John Jesus shows no such agony; he is ready to do what the Father has put him on the earth to do. There are so many differences between the Jesus described in John and as described in the other gospels that people wonder about whether they are talking about the same man. But that’s why we say Jesus had a human nature and a divine nature; and I think it’s fair to say that John’s Jesus is speaking from his divine nature.
Jesus tells us two things about the death he is about to undergo; one is that like a grain of wheat which must be buried in the earth if it is to bear fruit, Jesus must die in order to bear fruit. The second is that in dying on the cross, he will draw to himself all people. This drawing to himself is connected to judgement. How does that judgement come about? When you and I and indeed every person looks upon Christ crucified, we cannot be indifferent. Either we believe this is God acting to save us, or we don’t. And we then proceed as we believe; we either listen and obey, or we ignore and go about our business. That’s why some people hear the voice of God promising to glorify his name, and others just hear thunder. Because our salvation depends on how we choose to accept or reject the crucified Christ.
And Jesus, remarkably, invites you and I to imitate him. He talks about loving our lives and consequently losing them. If we depend on ourselves to save ourselves, we have no salvation; we can’t save ourselves or anyone else. It’s only when we offer our lives to God and allow him to direct us that we in a sense become other Christs and recipients of the same promise made to Jesus, the promise of eternal life. And I think that that is what believing is all about. It doesn’t mean we can't have doubts. It doesn't mean we can’t have moments when we wonder if God exists. It doesn’t mean we can’t disappoint ourselves and God by our sins. Saint Theresa of Calcutta in private letters to her confessor talked about her own doubts, her own difficulty in believing even that there was a God, let alone that he loved her and cared for her. But she trudged on, acting on the words of Jesus -- that he was present in the sick and dying people on the streets of Calcutta. And in the end, that seems to be what matters most to Jesus. And the scriptures don’t tell us about the appearance of the risen Jesus to Mary his mother. Most people would think that he did appear to her. But I wonder if the lack of an appearance was because Mary needed nothing to strengthen her faith; she would continue to go on doing what God wanted her to do whether or not Jesus appeared to her in the flesh, because she had perfect faith.
So on the fifth Sunday of Lent, let us ask ourselves whether we are living lives of faith, lives where we die to ourselves and live for others, just as Jesus did.
