“A New Time with a New Teaching”

Scripture: John 12:20-33

While Jesus’ teaching was never easy to understand, and even more difficult to follow, some of it was very pleasant to hear. Words like “For God so loved the world …” (John 3:16-17), “Blessed are the poor in spirit …”, (Matthew 5:3-12), and that the many healings he brought about were due to faith, and not by our good works (eg. Mark 6:1-6). But most of his teaching was so obscure that they created more questions than they answered! Words like (“… you honor me with your lips but your hearts are far from me.” (Mark 7:5-7), “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:13-22), and “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:52-59).
Why did Jesus have to make it so hard? If he had just been a little clearer, his disciples, and we, wouldn’t have to struggle so much, or study so hard, or experience all that anxiety and conflict over his words. But then, maybe that is the reason – that the Lord wants us to get close to him, to depend on him for understanding, and that to allow us to do it all on our own is not what he knows will be best for us.

So let’s see if his words for us today are straight forward, or if they are cloaked in mystery.

Read John 12:20-26

The word about Jesus was beginning to spread throughout the region. In the few verses preceding this passage, we read that the Pharisee’s worse nightmare was beginning to come true –they were seeing that “… the whole world has gone after him!” (John 12:17-19). Even non-Jews were seeking him out to hear more of what he was saying. These Greeks had certainly heard of Israel’s Jehovah God, and they had also heard of Jesus. They were now open to learn of how the two may be connected, and what it might mean for their lives.
And it appears that the arrival of these Greek worshipers is the sign that Jesus’ “hour” is now at hand. His offer of salvation to the entire world is evidenced by both the Pharisee’s observation that the entire world is coming to him, as well as by the hunger of these Greek seekers of Truth.

This passage is the beginning of Jesus’ final week of life among us, and his teaching will become the hardest of his entire ministry. The first thing that the Lord teaches these seekers is that “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He tells them, first, that he is about to be glorified, and then continues to say that the glory will come through his death. These must have been strange words, to say the least. These Greek men had never known a God who could die, much less be glorified by that death. Their experience with Jesus is off to a rousing, if not baffling, start!

But it didn’t end there – he offers an explanation of the glorification with an agricultural image. All who were gathered there would have understood the planting analogy. They knew that you planted a few seeds so you could grow and harvest many seeds, and these would then be used to make flour for food. But would they make the connection between the “single seed” and Jesus life, and that when he was placed in the earth, that his death would produce many seeds?
But why would the Lord Jesus have to die in order to be glorified? Why couldn’t he just produce many followers simply by his teaching and example, instead of having to die and be buried in the ground? The truth is, even though it may not be apparent in this exchange, that his death would not just be an execution, but would be a divine and holy sacrifice, made on behalf of all the people of earth. He would submit to the condemnation of humanity, so that he could break the power that sin has over our lives. For God, there was no other way. Humanity had broken God’s covenant, and since the Lord made the covenant in the first place, only he could make it right again - he must pay the blood penalty if the people were to have a chance at eternal life.

And the teaching continued. If you love your life, you’ll lose it, and if you hate your life, you’ll keep it. On the surface, this, too, doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it is part of the bedrock of Christian faith. Of course, Jesus is actually referring to both our physical lives and our spiritual ones, and his point is that if we are satisfied with our earthly existence, and want nothing more than that, then that is what we will have – we will have the finite life, but lose out on the eternal one. But he tells us that the converse is also true – that if we long to have the better life, the one he has promised to all who believe in him, then he will see to it that we do. To love this life puts us at odds with all that Jesus stands for, and to hate this life is equivalent to giving our life to him.
This, too, might have confused the Greeks, as they, as well as the Jews, believed that eternal life depended on how well you lived your life in this time. Jesus would have us know just the opposite, that these two lives – the physical one and the spiritual one – will always be at odds with each other, and that they are mutually exclusive – you can’t have them both.

