Walking the Way of the Cross

Read: John 12:20-33

Introduction

In this Gospel reading we see beginning the Passion journey of Our Lord. A journey that will lead eventually to the cross.

John 12 represents a major turning point. If we turn back just one verse to John 12:19 we read the following:

The Pharisees then said one to another, “You see you can do nothing. Look the world has gone after him!”

In many ways this is their final rejection of Jesus and his ministry. It echoes the opening words of the Gospel “He came to what was his own, and his own people rejected him.” John 1:11

Contrast that with the opening verses of our reading "Now among those who went up to the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and said to him, “Sirs we wish to see Jesus.” Here we have recorded a group of Gentiles actively seeking out Jesus. Was Jesus waiting for this moment? Certainly when Jesus hears of their arrival he answers with the words “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

I believe this is a great turning point. Up to now Jesus' ministry is to his own people. Now from this point forward he is going on to die for the sins of the whole world. Here our salvation begins!

Jesus' talk is now turns to the world and all its inhabitants; not just the people of Judea to whom he has previously ministered “Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL people to myself.” (verses 31-32)

Here we see the death of Christ as the realisation of God's plan. Christ on the cross draws all people to himself. The Greeks wanted to see the man Jesus, the cross of Christ draws people from all over the world not only to see, but be saved through him.

Salvation

How then do we become part of that salvation?

To return to the beginning of John's gospel we read:

“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God.” (John 1:11)

So then, belief that Jesus is the Son of God, is the way into salvation. But salvation is more than that, it about turning around and living life differently from before.

Jesus' own word point the way.

“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (verse 25)

What is Jesus saying? John Donahue, a Jesuit priest writes:

Those words may seem jarring to an age that is only too aware of the dangers of self-loathing and lack of self-esteem. “Loving life” in John - means a preference for “the world” and the human glory that can blind a person to God's love. Hatred of one's life means rejection of the claims of the 'world' and the willingness to serve and follow Jesus. This becomes explicit in the next saying “whoever serves me must follow me”

Surely this is the whole point of the Lenten season. To examine again our attachment to the world and our commitment to Christ. It is a struggle – it is not easy. The attraction of the world and all it has to offer, pulls at us every day. It is easy to want what the world offers, to want the recognition that can be ours, only if we give it our full attention.

However, we are not alone in our struggles. This is exactly the same struggle that Christ faced.

I see the Greeks in this reading as a symbol of the glory that the world has to offer. On one side we have the adoration of the people on, the other the road to the cross. Jesus chooses the latter.

In our reading from Hebrews, we heard about the Priestly role of Christ. In Hebrews Chapter 4 we read:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are -

We are not alone. Christ, having given himself on the cross, having risen on Easter Day, now sits at the right hand of God and prays for us in our journey.

So, as we come to Passiontide – as we hear of the events that lead up to his crucifixion – as we make that journey with Christ, in many ways we reflect our own journey and our own struggles.

? The pull of people who demand our attention even when we don't feel like giving it.

? The praise of others that turns into hatred when we don't do things their way.

? The grief we feel. when friend of many years desert us and, even worse, betray us.

? The anger of those who do not see eye to eye with us.

? The callousness of the state which often gives lip service to justice but in reality carries out the will of those with power and influence.

? The times when it seems that we are carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders.

Conclusion

Being a Christian is not easy. It is not about taking soft options. It IS about living our lives in a way that will often bring us into conflict with the world. It does not isolate us from the pain an suffering that is part of the human lot – at times it may even make it worse. But we do have the knowledge that Jesus has trodden the path before us and the rewards that are his will one day be ours.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made of himself of no reputation, and took on himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient onto death, even the death of the cross. (Phil:5-9 KJV)

Cleaning out the Temple

This is another of my Lenten Sermons which I share with you all.

