Children of Light

John 12:20-36

Jesus is approached by Andrew and Philip who tell him that there are a group of Greeks (as in, non-Jews) who wish to see him. Jesus seems a bit distracted. Try to picture the scene in your mind’s eye. Jesus, sitting by himself in a room, perhaps staring out of the window in silence. Andrew and Philip approach gently, “Um, Jesus, there are some people outside who say they want to see you.”

Jesus blinks, as if caught in a daydream and turns to his disciples. “The hour has come.”

Philip coughs, “I’m sorry, what? Did you hear me? I said, there are some folks wh…”

“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.”

Andrew whispers out of the corner of his mouth to Philip, “I think he’s trying to teach us something…”

Jesus continues, “If the seed dies, however, it will bear much fruit.”

What’s on Jesus’ mind? Well, for starters, just the previous day he rode into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey and was hailed by the Jews as their king. This is beginning of the last week of Jesus’ life. He knows what’s coming. Put yourself in his sandals, what would be on your mind? The seed must die, it must be buried in the earth, in order to bring forth new life. He’s talking about his death and resurrection. He’s talking about God’s plan to provide new life for all of us by raising Jesus up from death.

We spoke last week about our need to let go of trying to save our own lives. Jesus is reiterating this point when he says that those serve and follow him must “hate” their life in this world. In this world is an important modifier, here. Jesus doesn’t want us to hate ourselves, or to be miserable, but he knows that we are sorely tempted to conform to the ways of this world; a world in which we are responsible for saving ourselves. We must let go of that. We must not cling to life on the world’s terms. But such faithful obedience to the call of God creates conflict and tension. And Jesus is feeling it, deeply.

This “hour of glory,” of which Jesus speaks, is not glory by the world’s terms. Despite the expectations of the palm-waving, hosanna shouting, king-hailing crowd…Jesus will not be glorified by being lifted up on a throne…his faithful obedience to the call of God will have him glorified by being lifted up on a cross to die. Jesus knows this, and John masterfully describes his inner-dialogue, his fervent prayer, his doubts before God, “Should I ask my Father to spare me from this hour? No, I can’t…that’s been the plan all along, that’s why I am here.”

Then, God speaks, “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.” God does not speak to comfort Jesus, here, but for our sakes. “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” Through Jesus, God is being faithful to us.

I introduced a diagram on Wednesday night which I think will help us to visualize Jesus’ teachings about his death and resurrection in John. Gerard Sloyan writes that John is ultimately “a book of testimony to the faithfulness of God.”[1] God’s faithfulness to us is expressed through hesed, unconditional love, grace, and mercy which endures forever. All of creation was enacted out of God’s desire to be in relationship with us, to love us. God’s will for our lives in response to that love is our vocation, or calling. God wants love to rule our lives, but we are pulled, tempted to follow a new trajectory, to serve a new master. Jesus taught about this temptation in the sermon on the mount when he said, “You cannot serve two masters; for a servant will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matt 6:24)

This isn’t to say that when Jesus speaks about the “ruler of this world being driven out" he is strictly speaking of wealth, but I’m pretty sure that’s a part of it. And we, if we’re honest and mindful, must admit that Jesus has a point when he warns against the power of wealth to distract us from our divine vocation. The ruler of this world is a personification of all of those things and powers which inspire, and tempt, and bribe, and provoke us to betray our divine vocation. If love is how we follow and obey God, then sin is how we follow and obey the ruler of this world.

Through the cross, this world is being judged and the ruler of this world is being driven out. That is to say, through the cross, God is getting our attention back. We’ve been distracted. We’ve fallen off the trajectory of a life lived in response to God’s love, summarized in the command Jesus will give his disciples in just the next chapter: “Little children…I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34) In the book of John, Jesus performs many signs, but in the end, he is the great sign that points us back to God and calls us back to our divine vocation.[2]

“The light is with you for a little longer.” What light? “Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you.” What darkness? Has John written about these things before? He has, hasn’t he? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being through him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Ah.

So when John talks about light, he’s talking about Jesus, simply put. In creation, God sent forth the word, “light,” and so began the process by which all matter of land, sea, and sky, and life was brought into being. In Christ, God sends forth his Word, “Jesus,” to the earth to drive out the “darkness” (i.e. the “ruler of this world”), to warn us to watch our step, to invite us to walk a new way, to call us to repent, to turn, to die to our way of life according to the world’s terms, and return to God’s love, by which we are raised up to new life lived in obedience to this command: "Little children, love one another." Can you see the light? “Believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” Amen.

[1] Sloyan, Gerard. “John” from Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. 157.

[2] Ibid.