March 21, 2020 – John 12:20-33
John 12:20-33
“The Whole World Has Gone After Him” – A Sermotion
Fifth Sunday in Lent – March 21, 2021 – Devotion Moment #154
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
In John’s Gospel, Jesus has just entered Jerusalem for the last time.
He goes at the annual time for the festival of Passover,
when many had come from far and near to worship at the temple.
He enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
It seems to still be Palm Sunday when our story begins, with the line,
Now among those who went up to worship at the [Passover] festival were some Greeks.
Scholars are not agreed on who the “Greeks” are exactly in John’s Gospel.
They are either simply Greek non-Jews (Gentiles) who are curious
or Greek Gentiles who wish to become Jews, attracted to Jewish monotheism.
In any case, they are outside “the fold”: they are outsiders in some real sense.
And they want to see Jesus.
I mean, Jesus has attracted a lot of attention.
He was wanted for arrest even before he arrives in Jerusalem.
But on Palm Sunday he is the object of adulation, attracting large crowds,
and some Greeks want to meet him.
The Pharisees, though, seem alarmed and remark to one another just before our passage begins,
“Look! The whole world has gone after him!”
A great deal of Jesus’ concern in John’s Gospel is gathering people together,
or gathering people in around him.
And not just some people – but all people.
“And I,” Jesus says today, “when I am lifted up, I will gather all people to myself.”
This is an astonishing thing to say –
but this inclusion seems to be the whole point of his ministry.
Now usually, “lifted up” is understood to mean, “lifted up on the cross.”
So somehow, the love that loves the whole world – every bit of it, good and bad,
male and female, black and white, Gentile and Jew and on and on and on –
this love has as its program gathering all people together.
And the way God accomplishes this is through creating community in the face of suffering.
It is a strange way, but God is somehow willing to bet the divine life on it.
God, in Jesus, is willing to die for it.
Gathering all peoples together into loving life-filled community is not a new plan.
Isaiah had prophesied about it long ago.
In Isaiah 56 the prophet foresees a day when God will gather together not just Gentile foreigners but those who did not even have a “people” as it was understood at the time: eunuchs.
Do not let the foreigner joined to the LORD say,
“The LORD will surely separate me from his people.”
And do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.”
For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Thus says the LORD GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
This is God’s great program:
gathering and reconciling all people and
restoring the fullness of life in community for which we all were made.
God seemingly wants everyone on earth to experience wellness, dignity, trust, peace, harmony, equity, and the enjoyment of the diverse gifts we all can bring to one another.
What a vision!
And Jesus in John’s Gospel sees his loving death as somehow making this beautiful vision
a reality:
And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all peoples to myself.
It is a grand vision.
It is a vision for the end or goal or fulfillment of all things.
Of course, we are not completely bthere yet.
Nevertheless, a start is made already at the cross on Good Friday,
just five days after our story today.
Out of trauma, grief, and sorrow Jesus creates life and community and love.
It is there at the foot of the cross that Jesus looks down and sees his bereft mother Mary weeping,
now without her son.
It is there at the foot of the cross that Jesus looks down and sees his bereft Beloved Disciple
weeping, now without his closest friend.
He looks at them and says, “Son, here is your mother. Mother, here is your son.”
From trauma, life.
From isolation, community.
From sorrow, love.
Jesus out of a great, great love creates a space for us to bring our trauma, our sorrow,
our disappointment, and our grief.
We are drawn to Jesus’ love with the hope that Jesus can do something about these things.
And it turns out Jesus can.
Jesus draws us to himself and turns us toward each other in love,
just as he did Mary and the Beloved Disciple.
Jesus doesn’t necessarily take away the trauma and grief but rather
transforms them in loving community into something filled with life.
The plain fact is that we need each other.
And the more diverse we are, the more diverse are the gifts we have to share with one another.
The more diverse the people Jesus gathers, the better.
In the context, I am sure what Jesus means when he says today,
“Now the ruler of this world will be driven out” is that division, fear,
and the walls we put up between peoples will be driven out.
Jesus will gather together everyone in love.
While we may all still be different, the dividing lines between us will be no more.
Jesus’ love – a love he is confident we can extend to each other when he commands on
Maundy Thursday, “Love one another as I have loved you” – gathers us together.
This speaks so very clearly to our current situation.
This has been a year of trauma and sorrow and grief.
It has been a year of pandemic that has entailed struggle, and job loss, and isolation,
and so much death.
It has been a year that has unleashed the darkness of the human heart in acts of racism and
a year that has exposed the dark heart of systemic racism in our society.
In typical Jesus’ fashion, Jesus announces the good news that we ought not lose heart.
For the place of trauma and injustice – the place that is most certainly the cross –
is exactly the place where Jesus is with us,
and is the place where love will grow and bring new life.
Almost inexplicably it is the place where Jesus draws us to himself,
each with our own sorrow, each with our own loss, to find comfort in one another,
to minister to each other, and to love one another.
It is precisely for this, Jesus says, that he has come.
Not in order to judge the world but to save it.
It’s amazing to me that we have continued to be drawn to Jesus and his words and
his stories throughout this year,
even though we have been prohibited from doing
the most important thing we can do,
which is gather together.
We are still drawn to Jesus and his great love, and we will gather together again.
The ruler of this world and the divisions it creates will be driven out.
Love will come and comfort will come.
Out of isolation we will find community and care and we will have our life renewed.
Like Jesus we cannot avoid darkness and death but we must trust with
Mary and the Beloved Disciple that Jesus will care for us and
bring us all to newness of life.
Amen
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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