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.” (John 12:23-25)
Dear Saints,
I have always been fascinated by the way Our Lord uses the
word “hour” in these verses. The word
“hour,” in that 1st century world, could mean an interval of
about 60 minutes. Jesus is using it
here to describe a short, intense period, in which the entire relationship
between God, humanity, and the creation is forever changed and enlarged. The week, roughly, from Jesus’ triumphal
entry into Jerusalem, to the cross, to the empty tomb, is the “hour.”
The thing that prompted Jesus’ statement about the “hour”
was the request by some Greeks that they might see Jesus (verse 21). They were presumably gentiles, who were
being initiated into the Jewish religion, and they had made a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem for the Passover. For Jesus,
their request was a confirmation that the death he had been sent into the world
to die, revealing God’s self-giving love, would “bear much fruit”: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people [not just Jews] to myself.” (John 12:32) To a gentile
like me, this is astonishingly good news!
In our Christian calendar, we are about to spend a week
re-enacting that “hour.” We do this
year after year. By now, we know the
details of the story pretty well. But
it happened so long ago! What does it
have to do with us now?
The New Testament assumes that what happened then affects
us now:
For if we have been united with him in a death like his,
we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with
him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be
enslaved to sin. For whatever has died
is freed from sin. But if we have died
with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him… So you also must consider yourselves dead to
sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
(Romans 6:5-11)
“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate
their life in this world will keep it for eternal life,” Jesus said. Does that make us wonder if we really want
to be Christians? It is not an isolated
saying. Jesus is consistent. “If any want to become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)
It does not mean, necessarily, that all of us will be
called to follow Jesus by being literally nailed to a cross of wood. (But it should matter to us that, in other
parts of the world, tens of thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters are
laying down their lives every year for their faith in Jesus!) And I trivialize Jesus’ words if I say my
gout or my chronic back pain is “the cross I bear.”
Another way of saying “take up your cross” is “live by the
Spirit” (Galatians 5:16) or “as you… have received Christ Jesus as Lord,
continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him…” (Colossians
2:6-7). We become more fully alive, we
become more fully the unique creatures that God created us to be, when we put
to death that part of us that wants to be God and allow the Holy Spirit to
transform us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Living in an authentic Christian community requires a
daily dying and being raised. It means
being set free from the need to have our own way, and letting the Lord have his
way. It means mutual submission
(Ephesians 5:21). It means the
“stronger” respect the tender consciences of the “weaker” brothers and sisters
(1 Corinthians 8:10-11), and put up with their failings (Romans 15:1).
It seems impossible, but the Resurrection assures us it is
not. The Resurrection assures us that
what seemed a defeat – the Crucifixion – is a victory. It gave the early Christians the courage to
put aside differences of social class, race, and culture, knowing that Jesus
“in his flesh” had broken down the man-made walls of hostility separating
people (Ephesians 2:14-17). It enabled
those early Christians to defy the abuse of power by mighty emperors.
For us in the 21st century, the Resurrection
means we need not fear any controversy or challenge. And we need not accept as “inevitable” any cultural, political,
or economic development that degrades the image of God in our fellow human
beings, or oppresses the poor, or destroys the environment. Nothing is inevitable but the redemptive
plan of God. Alleluia!
Thank you, Lord Jesus, because in your “hour” you did not
turn aside from the cross, but obeyed, even to death, so that we might be
united with you in Resurrection life!
Faithfully,
Chuck Bradshaw +