I Want to See Jesus

John 12: 20-33

Lent 5, March 22, 2015

Some Greeks ask to see Jesus.

That’s all it says, not much else,

just that they were Greeks in town for the festival of the Passover.

In other words, they were Gentiles by birth,

non-Jewish people

But they’re in town for the Jewish festival.

So maybe they’ve converted to the Jewish faith.

Not unheard of, even in that time.

Maybe they are not Jewish, but they’re spiritually curious,

like lots of younger people are trying out different things,

hoping to find the one that fits.

Maybe they are just religious tourists

fascinated with others spiritual practices.

For whatever reason they’re there,

now they want to see Jesus.

Maybe it’s just another part of their religious experience.

Maybe just another facet of the Jewish religion.

Or maybe Jesus reputation has preceded him

and they want to see the man who feeds five thousand,

and heals people and has done so many impressive things.

They’re not followers yet, they’re seekers.

Like all of us at one time or another.

They want to see Jesus.

So , I don’t think they were prepared for the speech that they got.

When they did actually get to see Jesus.

Somehow their arrival prompts Jesus to tell

them and the crowds around him

that it is now time for him to die.

There’s no turning back in other words.

This is what he’s come into the world to do.

To die, it’s a strange concept really.

We usually think that people are born to live.

but Jesus says he was born to die.

Jesus uses the wheat as a metaphor.

He says, if a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies,

it spreads it’s seeds around so that more can grow.

In other words, Jesus death isn’t just a death

it’s for the benefit of all people, so that others can live.

The usual theological construct that has been put on this

Is that Jesus pays the price for our sins,

We should be punished, God demands punishment

but Jesus sacrifice of his own life somehow

changes God’s mind and we are freed.

But as we heard last week, Jesus said that God

so loves the world and that’s why Jesus was sent.

And as the modern theologian Richard Rohr

reminded us in recent devotion

Jesus wasn’t sent to change God’s mind.

Jesus was sent to change our minds.

And in the next sentence of today’s Gospel,

Jesus makes that clear. 

He tells us and his disciples and those unsuspecting Greeks:

“Those who love their life lose it, and those

who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Not only will Jesus go the way of the cross,

but he wants us to do it as well.

So what does that mean for the Greeks?

What does it mean for Jesus disciples?

What does it mean for us? How do we hate our lives?

I think lots of us struggle with this statement, because

it seems like we’re told that we should be thankful for our lives,

we should spend our time thanking God for our blessings.

We should love our lives, not hate them.

Couldn’t Jesus have just said “put God first”

or something sweeter like that?

Hate is such a strong word.

But I think the answer comes

when we look at that cross.

That death that Jesus was about to die.

I don’t mean just look at it,

but think about the whole story of Jesus.

God so loved the world that God came into the world as Jesus,

He shared the story of God’s love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s mercy

and said that the world should align themselves to God.

And as a result, he was arrested and killed.

Something is wrong with a world that can do that.

When we look at the cross we shouldn’t be comfortable,

we should be uncomfortable, outraged, upset.

So we can love our life, but also hate that it’s part of this world

that punishes the innocent, that uses death as we weapon,

that resorts to hate when it feels challenged.

- So for instance: I love my house,

but I hate that there are so many people without homes

who live on shelters, in cars, and on other people’s couches.

- I love the comforts I have, but I hate that there are so many people

who have to come to food pantries like ours to survive.

- I love my security, but I hate that there are people

who live their life in fear of all sorts of things,

fear of their neighbors, their spouses, the police, their governments.

- I love my life, but I hate that so many people

lose their lives to violence, hatred, and war.

The list can go on.

  

God loves the world.

And God wants us to love the world too.

When I look at the cross and know the story of the cross,

I can’t help but feel mal-adjusted to this world

that I am a part of.

Mal-adjusted to my life.

So Jesus does say, “hate your life.“

Look at that cross.

And see the world that would put God’s love to death.

Be uncomfortable with it.
Be uncomfortable with the privledge you have.

Don’t be so attached to your life.

Be willing to change it so that God’s will can be done.

The cross shines the light of truth into our lives.

Let the cross be our catalyst for change.

The Greeks wanted to see Jesus.

And we want to see Jesus too.

And this is how Jesus wanted to be seen.

On the cross.

If you want to see Jesus,

walk with him to the cross,

hate what you see there,

look at it and live.

What's Jesus So Angry About?

John 2:13-22

Lent 3

March 8, 2015

Jesus is angry here.

I mean we’ve seen him speak strongly to

people, to the disciples, to the Pharisees.

Jesus is Really Angry In the Temple
Dinah Roe Kemball 2002

but we don’t see Jesus acting out physically.

Actually, we don’t see it at all except here.

But this story is in all four gospels.

It’s obviously important.

But what is it about this particular situation

that makes Jesus so demonstrative?

