First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm: Ps 51:3-4,12-15
Epistle: Hebrews 5:7-9
Gospel: John 12:20-33
“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
The perfect line for Passion Sunday. As we enter the Passiontide we begin the walk with Jesus that leads to His crucifixion, that leads to His being lifted up from the earth for all to see. We will see Jesus — clearly and in plain view and we will know the truth.
Stuff is happening fast.
The daily readings for the next week-and-a-half show Jesus in and around Jerusalem. Things are happening and they are happening fast.
On Monday the woman caught in adultery is brought to Him, the Pharisees and scribes seeking to use her to trap Jesus. On Tuesday He will tell the Pharisees that He is I Am — that He is God. On Wednesday and Thursday He indicates that the people would truly love Him if they loved God as they claimed. He once again notes that He is I Am — that He is God. Thursday leaves Jesus in the temple with the Jews as they are picking up stones, preparing to stone Him. On Friday Jesus uses their words, their very stones, to indict them of unbelief. He clearly says that He is God’s Son. On Saturday the plot is hatched. The Jewish leaders were very angry. The raising of Lazarus threatened their position and their positions. Jesus is left in Ephraim near the desert. The chief priest and Pharisees have given orders. Jesus was to be apprehended. All the while they plotted how to kill Him. Next Sunday Jesus will enter Jerusalem in triumph to the shouts of Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. The following Monday He will go to a banquet in Bethany. Lazarus will be there, and Mary will bring costly perfume. She will anoint His feet and dry them with her hair. By Wednesday the plotting is complete. Judas goes to the chief priest and the Pharisees to exchange Jesus for silver.
Jesus is in plan view.
All this happens with Jesus in plain view. Jesus knew where the path, through the Passiontide, would lead. Its inexorable conclusion was the cross. Jesus did not hide from it. He didn’t avoid the temple, the scribes, the Pharisees. He knew that His standing forth would fulfill what He had said:
—And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself.”—¨
The last challenges are made.
Did you ever notice how we like to avoid confrontation. I know that there are political junkies out there who will vociferously debate anyone, but for the most part we walk away from hot-button, controversial issue. Our mantra is: ‘You have your position, I have mine. God bless you, God bless me.’
Jesus wasn’t having any of that – because He is I Am — He is God. As God He represents absolute truth. Jesus doesn’t, and in fact couldn’t walk away from confrontations, from telling the Jewish leaders that they were not sons of Abraham, that they were wrong, that they didn’t know or love God. He knew the truth. Regardless of the challenges He had to represent truth — and in that He spoke a truth that challenged their hearts. Jesus had to tell it like it is, even if it meant the cross.
We are challenged – to face Jesus on the cross
Jesus challenges us. During the Passiontide we are challenged to face Jesus on the cross — to face the truth of Jesus on the cross. Jesus speaks a truth from the cross that challenges our hearts.
Today the Holy Cross is covered in purple. On Good Friday it will be revealed once again, in all its reality. Today we cannot see the cross, its physical representation. We have to rely on the vision of the cross that is in our hearts, that speaks the truth to us.
We cannot avoid that confrontation. In these last days Jesus speaks to us ever more clearly, about our comfortable ‘You have your position, I have mine’ way of living. We are called to face the image of the cross in us, we who died with Jesus in baptism. We are called to face the truth in our lives and to represent that truth in the world.
In facing Him our hearts are changed
In facing the cross we are changed. Its truth is simple yet incomprehensible. There is a hymn by Gillian Welch called By The Mark. In it Gillian Welch proclaims:
I will know my savior
—¨By the mark where the nails have been —¨—¨
By the mark where the nails have been
By the sign upon his precious skin
—¨I will know my savior when I come to him—¨
By the mark where the nails have been
In facing Him our perspective is changed
We are changed because all perspective, all thought, all that is claimed as truth must be seen through the wounds Jesus suffered for us. The singer rightly knows that Jesus’ gloriously resurrected body maintains those marks. They won’t magically disappear because it is their cost that saves us and makes us whole. Knowing this truth opens all truth to us.
The truth is that our marks, our sins, our untruths have disappeared. Seen through the vision of the cross all the weakness in us is washed away and we are made whole, clean, and ready — ready to bear witness to the very truth represented by the cross. We are made ready to bear witness to the fact that the cross saves, that it gains heaven for those who have faith in Jesus Christ.
In facing Him we live.
In facing Jesus, in going to see Him on the cross — daily, from hour to hour, from moment to moment, we gain life. Jesus says:
—Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.—
The fruit that has come from the cross is us. We are the witnesses to, and heralds of, the truth. The fruit of the cross is a people, a body that lives in the truth, a truth that cannot be compromised or hidden. The world’s way, the way of the Pharisees is falsehood. Those positions, the current trends and the way of worldly leaders is shown to be a way without salvation, without life, a dead end.
Gillian Welch’s hymn tells us:
A man of riches
May claim a crown of jewels
But the king of heaven
Can be told from the prince of fools
By the mark where the nails have been
With that truth we confidently point to the cross — and to the marks where the nails had been — and we can say, ‘This is the truth of God; the truth that makes us citizens of heaven.’
The Greeks came looking to see Jesus. Maybe they wanted a spectacle. Maybe they wanted a miracle so they could report it to the folks back home. ‘Oh Susanna, it was so cool, I was there and Jesus…’
My friends it was. It was more than cool, it was great! We were there and Jesus took up the cross for us. We were there when He was raised on high for us. We were there and we heard and saw the truth. We were there and we became the fruit of that has grown up from the life He gave for us. We were there so we can say. ‘I know the truth because I see the cross. I see the cross and I know that eternal life awaits me.’
“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
Look upon Him, in the vision of the cross you carry in your hearts during this Passiontide. That truth, those wounds speak to us. They tell us that Jesus is our Savior. They tell us the truth. They tell us that by looking at Him on the cross we see the truth, the truth that has saved us, that saves the world. Amen.
