John 12:20-33 The Time Has Come

John 12:20-33 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

20Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Festival. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” 22Philip went to tell Andrew. Andrew came with Philip and told Jesus.

23Jesus answered them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain. 25Anyone who loves his life destroys it. And the one who hates his life in this world will hold on to it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

27“Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!”

A voice came from heaven: “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.”

29The crowd standing there heard it and said it thundered. Others said an angel talked to him. 30Jesus answered, “This voice was not for my sake but for yours.

31“Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate what kind of death he was going to die.

The Time Has Come

I.

Not yet. Don’t tell anyone what you know about me. This had been what his closest followers had heard from Jesus over and over again. It must have seemed counter-intuitive. The information that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, was of life-changing importance. Sharing such information is natural—vital, even. In fact, several disciples had been led to Jesus by friends or family themselves. Why shouldn’t they tell still more people what they knew?

Today’s Gospel occurs on Tuesday of Holy Week. All the events of Holy Week took place close to and during the time of the Passover. Passover was a busy time in Jerusalem. Pilgrims came from all over to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem and make a visit to the temple.

While Palm Sunday is a week away for us, for them it was in the rearview mirror. It was Tuesday. It’s not a stretch to assume that just about everybody had heard something of what had happened on Palm Sunday. Crowds of people who were coming to the city for Passover had spread palm branches—and even their own cloaks—in the road as they watched Jesus ride by on his donkey. “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they had shouted. Those were words that identified Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.

“Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Festival” (John 12:20, EHV). Among the pilgrims there for the Passover were some people who had converted to Judaism. They had heard the stories. Perhaps they had pieced together lots of information, but they still wanted more. “They came to Philip... and asked him, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus’” (John 12:21, EHV). What, exactly, did they want to see?

II.

The Jewish leaders knew who Jesus was—a threat to them and their way of life. They had watched him as he rode down the streets of Jerusalem. They had plans to turn the crowds against him.

They had listened carefully to his words, and he didn’t seem to meet their expectations for the Messiah. They wanted a political leader. They wanted freedom from Rome. What Jesus said didn’t seem to indicate that he was going to do what they wanted, so they schemed to get rid of him.

The Jewish person on the street was anxious for the Messiah to come, too. The crowds who had gathered to hear Jesus and dogged his steps, following closely everywhere he went, showed by their actions what they wanted. While political freedom from Rome might have been on their minds, they wanted something even more basic than that. They wanted easy living. Sick people were miraculously healed. Crowds of people had their stomachs filled with one boy’s picnic lunch. What they saw excited them. Jesus could make all their earthly problems go away.

Jesus says: “Anyone who loves his life destroys it” (John 12:25, EHV). It’s easy to get caught in the trap of loving this world: a full stomach, a nice house, a car that works every time you start it, health problems that don’t exist at all, or quickly go away, a political climate that fits all our wants and needs. Prosperity, you could call it. Who wouldn’t want that? But to cling to the things of this world is to push away eternity.

Jesus didn’t meet the expectations of those who sought prosperity, politically or personally. Most from the crowd that had thrown down palm branches and cloaks would be among those shouting “Crucify!” in just a few days’ time. They had been happy to see Jesus—ecstatic, even—but what they wanted to see in him wasn’t who—or what—he was.

III.

“Sir, we want to see Jesus” (John 12:21, EHV). What about these Greeks who asked to see Jesus? Were they seeking the real Messiah, or one of their own making, like so many before them?

John doesn’t give any answer. Philip and Andrew went to tell Jesus. Jesus says: “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23, EHV).

“At last!” the disciples must have thought. Finally they would get to tell people about the Jesus they knew. It really hadn’t been that long before this that Jesus had asked the Twelve who people said he was, and then asked the disciples, themselves, who he was. They had correctly identified him as the Messiah, but he had told them not to say anything about what they knew.

They would come to realize—very soon—just how little they still knew or understood about what being Messiah meant. Jesus had been telling them, very clearly, that he must die and be raised up again. That made no sense to them.

He says it again: “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24, EHV). A seed looks pretty unremarkable; it’s all dry and shriveled up. It has to fall to the ground, Jesus says. The word he uses includes the idea of being completely ruined.

Jesus was—is—the sinless Son of God. Being Messiah meant the only One who was completely sin-free would be completely ruined to be the necessary sacrifice for sin. He humbled himself so much that he stood before Pontius Pilate, quietly waiting the certain death sentence. He said: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32, EHV). John immediately goes on to explain: “He said this to indicate what kind of death he was going to die” (John 12:33, EHV). He spoke about the cross.

We decorate with crosses. Around my neck I wear one as jewelry when I put on my preaching robe. Many people wear them around their necks. We hang them in our homes. We have one suspended on the wall above the altar here in our chancel area.

Absolutely no one would have used a cross as a decoration or pointed to it lovingly before the first Good Friday. The cross was like the electric chair or the hangman’s noose. It was an instrument of torture and death. It was kept in reserve for the most notorious of criminals.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour” (John 12:27, EHV). 33 years of preparation was all for the seemingly-endless moments of Holy Week. Jesus was the One whose work would bring the “peace on earth, goodwill to men,” as the angels had announced to the shepherds outside Bethlehem. Jesus was the One who was the perfect Lamb of God John the Baptist had pointed to.

The time has come. This was what he was here for, to be the Savior of the world.

“‘Father, glorify your name!’ A voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again’” (John 12:28, EHV). How is God’s name glorified? By the great things he has done. Many great things had been done by God in the past, and soon the greatest things of all would be done by God. Those great things would glorify his name.

“The crowd standing there heard it and said it thundered. Others said an angel talked to him. 30Jesus answered, ‘This voice was not for my sake but for yours’” (John 12:29-30, EHV). Jesus knew the Father’s glory—and his own glory, as well. He knew what he would do that would glorify God’s name more than anything else in history.

What, after all, is God’s name? It is more than just all the words we know that stand for God. God’s name is everything he tells us about himself. That means that the whole Bible is God’s name. All of Scripture points to the one moment when God’s plan of salvation is fulfilled for all people.

IV.

“Not yet,” Jesus had told the disciples time after time. They hadn’t yet understood. They hadn’t been ready to understand.

“Anyone who loves his life destroys it. And the one who hates his life in this world will hold on to it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:25-26, EHV).

The time had come for all to be completed. “We want to see Jesus.” Soon they would all see him as they never had before. Soon they would look up at his body hanging from that cross. Not long after they would see the empty tomb; they would gather to discuss what it all meant. Jesus would appear to them behind locked doors to show them that he had risen, just as he said he would. Soon they would understand more fully, and then they would be ready to share the message.

You have seen Jesus. You have all that history of the Bible, which is all God’s name. You have every piece of the salvation puzzle necessary. You know real prosperity—the prosperity of faith in Jesus as your Savior.

The time has come to follow Jesus, to serve Jesus, to tell others about Jesus. Amen.