Fifth Sunday Of Lent
JOHN 12:20-33 (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13,14-15; Hebrews 5:7-9)
Jesus’ final Passover in Jerusalem is at hand. He had visited his friends Martha and Mary in Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Out of love for them and their recently deceased brother Lazarus, he restored life to Lazarus whose body was buried four days earlier. His fame continued to grow. This brought on a meeting of the Sanhedrin. At this meeting, presided over by the high priest Caiaphas, it was decided that Jesus must die. The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was Jesus’ triumphal ride into Jerusalem, hailed by the crowds as King of Israel. This was a dangerous situation in a country ripe for rebellion against Roman occupation. The author of this gospel attributes to the Pharisees this statement, “You see that you can do nothing. Behold! The whole world has gone after him.” Those words introduce today’s gospel reading.
Last Sunday’s gospel reading spoke of God’s love for the world, a love so great that he gave his only Son….” Jesus was sent first of all to his own people and through them to the rest of the world. Although John wrote in 1:11, “He came unto his own and his own did not receive him,” still those who did first receive him were all of his own people. There were no Gentiles among Jesus’ first followers. However, John had also written in 1:12, “…but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God.” Thus John recognized from the beginning of his gospel the legitimacy and the success by his time, (the nineties of the first Christian century), of the Christian mission to the Gentiles. In this Sunday’s gospel John again takes up the theme of the mission to the Gentiles, when he writes, “Among those who went up to worship at the feast (the Passover) were some Greeks.”
The Greeks (Gentiles) approached the disciple Philip “who was from Bethsaida.,” located on the NE shore of the Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida, says Matthew, was in Galilee. Not exactly, but we should not expect accuracy in the gospels in geography and political boundaries. The Jordan River was the eastern boundary of Galilee, while Bethsaida is beyond the Jordan to the east. A considerable proportion of the population of Bethsaida must have been Gentile (Greek) and Greek-speaking, a common feature of first century Galilee. The Greeks of this gospel reading approach a disciple who bears a Greek name, Philip. His name means one who loves horses. Their request, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip told Andrew (also a Greek name) who was also from Bethsaida as we know from John 1:44. If Andrew was from Bethsaida, so was Simon Peter, as John 1:44 notes. How they ended up moving to Capernaum is another story.
Andrew and Philip report the Greek visitors to Jesus. He does not say, “Bring ‘em on,” nor any other welcoming words. His reply, “The hour has come for the Son of Man (a title for Jesus in all four gospels) to be glorified.” With an oath Jesus says, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” A strange answer? Above was noted (2nd paragraph) John’s interest in God’s universal salvation through Jesus Christ. Acts 1:8 speaks of the Christian message going out from “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth.” John 4:42 makes the Samaritans, these “half-Jews,” the bridge between the Jews and the world, when they proclaim of Jesus, “We know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” The “world,” the Gentiles, represented by this Greek delegation, now approach Jesus. A few lines later John will tell us the meaning of their approach, when Jesus is depicted saying, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”
Jesus, the grain of wheat, must die to produce “much fruit,” that “all nations, peoples, and lang-uages should serve him,” Daniel 7:14. But Jesus is not the only grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die. Thus John writes, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” To “hate life” in this instance seems to mean to put God first, and the rest will follow. Then the author attaches a promise made by Jesus to those who follow him wholeheartedly, “If anyone wishes to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, there shall my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” Although in the last third of the first Christian century serving Jesus may have meant losing one’s life in mar-tyrdom, it does not always have that meaning. Serving Jesus and being honored by the Father can be accomplished in many ways, many vocations, many professions.
Speaking of the grain that must die to produce much fruit reminds John of Jesus’ approaching death. In the other three gospels we read of Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his arrest. That scene did not become part of John’s gospel. However, there are traces of it, when Jesus says words similar to his anguished expressions in the other gospels, “Now is my soul troubled,” a quote from Psalm 42:5. But that was the end of “the agony” in the Gospel of John. How does Jesus here respond to his troubled soul? “And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No way! That is why I have come to this hour.” How different from Jesus in the other gospels begging that “this cup be taken away.” Here Jesus is ready and eager to go about his mission of being lifted up to draw the world, all people to himself. Obedience to his mission will be for God’s glory, as Jesus says, “Glorify thy Name!” In this gospel, but not in the others, there is an immediate response from the sky, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
