April 2, 2006
Fifth Sunday in the Season of Lent
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see 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. 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. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 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.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
John 12:20-33 (NRSVA)
A paradox, according to Funk & Wagnall’s dictionary, is a statement seemingly absurd or contradictory, yet in fact true. We don’t understand something – yet it works anyway. A man sitting in his office late one evening nede some help. He went to the corridor and yelled, Is anyone out there? A voice came back, I’m here.
The man asked, How do you spell ‘simultaneous’? After a long pause the voice answered as if fading in the night, There’s nobody out here!
The gospel itself is a paradox – it seems absurd that God would die for His creation. The gospel is full of paradoxes; and we are called to live LIFE IN PARADOX!
The Greeks came to the disciple of Jesus and said they needed a conference with the Master. That is our desire this morning; we wish to see the God-Man of paradox. We may be like the disciples, willing to see what we want, ignoring the point He wants us to see. Jesus had just entered town and cleaned house at the temple. The crowds saw a “Son of Man”, a conqueror of men. The Greeks were noted for their thirst for knowing…they wanted to see this ruler.
Palm Sunday was a triumph, and Jesus was a hot commodity. Had the kingdom of God really come to Jerusalem? This is the picture of paradox…the disciples expected a crown; the rabbi from Nazareth kept talking about a cross. Our text is a continuation of the terms of Jesus’ paradox – absurd statements that are absolutely true.
PARADOX #1. LIFE ONLY COMES THROUGH DEATH
Jesus talks about wheat dying. The illustration of wheat is more than an agricultural lesson; it is the basis for spiritual life. The fact is that wheat is ineffective when it is stored-up in a barn somewhere. It must be planted in order to bring forth a crop.
The story is told of a man who claimed to have “gotten religion”. An old drinking buddy called him up and said, Hear you got religion. Sure have, was the reply.
I suppose you’ll be goin’ to church every Sunday now.
That’s right; started 5 weeks ago…ain’t missed a Sunday.
And I suppose you’re going to stop drinkin’, smokin’ & cussin’ now.
That’s for sure…good man cain’t do that.
Remembering how much money the new convert had borrowed from him several years prior, he jabbed,
And I suppose since you got religion you’ll be a-payin’ yer debts.
Now wait a minute, we was talkin’ bout religion, not business!
The principle is LIFE ONLY COMES THROUGH DEATH. The application, spiritually-speaking is that new life in Christ comes when we fully bury our personal control over life. The word “fall” is applied to the wheat in Jesus’ statement. It carries the meaning in Greek of being prostrate, flat out on your face before God. If we want eternal life there must be an eternal death of the pride of life. We must admit our need of a Savior.
How do you have a death experience with Christ? You hand yourself over to Him; it is a choice of free will. It is similar to banking. You have some money and wish to open a bank account. You decide on a local bank. You look it over, study its financial statement and security measures. You check the references of its board and officers. Up to this point you have been operating on reason and intellect. But, then you take the plunge; you hand your money over to the teller, and she receives it from you. It took faith in that bank to hand over the cash!
This is the “leap of faith” required for eternal life. You have to leap-into counting the old life dead – as with Paul, you crucify the old man and take your place with Christ on the cross. You believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, and He will do the same for you. You accept His finished work of salvation…His death means your life. Your death means receiving His life. Paradox!
A second absurd, contradictory but true statement:
PARADOX #2. FOLLOWING IS LEADING
I have a young friend who is a materialistic Trump wanna-be. His favorite expression is, I’m loving life! What he means is – I’m doing what I want, when I want, and nobody’s giving me any hassle about it, and ain’t that good!!!!! What he hasn’t learned is that life is not to be found in gathering more possessions until you can’t count it all. That is the way some people go through life, with a catcher’s mitt on each hand.
There was a family of materialistic Bostonians who left the crowded city for Montana and the wide-open spaces. They bought a ranch to raise cattle. A month later some friends came for a visit and asked if they had named the place yet. The man explained that he, his wife and four kids all wanted a different name, so they compromised and named it the Bar-J Suzy-Q Flying-W Lazy-Y Last Chance Big Kahuna Cattle Ranch. Where are the cattle? asked the visitor. Ah, well, actually we don’t have any…none survived the branding.
“More” is not always the answer. The race for toys has claimed more than its share of victims.
Following…servanthood; it is a word that doesn’t interest too many Christians these days. What did Jesus mean when he said to serve? It comes from two words joined together.
The word (diakoneo) means to wait on. We get our English equivalent deacon, or servant from the word. The other word (servant) means literally union on the road. So Jesus is saying something like, Join me on the road of serving others.
The world in which we live says, Grab on, hold tightly, squeeze til you get what you want. Jesus teaches the paradox that you can never touch what you grab for…and you cannot keep what you think you’re holding. The moment you think you’ve piled-up the good life for yourself – made your mark – it will come crashing-down around you like the twin towers on 9-11. In wanting to be-served, you lose all.
The most well-known fact about a boomerang is that, once- thrown, it will return to the thrower. The least-remembered reality is that the boomerang is intended to be used as a weapon. It only returns when it misses the target.
You can keep thinking that throwing yourself at life with more effort, more wisdom, more money, more, more, more – will somehow change it all in your favor. But, here you find that everything you’ve thrown has missed the target of new life. What is coming back is slightly more used than when you threw it. The paradox is that in keeping your life, building your life, living your own life, you have wasted all the life that was in you.
The believer leads by following Jesus. It is the only target he sees. He, himself is the boomerang, but there is no return trip. It is one-way, all the way to the Kingdom. Absurd, contradictory in the eyes of the world…but absolutely true!
