Meditation for Tuesday in Holy Week

‘Look, the world has gone after him’ (John 12, 19)

‘Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour. ‘ (John 12, 20-26)

If only everything was neat and tidy. It is not the case. On Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday and the Entry into Jerusalem. Yesterday we were in Bethany at the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. This latter event is recorded in St. John’s gospel before the Entry into Jerusalem. Then John tells of the Palm Sunday event. If that seems a little complicated just forget it.

We are in Jerusalem and the palm branches have been laid before Jesus. St. John keeps up the pressure on the authorities though. He mentions specifically that Lazarus is with Our Lord. Lazarus is an open wound to the temple authorities and religious teachers, because people had heard about the miraculous event just over the Kidron Valley in Bethany. Naturally enough the crowds are curious, curious not only to see a man alive who had been dead, but if we are right this is a man who had been suffering from leprosy, not only a desperately painful and fatal illness, but a socially isolating illness. No rubber gloves and designer face masks in those days!

The authorities are desperate now that Jesus is in Jerusalem. ‘Look, the world has gone after him’. (John 12, 19)

To emphasize this point St. John supplies the proof that the authorities should be worried. Today’s gospel reading tells us about some Greeks who are in Jerusalem.

These might have been Greek speaking Jews of the Jewish Diaspora or they may even have been gentiles. The interesting feature is that the two principal agents of this episode are Andrew and Philip, who are from the town of Bethsaida where we know that Jews and gentiles mingled freely. The disciples’ action is one of introductions – introductions to Jesus.

The response of Jesus is to direct us to the cross. Whenever Jesus speaks of glorification, in St. John’s gospel this is always synonymous with the crucifixion. It is in end through the mystery of the cross that God’s glory is truly revealed; ‘The power of power not exercised’, as I first mentioned in my sermon on Palm Sunday.

So to see Jesus, to follow Jesus, to know Jesus and to be known by him can only be by the cross.

Jesus speaks of his own death to himself in order that he may live fully to God, and thus be one with God. For us we must strive to live fully to Christ. ‘I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and so know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’  (Eph. 3, 18-19)

Following the way of the cross is the Christian enterprise – we all know it at least cerebrally. This Holy Week in particular we sense that we are ‘journeying crossward’ ie. towards Golgotha, the ‘Place of the Skull’ outside the city wall. Yet, we are called to something even deeper than this. We are called to share in a mystery so deep and profound that it is really quite simple. Jesus helps us to comprehend what this is.

As he engages immediately with the Greeks who had gone up for the Festival in Jerusalem, Jesus speaks of a seed, a grain. We can pick up a handful of grain and shake it around in the palm of our hands. It doesn’t do much, and it isn’t very exciting. It might be even more of a disappointment if we hold only one grain in our hands. It patently has no particular vitality or potential. It is a bit lifeless.

However, plant that grain in the ground, and it ceases to be a lifeless grain. It sheds its own inert existence and begins to grow into something else, and create a new and living thing. The grain is no more, the life is all. It is so with us, Jesus is saying. To follow him into the mystery of the cross we have to make the greatest sacrifice. We have to die to ourselves so that we might live in and with Christ. This is not about us having to give up our lives, though this will be the type of witnessing, martyring for some Christians. In fact it is something even more challenging – because we are being asked voluntarily to give up our living selves, so that we might we may be renewed by resurrection. Now, that really is a challenge for me and you as we ponder this Holy Week.

Let us pray:  Almighty and everlasting God, who in your tender love towards the human race sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross; grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.