The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — the Fifth Sunday in Lent — with food for thought on love and judgement. Gnaw away!
John 12:20-33
Among those who had come to worship at the Passover festival were some Greeks. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put forth this request: “Please, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew, and together the two went to tell Jesus. Jesus replied, “Now the hour has come for the Chosen one to be glorified. The truth of the matter is, unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. If you love your life you will lose it; if you hate your life in this world you will keep it for eternal life. Anyone who wants to work for me must follow in my footsteps, and wherever I am, my worker will be there too. Anyone who works for me will be honored by God. Now my soul is troubled. What will I say: ‘God, save me from this hour?’ But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour. God, glorify your name!” A voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowds that stood nearby heard this and said it was a clap of thunder; others said, “It was an angel speaking.” Jesus answered, “It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours. Sentence is now being passed on this world; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown. And when I am lifted up from this earth, I will draw all people to myself.” By these words, Jesus indicated the kind of death he would die.
The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?
As we approach Palm Sunday, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of Holy Week we have this reading from the 12th chapter of John that actually occurs right after John’s accounting of the Palm Sunday procession.
Jesus is in Jerusalem and he has created a stir. They know he has raised Lazarus from the dead, and according to John, “it was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him.” The Pharisees are feeling threatened by him and helpless to do anything about his growing power. They say to each other “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” Something’s gotta give. Jesus is dangerous to the powerful and the powerful don’t stay powerful by putting up with that.
John’s Gospel has what is called a “high Christology.” That means on the scale of Jesus as human to Jesus as divine, John is way more over on the Jesus as divine side. They saw Jesus’ crucifixion as a salvific event in ways much starker than the synoptic Gospels. Here Jesus, seeing the handwriting on the wall, begins talking about his death not just in physical terms but in metaphysical, salvific terms. John’s Jesus sees the crucifixion as his “glorification” – not just an earthly execution but a cosmic event (remember John’s Gospel started with cosmic imagery in the prologue) that will overthrow “the ruler of this world.”
The stage is set for the drama to come.
A few things to chew on:
*One of the reasons the shapers of the Christian canon gave us four Gospels is that they give us different pictures of Jesus. This is an important reminder to us that even the early church had vast differences of opinion about who Jesus was. We give scripture authority not because it dropped down from heaven as the divine “rules on the back of the Scrabble box top” … but because it represents the holiness of generations and even centuries of humanity struggling with questions like who God and Jesus are … and that we believe that the Holy Spirit was and is present in those struggles.
A great example is in this passage. Jesus says:
Now my soul is troubled. What will I say: ‘God, save me from this hour?’ But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour. God, glorify your name!”
And yet, in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), Jesus does ask God to save him from this hour, saying “God, if you are willing, take this cup from me.”
We get to hold these images of Jesus together – the human and frightened and the divine and secure — and see ourselves in both of them, and realize it’s not about one being right and another being wrong but that they both have power to teach and shape us.
Try This:
The truth of the matter is, unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.
The truth of the matter is, sometimes things have to die. We may not want them to die. We may not like them dying. Their death may be painful. But death happens. And yet our “sure and certain hope” is that death is not the end. That out of death can come not just a silver lining but a rich harvest. That doesn’t make the death good or pleasant, but it does make it not the end. Life always wins.
This week, take some time each day and think of something that is dying in your life, something that has died, or maybe something you need to let die. Ask God for help letting it go – and giving thanks for it and being grateful for all it was can be part of that process, if that feels like it fits. And ask God to make you open to what rich harvest of new life might come next.
Judgment Day
John’s Gospel is full of judgment language. Last Sunday, we heard:
“Whoever believes in the Only Begotten avoids judgment, but whoever doesn’t believe is judged already for not believing in the name of the Only Begotten of God. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light came into the world, people showed they preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.”
And this week, we hear:
“Sentence is now being passed on this world; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown. And when I am lifted up from this earth, I will draw all people to myself.”
So why is John’s Jesus so judgey?
There isn’t a simple answer to that, but here are some things to consider.
First, the best estimate of scholars is that John’s Gospel was written in the late first century after the destruction of the second temple. Because the temple was seen as the literal presence of God among the people, it was the most destabilizing event imaginable for Jews. There is a natural human tendency in moments of destabilization to react with fundamentalism as a way of re-establishing security. As human beings, we long for the stability of certitude – and a natural way to assert that you are right is also to assert that others are wrong. And so the Johannine community was formed not just around a belief in Jesus but against others who didn’t hold that belief – thus the judgment language.
But there is more than that. Judgment is a real thing. It’s real because our actions matter. It’s real because the systems that oppress God’s children are real and must be stood against.
In this Gospel reading, Jesus says “sentence is now being passed on this world; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown.” This is Jesus saying “the oppressive systems of this world are wrong and must not be allowed to continue. I come representing something more powerful.”
Love does judge. It doesn’t judge and sentence people to death, but it does judge and sentence hate and oppression – and hateful and oppressive systems — to death.
We also have choices. We can choose to be about hate and oppression and we can choose not to (and often our agency in those choices is compromised by trauma … and so we must always ask the questions of compassion and healing). What both the parable of the Prodigal Child in the synoptic Gospels and the second line of this passage preach is that ALL people will be gathered up. That even if we participate in hate and oppression that we are never beyond the possibility or opportunity of returning to love, that the Christ draws ALL people into the divine self.
Jesus does get judgey. And thank God. Because there are things that need to be judged. The rulers of this world DO need to be overthrown … and anything that prevents ALL people from claiming their identity as children of God must be removed.
Check out the rest of Sunday’s readings
The Lectionary Page has all of the readings for this Sunday and every Sunday: click here for this Sunday’s readings.
Collect for Sunday
Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel:
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the
world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Want to read more?
“The Text This Week” is an excellent online resource for anyone who wants to dive more deeply into the scriptures for the week.
