Our Sunday Message

The Hour Has Come: John 12:20-33
Rev. Dr. Kenneth A. Corr
April 2, 2006
Fifth Sunday of Lent

   It was one of those awkward moments that is hard for us to understand. It happened at a family wedding. Everyone was having a good time, but behind the scenes, there was a crisis. They were running out of wine and, if someone didn’t do something, the family would be terribly humiliated. His mother pulled him aside and said, “Do something.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what is that to me? My hour is not yet come.”1
  Jump ahead in time to another awkward family occasion. Everyone was getting ready to go up to Jerusalem at festival time and Jesus announced that he was not going. The brothers said something very disrespectful. Actually, it was downright mean. They said, “You need to go so that others can see your good works in Judea. After all, if you want to be popular, you are going to have to be seen.” Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come.”2
  Jump ahead again to a time when Jesus was teaching in the temple. Some people believed in him and the authorities couldn’t take it anymore. They sent word to arrest him. But no one laid hands on him, because, listen carefully, “his hour had not come.”3
  Jump ahead in time to the festivals of booths in Jerusalem. The temple was adorned with huge golden lamps. Teaching in the temple amid these lamps, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness.”4 It was the kind of saying that sent cold chills down the spines of the scribes, the Pharisees, and the rulers. But no one did anything, John says, “Because his hour had not yet come.”5
  Jump ahead to Passover week. Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims from all over the world. There were some Greeks in the crowd of pilgrims. These were Gentile proselytes to Judaism who came to see Jesus. John placed their request on the same day as the Triumphal entry. Maybe they were a part of the great crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem that day.
  We don’t know exactly why they came to see Jesus. Maybe, like Nicodemus, they wanted a private interview. Maybe they had heard about the raising of Lazarus and they were just curious. Or maybe, as Gail R. O’Day suggests, “These Greeks’ request to see Jesus . . . can . . . also be read as their desire to become disciples.”6
  We don’t know what motivated them. We don’t know if the Greeks ever got to see Jesus. We don’t know if they ever became disciples. But we do know that there was something about their coming which signaled to Jesus that the moment of opportunity, the moment that his whole life had pointed to, the moment that he had intuited at least since he was twelve years old, the moment that his mother had treasured in her heart like a bad dream, had at last arrived. And Jesus said. “The hour has come.” In his commentary on this text, Fred Craddock says, “The chain of events leading to his passion will now begin.”7
  Today is the fifth Sunday in Lent in the Christian calendar. We are moving ever closer to Easter. The biblical drama is gaining momentum. There is now no turning back for Jesus. What was it about the coming of the Greeks that seemed to signal the final movement to the cross? What was it about this event that marked the final turning point for Jesus? Look again at this story.
  The arrival of the Greeks was in some way the fulfillment of the worst fears of the Pharisees. This story is immediately preceded by the Pharisees saying to one another, v. 19, “See, the whole world has gone after him.” Obviously, they did not know the full import of what they were predicting. Obviously, they were just sharing their frustrations. Obviously, they were describing their jealousy. But the truth about what they said was that this Jesus was more than a parochial politician, or narrow nationalist, or regional religious reformer. This Jesus is the savior of the whole world.
  “Imagine a grain of wheat,” Jesus said. Imagine any seed. By itself, alone, it is a lifeless, insignificant thing. But here is a law of nature. There must be a death in order to produce more life.8
  “Now my soul is troubled,” he said. What do you hear in those words? Anguish? What do you hear? Agony? What do you hear?   Distress?
  “And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour?’” It would have been easy to say, “Save me.” It would have been easy to reject the suffering and death. The way of the cross was not the easy way.
  “Now my soul is troubled.” Should he pray for his own salvation?   “NO!” he answered. “It is for this that I have come to this hour.”
  Do you remember that day in the temple? He was only twelve years, but there in the temple, he announced to his parents that his life, his identity, his calling, his purpose was to do the Father’s business.   That hour had now arrived and he would not avoid it.
  “Then a voice came from heaven.” Jesus made it very clear that the voice was not for him. The voice was not to strengthen his resolve.   The voice was not to bolster his courage. The voice was not to insure his commitment. Jesus said that the voice was for your sake, and for mine, to strengthen our faith and our resolve.
  “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.” The way to life is through death. The way to glory is through humiliation. The way to salvation is by being lifted up.
  We don’t know who these Greeks were. We don’t know their names. But it is not hard to recognize them. You will recognize them as all those who are outside the law, outside the covenant, outside the promises of God, “without hope and without God in the world.”9
  It is not hard to recognize these Greeks, these foreigners, these strangers. In fact, if we look closely, we will recognize ourselves. “So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth . . . remember that you were at that time without Christ . . . But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace. . .”10
  Thanks be to God.

1 John 2:4.
2 John 7:6.
3 John 7:30.
4 John 8:12.
5 John 8:20.
6 Gail R. O’Day, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, “Luke, John,” p. 710.
7 Fred Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year B, p. 164.
8 Ibid., p. 164.
9 Ephesians 2:12b.
10 Ephesians 2:11-14a.