On the wall of our church, near the doorway to the hall, hangs a copy of ‘Light of the World, a painting by the pre-Raphaelite artist Holman Hunt. It is a picture of Jesus, patiently waiting outside a door to be let in. Its inspiration is the bible passage “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” It was a painting that graced many a Victorian or Edwardian home. I first remember seeing it hanging outside my Sunday school room when I was five or six. It is a painting that is in stark contrast to our Gospel reading this morning.

When Jesus entered the temple he discovered people selling cattle, sheep and doves to the pilgrims who needed them to make their obligatory sacrifices. Those pilgrims also needed to change their Roman coinage into Jewish money in order to pay the temple tax. So Jesus comes fact to face with the money changers.

Was Jesus surprised that they were there? I don't think so. He had visited the Temple when he was twelve and had probably done so on a number of occasions since. He would have been quite aware of what was going on. This would not have been a spare of the moment act

Jesus deliberately plaits a whip out of the reeds on the ground, thrashed the animals from the temple, scattered the coffers of the money changers, and overturned their tables: "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" Later the Gospel writer remembered Psalm 69:9 and attached a sense of prophetic fulfillment to the event: "Zeal for your house will consume me."

The picture this scene paints of Jesus is one completely different from the one in Hunt's painting. However, the truth is if we really dig under the surface of the Gospels, we meet a quite different Jesus to the one we expect. Some of you may remember the last time I spoke and how revolutionary we saw Jesus’ visit to Levi and how it broke all the religious, moral and social codes of the day. I called Jesus a revolutionary. What could be more revolutionary than Jesus’ act that morning in the temple.

Reading various commentaries on this incident, most, not unnaturally, concentrate on Jesus’ motives for his outburst. Some see in his actions, justification for their own. Not unsurprisingly, the reformers use this incident to justify their own destruction of the statues, paintings, stained glass etc. of the pre Reformation church. However, when questioned, Jesus says nothing at all about his motives..

However, one commentary did strike my attention because it was so different from the others.

“ I read the cleansing of the temple as a stark warning against any and every false sense of security. Misplaced allegiances, religious presumption, pathetic excuses, smug self-satisfaction, spiritual complacency, nationalist zeal, political idolatry, and economic greed in the name of God are only some of the tables that Jesus would overturn in his own day and in ours.” (The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Daniel B. Clendenin, Journey with Jesus Foundation.)

For the Jews the temple was more than a place of worship – the place where God dwelt. The temple had become a symbol of national pride. They saw themselves as the one people who had access to God; what is more they had his presence right there in the temple. The Romans may think themselves special, but they knew they special – They had God. Nothing of the outside is allowed in, that is why the money has to be changed – God does not want anything inferior, and the Romans are inferior. The whole of their national identity was wrapped up in the Temple. We remember how the Americans reacted with the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York. Could you imagine the shock when Jesus mentions the destruction of the temple.

Of course the same attitude that was found in Israel can be found in all ages and amongst all races. At its worst it can be found in the Nazi movement and its ideas of the master race. But in its lesser form by groups who believe that their way is the only right way, or their church is the only true church.

If Jesus acts in the temple tell us anything it is this. God is not interested in our great buildings, however special they are. One day the great cathedrals of this land will fall. Look at the Monasteries!

God is not interested in our National Pride, our history and how great we see ourselves in the world. Nations come and nations go. All the great empires of the past are fallen. Even western culture will have its end.

What God is interested you and me. – We are the true temple

“Do you not know that you are God's Temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor3:16)

“For we are the temple of the Living God” (2 Cor 6:16)

If then, we are the Temple of God, what goes on inside? This lententide we need to ask ourselves some hard questions

• Do we see ourselves as superior to those around?
• Do we have a false sense of security in our own powers?
• Do we presume we are always right?
• Have we allowed the World and all its values to invade our innermost quiet.
• Have we become greedy, not only for money but for our share of the earth's resources?

Jesus once told a parable.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I get.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God have mercy on me a sinner I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. (Luke 18: 9-14)

It is no accident that the prayer of the Tax Collector is displayed on our back-cloth during lent.

Is that prayer our prayer?

Are we willing to cleanse the temple - or will Jesus have to come and do it?