Sermon by Rev George Hemmings
‘1, 2, 4, 7, 9, Here we come.’ That’s how my sons, Micah and Joshua, like to count down when we play hide and seek. There’s usually not much time to get ready! Actually every time they count down differently. One moment they’re counting, the next they’re seeking. There’s no warning when the change will come, when the turning point will be. Life’s a little like that isn’t it? Sometimes big changes come, moments that turn our world around.
Did you notice that today’s passage is a turning point in John’s gospel? If you think back through the passages we’ve looked at, if you read back through John, you’ll see that everything has been building up to this point. He’s performed all sorts of miraculous signs, which have led to crowds flocking to see him. He’s fed those crowds with a poor boy’s packed lunch. He’s given sight to a man born blind, he’s raised Lazarus from the dead. Then, as we saw last week, he was anointed by Mary and given a king’s welcome as he rode into Jerusalem. But then, all of a sudden, everything changes. In verse 36 Jesus goes into hiding. In fact, today’s passage is the last time Jesus appears in public, at least until his arrest and crucifixion.
What’s brought this on? Why this sudden change? It looks like just another day in the office for Jesus. Some people come wanting to see him. There’s no surprise there. People have been trying to see Jesus for a long time. If you remember from last week, in verse 18, the great crowd that’d gathered to celebrate the Passover, rushed out to meet Jesus as he rode into the city. Now a small group of them want to see him. They come to Philip and request an interview. There’s nothing unusual in this. But what’s unusual is who these people are. John tells us they’re not Jews, they’re Greeks! [Perhaps that’s why they went to Philip. He and Andrew are the only disciples with Greek names.] Now even the Gentiles, now even those outside of Israel, are seeking Jesus. It’s a fulfilment of the Pharisees’ words from verse 19. “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!” By all accounts, this should be the high point of Jesus’ ministry. He’s no longer just a Jewish figure, now he’s a worldwide name. He’s like a musician who’s been working hard, playing in pubs and clubs, who finally gets picked up, who’s songs are on the radio, and in everybody’s head.
We see that Jesus knows this is a decisive moment. When he hears of the request from Andrew and Philip what does he say? 23Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” This is the real turning point in this passage, and in John’s gospel. Up till now, it’s been a case of the hour is not yet here. Think back to the very first sign, the turning of water into wine at the wedding at Canna. What did Jesus say to Mary? 4“My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4). Again, when he was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus twice said, “The hour is coming.” It’s there again in chapter 5 when Jesus says the hour is coming when the dead will hear his voice and live. Then in chapters 7 & 8, the authorities aren’t able to arrest Jesus, because his hour had not yet come. It’s like children asking ‘Are we there yet?’ The answer is not yet, not yet, not yet. But now, after all these not yets, the hour is finally here. Now Jesus says, “The hour has come.”
Now he says, now is the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified. But what does this look like? Jesus makes it clear that it’s not what we might think. 24“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The glorification of the Son of Man isn’t his name in lights, a private jet, or his own TV show. It isn’t fame and fortune. It’s not the retaking of Jerusalem, the trouncing of the Romans, culminating in a restored triumphant Israel, as the crowds might’ve expected. No, the glorification of the Son of Man is in his death. His hour, his moment, involves being lifted up. It’s true that after his death and resurrection, Jesus was lifted up from the earth, at the Ascension, where he returned to heaven. But that’s not what he’s talking about here. John makes that clear when he offers that little editorial aside. 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. When Jesus talks about being lifted up he’s primarily talking about being lifted up on the cross. It’s clear the crowds understand Jesus this way, because they begin to wonder what he’s on about. What kind of victory is it? What kind of glory is there in a gory death? Something’s not right here. So, 34The crowds answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
Is Jesus the Messiah or isn’t he? He’s been calling himself the Son of Man, they assumed that meant the same as the Messiah, but have they got it wrong? Even then, it doesn’t compute. According to Daniel’s vision, the place the Son of Man appears in the Old Testament, the Son of Man reigns forever. If the Son of Man is to rule forever, how can he be lifted up? If his is a kingship that will never be destroyed, how can he die? What they’ve failed to understand is what Jesus has been saying all along. It’s only in his death, and resurrection, that the gospel can bear fruit. It’s in Jesus death, and resurrection, that we can have life. It’s only Jesus death, and resurrection, that means we can enter God’s kingdom. The crowds haven’t understood this. They’re troubled by what Jesus is saying.
But if the people are troubled by this concept, Jesus is troubled too! It’d be wrong to think that Jesus skipped and jumped on the way to the cross. Although he went to the Cross silently, like a lamb before the slaughter as Isaiah put it, that doesn’t mean he was excited by the prospect! No, after telling us that the hour is here, Jesus goes on to say, 27“Now my soul is troubled.” He’s in deep distress, he’s in anguish and agony at the thought of what lies ahead. It’s not just the knowledge of the physical torture and suffering he will face. Any human being would shy from that. But there’s something even more dreadful that he must face. Throughout John, we’ve heard Jesus say that he and the Father are one. Did you notice him saying it again here in this passage? It’s there in verses 49 & 50. Over and over again, Jesus has said that the Father and the Son are one. But on the Cross, Jesus doesn’t just suffer physically. He’s completely cut off from the rest of the Godhead. His hour doesn’t just involve physical death, but spiritual. It involves facing the wrath and the judgment of God. It’s a fate worse than death.
