Passover was always an exciting time to be in Jerusalem. The streets were packed with pilgrims and visitors and sightseers from all over the Mediterranean region. The shops and restaurants and inns were doing a brisk business as usual. But something was different this year. There was something in the air … you could feel it … a heightened sense of excitement … of expectation … and, at the same time, a sense, and undertone of tension. It seemed like there were a lot more Temple and Roman guards patrolling the streets than usual … and there were clumps of religious leaders and officials in the markets and on the street corners with their heads together talking very seriously about something in whispered tones … casting furtive, anxious looks at the crowds milling around. There was a strange mixture of excitement, celebration, reverence, and foreboding that hung in the air above the city.
And then a shout went up. Like a wave, it started at the East Gate and rippled through the streets of the packed city. “He’s here! He’s Here!” People began breaking off palm branches and waving them, shouting: “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! The King … the Messiah … of Israel has come riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.”
A stranger asks, “What’s going on?”
… and they are told: “It’s Jesus! Jesus has arrived!”
“Who?”
“Jesus of Nazareth! Haven’t you heard? The man is an amazing prophet. He’s healed people … His teachings rival that of the greatest rabbis. Why, just a few days ago He raised His friend from the dead!”
“He did what? He brought his dead friend back from the grave?”
“Yes! His friend, Lazarus, who lives in the next town over, had been dead for four days … four days! And now he’s here, celebrating the Passover with his sisters, Martha and Mary.
“How can this be true? Four days? He brought a man back to life after being dead for four days! I don’t believe it!” the visitor scoffs.
“I don’t blame you, Sir, but a friend of mine was in Bethany and he saw it happen! I’ll introduce you to him if you want. I’m telling you, this Jesus of Nazareth is not only great prophet like Elijah but He has come to be our king and free us from the oppression of Rome! Hosanna! Hosanna! Jesus has come to deliver us!”
At the beginning of John’s gospel, he describes Jesus as “the True Light, which enlightens everyone” (John 1:9). This True Light came to shine in the darkness of this world which not only didn’t welcome the True Light, says the Apostle John, but tried to put it out (John 1:5). “He was in the world,” says John, “and the world came into being through Him … yet the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and His own people did not accept Him” (v. 10-11).
There are two central images or themes in John’s gospel. The first is the contrast between light and darkness. Darkness can be physical … as in the absence of light or physical blindness. Darkness also represents intellectual or spiritual darkness, an intellectual or spiritual “blindness” if you will. Jesus is the “Light” that brought actual, physical sight to the blind and intellectual and spiritual sight to the spiritually blind. The second image in John’s gospel is “signs.” “Signs” are God’s way of revealing His Light, His Son, to the world. “Signs” or “miracles” were physical proof of who Jesus was and what He came to do: to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:16, Isaiah 61:1-2). Jesus’ “signs” were like flashes of light in the darkness in that they opened the eyes and the minds of those who were in the dark about Jesus and the spiritual truths that He came to proclaim. They also revealed the minds and hearts of those who chose to reject the signs and remain in spiritual darkness … and we see all this come to head when Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time.
Just before Jesus entered Jerusalem, He provided the world with one whooper of a “sign” … He raised His friend, Lazarus, from the dead … a pretty amazing and convincing “sign,” you agree, amen? As a result of this “sign” or “miracle,” says the Apostle John, “many of the Jews therefore, who had come along with Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him” (John 11:45).
And yet, for all the signs and miracles, says John, the “Light [had] come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of the Light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). When the religious leaders heard about Jesus’ miraculous feat in Bethany, were their eyes open to the spiritual truth of who Jesus was? Did the truth of who Jesus was dispel the darkness of their spiritual blindness? Nope! After hearing that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, they got together and held a secret meeting.