The last teaching involves our service, and probably made a little more sense to the men. Obviously, a servant must always do as the master commands, and when the master goes to another place, the servant, in order to serve, must go with him. But for the Lord, this command takes on a deeper and richer meaning. Jesus is the ultimate servant himself, and acts as our example of what it means to be a servant. He washed his followers’ feet, as an act of humility; he would put the greater good of humanity above his personal comfort; he would surrender his life in this place so that others might live with him in eternity. We are not only called to follow Jesus through this life and into death, we are also offered the promise of following Jesus through his death to share in his glory beyond death. And we are also told that God will grant honor to all who follow.

Read John 12:27-29

After he has raised up the truth of the hour that is at hand, Jesus offers a prayer. He offers up the fact that he is struggling with what is coming to him, but just as sure as he is that great suffering is his lot, he is equally sure that it cannot be avoided – that this is the reason that he came to earth in the first place. And not only is he resigned to the fact of his suffering and death, he offers it all up to the glory of the Father! He willingly offers up his physical life and comfort as his expression and commitment to his great love for God.

And the Father affirms Jesus’ prayer by saying that glory has already settled on this precious life, and will do so again in the very near future. Remember that even though Jesus offers glory to the Father, and the Father emphasizes that he has glorified it already, Jesus and the Father are one, and when one is glorified, the other is, too.
This is also one more example of Servanthood on the part of Jesus, which we, too, must imitate. We must never strive to gain glory for ourselves, but always to bring glory to God. It’s never about us – it is always about the Lord.
And God’s voice is heard by all who were present. The references to thunder and the voices of angels tells us that the Greeks, as well as Jesus’ disciples, recognized the sound as God’s voice. While Moses was on Mount Sinai meeting with God to receive the 10 Commandments, the people heard thunder. (Exodus 19:18-19) Job makes reference to the thunder that comes from God’s voice (Job 37:1-5) Isaiah (29:6), Ezekiel (1:22-25) and Revelation (14:1-3) each refer to God’s thundering words. The people had heard God’s voice and recognized that the Lord was speaking to Jesus, but they missed the connection between the Almighty of heaven and the Son of Glory who stood before them.
I expect that this, too, might not be unexpected. Personally, if I heard the thundering voice of God speaking, I would probably be so awed by the moment, that I might miss the full significance of the message, too!

Read John 12:30-33

And Jesus brings the teaching back to the significance and purpose of his impending suffering and death. Satan will be judged immediately, but his condemnation, his sentence, will be deferred until the day when Jesus returns to complete the Judgment. But this ultimate act of Servanthood is not only judgment against the prince of darkness, but of all who follow in his ways. And their sentence will also be postponed until Judgment day arrives.
But this is not a definitive judgment – when Jesus is lifted up at Calvary, the entire world will be invited to come to his side, to be his disciples, to know the new life that he would soon inherit. Remember Israel’s experience with the vipers in the desert? Many people died from their bites, but God orders Moses to fashion a bronze replica of the snakes, and fasten it to a pole. He proclaims that whoever looked upon it would be healed and would live. (Numbers 21:4-9)
Jesus would be the One who was despised and feared by the world, but through his crucifixion, anyone who will come and look upon him with their whole heart will be healed and granted new life.

Jesus made a connection to all that the prophets had ever said about him, including the fact that he would be Savior of the entire world, and not just for Israel. The crowd still wouldn’t grasp the fullness of his words, but the stage had been set. He would be the Seed that would be planted to produce many more seeds; he would be the perfect example of a servant’s heart that all would be invited to emulate; he would be the death that destroyed our death, and the life that restored eternal life for us; he would heal any and all who in their impending death, would come to him for a new way and a new life.
He had spoken of his death before, he had taught about the form of that agonizing death, he had even spoken of the new life that he and his servants would experience, but now he was putting it all together in a new way. It was always assumed that Messiah’s coming would only be for Israel, but Jesus now corrects that misconception by including the Greeks – the gentiles – all who would come to him in faith. Jesus would be the death of death, he would be the life for new life, he will be Redeemer and Savior for all the world, and the only requirement on our part would be to believe in him and what he has done for us.
Praise the Lord for his great love for all of humanity and for his commitment to serve us to the extreme. It truly is a new day and a new way. Hallelujah!