Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

John 12:27-36

Today’s reading finds Jesus anticipating his imminent execution, when his body will be nailed to a wood cross-beam lifted up high, where passers-by will gawk at his torture and deride his suffering.  Jesus, like any normal person, was deeply troubled, to the very depths of his soul.  Part of him wanted desperately to escape this horrible fate.  With complete confidence in his Heavenly Father, Jesus knew he need only ask, and God would immediately rescue him from this nightmare.  But the greater part of him knew he would not make that request.  Jesus knew the Scriptures; he knew it was for this purpose that he had come into the world and his mission was now reaching its climax; he knew his path led through rejection, torture, and death.  He knew all the evil spiritual forces of this world would be hurled against him.  It was the hour when wickedness would win, but Jesus knew that, as he patiently endured this onslaught, his Heavenly Father would bring him vindication and triumph that would defeat, judge, and dethrone all those forces of evil.  

Jesus knew himself to be the Messiah, ordained by God to be the all-powerful king over all creation, establishing God’s everlasting reign of love and mercy, of justice and peace for the entire world.  The people were convinced from Scripture that the Messiah would rule forever, so how could he die (v. 34)?  When Jesus said he would soon die by being lifted up in crucifixion, the people asked Jesus how this could be, and Jesus answered mysteriously about light and darkness, that the people should walk while they had the light, that they should believe in the light so they would not be overtaken by darkness but instead become children of light.  Perhaps some of the people then remembered that Jesus had previously taught them about light and darkness, telling them he was the light of the world (John 8:12).

There are, you see, fundamentally only two ways to live in this world.  One is the way of Jesus, the light of the world.  This is the way of forgiveness, mercy, and love from God.  The other way is the way of darkness, pointing the finger, making accusations, hurling blame, creating scapegoats and heaping guilt onto them until they are destroyed.  The very name Satan means Accuser and sums up this way of darkness and evil.  Two radically different ways they are, but how often we try to mix them, attempting to live both in light and darkness at the same time!

This all happened in today’s account, as Jesus’ condemnation rapidly approached.  The common people had seen how Jesus lived, how he healed and restored and communicated God’s love.  Jesus was bringing light into their lives.  At the same time, some of the leaders, Pharisees and Temple rulers, acted as judges, pointing out people’s faults and failures, heaping burdens onto them, and accusing them of failing to live in accordance with all the rules.  Their world was indeed a dark place.   John 11:47-53, set shortly before today’s reading, brings this to a climax.  The leaders were greatly concerned that people increasingly believed in Jesus, and they feared the established ways were in grave danger of being overturned by revolution, which the Romans would quell by destroying the Temple and nation.  Caiaphas, the High Priest, told the council, “You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”  So they made Jesus the scapegoat and heaped more and more accusations on his head.  The powers of darkness, accusation, and scapegoating now prevailed, and soon Jesus was lifted up onto the horrible cross to die.

But God did not leave him in death.  By the Resurrection, God lifted Jesus up out of the grave to newness of life.  God elevated Jesus to possess all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18).  God vindicated Jesus and showed for all time that the way of Jesus is God-ordained for all humanity.

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,

every tongue confess him King of glory now;

'tis his Father's pleasure we should call him Lord,

who from the beginning was the mighty Word.

Humbled for a season to receive a name

from the lips of sinners unto whom he came;

faithfully he bore it, spotless to the last,

brought it back victorious when from death he passed.

In your hearts enthrone him; there let him subdue

all that is not holy, all that is not true;

crown him as your Saviour in temptation’s hour;

let his will enfold you in its light and power.

Christians, this Lord Jesus shall return again,

with his Father's glory, with his angel train;

for all wreaths of empire meet upon his brow,

and our hearts confess him King of glory now.

Caroline Maria Noel (1817-77), Common Praise, hymn 375 

– Robert Kruse