The Rev’d Stephen C. Holton
Christ Church, New Haven, Conn.
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 21, 2021
In the name of God: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.
Today’s gospel passage is situated almost where we are in the calendar year, just a week later; Jesus has entered Jerusalem to prepare for the Passover; we’ll celebrate that entry next week at Palm Sunday. And among all the other people who have come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover are some Greeks—perhaps God-fearers—gentiles who are interested in learning more about the God of Abraham and Sarah; or perhaps they’re gentile converts to the Jewish religion; or perhaps Jewish people who live outside of Jerusalem in the Mediterranean diaspora in a place where Greek is the standard tounge. Or perhaps they’re all three! We don’t know anything about them—except that they seek out out Philip and say to him:
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Perhaps they’ve heard the stories about this Jesus fellow—the crowd that greeted him with palm branches when he entered Jerusalem, the crowds that always seem to gather around him when he preaches, the promise of a new way of being in the world, a different set of values—something he talks about as the kingdom of God—and maybe they’ve even heard the fantastic stories of his friend Lazarus, who people said was dead but now is alive. Maybe they’ve even heard the rumors that Jesus will be taken into custody by the governmental authorities. The tension, the excitement around Jesus is so palpable—and so this Passover they’ve come to Jerusalem, and they seek out Jesus’s group of friends, they find Philip, and they say to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” The Greek idein implies more than just seeing, gazing upon—they want to see Jesus, to perceive him, to come to know him. They want to get to know what it is that Jesus is about—what it is that Jesus is showing. They want to get to know Jesus.
And that’s what everyone’s looking for, right? Evelyn Underhill, the 19th C Anglican theologian, wrote to Archbishop Cosmo Laing on the eve of the Lambeth Convention to say that God is the most interesting thing about religion, and people are hungry for him.
That’s what people are looking for. To know God. Not to know religion; not to “go to church,” not to adopt a moral or ethical system, but to know the ground of all being, the source of all love, to know that they, that you and I, are profoundly loved, that our lives have meaning, and that there is more than the brokenness we see. We are longing to know God. And we meet him in Jesus.
And so these Greeks, they could be you and I, have traveled up to Jerusalem. To meet Jesus.
Somehow Jesus knew that this would be a transforming moment—for his ministry, for these Greeks, and for the world around them all.
And what does Jesus say to them?
“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.” (Jn 12.24-25) Part of what the Johannine writer is saying here is pointing us to the inevitable death of Jesus in just a few days on the cross. These words of Jesus prefigure his own death, his own murder, his own crucifixion.
But, if the Greeks made it to see him, and he is speaking to them in this discourse, and I think the implication is that he is speaking to them, then the words have some meaning for them as well beyond the predictive foreshadowing, the veiled prophecy. The words have implication for the Greeks—and for us as well.
When Jesus first talks about life he means our will, our choices, the way we live in the world—the orderedness of the universe, the systems in which we live. But when he refers to eternal life, he is talking about zoe, how we live both physically and spiritually. How it is that we can live as resurrected people, how we can live differently, even in the world around us.
Jesus is telling them about the kingdom of God come near. That things can be different. That the ultimate reality is different.
Do you worry about change? Do you think perhaps we can’t change?
Jean Vanier was the founder of the L’Arche movement, a network of communities for people of difference. While his legacy is complicated, his writings I still find useful. Vanier tells a story of a friend who had completed his PhD and just gotten a promising job when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The operation that saved his life also impacted his brain functioning; he was no longer able to read. It took several years of anger and several years of processing this new way of being, but eventually his friend found that he had another gift—being with people—listening to them—and he became a counselor. Vanier writes, “Instead of books and ideas, he began to discover the beauty of people. His life was transformed as he entered into a new life of openness to others.”[1]
We are infinitely adaptable. Our systems are not concrete, solid, but rather plastic, mutable, re-formable.
The kingdom of God is not an idealized pipe dream.
It’s simply the reality that we have not yet understood or envisioned.
It’s simply the truth that we have not yet embraced.
It’s where we begin to live—when we see Jesus.
Robert Willis, the dean of Canterbury Cathedral, was once asked, “What is the purpose of the Cathedral at Canterbury? What do you do here?” His response was brief, short, clear. “We show people Jesus.”
That’s what we’re doing in Church, friends. We are being the Body of Christ. We show people Jesus. In a world where there is so much visual stimulation, where there is so much competing for our time and attention, where we can barely catch a breath much less manage to take an hour or two out of our busy lives even on a Sunday, what are we doing here? Could it be that we are looking for Jesus? Could it be that we are being invited to show people Jesus? Can it be that we are invited to see Jesus ourselves?
To ask the question another way, what are you looking for today? What are you longing for? What are you seeking? Are you willing to take a chance on a different life, a different will, a different set of priorities? Are you willing to walk with Jesus in the shadow of the cross? Are you willing to see Jesus?
Everything in the streets of New Haven will tell you how to live—what’s important—what matters. But our Lord offers us something radically different—a different way of living, of being, of existing in the world, in relationship with one another, in covenant with God. A life redeemed, restored, whole. It looks different from the life that the systems of this world promise. And it is beautiful.
Sir, we would see Jesus.
He is there, on the cross
he is there, in the resurrection
he is there, in his holy spirit
He gives himself to you.
give him your life
give him your love
give him your all
Come and see Jesus.
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[1] Jean Vanier, Drawn Into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John: Paulist Press, 2004, pp 211-212.