Some people think it’s specifically about selling things in church

bake sales, sub sales, bingo games, rummage sales.

So some churches don’t allow sales of any kind

because of this story of Jesus.

I don’t know that Jesus anger is only about selling things though.

I think there’s more than that.

Now, the reason that they

were selling animals in the temple,

was so people could buy them to do sacrifices

which was the main element of Jewish worship at the time.

The original idea was that people worshipped God by giving

God back the best of what God had given them.

Most people would bring their own animals,

or they would trade what they produced for an animal to sacrifice.

But when the temple was built in Jerusalem,

people would to travel there to do their worship.

They couldn’t bring one of their own animals

or a bunch of other produce, people started to

sell animals in front of the temple for money.

And because you couldn’t use Roman money,

there were money changers, who would exchange

Roman money for Jewish tokens for a price.

It all made perfect sense. No one was doing anything particularly wrong.

All of these things were proscribed by religious law.

BUT…

The whole purpose of the temple

and the act of sacrifice was so that people

and communities would grow closer to God.

All this buying and selling was supposed serve a purpose,

to lead people in a deeper relationship with God and each other

so they could do what God required which is outlined in Micah 6:

“What does the Lord require of you,

To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”

But as Jesus said, this courtyard in the temple was just a marketplace. 

People were not focused on getting back to God

they were focused on the buying and selling,

How could Jesus tell? Because there was no mercy,

there was no justice, and no one was walking humbly.

They were “doing temple”

but they weren’t doing God’s will.

The market had become their focus instead of God’s will.

It looked like temple things were happening,

but the purpose of the temple was not happening.

Does this ever happen to us?

Do we do ever find ourselves “doing church”

and then forget what we were “doing church” for?

Do we come here on a Sunday morning,

and just say, “Well I’m here, get this over with,

check this off the list.”

and never have it change us?

Do we go through our lives

just doing tasks, work, kids, housework,

friends, day in and day out and never

consider what the Spirit is telling us

Never asking what God’s will for us is.

Never feel God’s grace in our lives.

Or as a community,

We could be “doing church” in here just right.

We could say all the right words right,

sing the right songs, hit all the right notes,

have the most accurate budget, the nicest facility,

the best bible classes, the most learned children...

Churches can check every box off in the

“12 most important things for a successful church.”

but still not do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

And if we’re not doing it all for God’s vision for us

and for this world, what is it all for?

Of course we do, we do a little of all of these things.

There are times when each one of us just goes through the motions,

there are things that we have to do as people

and as members of a church that have to be done

and we just have to do them.

But no matter what we’re doing,

we should never forget what the point of all of it is.

A pastor, Francis Chan, wrote something very wise:

As a church, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure,

but of succeeding at things that don't really matter.”

Now, notice that Jesus didn’t just talk about this.

He didn’t even tell a parable, or ask a clever question,

For this one he flipped it all over.

He turned over a tradition that he had been a part of,

that his parents had been a part of,

in a religion that he loved and honored.

He turned it over. He disrupted everthing.

Now, we know that God loves us all even

when we’re just phoning it in.

When we’re just “doing church”.

But Jesus means to be disruptive in our lives.

Jesus doesn’t just want our tasks.

Jesus doesn’t want us to just do something

just to say that we’ve done it.

Jesus doesn’t want us just “doing church”.

Jesus doesn’t just want Sunday mornings

pretty songs, nice sermons, committees, prayers, and some cash.

Jesus wants followers.

Jesus wants all of us.

Our heart and our soul, bodies, our entire lives.

And Jesus is not just going to talk about.
Jesus intends to flip over our whole lives.

Walking with Jesus doesn’t mean just mean

calling ourselves Christians, it means putting everything

on that path with him and following.

It means trusting that the one who gave his whole life for us

will never lead us astray.

Death, Glory, and the Messianic Secret

Mark 8:31-38

Lent 2

March 1, 2015

So we were talking in our adult ed class

about the Gospel of Mark and about the Messianic Secret.

Do you know about this?

Throughout  the Gospel of Mark

right after Jesus does something great,

he warns various people not to tell anyone about it.

It happens a bit in other gospels,

but it’s very prevalent in Mark.

When Jesus heals a leper, Jesus tells him

not to tell anyone, but go right to the priest

In several places, Jesus tells the unclean spirits

not to make his identity known to anyone.

After he heals Jairus daughter, it says

he strictly ordered that no one should know about this.

When he heals the man who is deaf,

he orders the people there not to say anything.

When he heals a blind man, he tells him to go straight home

and not to talk to anyone.

Later on in chapter 9, Jesus goes up to the mountain

he’s transfigured and he appears with Elijah and Moses,

he tells the three disciples that are there, not to tell anyone -

presumably not even the other disciples -

until after he had risen from the dead.

It’s a curious thing about the Gospel of Mark

it shows up a bit in the other gospels,

but not half as often as it does in Mark.

