Rev. Sandy Lacey
March 17, 2024
We begin with a festival in Jerusalem. It is the celebration of the Passover and Jesus has just made his triumphal entry into the city, riding on a donkey – something we will hear more about next Sunday. The Jewish people were not the only ones in the city for the festival; there were Greeks there as well. We might imagine that the Greeks were curious about the festivities and the different parades. John tells us that some of them requested to see Jesus.
Jesus’ response to the disciples’ query about the Greeks seeing him is rather curious. “The time has come for me to be glorified.” What can he mean? To us, glory might mean something majestic, maybe big, beautiful mountains with the sun rising over them. Or maybe we think of a victory of our favorite sports team or person, against unbelievable odds. Or perhaps we might think, like the disciples and these Greeks that “Jesus glorified” may mean that he will finally achieve his rightful place – as King – while the occupying force of Rome will be ousted. What does Jesus mean when he says it is time for him to be glorified?
We do not have to wonder long, for the very next thing he says explains what he means. Jesus uses agricultural images a lot in the Gospels to describe his work and his kingdom and this time he describes his kind of glory being like a seed that falls to the earth dead; and only when it is dead and buried, will it then spring forth in new and abundant life. It will produce much fruit . . . but it will die first. That is an unusual kind of glory and if I am one of the disciples, I am scratching my head again (because he has been talking this way for a while now.) He has been talking about his death and he even allowed some VERY expensive perfume to be lavished upon his feet because he said it was preparation for his burial. Then he follows this seemingly weird death speech with one of his great reversal speeches: “in order to love your life, you must lose it.” So, it seems that Jesus thinks death leads to life. How is this related to being glorified? And not only Jesus, but will this be a descriptor for his followers too? So, while we may define glory as as a victory in battle, John’s Jesus defines glory as death. That is the first troubling claim of this passage.
Verse 27 is as close to Jesus’ struggling as we get in the Gospel of John. You may remember that in the other three Gospels, Jesus goes to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane and asks his disciples to stay awake and pray while he prays. He agonizes in the other three Gospels about what is to come. He quotes Psalm 22 in the other accounts: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” “Why have you left me alone?” “Please take this cup, this upcoming event, from me. Nevertheless, do what is good and right, God, and I will comply.” The only thing we hear in the Gospel of John, however, is “now my soul is troubled. Should I ask for something different? No, this is my purpose.” There is not the same sense of agony in this Gospel – just a little questioning as he reaffirms his purpose. Jesus says it is his purpose to demonstrate what God’s glory looks like and it looks like nothing we could have ever imagined. And God’s Voice that sounds like thunder confirms it.
Verses 31-33 move us further along this theme. In order to help us understand these verses, we must have a different understanding of the word, “world” in this passage. The Greek word, “Kosmos” is translated by many Bible versions into “world.” But that translation is a little confusing for us because when we hear “the world”, we think of God’s good, created earth that Genesis 1 describes for us. But the Greek word, Kosmos, here means something different than the world we hear about in Genesis 1. Kosmos is a negative thing in the Gospel of John. Much like the Apostle Paul’s emphasis on the dualism between flesh and spirit in his letters, John emphasizes the dualism between God’s kingdom and the world. The “world” is a fallen realm that is estranged from God and held captive by a ruler in John’s Gospel. The Kosmos, translated “world,” is a fallen system that exists in estrangement from God and is organized in opposition to God’s purposes. The “world” in John’s Gospel is characterized by ways of domination, violence, and death, according to commentator Chuck Campbell.[1] He goes on to say that in this text the crucifixion is interpreted as an exorcism, in which the world is judged and its driving force, called ‘the ruler,’ is cast out.” That is Jesus’ purpose – to demonstrate a force stronger than the world’s system.
If Chuck’s interpretation of the word, Kosmos, is correct, then it begs a few questions for us. One, what system or “world” held the disciples and people of Jesus’ day captive and what made those systems opposed to God’s purpose? We could speculate that there were some religious rules that kept people from full expression of their devotion to God and to their fellow human beings. For example, Jesus was continually breaking Sabbath rules in favor of giving healing and wholeness to the hurting in their midst. So maybe religiosity and rule following became a system that was hurtful, not helpful. One could also speculate that the Roman system of economics, social propriety, and politics kept some people poor and disenfranchised, on the margins of society rather than as equal citizens. When Jesus healed someone, he always asked them to present themselves to the Priest so they could be restored to the community (and no longer be on the margins.)
But what about us, some two-thousand years later? What systems hold us captive, so much so, that God’s purpose is thwarted and we are kept from being who we were created to be? I am sure you can imagine a few. Chuck Campbell suggests a few for which I agree.
What about our culture’s fascination with consumerism? When we’re feeling happy, we buy something to celebrate. When we’re feeling sad or depressed, we buy something to feel better. We have forgotten the philosophy of delayed gratification so when we want something, we buy it – many times with credit. And we keep doing this until our debt is so large that we are constantly stressed about whether we will be able to pay our bills. And our savings are so small that when an emergency happens, we have to put the extra expense on more credit, which makes us feel bad, and you know what makes us feel better, right? Our lust for more stuff, for the latest technology, the newest toy, the best car is INSATIABLE. So maybe consumerism is a Kosmos, a system in our world that holds us captive and keeps us from being who we are created to be.
And then there is the system of domination – a system that says there must always be winners and losers. This system is perpetuated through creating structures and institutions that keep people in hierarchies in which some people are deemed more important than others. When that happens, those in power will do just about anything to stay in power. Hence, the rise of white nationalism and other isms that elevate the importance of some over others. It is a world system that is less than what God intended.
And what about the system of violence in our culture? At one time, you may have read the author, Walter Wink, who describes the prevalence of the myth of redemptive violence. It is a myth that is pervasive in our culture, starting from cartoons that depict violence only being stopped by more violence. Think of the cartoon, Popeye and his nemesis, Pluto, or the Roadrunner and the Coyote, or the Avengers. It not only happens in the movies and comic books, but it also happens in real life with the death penalty, with our response to terrorism, with our legislature’s response to school shootings in which we want to get rid of the “bad guys” by not getting rid of the guns but arming the good guys. It is a Kosmos, a system, that believes, actually insists, that the only way to get rid of violence is with more violence. Could there be another way?
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that we must expose violence for what it is and then, only then, will we all see the evil. Dr. King says, “Let them get their dogs, and let them get the hose, and we will leave them standing before their God and the world spattered with the blood and reeking with the stench of their Negro brothers. It is necessary to bring these issues to the surface, to bring them out into the open where everybody can see them.”[2] When those awful things actually did happen, Dr. King made sure the cameras were there so that the evil could be exposed for all to see. He did not fall into the trap of redemptive violence – of combating evil with evil. The Kosmos, evil systems, have to be exposed for what they are.
Throughout his journey to the cross, Jesus enacts his freedom from this myth of redemptive violence by refusing to respond in the world’s own violent terms. Indeed, in his trial before Pilate, Jesus suggests that violence, which he rejects, is central to the world’s system. In response to Pilate’s questioning, Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). Jesus’ rejection of violence is precisely what distinguishes his way from the way of the world’s system. The cross becomes the emblematic symbol of a life lived a different way: a seed that falls to the ground and dies, only to bring life.
Like the Greeks, we wish to see Jesus – His way is the way of losing your life in order to gain it. And His way is the way to live alternatively in the midst of a consumeristic, domination-loving, and violent world. This is God’s amazing glory on display. AMEN.
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[1] Charles L. Campbell, “Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, Vol. 2. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.) p. 141-143.
[2] MLK quote from Charles L. Campbell, ibid, pg.145.