The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified

 

 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.  Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."  Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.  But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.  Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."

 

- John 12:20–26 

 

Yesterday we read that a great many of those among the ruling parties of the temple knew that Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.  But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of those from Jerusalem went away and believed in Jesus.  The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:  "Hosanna!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  The King of Israel!"  Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:  "Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt."  His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.  Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness.  For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.  The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, "You see that you are accomplishing nothing.  Look, the world has gone after Him!"

 

 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.  Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."  Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.   But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified."  My study bible comments that these Greeks were Gentiles who believed in the God of Abraham, who came to participate in the Passover feast.  That they are still called "Greeks" shows that they were not yet full converts to Judaism.  It says that as Jesus had taught His disciples not to go to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5, 15:24), the disciples approach Him before bringing these inquirers.  Glorified is a reference to Christ's death on the Cross.  My study bible adds that His obscure response indicates two things.  First, the answer that these Greeks (or rather, Greek-speakers) are seeking will not be found in words, but rather in the Cross.  And second, that the Cross will be the event that opens all manner of grace to the Gentiles.

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."  The image of the grain of wheat dying in order to bear fruit gives a particular significance to Christ's death on the Cross:  that it will give life to the world (John 6:51).  My study bible explains a custom common to many Orthodox churches:  boiled wheat is sweetened and spiced, and served at memorial services for the departed faithful, in order to affirm God's promise that those who have died in Christ will rise again to life.

 

 Christ's powerful words in today's reading are probably the most profound in the Gospel, in terms of not just their significance and meaning. but the power of the events themselves that Christ describes here, the life that comes from His sacrifice on the Cross.  The grain of wheat is a powerful image:  a tiny grain, falling to the ground, broken.  It dies, but it does so to give life, and life abundantly.  As Jesus says, it produces much grain.  This is an unshakeable image.   All too often, we tend to think that our heroes are just that:  images to look up to, people who sacrificed for an entire group, leaders who stand head and shoulders above everyone else.  But Jesus does not stop with the powerful description of His own death and sacrifice, and its abundant life-giving effects.  It is of the utmost importance for us all to understand that Jesus does not stop there.  He goes on to say, "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me."   In other words, this gospel message is not just about the story of Jesus, the story of Christ's Passion, the story of His sacrifice and the abundant resurrectional life He offers to all of us through these events.  His command follows His statement about Himself with the illustration of the grain of wheat.  He asks us to follow.  We are the ones who must put into action our own willingness to give up the life of the "worldly" that is offered to us, and take up instead the life that Christ offers in His own example, that of following in love and dedication to God.  This is not only about Jesus, in some powerful sense.  It is rather that Jesus calls us to take up the same life.  His life may have led to the powerful images we have, to the depths of death and suffering, and transfiguring all of it so that we might have an abundance of life that wasn't possible without Christ's mission.  But Christ's mission into this world, the Incarnation and life of the Son as Jesus Christ, isn't only about Jesus.  We miss His point entirely if that is where we leave it.  Christ's mission is about finding disciples, those who are willing to take up our own cross and follow Him.  He says, "Where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."   We are not asked simply to worship, honor, and behold Christ as Messiah and Savior.  We are asked to live life as He did, to understand the point of sacrifice for the same purpose, in the same love, which produces the same fruits.  There is only one Christ, of that there is no doubt, and only one Son.  But He calls each of us to follow in the same dedication, and promises that we, also, will produce "much grain."  We are meant to participate in His life, the one He offers to us in the Eucharist.   Like Christ, we might not be able to see all of the fruits of our lives, or even live to see them, but nevertheless, we are promised the same kind of action and purpose, should we decide to take up our own crosses.  When we lose sight of the productiveness and creativity hidden in sacrifice, then we lose our way, and we enter into a losing battle based on selfishness, and what looks expeditious or opportunistic.  We lose the power hidden in our faith and the teachings of Jesus.  But no matter what the project, life asks of us sacrifices in the name of what is higher or better, and for the purpose of that which is greater.  If you raise a child, it asks sacrifice to do a good job.  If you need to complete a creative project, one must give up one's time and effort that could be put into something else.  A loving marriage asks mutual sacrifice of both persons.  In the end, one must weigh the greater goal against the temporal sacrifice.  When we lose sight of the meanings in suffering, and the transcendent values to be found there, then we lose our way with Christ.  The love in the sacrifice on the Cross cannot be forgone or unseen and still be Christian.  Our faith asks of us a particular effort, and that effort is simply to weigh in our lives everyday the options before us.  What is worthy of us, and what is not?  What are the higher goals?  Whom do we serve?  There is no loss in this sacrifice, only a choice to be made for what produces more fruit, more grain, and especially a higher and greater love.  Let us note that Jesus begins by putting all of this under the umbrella of glory:  "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified."  We are invited into this fellowship to share in that glory, and there is where we should see our own crosses, our own sacrifices for the higher and greater meaning of our lives.

What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.  Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"  But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!  You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."  Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.  Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

- Matthew 16:21-28

Yesterday, we read that when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"  So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.  And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."  Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.  My study bible points out to us that immediately after Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the true nature of Jesus' messiahship is revealed.  This "true nature" is the mystery of His Passion, the great central act that will be a sign for all.

Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"  But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!  You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."    Expectations for the Messiah were that he would reign forever.  The idea that Christ would die was perplexing for Peter and scandalous to the Jews (see 1 Corinthians 1:23).   Peter's words inadvertently speak for Satan, says my study bible, as he tries to dissuade Christ from His mission.  Jesus' sacrifice will be an entirely positive act, made for the world.  It is one of the "things of God," bringing man and God closer together. 

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."  My study bible tells us that the cross, "a dreaded instrument of Roman punishment," became a symbol of suffering by Christians in imitation of Christ.  Self-denial is practiced for the sake of the love of God and the gospel.  Acceptance of such suffering isn't a punishment and it isn't an end in itself.  Through Christ and His revelation to us, it becomes a means to overcome the fallen world for the sake of a better world, that of the Kingdom we seek to be manifest in our midst, including within ourselves and our own perspectives (see Galatians 5:24).

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."  The central Christian paradox:  we give in exchange for something better.  As my study bible puts it, "In grasping for temporal things, we lose the eternal; but in sacrificing everything in this world, we gain eternal riches that are unimaginable (1 Corinthians 2:9)."

"Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works."  Jesus is again asking us, what do we love the most?  There is a choice to be made, always a choice to be made.  Our choices reflect this priority, the answer to this question.

"Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."   In the next reading (on Monday), we will read about the Transfiguration, to which "some standing here" will be witness.  It's also a statement, says my study bible, about those in every generation who experience the presence of God's Kingdom.

This is the question (or questions) we face that Jesus presents to us:  What would we give in exchange for our soul?  What does it mean to take up the Cross?  And why should He die on the Cross?  What does it mean to save our life to lose it, and to lose our life to save it?  All these questions!  But all of them are rooted in one central paradox:  that of the exchange of a worldly perspective for a heavenly one.  It all starts with the assumption that we aren't perfect, and the world is not perfect -- and with the answer of Christ, that there is another way, but it requires our diligence and effort.  It's not just going to come to us without making difficult decisions, hard choices.  It's not simple, and it's not easy.  He shows us the way with the Cross and the sign of Jonah after three days in the tomb.  What will it be?  Today the world is faced with difficult decisions.  Above all, it seems to me, we must remember this Man, His Cross, and what it teaches us.  What is He asking you today?  How do you read these questions?  Where do you find your soul?

I did not come to bring peace but a sword

 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.'  He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

"He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.  He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.  And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.  And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward."

- Matthew 10:34-42

In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued His teaching to the Twelve Apostles before they were sent out on their first mission:  "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master.  If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!  Therefore do not fear them.  For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.  Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?  And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.  But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."   (For the earlier readings in this teaching before they Apostles are sent out, see The kingdom of heaven is at hand and I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.  Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.)

 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword."    My study bible reminds us that just before His extremely violent death on the Cross, Christ promised peace to His disciples.  However, it says, the existence of evil necessitates spiritual warfare.  The world Christ came to was under the authority of Satan, "the ruler of this world" or "god of this age" (John 12:31; 2 Corinthians 4:4).  Therefore Christ wages war against the leader of vice with weapons of virtue (Ephesians 6:11-18), and He calls all of His disciples to do so as well.  This is what the term "spiritual warfare" truly means.

"For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.'"  This is the prophecy of Micah 7:6, fulfilled by Christ.

"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it."   This struggle is a kind of battle that involves hearts and minds.  What is it we are devoted to?  My study bible reminds us that to carry his cross, a true disciple must be ready, if necessary to sacrifice even family relationships.  To lose one's life for Christ's sake is a kind of total repentance, a full "change of mind."  That usually requires external changes as well, giving up the things that keep us from fully living the life He calls us to.

"He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.  He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.  And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.  And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward."  Here again is the bold statement about the center of discipleship, Christ Himself.  Everything depends on our response to the holiness He is a part of, which He brings to the world.  That is extended through all those who are truly His disciples.  This is the presence and working of the kingdom in our midst.

Learning to grow in discipleship requires hard choices we might not expect.  This is not necessarily an everyday experience of extreme difficulty.  But there are times when we come to a crossroads and have to remind ourselves that "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it."  That's when we may have to let go of a friendship or even closer relationship in order to more deeply commit to discipleship, to where Christ calls us to go.  Sometimes we may find we need to give up something we love of a different nature, and it still is part of letting go of the life you have for another one.  This sort of "spiritual battle" isn't about a kind of destructive, explosive battle, but more akin to a kind of forgiveness, a "giving up," or "letting go."  It's not easy, and it can involve upheaval.  But ultimately, it's important to focus on the commitment to something that calls us within our hearts to a place of love and union -- and it's not about what or who we let go of.  Christ's guiding light must be the true and important focus, because this is a battle for love.  It's a hard saying, and it's not easy, but the focus has to be on the peace -- that particular kind of peace -- that Christ offers us.  That is union with Him, a communion of holiness, with what is essentially good and true and beautiful.  This plays out in our own lives struggle by struggle, moment by moment, with every new choice.  That is where Christ's sword of His truth comes in for us.  We can love people and still let them go.  There's a calling that's worth everything else, that embraces even those whom we let go with love.