Shalom: The Way to Repairing
Sunday because in the gospel, it actually comes right after Jesus has triumphantly entered Jerusalem. He raised Lazarus from the dead and had his feet anointed by the costly perfume of Mary. The mood of the people is divided – crowds flock to his miracles while others look for ways to separate him from the crowd plotting to destroy him. The words today are Jesus final public discourse.
John 12:20-33
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
Shalom: the Way to Repairing
Some Greeks at the Passover festival wanted to see Jesus. Are these Greeks to represent Gentiles? Outsiders? We don’t know for sure but they are at the festival. We aren’t told why exactly they ask to see Jesus, nor do we know what they do afterward. What do they see of Jesus? What do we see? John introduces us to Jesus from the very beginning – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Good News, the gospels point us to God by letting us see the life of Jesus. God of creation breaks into our messy, vulnerable world to give us the greatest of gifts. Do you see Jesus?
As we have journeyed with Jesus through the season of Lent, the words of Jesus have pointed us toward Shalom. We saw a Jesus who embodies a second covenant brings flesh to the love of the covenant of the rainbow – weaving us together in compassion sharing the justice of shalom with all creation spreading the light around the world. We saw a Jesus who showed us the way to shalom of healing by flipping tables and daring us to be foolish, demanding we question the norms and bring our whole hearts to our worship. We saw Jesus who loves us unconditionally and wants us to trust and believe enough to see the immense shalom of hope Christ brings.
What do you see of Jesus today in this last public speech? Jesus is foretelling his upcoming crucifixion. The words on his lips are puzzling about grain falling, then losing life and serving. Almost sounding disrupted, Now my soul is troubled. Now is the hour, now is the judgment, now the ruler will be driven out. Ten verses that talk about ‘the hour’ twice and ‘now’ four times. We like the Greeks are to see something about Jesus in this time that is different from before – See NOW
John is hard to break apart, to summarize bits of the good news into a sermon, it resists against taking apart the wonderful whole. How do we make sense of Jesus’ words in our world today? Perhaps knowing the human tendency to want a summary or to get hints of what is the most important, the anonymous author of this gospel often signals to us with “Very truly, I tell you” when he wants us to sit up and pay attention. “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” How is Jesus revealed in the mysterious key verses about wheat falling to the ground and dying to bear fruit?
How does the dying and falling to the earth bear many seeds? Puzzling this question, Nancy Skaggs shared a story about Hyacinth Vine seeds. A friend once gave her an envelope of seeds wishing to share this beautiful purple vine. Since she was on vacation, the seeds were tucked into a drawer for later. They were forgotten for, at least, couple of years. After she found them, Nancy planted them. Not all of the seeds sprouted, but a couple did and grew into the vine. Over the years, she has shared the seeds of those vines with friends as well. So, those husks were dead, forgotten and buried in her drawer. Then, the seeds in the earth came back to life and keep spreading to others. The tough leathery, old seeds forgotten in an envelope for years, hidden away in a drawer spread life when taken up and shared. The strength and mysterious power of relationship, connection to change our very lives.
Now, when we look around, where do we see Jesus? Karoline Lewis tells us that this last discourse from Jesus to the public ties to the farewell discourse to the disciples and is about what seeing Jesus calls them, and I think perhaps us, to do and be when. She writes, “To serve Jesus is to follow Jesus and to follow Jesus is to do the works that he did, to feed and tend his sheep, to testify on his behalf.”
Do you see as you serve? How in the last few weeks of Lent and the beginning of Spring are we following in the footsteps of Jesus? How are we believing? How are we honoring and remembering, or seeing Jesus? In the everyday objects that point toward something else? In special prayers? Are you desperately holding to the promise of the resurrection life as you grieve a loved one? Are you taking comfort in that promise as you journey through final days with a loved one or in the final season of your own life? Do you see Jesus in worship?
Are you looking at Jesus in the blooms of spring slowly bursting forth around us, at the color creeping back into our yards after a bleak, cold season? Or, are you seeing Jesus in the eyes of a friend shining with tears of relief from getting a vaccine that holds forth hope and offers a future filled with hugs and in person greetings in the peace of Christ. Are you turning an intentional eye to those relationships that need repairing or work? Or are you moved to random acts of compassion?
Seeing Jesus in our lives now is not easy. Sometimes requiring one of these actions, sometimes more – other times rest, a balance in faith. David Lose describes the point of faith in Jesus, “…the point of faith in Jesus isn’t just faith, or comfort, or satisfying spiritual desires. No, the point of following Jesus is that we might be drawn more deeply into the kingdom of God through our love for, service to, and sacrifice on behalf of those around us. Jesus comes to demonstrate God’s strength through vulnerability, God’s power through what appears weak in the eyes of the world, and God’s justice through love, mercy and forgiveness. And he calls those who would follow him to the very same kind of life and love.”
The Greeks came to see. Is Jesus telling them that he is the wheat that must die before the seeds of His love spread across the world? Jesus has broken into our world and is troubled because people still didn’t understand – we still didn’t see. A voice or a booming thunder then broke into the world affirming that Jesus glorifies the Father’s name and will do so again. Breaking in to help us hear that Jesus is holy, divine. We still did not see – even when Jesus reminds the crowd that this voice was for them. Look, look what is right in front of you, in your midst NOW!
Jesus knows what he must give, he knows how the systems and structures of the world were so broken that he had to break in - to right them with the greatest gift of all for us to finally see – to draw us all toward him. Jesus breaks into our lives, interrupting our world, bringing the winds of transformation to the covenant written on our hearts.
Now is the time for the judgment of the cosmos – not individually – but everything taken together, all creation. No longer separate but all united with one selfless act. Now is the time for all to see Jesus. Why? – so that he might draw all people to himself.
Richard Spalding says, “Those who would see Jesus are invited to meet him in the peace of the sanctuary: at the font, at the Table, and sometimes in the sighs too deep for words of the body, his body, at worship.”
Our Presbyterian crosses don’t have Jesus on them because we rejoice in the resurrection, but sometimes we need to remember Jesus on the cross - and look at how very much that love cost him. Jesus very identity, what we must see is this giving, a giving that he does in joy for us - that we look on in horror of what we did. This is the NOW that Jesus urgently points us to – see now! Does this gruesome gift from Jesus disturb you? Does this extravagant gift bother you? Jesus repairs relationships but never through retaliation or domination rather in sacrifice and love. Instead Jesus transforms the world by repairing our broken systems – forgiving the very cosmos with the greatest gift of love. How do we see? He desperately wants us to all see! We see Jesus only together, only with all drawn toward him, our broken selves, our broken relationships, healed in wholeness of shalom with God and one another.
We must see how life springs from death. We must see how the leathery, tough husk, the outer shell of pods we thought dead, no longer vibrant purple but with faded color that seems to be past its time, bears many seeds. Indeed it bears life. The beauty breaks forth into the world. It will not be forgotten but continues to spread from hand to hand. The hope, healing, and justice will carry on the wind of the Spirit bursting into our broken lives so that we see. The Shalom of Jesus Reaching out to us and from within us toward one another repairing past brokenness and moving toward a future in love. All of cosmos will be drawn toward Jesus. All shall see in the wholeness of shalom – a peace of believing, seeing together. Repaired by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who broke into our lives, breaks into our lives, and will break into our lives so that we see Him. Shalom and Amen.
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