You can understand Jesus’ turmoil can’t you? You can understand why faced with that situation, he would ask, “What should I say?” What could you say? Should he pray, “Father, save me from this hour?” Tempting isn’t it? But Jesus is determined. His driven by love and obedience to the Father. He knows this is why he came. This is why the Word became flesh. This is why God entered our world. To face this hour, to die on the Cross for our sake. There’s no turning aside from this. So what he prays instead is, 28“Father, glorify your name.” It’s like the prayer the other gospels record from the Garden of Gethsemane, “not my will, but yours be done.” God the Son desires nothing more than that God the Father might be glorified. That means more to Jesus than life itself. How much does God’s glory mean to you? The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, the time has come for him to be lifted up, but Jesus faces this willingly knowing that on the Cross God’s grace is most clearly revealed to the world, and that in this God is glorified more than anything else.
Last week Chris encouraged us to share the ways we’ve seen God working, to share times we’ve seen God answer prayer. But I doubt any of us have ever had a prayer answered the way Jesus prayer was! No sooner has Jesus prayed, “Father glorify your name,” than an answer comes down from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” From the response of the crowd we can only assume that only Jesus heard the actual words. Everyone else only heard the sound of the voice, but not the words themselves, they’re stuck trying to explain what’s happened. But even if they can’t quite comprehend it, they should have recognised this was pretty miraculous. It’s yet another sign. Even if they couldn’t understand the words just then, Jesus says the words came down for their sake not his. [It’s like his prayer in John 10]. Jesus already knows the Father is with him 100%. The voice was for our sake. That we might be assured that Jesus is who he says he is, that he’s come to do what he says he will do.
But despite this latest sign, in fact despite the fact that Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, many refused to believe in him. Though that’s no real surprise. Moses faced a similar problem. Though the Israelites had seen all that God did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, the great signs and wonders, they refused to believe (Deut. 29:3-4). And as John reminds us, the prophet Isaiah faced the same problem. Even though he brought God’s word to God’s people they refused to believe him. Even when Isaiah spoke of the suffering servant, when he prophesied about the coming of Christ, they didn’t listen. It’s no different now that Christ is here. Because they wouldn’t listen, because they wouldn’t believe, because they continued in their disobedience and rejection, God hardened their hearts. This was God’s judgment on them for rejecting his Son. They missed out on the opportunity to turn and be healed, to turn and be saved. Their time’ s up.
Did you notice that in this passage? Did you notice that it’s not just Jesus’ time that’s come? The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, but now is also the time for the judgment of the world. It’s true that Jesus came not to judge the world, but to save it. And that it’s only when he returns, when he comes again, that he will come in judgment. But when he does, we will be judged on the basis of how we’ve responded to him. Because the words he says are not his own but the Father’s. It’s only in God’s word, it’s only in God’s Son that we have eternal life. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, but the time has also come for all of us to make a decision. How will we respond?
Last week at the first night of CLAY, all the new leaders had to suffer a henna tattoo. Matt A. decorated my arm with these words. I had to ask what YOLO meant. Turns out its shorthand for, ‘You only live once.’ Jesus says that’s true, but how we live determines how long we live. Those who love this life, who choose to live for the pleasures of this world, who choose to live as rulers of their own lives in this world, to live for their own sakes, will ultimately end up loosing their life. They’ll gain a few years of selfish living at the cost of an eternity of separation from God. YOLO, but if you live for yourself, you’ll end up destroying the one life you have.
But for those who hate this world, Jesus says we’ll keep our life forever. That’s not saying we have to be like Marvin the Paranoid Android from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. We don’t have to go around saying, “Life, don’t talk to me about life.” No, what Jesus is saying is that in comparison to the Kingdom of God we have to hate this world. If we put anything before God’s kingdom we’ll end up losing. If we love being in control of our lives, more than we love obeying God, we’ll end up losing our lives. It’s not even enough to believe half-heartedly, or in secret, as John tells us that some of the authorities did. We can’t seek glory and praise from others more than we do from God. Jesus says that if we want to keep our lives forever, we need to believe in him. And we need to follow him. Jesus says it’s only those who serve him, who follow him, who will be with him in heaven. We’ll see more of what he means in a fortnight, where he shows us what true leadership and true service is all about.
But we’ve had a great reminder of what it looks like in the baptism today. Turning to Christ involves repenting of our sins, rejecting selfish living and all that is unjust, renouncing Satan and all that is evil. It’s living every day as a disciple of Christ, loving God with our whole heart, and our neighbour as our self, until our life’s end. It’s living in the light, the light of Christ, and shining as a light to the world. And the promise is that if we do so, if we believe, if we love, if we follow, we will be with Christ. What a promise! What a hope! What a wonderful thing to be baptised into!