“What are we to do?” they wring their hands. “This man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him … and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation” (John 11:47-48). And so, as John told us in the beginning of his gospel, the darkness sought to overcome the Light because “all who do evil hate the Light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed” (John 3:20) … so, they sought to put out the Light by having Jesus put to death. Even as the crowds were waving palms and laying down their coats and shouting “Hosanna” … Deliver us!” … the “chief priests were planning on putting Lazarus to death since it was on account of him that many Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus” (John 12:10).
Do you see what’s happening here? Because of Lazarus … a “sign” of Jesus’ great power … people were beginning to see the “light” of who Jesus was … so the religious leaders sought to get rid of the “sign” by killing Lazarus … to extinguish Jesus’ “light” by putting an end to the source of these “signs” … Jesus.
Among those who came to “see” Jesus were some Greek visitors or pilgrims who had come to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. They came to Philip … who was Greek himself … and asked him to introduce them to Jesus. “Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them: ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified’” (John 12: 21-23).
A curious thing for Jesus to say, don’t you think? Andrew and Philip tell Him that a group of Greeks want to meet Him and His answer isn’t to bring them to Him or to bring Him to them. He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23).
Hummm … that’s it! John just leaves it there. We don’t know if Jesus ever got to meet with these Greek pilgrims or not. I’d like to think that they did because it’s hard for me to imagine that Jesus would turn away anyone who sought Him.
John cuts it off there for a reason. You see, for John, the issue isn’t whether these Greek visitors got to meet Jesus or not. What matters to John … and what he wants to draw our attention to … is what the Greeks represented to Jesus. For Jesus, the Greek pilgrims’ request to see Him was an important “sign” … a sign that what He was about to do would be the greatest “sign” of God’s love … not just for His chosen people, the Jews, but for the whole world. His ministry was not just for the people of Israel … it was for the whole world … for all of God’s children. What He was about to do was for all the people … all the nations … for all the races … Greeks, Jews, Romans, Americans, Latin Americans, Africans, Asians, Europeans, male, female, young, old … you … me.
Jesus was not in the dark about God’s plans … for God’s plans were His plans. The arrival of the Greek visitors was a disturbing and foreboding sign for Jesus. “Now, my soul is troubled,” Jesus confesses (John 12:27). Jesus understood the meaning of the sign. He knew what the coming of the Greek visitors represented. He was very aware of what He must now do and what He must now face … the trial that He’s about to endure.
Jesus doesn’t argue with His Father. He doesn’t bargain or barter with God. He understands that His mission must be fulfilled. “And what should I say? Father, save me from this hour? No … it is for this reason that I have come to this hour,” says Jesus. “Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:27-28).
Jesus entered this world for a reason … for a purpose … and that purpose must be completed. The fulfillment of that mission is to be the ultimate defeat of Darkness! … and that defeat will then become the greatest sign of hope for ALL the world!
Out of the darkest moment in the world’s history … the crucifixion of God’s Son … would shine the Light of Salvation and Eternal Life! And it would shine for all the world to “see” … the greatest “sign” of God’s power and love, God’s mercy and grace the world has ever “seen.” That ought to get you shaking your palms, amen?
Remember what John said at the beginning of his gospel … “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The Greek’s request was a “sign” that the “hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (v. 23) and now, says Jesus, the judgment that John spoke of earlier is here. “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:31-32). “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John claims that Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death He was to die (v. 33) … that of being lifted up on the cross … but I think Jesus was also speaking of the time to come when He, like Lazarus, would step out of His tomb, and be lifted up to Heaven and seated at His rightful place beside His Father.
Jesus is looking past the waving palms. He is looking past the people shouting “Hosanna!” He is looking past the guards … past the Romans … past the religious leaders … and fixing His gaze and His resolve upon the cross. Jesus said that it was for this reason … for the cross … that He came to this hour. He asked God, His Father, to glorify what He is about to do … and His Father assures Him: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again” (John 12:28).
