Title: Into Death-Talk with Jesus
Text: John 12:20-34
Thesis: The death of which Jesus spoke is life giving and God glorifying.
Introduction
In the 1980s, when we lived in Fullerton, California, often on Sunday morning, I had breakfast at Christopher’s, a little café on the corner about a block from our church. Inevitably there would be a family come wandering with that out-of-town look and since I was often the only one in the restaurant they would ask, “Can you tell us how to get to Chuck Swindoll’s church?” And then they would gush on and on about how they listen to Insight for Living every day, order all of Chuck Swindoll’s tapes, read all of his books and since they were visiting Disneyland, which is just a hop-skip-and-a-jump down Harbor Boulevard, they thought they would try to see Chuck Swindoll in person, since they would never likely be this close again.
First Evangelical Free Church was about three miles away on Brea Boulevard and was a destination of choice for many Midwesterners who were visiting southern California. First Free owned a strip mall about two blocks from their church where they reserved parking for tourists. They also provided a bloc of 200 or so seats where the tourists sat.
I came to think of First Evangelical Free Church and The Crystal Cathedral and Saddleback Churches as Christian variations of The Precious Moments Chapel, Branson, Shepherd of the Hills and Dollywood. And I imagined that when the tourists got home they could not wait to tell their friends at church about how they got to see and hear Chuck Swindoll in person.
HOwever, I am not beyond being a bit star struck myself. One morning while having breakfast in Coco’s Restaurant, I saw Chuck Swindoll having breakfast nearby and I got all giddy as if I had spotted some famous movie star.
All that being said, Chuck Swindoll is a humble and gracious man. It was not his objective to be a tourist attraction or be swooned over. But over the years he had become widely known and respected and people wanted to see him.
That is something of what happened to Jesus in our text today. A group of Greek Gentiles had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They were either converts to Judaism or it is just as likely they were, as Greeks, religiously and philosophically inclined and simply curious to see what Judaism was all about and perhaps get an audience with Jesus, who had become a person of some renown. When they heard Jesus was in the city, they made a formal request to see Jesus. So Philip and Andrew went to ask Jesus if he would meet them. John 12:20-22
Paul Rack writing on the Rax Website suggests that Jesus wanted to make sure the Greeks were not just tourists who wanted to see a famous preacher or healer so they could brag about it to their friends when they got home. (http://home.earthlink.net/~paulrack/id153.html)
However, we don’t know if Jesus ever met with the Greeks… we only know that as quickly as Philip and Andrew asked him if he would meet with the Greeks, Jesus immediately launched into a pretty rigorous discussion of what it means to be one of his followers. And each rigor is couched in the language of death.
The first rigor speaks of the death of a kernel of wheat… and by wheat we understand that he is talking about a person’s life.
I. A life kept for its self, is a solitary life, but a life given for others is a fruitful life.
“A kernel of wheat must be planted. Unless it dies it will be alone… a single seed. But its death will produce many new kernels, a plentiful harvest of new lives.” John 12:24-26
He went on to speak of those who love their life in this world will lose it (I assume in the next). And those who despise their life in this world will keep it or save it for eternal life. And those who would be disciples or learners must come and follow him as a servant follows their master.
This would have been easily understood by Greeks who were familiar with the idea of disciples or learners or students who sat at the feet of master teachers like Socrates or Plato. They would have understood that students followed in the steps of their teachers as servants follow their masters.
However I suspect they might have been perplexed and intrigued by the death-talk. What did Jesus mean by loving your life in this life… was he talking about those who live self-serving and self-indulgent lives? And what did Jesus mean by despising or hating your life in this life… was he talking about self-loathing and ascetic living?
At any rate… the one who loves his life in this life seems to lose it in the next and the person who loses his life in this life saves it in the next. So it is a serious discussion.
The ideas of loving and despising oneself are to be understood in the context of a kernel of wheat. The kernel of wheat is a metaphor for Christ’s life, my life and your life.
A. If you live your life as an unsown kernel of wheat you will always be a single, solitary kernel of wheat.
B. If you live your life as a sown kernel of wheat, your life will be fruitful.
I just read a fascinating book written by Craig Childs titled: The Secret Knowledge of Water. In it he wrote of the eggs of marine life like the tiny Triops (shrimp) that are laid in desert water holes. The eggs may lay dormant for decades in a dry water hole waiting for rain. He likened the ability of these eggs to remain viable to seeds or kernels.
He wrote of a Canna compacta seed that was discovered in a walnut shell that was part of a rattle necklace excavated from an archaeological site in Argentina. It had been lying dormant in a tomb for 600 years. After 600 years of solitary existence as a single seed, it was planted. It germinated, grew a healthy root system and within ten days presented its first leaves. It grew to a height of six feet and flowered. It fertilized itself and produced seeds that fell from the flower. (Craig Childs, The Secret Knowledge of Water, P. 65)
Our lives, like that Canna compacta seed remain single seeds until we are planted, germinate, grow, flower, and produce fruit. Until we are planted we are like that single seed rattling around in a walnut shell making a little noise on the way to becoming an archeological relic with nothing to show after 600 years in an Argentinean tomb.
We understand that Jesus’ death resulted in life for all who turn from their sin and receive his gracious offer of eternal life. “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served, but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45
• Jesus wanted the Greeks to know that when they sat around talking ideas on the rocky hill known as the Acropolis in Athens, being a follower of Christ was more than just talk.
• Jesus wants the students who sit around talking ideas on the University of Colorado or Colorado State Campuses, being a follower of Jesus Christ is more than just talk.
• Jesus wants those of us who sit in Sunday school classes, small group bible studies, and church services to know that following Christ is more than just talk.
Being a follower of Jesus Christ is about planting your life in ways that result in fruit.
