When we get it wrong

                                                          

Snowday Sermon March 2018

Title: When we get it wrong                                                   

Bible reading:John 12:20-37

Introduction

Have you ever asked a question and got an entirely different answer to what you were expecting. Instead of a simple answer the response doesn’t seem to answer the question you asked?

This seems to be the case today. Jesus gets asked questions, and the answers He gives are quite mysterious and very different to what the people were expecting.

It was Passover time in Jerusalem. This feast is a grand affair a bit like what Christmas is nowadays with an added legal requirement. The Israelites were expected to assemble yearly for this feast in Jerusalem.

The number of the Jews around the empire made the cost impossible for many to take this trip, but even so, every Jew tried to attend the feast at least once.

The population of the city increased vastly for that week as pilgrims came to the city. Some would come up from the coast road from Caesarea and others like Jesus came on the Jericho road from the east.

It was a time of joy and excitement for the Jews. In the chaos of people, they had to make their way to the shops to purchase a Passover lamb as well as pay their Temple tax.

Lodging was also hard to find. Jesus and his disciples seemed to have sheltered in a garden called Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Others rented guest rooms. Food had to be purchased, and shops and vendors were busy.

But for the Romans, it was a time of great concern. Pilate, who hated the Jews and Jerusalem felt obligated to come up from the city of Caesarea with his minders to make sure a riot did not break out.

The reading we heard from John's gospel, take us to a time around Palm Sunday Jesus was coming to town on a donkey. Everyone was chanting the Psalms of Ascents (112-118), using the words from 118. “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

The Jewish leaders were also watching and sent a message to Jesus to shut the crowd up. They were afraid of the Romans. The disruption would soon continue as Jesus would proceed and cleanse the Temple, overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers and releasing the doves.

The result would even be more chaos, with some of the crowd rejoicing that the crooks in the Temple got what they deserved and others beginning to plot to destroy Jesus. The commotion got the attention of certain Greeks who had come up to the feast. What we know about them is that they were not Greek speaking Jews they were most likely gentiles curious about Judaism.

They were probably what is called “God-fearers” who were attracted to the Jewish religion but had not submitted to circumcision. They could come to the outermost Temple court, but no further – or risk the pain of death.

These Greeks drew near and found Phillip. Phillip had a Greek name, and it’s possible that he may have spoken Greek. Phillip and Andrew were always bringing people to Jesus, so they brought the these Greeks who wanted to see Jesus, to him.

These Greeks had more than a casual desire to meet Jesus. They were willing to assume the expense of the journey to come to Jerusalem. They earnestly desired to know more about Jesus.

Phillip and Andrew told Jesus, probably expecting a yes or no answer. Instead Jesus answers in a way which would make the disciples wonder whether he was answering their question at all.

Jesus starts by talking about glorifying the father and then about planting of seeds. And the most mysterious thing was the seed has to die in order to sprout and produce a plant that produces more seeds.

It is a parable of course, which Jesus will relate to His own death. But first He talks about true discipleship. The true disciple follows Jesus at the real risk of losing his or her own life.

The disciple who tries to preserve his own life when persecuted will lose the life that really matters, and the one who loses his or her earthly life will attain eternal life.

What Jesus seems to be telling “them” is that if one really wants to come to Jesus, to see Him, they cannot come as a casual follower. Following Jesus is not a hobby or a spare time activity.

The call to discipleship is not one to “Come and dine” ( we had a nice lunch yesterday with Jesus) but as Bonhoeffer put it it’s to “Come and die.” This is certainly not the expected or even the desired answer. But it is the true answer.

After Jesus says this, He Himself has a human moment. Jesus cries out to the Father. And asks the Father to glorify the Father’s name through His’ upcoming death. To this, He hears a voice of affirmation from heaven that this will indeed be the case.

It is interesting to note here, that everyone else hears a noise like thunder.. But no one understood the message, but Jesus.
Nor did they understand that the voice they heard was the voice of God.

While they were perplexing about the sound, Jesus tells them the voice they could not understand was not meant for Him, but for them..

Jesus was telling those who heard why He must die. But they did not get it, at least not yet. This is made explicit by John at the end of chapter 12 where He quotes Isaiah 6 which says “Seeing, they did not perceive; hearing they did not understand.

Jesus makes another mysterious statement. He tells them that He the light would only be there a little longer. They needed to walk in this light or darkness would overtake them. They need to decide now to follow Him. Then we are told by John, He went out and hid Himself. The people were left in the dark.

We have the same difficulties today in trying to understand Jesus. And this is some considerable time after the cross. We should be the more enlightened, but we are not. People can see an earthly Jesus, a great teacher and a martyr of religious intolerance.

They see the tragedy of Jesus’ death but not the glory of the resurrection. They see that maybe in a world enlightened by the teaching of Jesus that someday we might have a more just world. We have had the teaching for 2000 years.


Every effort has been made to apply His teaching, but the world is as dark as ever, and becoming even darker. Do we still not understand what Jesus is saying or what He has done?

Others follow a political Jesus. They think if we can just take over the world for Jesus by force then we can set up His Kingdom. We can then force His teaching on everyone through fear of death for disobeying God.

We have tried Christendom too, and it has been found wanting. We cannot force people to be a Christian How many have been burnt at the stake in the name of Christendom or suffered other great afflictions? Whether through activism or passivism, the Kingdom we are expecting has not come.

So We need to pray the Lord lift the scales from our eyes and unstop our ears to hear what Jesus is really saying to His church, not what we think He is saying or should be saying.

This is the only way we can truly see and hear. Jesus says He will return and at that time the Kingdom will be fully realized. But this is in the Lord’s timing and by the Lord’s means.

We don’t make a Kingdom for God but wait patiently for the Kingdom of God. For the moment the world is in deep darkness and it seems that we too would be swept away in this darkness. But the truth of the matter is we who believe in Him are in the light of Jesus.

Bishop Steven – Bishop of Oxford writes. Jesus calls us to follow him with the whole of our lives and for the whole of our lives to offer everything to the service of God.

This means a willingness to sacrifice and to endure for the sake of the gospel, to bear the cross individually and together.

Personally I find this really reassuring as we await the last great Passover day. We are in the Kingdom, suffering even as Jesus said we must.

We do know the day of suffering will end.

The day of the cross will be over, and glory awaits. Let us console each other with this sure hope and press on towards the goal with courage determination standing together in solidarity to those who gave their lives for their faith.