The cross … lifted up … a sign for all the world to see. It was meant to be seen as a judgment against Jesus but it became a judgment against us. It was our sins that that put Jesus on that cross. Jesus was without sin, remember? Jesus was guilty of no crime. He was the perfect sacrifice … God’s Lamb without defect or blemish … who was sacrificed on our behalf … to atone for our sins. It was our rejection of God that required Jesus to have to experience, to undergo, to endure this dramatic act of self-sacrifice for us.
The cross … a sign that the Darkness had won … a sign of Satan’s victory over the Son of Man … but in reality, it became a “sign,” a symbol of Jesus’ victory over Satan. “Now is the judgement of this world,” says Jesus, “now the ruler of this world will be driven out” (John 12:31). The cross … lifted up … a sign … a symbol … and banner of Jesus’ victory and Satan’s defeat! The cross … where Satan sought to show His power but whose power was neutralized and defeated before all the world. The cross … where Satan was defeated … where he was stripped of his power. The cross … where Jesus was lifted up so that Satan could no longer hold our sins over heads. The cross … an eternal reminder and sign that God so loved the world. The cross … an eternal reminder and sign that the Darkness could not overcome the Light. The cross … an eternal reminder and sign that those who believe in Jesus are not condemned. The cross … once a symbol of suffering and shame … is the now the means by which Jesus is exulted. “And I, when lifted up from the earth,” says Jesus, “will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32) … a truth revealed by the request of the Greek visitors to meet with Jesus.
I have already mentioned that Jesus’ being “lifted up” had two meanings … the literal meaning of being physically “lifted up” on the cross itself … and His resurrection when He will be lifted up out of the grave and lifted up to Heaven. But there is a another meaning … His being “lifted up” in the hearts and minds of those He came to save … lifted up in your heart and mine … where He will be forever “exulted” … lifted up in praise and glory and honor! The instrument of His death … meant to degrade and humiliate Him … becomes the instrument of our salvation and His exaltation.
And finally, His being “lifted up” means that the world can “see” Him and be drawn to Him. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” says the Apostle John, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have external life” (John 3:14-15). The cross was the only way that our separation from God could be overcome. Jesus said that no one could come to Him unless the Father lifted Him up. The cross is the means by which God draws people to Jesus. The lifting up of Christ on the Cross … His atoning sacrifice … is the means by which God is reconciling the world to Him.
Jesus didn’t come for palm branches or shouts of praise. He came for the cross! At the cross He overcame the Darkness. The battle between the Light and the Dark was over … the judgment was in … and the Darkness lost. The cross became a beacon of hope shining in our dark, sin-filled world, showing us the way back to the Father. And it is still showing us the way back to the Father, amen? The cross is the power by which God is drawing the world to Himself, drawing all who see the “Light” and believe in Him. Jesus is the “Light” that is beckoning and drawing us into the Kingdom of Heaven. The cross is the ultimate “sign” of God’s victory over sin.
Seeing and not seeing. Darkness and blindness. Knowledge and light. John describes Jesus as the “Light of the World.” But here, in Jerusalem, Jesus describes Himself as a “fading light.” “The light is with you for a little longer,” Jesus tells His disciples and followers. “Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light” (John 12:35-36).
A “fading light.” It is a striking and disturbing image, is it not? We like to put our faith in the stability of Jesus. We love scriptures that affirm that Jesus is the same … yesterday, today, and forever. We take comfort in the thought that Christ will never fail us nor forsake us … so it comes as a jarring note to realize that all through the Gospel of John Jesus is warning us that in some real sense He will not always be there. He will not always be at hand. For example, while teaching at the Temple one day, Jesus declared: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12) … and then, looking at the scoffers and religious leaders who came to find fault with Him, He said: “I am going away and you will search for me but you will die in your sins. Where I am going you can not come” (John 8:21).
