Happy Resurrection Sunday!
John 12:20-26. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Resurrection Sunday, April 12, 2020.
Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the Lord of Life! We are going to put the Gospel of Mark on pause for a while, and we are going to turn to the cross of Jesus. In the weeks ahead, I plan to walk through the purpose that God has for His Church and each individual who makes up that Church.
Now, for the topic at hand, many tyrannical places around the world despise the cross of Jesus. This week stories came out of China telling how crosses were broken off of churches. When the Byzantine Empire was taken out by Muslim armies, the churches would have their crosses removed. The cross is the signature symbol of the Christian faith.
Yet, even Jesus was troubled by the cross in his humanity. There is a part in all of us that shrinks back from the cross and says, “Surely that can’t be necessary!” Or, maybe we say, “Surely that can’t fix anything!”
I would like to present to you the only man who can both save the world, and save you as an individual. From what, do you ask? He can save you from everything. He can save you from hopelessness, failure, physical maladies, the many forms of self-slavery that our cravings bring us, and even death itself. Let’s look at our passage.
Our passage opens with some Greeks, who had come to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, wanting to see Jesus. Most likely, they desire some kind of audience where they might ask questions and learn about this Jesus first hand.
Remember that this is the final week before the crucifixion. Jesus has been teaching in the Temple area while retiring to Bethany in the evenings. Every day more and more Israelites arrive from around the world in order to participate in the Holy Day of Passover. This is important because Jesus had made it clear that his focus was on the house of Israel and not the Gentiles up to this point. This is not because he didn’t care about Gentiles, but rather, because he needed to reveal himself first to Israel. It would be transformed Israelites who would then show Jesus to the rest of the world.
Before we move on, I would like to point out the interesting parallel here. At his birth, Gentiles came from the East to worship him, and now at his death Gentiles come from the West to learn from him. His life was and still is a magnet that draws all kinds of people from everywhere to him.
It doesn’t appear that Jesus granted these men their request. Instead, he uses the opportunity to make several important points to the people listening to him. As much as any of us may want to see Jesus, or God, in any particular way, we need to see him on the cross. These Greeks are fascinated with what they have heard about Jesus. Perhaps, they want to be wowed with his wisdom like the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. Or, it is possible that they wanted a demonstration of his power through a miracle of some sort. We all tend to approach Jesus with something in mind that we want to see, but what we “need” to see is something we would never think.
Jesus refers to the cross as a time of his glorification. The hour had come. Now, things would change. He would finally be glorified. Of course, his disciples think they know what that means. In our flesh, we all think of glory as something where we win and our enemies lose, and no doubt that is what is going to happen. However, it will not look like winning for Jesus and it will not look like losing for his enemies. These Greeks do not need to see Jesus as a teacher in Jerusalem who has all the answers. Rather, they needed to see him in all of his glory.
Typically, we picture the Second Coming as the glory of Jesus, and it is part of his glory. However, we must not skip over the cross. It was the beginning of his time of glory. Can it be that dying on a cross was not the last part of his humiliation, but rather the beginning of his glory? Or, perhaps we can describe it as a kind of twilight period of transitioning, where both exist and intermingle.
Regardless, the world likes the message of a glorious savior to fix its problems. Even today, it clamors looking for someone with all the answers. Yet, the world does not see Jesus hanging on a cross as a glorious answer to their problems.
We can shout at God to come down out of the heavens to prove Himself, and yet, even then we want to control just how He does that. Yes, God has come down out of the heavens, and He has pulled back the curtain of creation so that we can see Him, but not in the way that we are wanting. To our flesh, the cross and glory are antonyms, but Jesus tells us that they are synonyms. We need to see him on a cross, pause, and meditate on just why it is so glorious.
We are in a bind, both as a world and as individuals. I can’t blame all the ills of the world upon society, and other nations. No, I am guilty of my own sins and faults. No amount of doing good can make up for the fact of the times that I didn’t do good. I am continually heaping up more and more offenses against my fellow man and the God of heaven.
Jesus is the perfect Son of God who has come down from heaven, where he was safe and secure. He made himself vulnerable by taking on flesh, and then he died in your place to pay the price for your sins. His righteous act of sacrificing himself, outweighs every sin ever committed upon this planet. It is that glorious and amazing. The cross is intended to shock us out of our lethargy, and show us the depths of God’s love for each of us. This is how much he loves us. This is a glorious love.
Friend, understand just how much God loves you. Yes, you are loved by your Father in heaven. Without the cross, we wouldn’t understand just how far He is willing to go to save us. With such a Father, we are never hopeless, though all the world be darkness. Amen!
The disciples had difficulty understanding the attempts of Jesus to tell them that he was going to be killed. Part of that is because it seems like nothing can be accomplished by letting yourself be killed. This is the amazing turning of the tables upon the devil and his cohorts. Because of who he is, Jesus produces life for us through his death.
