23 Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.
John 12:23-26
As you look back on your life I wonder what you see, feel, remember. Recent losses and troubles may colour your perspective a little and it can be hard to push back. But as you cast your mind back, and allow yourself, just for a moment to view the spectrum of your life with all its ups and downs, its bright colours of happiness and joy, muted colours of sorrow and trouble what is the overriding feeling? As you remember the people – the boyfriends and girlfriends who broke your heart in school and it felt like the end of the world, your children as they chased each other round the house yelling, the year the Christmas turkey landed on the floor when being lifted out of the oven, the wedding day, the promotion at work, the day you bought your house, the person who led you down a dangerous path, the criminal who broke your life somehow, the friends who helped you love yourself, the bullies who tried to crush you…so much life.
Life is not just something that happens to us, life is something that happens within us and through us. Our actions impact not just on us, but on those around us. The very fact that we exist changes the very fabric of the world. We might feel insignificant – about all there are billions of people in the world. And in the billions of people who have ever been we have Jesus. Born in a stable to teenagers, in a little country in the Middle East, with no wealth, no social media, no printing presses or Rupert Murdochs. Insignificant yet not.
Jesus was an ordinary person, with admittedly extraordinary parenthood. He was relatively popular amongst his own kind, and still people wanted to introduce others to him. The Greeks that had arrived in the run up to the Passover couldn’t fully participate because they weren’t fully converted to Judaism but they were open to God. And Jesus, in the way he does so wonderfully, takes this request and sees it as the divine sign that the time is now. Although Jesus had some interactions with Gentiles, the majority of his mission had been with Jewish people. This request from the Greeks shows that the message of God was spreading, and Jesus knew he would be lifted up and draw all people to him.
When we study the story of Jesus in the Gospels we see plenty of opportunities for Jesus to take different paths. In today’s story he could have gone and met with the Greeks and perhaps started something there. Instead he chose to embrace death and suffering.
It was a conscious decision to embrace death and suffering. This is not a path we are programmed to embrace. If anything we avoid it or circumvent it. How many movies and stories are written about the elusive fountain of youth? How much has the legal institution grown through the compensation market where we get restitution for everything – including train delays of more than 30minutes. Imagine if the broken down vehicle or the driver who caused a traffic jam on the M8 had to pay compensation to all drivers caught up in that…we’d all drive a lot more carefully! We don’t like suffering and if we have to suffer, someone else has to pay.
Jesus embraced death and suffering as part of life. And we know that he didn’t do it with a devil may care attitude. He wasn’t suicidal. He wasn’t an idiot. He wanted to live. He had the same innate desire that the majority of us have – he wanted to live.
Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”?
The author of Hebrews writes:
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
The key element of this passage is the recognition given that Jesus wept, suffered, pleaded and yet remained obedient despite everything. And because Jesus remained faithful, eternal salvation is for all who will look up and acknowledge him. We can look at Jesus and think what he did was easy for him. But it wasn’t. And you know what that should encourage us. We should be able to look at that and draw strength. Embracing death and suffering is not easy and it shouldn’t be easy. But sometimes it is necessary.
We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus gave.
No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!’
The church often behaves as if it should be protected somehow from death and suffering. And I am not talking about the literal death of loved ones, although we need to do more talking about that sometime. I am talking about the wilderness period that the Church finds herself in. We shy away from it and go off to talk to the Greeks about the love of God. We can keep doing what we are doing and we might find an equivalent to the Greeks, but what if like Jesus we need to see the bigger picture. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t care for the Greeks and certainly they were open to knowing God. And it would have been new territory for Jesus but it wasn’t enough.
Jesus draws people to him. Jesus says he will draw all people to him. People will come because they want too. They are intrigued, they are curious, they are open and they come because they see something in Jesus that calls out to them. Is that why there is so much faith outside the church? Jesus does continue to draw people to him, but when they come to Church what version of Jesus do they find? A welcoming Jesus, a hostile Jesus, a bland Jesus, a powerless or a powerful Jesus, or dare I say it – will they even find Jesus?
Stay with me. What if we see death not as a final destination but actually a valuable part of the circle of life, even for the Church? What if, instead of pursuing the fountain of youth, we actually allowed death to happen? Jesus trusted God his Father and boy, it was hard. It was a dark time but was it worth it? Absolutely. What if we need to let go and allow death to happen in the Church? What would it mean for us? What could it mean for us?
It’s a brave new world!
I don’t think I know the answer but Jesus took that lonely walk to the cross, knowing that God his Father was the primary mover. He believed that God had a purpose for him and enough faith to get through the suffering and ultimately death. And we know that the reward was worth it both for him and us. For Jesus to be able to continue on the path he had to pray, he had to stay in close communion with his Father and he had to have faith that God knew what he was doing.
Does the Church have the willingness to lay it all on the line and embrace death and suffering for the glory of God? Or are we fighting death with every breath we have? Are we drawing up plans that fit the model of management this world understands? Are we fighting to survive or are we willing to glorify God whatever the cost? What if we are so stuck on the ‘Greeks’ that we are missing the bigger picture?
Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. We are the bride of Christ, and we are promised a new heaven and a new earth. We are held by the God who created the world, who loves us so much that he found a way to reconnect us with him, but until the final consummation of that we walk in a damaged and hurting world. Yet we are the one people who shouldn’t fear death or even suffering.
Perhaps, instead of chasing our tails, we need to stop doing what we are doing and start what we should be doing. Perhaps we need to let death happen, and trust God to bring life. Now I am not advocating that we shut the doors here or that we dress in black and mourn the death of the Church like the Victorians. What if death meant that the Minister was a leader not a manager? What if death meant that instead of trying to keep three congregations in Blantyre, we simply worked together to keep the church in Blantyre? What if death meant that worship on a Sunday morning was less about the minister and more about all age participation? What if re-birth meant we walked the streets of our parish every week, praying with people in the street, or getting involved with local activist groups or helping the primary school rebuild their garden? What if death meant a fresh start, a Spirit-filled experience?
What if we took the time to really think and pray, to dream and to grow? Jesus spoke of death not as a final destination but as a new beginning. Whenever he spoke of his death he spoke of life almost in the same breath. I will die but three days later I will rise again. The seeds are planted in the ground and they grow and become fruit full of seeds. What if we were willing to serve Jesus even if meant that embracing death and suffering?
However, we must keep our eyes on the prize – to receive the crown of life. We don’t do this for nothing nor for personal gain. Through our faith, through our life, through our example we can see the fruit of the Spirit blossom in our homes, in our churches, in our work places, in our schools, in our communities and even in our world. That is our reward.
But we are not going to push through the wall if we don’t push through together, knowing that ultimately Jesus right in the midst of it pushing with us. Like a seed striving for the light, pushing through the dark soil, let us be the Church of God’s people, willing to push and strive, that all people get the opportunity to be drawn to Christ.
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