To get His disciples to look past the waving palms … to look past the adoring crowds … He tells them that His light will soon fade. He urges them to take advantage of the time that they have left with Him … while they have the light … because the light is fading. In essence, Jesus is letting them know that “Emmanuel” … “God Among Us” … “God Incarnate” … will not stay that way for much longer. Soon He will no longer be able to shed His light abroad in their darkness … to give them new wisdom … to offer them new spiritual insights … at least not in the form or the way that they were used to.
Such love! He knows that His time with them is about to come to and so He encourages them to make use of every minute and second that they have left with Him. The Light is with them … for the moment … but it is fading and will soon appear to be snuffed out forever. “Don’t fritter and waste the time you have left with me,” He begs. “Walk while you have the light. The Light is only going to be with you for a little while longer … in this case, just a few more days. Do not let the Darkness overtake you. Believe in the light that you might become children of light.”
Again, don’t miss Jesus’ rich play and careful use of imagery. In a few days, the disciples and Jesus’ followers’ hearts will be filled with sadness. They will watch as the world puts out the Light of the world … at the same time snuffing out their hopes, their dreams, their expectations. Their world will sink into darkness … a darkness that will paralyze them. For three days, they will sit in a dark room … hiding … lost … not knowing which way to move or what to do … their hearts, their world, their future overcome with darkness … and it will appear that Darkness will have had the final word.
“Do not let the darkness overtake you.” Jesus said that to His disciples over 2,000 years ago … He speaking those same words of hope and encouragement to you and me this morning. It still seems like the Light and the Dark are battling it out and, if you’ve been listening to the all the news lately, as we all have been … it seems like the whole world is being swallowed up in impending doom and darkness, doesn’t it? The pandemic will be followed by a worldwide economic collapse the world has never seen … a least not for a long time. Right now, our future seems uncertain. We stand today in the exact same spot as the disciples did when Jesus spoke these words: “Do not let the Darkness overtake you” (v. 35) … and like the disciples, Jesus is calling us to make a choice. We can either walk in the darkness or we can look to the cross and remember that we are children of the Light – with a capital “L.” So long as we remember that we are children of the Light, the darkness can not overtake us. We can throw in the towel and bury our heads in the sand … we can sit in our fear like the disciples did for three days … we can throw up our hands and wail, “Oh, well … what’s the use … it’s all over now!”
Or …
We can listen and heed the words of Christ and use them to shine a light of hope and truth into our despair … we can walk in the light of God’s word, God’s truth, and God’s wisdom. We can keep walking because we are not children of darkness but children of Light. We keep walking towards the light so that we are not overcome by the darkness that is all around us, amen?
Look … none of us knows how much time we have left on this earth. None of us knows how much longer we have to do Kingdom work. I’m not one of those who goes around looking for signs of the Second Coming behind every headline or disaster … but I do feel like something is in the air, a growing sense of urgency, don’t you? Who knows how much time we have before some mad man … or woman … in Libya or Iran or Syria or Moscow or Beijing or Washington or Paris or London … will punch a few buttons and unleash a terrible nuclear fury upon us or “accidentally” infect the whole world with a microscopic virus, amen? Who knows how much longer we have before the Sovereign Lord of all time chooses to step into our present darkness … or step down from Heaven and declare that the world and humanity’s time is up. Who knows how much time we have personally? Who, as the Bible asked, knows the span of their years? And that goes for us as a church or this world, for that matter.
When the Savior comes … when the Light of Heaven comes down into the darkness of this world again … what will He find us doing? Will He find us wallowing in the darkness of our despair or busy doing Kingdom work? We are called to walk in the light until He either calls us home or comes to get us, amen? That goes for us as individuals and that goes for us as a church. Are we children of Light? Do we keep walking in the light of His Word, His teachings, His promises? Have we let the darkness overtake us and make us children of darkness, despair, hopelessness?
“Children of the Light” – with a capital “L.” I don’t know about you, but I love the sound of that. “Children of the Light.” If we place our faith and our trust in Jesus … if we have, indeed, through our faith in Jesus become “Children of His Light” … then we must surely accept His call and follow His example and share that Light, His light, the light that shine within us, that shines within our hearts with the world … with all who still walk in darkness, amen?
