Jesus talks about why he bothered to incarnate in the first place; the disciples look confused.
John 12:20-33; Hebrews 5:5-10; Psalm 51:1-13; Jeremiah 31:31-34
It’s rather amazing that, as blunt as Jesus is about what he’s going to do in the span of time we now call “Holy Week” (specifically Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter), his followers just don’t get it. Come to think of it, no-one gets it, let alone his followers. Jesus is actually pretty clear, though most so in Mark’s gospel, that he is going to be betrayed, handed over to the chief priests and elders, and die in a particularly unpleasant way usually reserved for slaves and the foulest of criminals. Yet when the events leading up to the crucifixion actually happen, his followers either desert him, deny him, or try to fight it — or in the case of Peter, all three.
The gospel this week is one of Jesus’ more clear predictions of his death in John’s gospel. Usually in John, Jesus will say something, and then it will be followed by an editorial comment making clear the connection to his death. We still have the editorial comment in this reading, but he’s still pretty straightforward.
Jesus says, in reply to some Greeks wanting to meet him, “It’s time for the Son of Man to be glorified. Think of it like a seed. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it’s only one seed — there’s only so much it can do. But if it falls to the ground and dies, the plant that grows from it produces many more seeds. In this way, whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, but whoever gives up his life will have eternal life. I don’t want to do what I’m going to do, but this is why I came, I’m not going to back out now. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”
Think of how different the world would be if Jesus just died like a normal person — living to a ripe old age, dying in bed, and not coming back to life. He would have just been a weird country Rabbi with some strange ideas, but likely wouldn’t change the world. His followers would have just dispersed after his death, and we’d live in a much different world.
But that’s not how it happened. With Jesus’ death, and more importantly his resurrection, followed by His sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, his followers led a movement that quite literally changed the world, leading to the Christianization of an empire in the 4th century and of all Europe by the 10th century.
And of course the core message of that movement was Jesus, the Son of God, as the sacrifice for sin. As the book of Hebrews puts it, Jesus was appointed by God to be both our High Priest and the Sacrifice, offering himself in obedience to pay for our sins. It’s similar to the system that was in place for the Jewish people, really, where an animal was chosen to bear the sin of a person so that the person didn’t have to, and then be offered to God so that the person’s sin is taken away, yet Jesus did something different even with that.
Jeremiah prophesies that there will be a new covenant between God and His people, one that we know now is fulfilled in Jesus. There are really two key points in this new covenant, and both are laid out in 31:34: “‘No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the Lord. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'”
That summary — that all people will know God and he will forgive them of their sin — is exactly what Jesus came to earth to do. At his crucifixion he drew all men to himself, fulfilling the prophesy at all people will know God, and he became the ultimate sacrifice, forgiving the sins of all people.
So with all this good that God has done for us, we find out response laid out quite clearly in Psalm 51: 10-13. David, having recently been called out on his adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband, Joab, wrote this Psalm out of his sorrow over his sinfulness. So he prayer, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” We’re familiar with that part; while we haven’t sung it lately, it’s one of the options for an offering song, and, for those of you that enjoy it, we’ll be using it again during the season of Pentecost.
What we often haven’t heard is the next part. After asking God for forgiveness, David then says, “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.” His response to God’s forgiveness and mercy and grace is to tell those who still need to hear about it. And so also that’s our response: to, like David and Jesus’ disciples, share the good news we have in Christ.