“WE WISH TO SEE JESUS!”

5TH Sunday in Lent                                                                                             April 2, 2006

John 12:20-33

Magnets are fascinating!   There’s something wondrous and mysterious about them.  That strange mysterious force created by magnets draws object to themselves.  I never was good at Physics and I don’t really understand the electrical current creating a magnetic field that then draws metal to it.   But I remember playing by the hour as a child with a small horseshoe shaped magnet that both my older brother and I received from our Grandpa Swenson.  As small as it was, it could pick up several metal pieces---one was a flat-piece of metal shaped and painted like a horse, another was a flat washer, and there was yet a third object. 

I also remember learning about magnets in elementary school and picking up little particles of metal in a jar of sand.  Trying to pick them up with a tweezers would have taken forever.  But stirring the sane with a small magnet had immediate results.  I have a larger magnet now at home which looks like a hockey puck on a stick.  It came in very handy after we did a major roofing job on our home in Blue Earth, picking up a coffee can or more of nails that had fallen alongside the house during the project.

I was reminded of the magnets while reading a couple of the verses from the Gospel text for this morning from the 12th Chapter of John.   In particular verse 21…”Greeks came to Phillip, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  And verses 32-33…”And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.  He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.”

There seemed to be something “magnetic”, if you will, about Jesus. From birth, he was attracting people from all walks of life.   From lowly shepherds to the curious Magi, from the Simeon and Anna in the Temple to the little children who came to him and were blessed, from the tax collectors like Matthew and Zaccheaus to Peter, James, and John the fishermen, from women like sisters Mary and Martha to Mary Magdalene, from Nicodemus the Pharisee to the Greeks wanting to see Jesus, from people of all nations at Pentecost who spoke in many tongues and languages to you and me, people have been attracted to Jesus.

There has been and there continues to be a certain magnetism about him, that still peaks the curiosity of people, which draws people to himself as they wish to see Jesus.  The Greeks probably came because Jesus was creating quite a stir as the crowds began to follow him from town to town.   We don’t know exactly what they were expecting to find or who they thought Jesus was.  But they came!

Agendas aren’t always the same.  Not even among those of us gathered here this morning.  Some of us come looking for Jesus to bring healing into our lives.  And healing can come.   Some want him to be the psychoanalyst who will diagnose the dimensions of our relationship and help fix the brokenness we often feel.  Some want him to be primarily the great social reformer who will cure all the ills of society and all the dynamics that evade our solutions.  Still others want him to be the great moral example by bringing clarity to each and every ethical issue we face as individuals and societies. And there are others who are just sure that Jesus can be the one to guarantee the “good life” or life in abundance providing us with all the good stuff we want to have.  This may not be the same as the abundant life of purpose and meaning which he can provide.

The list goes on and on.  We come with all kinds of expectations as we are drawn to Jesus. So often we want him to confirm that we are good people with the hope that we won’t be put in the position of ever having to change anything about the way we live our lives.  Yet, he may just be the one who will finally motivate us to change all that we seem unable to change by ourselves and to make all things new.

This is a pivotal moment in the Gospel of John and certainly in the life of Jesus.  It become a signal, a sign, an occasion when be begins to speak of his coming death and of “his hour”.  “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  Like grain falling onto the earth it dies to itself and rises to bring a plentiful crop, so Jesus in his dying will bring forgiveness, hope, and healing to our lives and through his rising once again will give to us new life.  His words will go on to remind us that there is a difference between what is often considered important but not eternal.

In the Gospel of John, this is a reference to the coming passion of Jesus—the death on the cross.  We know it’s coming too, as we look ahead a couple of weeks to Good Friday.  Jesus is headed for the cross, the moment he had been preparing for and uses that analogy of the grain of wheat that must die and be buried to be fruitful.   With all the signs and miracles in the Gospel of John, it is shortly after this recording that we are told that “although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in Him.”  In the Gospel of John, “seeing” is not always “believing”.  At times, “believing” is “seeing.”

The place to see Jesus in all of his glory is on the cross.  There Jesus directs their eyes and there our eyes are directed also.  IF YOU WANT TO SEE JESUS, LOOK TO THE CROSS!  Why?  Because that is where the judgment of the world takes place.  There is the gateway to the beginning of new life/eternal life, if you will.  Right there at the cross and through the cross.   Only in the Christ of the Cross, the resurrected Christ, will you see Jesus at His best in all his glory.

When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, his arms stretched out, and a powerful drawing force was let loose in the world.  Magnetism so powerful that it spans time to reach out and draw all people in every generation.   Here is a foreshadow of what was to come in this story.  That Jesus, lifted upon the cross, would be lifted up by Paul, Peter, and countless others. In a strange way, the Greeks are like us for they were the first outsiders of countless millions to be drawn to Christ. There remains something magnetic about this One, lifted up.  Who at times is impossible to resist and at other times seems unbelievable.

Throughout the ages, thoughtful women and men, both Christian and non-Christian, have been drawn to the image of the dying Christ.  The crucifixion has been the focus of much music, literature, and art.  The great music of the world has been composed around the theme of the crucifixion—including sections of Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, and The Seven Last Words by DuBois which our choir is performing on Good Friday. 

Artists, sculptors and painters, have been greatly intrigued by the Suffering Christ.  Again and again we see the paintings and sculptures of Christ on the Cross by such famous persons as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, or a Picasso or Salvador Dali.  Powerful, unforget-able images of Jesus, whose life was poured out.   And rather than being repulsed or put off by the imagery, we lift up this evening in music, art, literature.  Through those means people have continued to be drawn to Christ.  In particular those who wish to see Jesus.

“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”  If you wish to see Jesus, look to the Cross.

This mysterious, magnetic force flowing from the “lifted-up” Jesus is the very presence and love of a faithful God.  It is the goal of God’s grace for us to be drawn to the cross and to believe in Christ.  In our baptism, as in the baptism of little Soren this morning, our sins have been nailed to the cross of Christ.  We die to the old and are raised to new life.  In the words of the Lord’s Prayer we hear the word, forgiven.  When we receive the bread and wine this morning in Holy Communion, we die to sin once more and through the cross and resurrection we walk away renewed.

Our children in a previous parish use to sing these words:

              “People who walk in darkness have sought

              A light in the heart of the darkest night.

              Just when you thought, all would be lost

              We were drawn to the light of God.

              Dawn is in sight,  Gone is the night,

              Drawn to the light and the morning.

              Glorious and bright, O what a sight,

              To be drawn to the light of God.

And where does the light come from---but from the Cross.  There we see Jesus most clearly!

Brian Steffrogen in a commentary on this text for today asks the question, “Why do we continue to believe in Jesus?  (Why do we believe?  Why are you in church this morning?)”  In answering his own question(s) he says, “Because God has drawn you to this place.  Because God has drawn you to this Jesus. Give God the credit!  God is responsible for taking us down the road of life!”

The goal of our faith is always, always, always---to see Jesus, to know Jesus, to be loved by Jesus.  Don’t make light of the fact that sometimes for others they will see this Jesus through us.  And our ministry can be called the “ministry of fading”.  Where as we fade away, it becomes the avenue for God’s coming.   Ultimately, all that matters is that we fade and that God comes fully into view.

“We wish to see Jesus!”  Our hope is always to see Jesus.  And through his suffering and death, we do!  May we always desire for others to see this Jesus who knows us and the Jesus we have come to know!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Pastor Clark Cary