It can be a dark world … I know! And I also know that there are many, many people in the world today who walk in darkness … who don’t know where they are going … who are without hope, without guidance, without direction … who need a light to show them the way. As “Children of the Light,” how can we not allow God’s Light to shine in us and through us so that those who are living in darkness can see His great light?
As “Children of the Light,” we choose to walk in the light. We walk in faith … we share our faith … we put our faith into action. We don’t just talk the talk … we walk the walk … and we light the way for others. If we don’t walk in the light, then we are standing still in the darkness, right? And if we stop walking in the light and stand still and allow the darkness to overcome us, guess what? The light … even the light of Jesus … will gradually fade from our lives and we will once again find ourselves struggling against the darkness of doubt … the darkness of fear … the darkness of anger … the darkness of hate … the darkness of despair … the darkness of hopelessness. We can only shed light if we walk in the light, amen? We must keep living in the light, seeking the light, walking in the light … the Light of Jesus Christ … the Light of the Holy Spirit … the Light that sustains us, that upholds us, that pushes us forward and gives us the means to keep walking in the Light. “I have come as light into the world,” says Jesus, “so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness” (John 12:46). But the choice to walk in the light or in the darkness is ours alone.
When Luciano Pavarotti … a very well-known and famous opera tenor … was a boy, his father, who was a baker, recognized the potential musical talent of his son. “He urged me to work hard to develop my voice,” said Pavarotti. “Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Moderna, Italy, took me on as one of his pupils … but I also wanted to enroll in a local teacher’s college. On graduating from high school, I asked my father, ‘Shall I be a teacher or a singer?’ My father replied, ‘Luciano, if you try to sit on two chairs you will fall between them. The best thing you can do in life is sit in one chair at a time.’ I chose one … to be a singer. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven years to reach the Metropolitan opera. And now I think whether it’s laying bricks, writing a book … whatever we chose, we should give ourselves to it.”
[Pause.] Well … what is it going to be? Darkness … or Light? As Psychologist and Author William James put it: “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it … that in itself is a … choice.”
The cross is Jesus’ final call for belief. The cross is the last invitation for salvation. When Jesus said that the light was only going to be with us for a little while longer, He knew that many would come to see the light … as the Disciples did … and would be drawn to the cross after His death and resurrection and be saved from their sin and restored into a new and right relationship with God … and He knew that others would not … that they would choose to remain in the dark where their evil deeds would remain hidden from the world but, unfortunately, not from themselves, I’m afraid.
Shining as lights to a world often consumed by darkness is tough work but the strength of God will allow us to do it. It is God’s strength and power at work within us that can bring light and hope to a world badly in need of light and hope.
Today we wave the palms. Today we shout “Hosanna!” But today we also look past the palms and past the all the music and the praise to the cross so that we can be children of light … God’s “Children of Light” – with a capital “L,” amen?
Let us pray …
Lord Jesus:
They lined streets …
They waved palm branches …
They spread their cloaks before You …
They sang Your praises … shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord … the King of Israel.”
Yet they failed to “see” … to understand … that the King they welcomed was a servant king …
- A king who came, not with an army but armed only with the sacrificial love of God poured out on the cross
- A weapon so powerful not even death could stand against it!
Lord God, as we sing and wave our palms, as we sing Your praises and shout “Hosanna!”
- May we remember also that which You were riding towards …
The suffering and the rejection … the pain and humiliation … of the cross
Let us look forward to the joy of Easter Day …
- When you rose from the dead to live and reign forever
Help us as we daily lay our lives before You …
- Help us to be “Children of Light” … Children of Your Light
- Help us to live the resurrection life that acknowledges You as Lord and Savior of our lives
By the light and love of Your most holy Son, Jesus, we pray …
- And would all my brothers and sisters of the Light make it so by saying “amen.