In verse 24, Jesus uses the metaphor of a grain of wheat. The seed would normally be eaten, but then its life principle would be over. If the seed is put in the ground instead then it produces much more grain than itself. God has hardwired this teaching aid into His creation so that we can understand His power. He has a plan that looks like a waste, but in the end, it produces more life than what you had.
This concept that life can come out of death is intended to give us hope. The death of Jesus can produce life for you and me because he pays the price for our sins. It is a legal action.
Yet, it is more than a legal action. It is also an inspiring thing because he is going to tell us to follow him. It is one thing for Jesus to die on our behalf, but quite another for him to tell us to follow him. In a way, every generation of children watch their grandparents and parents marching ahead of them into death. Why participate in such a macabre process? Yet, if they have faith in God, they will grow up, create a family, grow old, and die in their own time. The generation ahead of us marches forward challenging us to follow them. There is life in this thing if you will just believe.
In fact, there is life even on the other side of this thing. The death and resurrection of Jesus gives proof and hope that God really does have a plan to resurrect all who believe in Jesus. He will then set all things right, both spiritually and physically. We will enter into new heavens and a new earth in order to receive the reward that only the Creator can give to us.
Ultimately, Jesus says that if he didn’t do this then God would remain alone. Sure, it would be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the eternal being who is also a community. Yet, there would be no human children of God entering into His family. I don’t think God processes aloneness like we do, but Scripture is clear. He would rather die on a cross than go into eternity without His human family joining Him.
In verse 25, Jesus makes one of his classic statements that is more than a challenge; it is a warning. If I love my life then I am going to lose it. It is generally the second part of the statement that causes people to balk. “He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Here, Jesus describes a tension between this mortal life that we live and the eternal life that only God can give. Let me quickly explain the hate part of this verse. Some versions actually translate the word as “not love.” Jesus does not want us to have a kind of neurotic hatred of ourselves. The Semitic mindset used this word for a broad range that went from an extreme disgust and dislike of something, or someone, to simply not choosing something. One example of this is found in Genesis 29, where it says that the Lord saw that Leah was hated (i.e. not loved like Rachel was). Jacob had been tricked into marrying her, and then worked 7 more years for Rachel her sister, the one he wanted to marry in the first place. There is no indication that Jacob mistreated Leah, despised her, or was ever mean to her, but in the end, he would always choose Rachel over the top of her. That must have hurt a lot for her, but our culture wouldn’t use the word hate for that.
Jesus is challenging us to choose Him over the top of our lives every time. He wants us to follow him into his sufferings, not just suffering per se, but the sufferings that are encountered as we do what God wants us to do. In this sense, we become pilgrims, sojourners, or strangers on this earth. Yes, we love people and love the life that we are able to live here on the earth. However, in the end, we are really living for Jesus and the eternal life that only he can give. That is what he is telling us.
We are familiar with the phrase from Jesus, “Come, and follow me,” but verse 26 adds the word serve to this. We cannot serve Jesus without actually following him. They are to be inseparably linked. Many people have tried to serve Jesus without actually following him. They served as deacons, pastors, archbishops, lay members, and even popes. Yet, they will never follow Jesus to the cross where their self-will is put to death. Jesus was dying to the self-life and living out the purposes of His Father in heaven. In the end, the pretenders may look like they are serving Christ, but they won’t follow him completely. They actually serve themselves with a thin veneer of service to Jesus to help them fit in. We can’t serve Jesus and ourselves. We will hate the one and follow the other eventually.
However, we should neither confuse salvation with service. We are not saved by our service to Christ. We are saved for service, among other purposes. Our service is to flow from a heart of gratitude to the Savior for covering our sins, and turning us from the self-life to the life led by the Holy Spirit. This situation is difficult and is much like Jacob having two wives. It created many difficult moments between his wives and their children. May God help us to choose Jesus over the top of our selfish desires because only he has the words of eternal life.
This passage ends with two promises for those who follow Jesus and serve him. He promises us that we will be united with him. Sometimes it may feel like we aren’t getting anywhere, but if our eyes are on Jesus then he is leading us to himself. When we leave this earth, we will be in his presence and at his side, never to be separated again. When Jesus comes back to earth, we will be resurrected and come back with him.
This leads to the second promise. We will be honored by the Father. The biggest part of that honor is to share in the honor of Jesus as he returns to judge mankind and set things right. That can be a day of honor for you or a day of dishonor. It is our choice now that determines which we will experience.
Today, the cross of Jesus has been set before you. It is not a lovely sight for any to behold. However, there is life on the other side, and what a life it is. Don’t let the allure of this life and the promises of this world draw your heart away from the only hope that we have. Christian, hold fast to Jesus and love him more than life itself. Sinner, let go of your life and what you want it to be. Instead, put your faith and hope in Jesus. He alone knows the way to eternal life and a perfect world. He alone actually loves you so much that he would die on a cross for you!