There are a lot of theories about it,

But there are still debates about what it means.

The Messianic Secret.

In today’s reading we have another instance.

Jesus asks the disciples “Who do you say that I am.”

And Peter shares the revelation that maybe

surprises the other disciples.

Maybe Peter even surprises himself -

He says, “You are the Messiah.”

Which, of course, is Jesus true identity.

But again, “Jesus warns them not to tell anyone about it.”

But juxtapose this with the rest of today’s gospel

where Jesus is talking about his suffering and death.

And about that, the gospel makes the point to say,

“All this he said quite openly.”

So, he works miracles,

he was transformed on the mountain,

he talks to ancient prophets.

The demons, who live in some bad part of

an other-worldly dimension can identify Jesus,

The sky has opened up several times

and God has claimed Jesus as God’s own son.

Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God.

All this, Jesus says to keep a secret, don’t tell anyone about it –

for now at least.

But then when he talks about the fact that he

must suffer and be rejected and killed

by the authorities.

(And after three days rise again.)

That stuff, Jesus says quite openly.

 

Jesus is a PR disaster.

No wonder Peter rebukes him.

What are you doing, Jesus?

It’s like a commercial that gives a drug’s side effects,

but never tells about  the benefit of the drug.

  

Jesus is all secretive about the good stuff,

and the bad part he shares openly.

It’s the opposite of what you’d expect,

And I think it’s very important.

And what I think what Mark’s gospel is showing us

is that we will not understand the glory of Jesus

without first understanding the suffering of Jesus.

Jesus knew that people would naturally gravitate

towards someone who could perform miracles,

who was special, divine.

And he did get crowds of people

who were impressed with him gathereed around him

as long as he was doing these special things.

But that’s not what Jesus wanted,

Jesus didn’t just want people who would admire him,

Jesus wanted people who would follow him

And Jesus always wanted the great and glorious things about him

to be put in the context of the cross.

Jesus glory is not in his power is not in his ability to do miracles.

Jesus glory is found in him giving his life away for others.

As humans, our tendency is to avoid pain,

we avoid conflict and trials, we deny our sorrow and grief.

Our pursuits are pleasure, comfort, satisfaction, fulfillment.

We look away from pain and sorrow,

We try to climb the ladder up the next rung

thinking that we can somehow escape anything

that might lead to suffering.

We equate power with leading an unchallenged life,

with ease, with cleanliness, with a daily dose of happiness.

So we expect God to be found in these places,

We often  worship God in large, ornate cathedrals,

or state of the art buildings with expensive special effects.

But Jesus was not found in a comfortable palace,

or a cathedral, or even in a quiet, peaceful room most of the time.

Jesus was not found on the top of the ladder.

Jesus was found with the people who weren’t able

to run up the ladder of happiness.

Who could not escape suffering,

The Jesus we know best was found on a cross.

That is Jesus true power, and there’s no way the disciples

or anyone else would understand that until they saw it.

This is the way of Jesus.

Death to life. Self sacrifice and resurrection.

But  it’s not just  Jesus story,

Jesus means to take us with him too:

“Those who want to become my followers,

should deny themselves and take up their cross.”

We are called to suffer with other people,

to have compassion, to feel their pain and suffer with them,

We share our lives with our spouses and make compromises

that we would rather not make.

We give up things that we want or need

in order to provide for our children.

We give our lives and time to our communities,

Our hearts break with compassion for people we don’t know.

We purposely go to places of poverty,

of loss, of sadness, grief and illness.

We pray for people halfway around the world

We spend time in hospitals and hospices,

we go to El Salvador, Haiti, Syria,

we help other people carry their crosses.

We don’t choose suffering,  

we would take most those moments back if we could,

But we also know that the worst times of our lives

can  also be the most important times of our lives

when we have truly been in the presence of God.

Suffering is not in vain.

This is the paradox that Jesus proclaims.
This is the meaning of the gospel.

In order to have our life, we give it away.

There is great power in giving our whole lives away.

When I lived in California,

I was at a party and I was talking to someone

he was from like Pennsylvania.

We were talking about the places that I had lived.

At that point, I had been in California for 6 years,

and before that I lived in Texas for about 12.

And he said to me, “So you don’t get Spring”

“What do you mean? we have spring.”

He said, “But it’s not that beautiful.”

“What do you mean? Texas is beautiful,

California is one of the most beautiful places on earth.”

He said, “Yeah, but you can’t really GET the beauty of Spring

if you always have spring.

You only GET spring if you’ve lived through

bone chilling cold for four or five solid months.

Then you GET spring.”

I thought he was just arrogant.

But he was right. Spring is much better after winter.

We follow a crucified savior.

Walking with Jesus means letting our hearts be broken for others.

It means sharing the weight of the cross with others in our community.

It means living through the bone chilling cold together

and really knowing the glory of God in the Spring.