Whenever a person expresses a desire to be a follower of Jesus Christ, that person must understand that living for Jesus is like sowing a seed that will hopefully result in a fruitful and well lived life that glorifies God and blesses others.
The second rigor speaks to the difficulty of a accepting what may be involved in obeying God.
II. Serving and obeying God is sometimes a hard pill to swallow.
“Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father save me from what lies ahead?’ But that is the very reason why I came!” John 12:27
This verse expresses the inner tension Jesus felt: “No one wishes to die; no one wishes to die at thirty-three; and no one wishes to die on a cross.” (Wm. Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series, The Gospel of John, Volume 2, P 146)
Even for Jesus, serving and obeying God was a hard pill to swallow. The fact that it was necessary and would result in benefiting many… did not make the task that was before him easy.
Tim White’s son experienced thirty surgeries before he was 15 years old. Once when he was about eight, he was in the hospital for another surgery. The medical staff had already given him the “Barney Juice,” a purple liquid with something like morphine in it.
The medical staff had begun to roll his surgical bed to the operating room and Tim and his wife were walking along with him to the big doors that led to the operating room. All along the way they were assuring him that everything would be okay and that they would see him soon.
When they reached the big doors the staff punched the large button on the wall that caused the doors to open automatically and as they swung open their son sat up in his bed and pleaded, “Dad, don’t let them take me! Don’t let them take me Dad!”
Tim White said that at that moment he would have done anything to take him off that bed except for the fact that he had to have the surgery. And as the big doors closed Tim White and his wife stood there in the corridor, arm in arm, sobbing the sobs of the heartbroken parent who cannot spare their son his suffering. (Tim White, PreachingToday.com)
That story gives us a bit of an insight into the anguish of the son who has to face his suffering and that of the parent who knows the suffering is necessary. Such is what God the Father and God the Son experienced on the way to the Cross.
That is why Jesus prayed: “Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me… Dad, don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me Dad!”
Perhaps you too have felt that same emotion when you know God wants you to do something that you really would prefer to avoid.
And the third rigor stipulates that for the devoted follower of Christ, all other desires are ultimately eclipsed by the desire to glorify God.
III. The desire to glorify God eclipses all other desires.
“Father, bring glory to your name.” John 12:28
Having spoken of the necessity of the seed being planted and dying in order to produce fruit and expressing his own reservations about his impending death, Jesus gets a grip on himself, his emotions and the inner tensions with which he has been struggling. He sucks it up and says, “Okay God… not my will but yours!” He says, “My desire to glorify you eclipses all of my inner tensions and fears… I want you to be pleased in all I do.”
Three days after 9/11/2001, President George W. Bush designated a national day of prayer and remembrance. In Washington D.C., the National Cathedral was filled to capacity with invited guests including political leaders, military brass, and four former presidents and their wives.
After several religious leaders had spoken, including Billy Graham, President Bush strode to the podium and addressed the American people acknowledging our dependence upon God and affirming the fact that “nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God.” It was a message punctuated by compassion for the grieving and encouragement and hope for the future of our nation.
When he was finished he returned to his seat next to the First Lady and it is said that former President Bush, beaming with pride, looked straight ahead but reached his hand across Laura Bush’s lap and took his son’s hand. It was a silent and unmistakable way of saying, “You are my son, and I am pleased with you.”
I don’t know what President Bush was thinking when he went to that podium. I suspect he was feeling a bit of trepidation in knowing that the nation needed to hear the voice of a strong leader. I suspect he was hoping not to embarrass himself and his wife. And I suspect he was hoping that his father would be proud of him.
I think that is perhaps the one desire that must eclipse all other desires as we live out our lives before God and for others…
We, like Jesus Christ, want more than anything else, to please our Heavenly Father in all that we do. May whatever we do in thought, word, and deed be done to the glory of God.
Conclusion
I know this is the Lenten Season and I know this is another hard teaching of Jesus on his way to the Cross. I know it is meant to be instructive to the Greeks, to his twelve disciples and all those who heard him speak of living and dying and serving and suffering and ultimately pleasing God.
But I also see the celebration that is to come. And it is in seeing that celebration that the Passion of Christ and the living out of our own lives as followers of Christ, is worth it.
Though a humble and simple image, I see what is yet to come as something like the story of I Am Sam, a mentally delayed father who is in a custody battle over his seven-year-old daughter. In the course of the story it is clear that Sam loves his daughter in healthy and powerful ways, even though he needs assistance in raising her.
The last scene in the story shows Sam dressed in the striped shirt of an athletic official with a whistle roped around his neck. He is refereeing one of Lucy’s soccer games. He leads the girls in warm ups and stretches and they are all caught up in the fun of the game.
After he blew the whistle and the game began, Sam runs around the field cheering all the children instead of refereeing. The parents on the sideline are riveted by the game and rooting for both the children and the referee.
And then his little girl scores a goal and all pandemonium breaks out. Sam is beside himself. He runs to Lucy and scoops her up in his arms and parades her around the field, followed by cheering children and wild applause from the bleachers. And as the scene starts to fade, the final image captures Lucy smiling, her arms clasped around her father’s neck, and Sam, head thrown back, is beaming heavenward. (I Am Sam, Warner Brothers, 2001, written by Kristine Johnson and Jessie Nelson)
One day our Heavenly Father will take us in his arms and say, "You are my beloved son / daughter in whom I am well pleased."
And we will say to our Heavenly Father, "I’m so glad I have honored you in the way I lived my life."
It is important that we see in these challenging days… how one day the story will end with joyful pandemonium.
Meanwhile we live in anticipation of that joyful pandemonium knowing: It is not always easy to live and love and give one’s life, but it is ultimately satisfying to us, beneficial to others and pleasing to God.
