We want to see Jesus – St. John's Episcopal Church

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Rev. Amy Welin:

Late last week, my son noticed that as the snow melted, the remnant of the lawn beneath it looked dead. He did not believe me when I suggested that all the snow was nature’s fertilizer. He could see the wilted, yellowed grass. Really, mom, it looks dead. If the small glacier on our front yard ever melts completely, I trust that the lawn will return to something green and living. That is the pattern of creation.

Some gospels are easier to work with than others. Did you notice the disconnect between the inquiry of the Greeks and Jesus’ response in today’s gospel passage? Part of me hopes that the editor left out a couple of sentences.

Sir we want to see Jesus. On most Sundays, we also might be ready to say that along with the Greeks. We want help. We want to be healed. We long for the presence of God. Is Jesus at home? We need to see him.

Jesus’ response is odd. Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies it remains but a single grain. Although this is a prophetic teaching, it is a strange greeting. It sounds like a non sequitur: it does not seem to fit in conversation. Some commentators think that Jesus was responding in the context of Greek philosophy, which valued a paradoxical perspective on the meaning of life. But his comments would seem to fit better in a scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian than in the gospel, only we do not dare laugh.

Today’s gospel passage is Jesus’ last public dialogue in the Gospel of John. It takes place six days before his crucifixion. The rest of his conversations (called the Farewell Discourse) are private and shared with his closest disciples. The crowd, which has gathered in Jerusalem for Passover, is looking for a Messiah who will drive out the Roman conquerors and will establish a victorious kingdom. They also want to see Jesus.

It is for this reason that I have come to this hour. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.

Jesus indicates that his death is the beginning of something new for God. Would it not be more encouraging to turn our eyes to something positive and upbeat? How can it be that to see Jesus turns our eyes to the cross?

Have you noticed how often there is a disconnect between our expectation and Jesus’ truth? Responding to the dilemmas of life – issues of justice, value judgments, family responsibilities – Jesus offers profound insights that are not easily understood. What does it mean to give all you have to the poor? What does it mean to let the dead bury the dead? Following Jesus in faith is filled with mystery and the rewards are not easily articulated in the expected ways. The Son of God is willing to die, in order to offer us life. He invites us to accept the death of our self-interest in order to find life in God. There is no promise of financial gain, but there are profound riches. There is no promise of power for us, but there is power from God. We may lose everything, and still we will gain everything. We want security and stability and the Prince of Peace shows us the cross.

We have entered a way of being in which God’s truthful responses to our questions can feel like non-sequiturs. We ask for new life, and Jesus responds with a paradoxical Yes – after the seed dies.

If we think about it, that can be comforting. God does not falsely promise that the life of the faithful will be made perfectly smooth. Because that would be a lie. Our lives are always filled with bumps and twists and unexpected endings. Jesus promises that in all the moments of painful disconnection, when we have to confront death in its many forms, we are walking over holy ground, very close to him.

Having faith in Jesus is not about simplistic belief, or comfort, or satisfying our spiritual dreams. No, the point of following Jesus is that we might be drawn more deeply into the kingdom of God through our love, our service, and our sacrifice for those around us. Jesus comes to demonstrate God’s strength through vulnerability. Jesus reveals God’s power through what appears weak in the eyes of the world. Jesus brings God’s justice through love, mercy and forgiveness. And he calls those who would follow him into the very same kind of life and love.

And it is all very mysterious. Even the answers we seek, we may not understand. Because, really, can we expect to understand the mind of God?

Among the faithful, we have a lot of company. Do you think that Miriam of Nazareth had any idea of what she was getting into when she agreed to bear a son, who would be the Messiah? Did you think that any of Jesus’ disciples had any idea of what the kingdom of God brought by the Messiah would look like?

Jesus is the high priest of a very unusual sort of religion. He regularly turns religious expectation on its head. He is a puzzling Messiah. He refuses to be made into a king. He welcomes the outcast, the broken, the stranger, and he scolds the elite. He is willing to sacrifice himself, and not sinners. He embraces death, and promises that we shall have eternal life. He invites us to imitate him. Jesus invites us to allow God to write the words of a new covenant on our hearts – not to eliminate the old covenant of the Chosen People – but to expand its promise to all people – even to the ones who idolized false gods.

In a world that is filled with unedifying paradoxes – a world in which public servants vote to cut food stamp benefits while they expect taxpayers to subsidize their luxurious lifestyle, religion is used as an excuse for senseless violence, and the seven deadly sins are now considered entertaining – Jesus offers us a genuinely edifying spiritual paradox. We cry out we want to see you, Jesus: save us, help us, fix us – and Jesus responds: I am right here. Let go of your anxiety. Your life is saved – by my death. You have the power to become the help that you beg for. You do not need to be fixed: I can work with your quirks. You can see the Kingdom I have prepared: it is within your hearts.

The Kingdom of God and its paradoxical ruler are among us. It is not what we expected.
It is better and it is bigger than we thought. It rises out of the end of life as we knew it.

We want to see Jesus.

All we need to do is to open our eyes.