Greeks and Glory

Nothing seems out-of-the ordinary at first, and then some Greeks show up wanting to see Jesus. It seems so mundane that we nearly skip right over it.

Some Greeks showed up.”Ok. Is this like My Big Fat Greek Wedding kinda Greek? Who were these Greeks, and how many is some? We don’t know a lot about them but sometimes Greek is used to refer to some from the Diaspora which were those on the outskirts. Maybe some of them were in need of healing. We don’t know what all they had heard about Jesus. We don’t know what neighborhood they come from or if they even had a home. We don’t know their parents or grandparents or education or degrees. We just know they showed up and wanted to see Jesus.

Some Greeks show up and go to Andrew and Peter, but when given the message, Jesus offers a strange response. He says that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified and starts talking about how a seed must die before it can bear much fruit. Ummm ok?

Why the talk of the seed? Sure Jesus often speaks in agricultural parables, but why here? It is almost planting season. Once again the dirt will be turned open and seeds deposited. Once again farmers everywhere will trust that a burial will lead to new life, that something new will spring forth from the ground again.

Dr. Chris Croghan has a very interesting take on the seed story going all the way back to Genesis 3:15 when God speaks to the serpent and says “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring (or seed) and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The seed that will crush the head of the serpent is foretold from Genesis 3:15. God’s plan of salvation is the long haul. There would be a seed, an offspring, a Messiah, to come and set things right. Where would this seed come from? Remember when God promised Abraham that from him would spring an entire nation? That his descendants would be a blessing to all people. In Isaiah 53 we read of the suffering servant where it uses the seed language saying “2He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him. 3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.”

So when these Greeks show up of their own accord, it is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham so very long ago. It is the unfolding of the prophecy of Isaiah. No longer was the ministry and life of Jesus just for the Jews, but indeed for the whole world. This is alluded to right before this passage in John 12:19 when the Pharisees remark “Look how the whole world has gone after him!” Then Jesus bookends the passage in John 12:32 by saying “when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”

Jesus then exuberantly declares that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The word here is in a tense that leads one to believe that it has already been completed. It is the same tense for when Jesus says “It is finished” from the cross. The voice of God says over Jesus “I have glorified your name and I will glorify it.” God glorifies Jesus’s name in his baptism, his transfiguration, and will again at his death. In John’s gospel, the death of Jesus is also his glory. It isn’t one and then another in linear fashion. It is both/and.

Glory and death. Burial and resurrection. The seed that is the Messiah must now be buried in order for life to be raised and the glory of God to be revealed. But what glory can come from death?

I wonder if there is some soil that needs turning over within us. O Lord, could you bury our selfishness, our bitter hearts, our greed and grudges, our assumptions, our need to be correct, and our disagreements so that you can raise up some humility, kindness, faithfulness, generosity, empathy, and selfless love? This means a death to a life of selfishness so that we can take on a life of Godfulness.

Last week during the Lenten study we were talking about beginnings and endings. I shared how when I went to the Hoh rainforest in Washington last year, I fell in love with nurse logs. Nurse logs are made of these giant soaring trees such as Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and Douglas firs. Once soaring into the sky upwards of 300 feet high, these trees eventually fall to the ground. What good is a giant tree that has died? Why not remove it? In their death, they become the source of life for hundreds of other trees. Tiny seeds fall onto the nurse logs and are nurtured until they sprout into trees and continue to grow. We saw these nurse logs all over the forest floor. The mark of an ending underneath a thousand new beginnings. It is estimated that 90 percent of the population of Sitka spruce and western hemlock grew from nurse logs. Out of death came a glorious new forest.

Frederick Dale Bruner says “What looks like the grain’s demise is in fact its harvest. So Jesus’ Cross. What looks like the perfect proof against Jesus’ authenticity instead proves to be the major display of God’s profound love for the world. Jesus’ death reveals the glory of God’s everlasting love.

Some Greeks showed up. The hour had come. The glory of God was about to be made known.

What happens when we show up wanting to see Jesus? What about other “Greeks” who show up? What happens when we simply show up ready to serve?

At age 16, St. Patrick (who was born in Scotland), was imprisoned and sent to Ireland. He didn’t want to be there and eventually escaped back to Scotland. But legend has it that he had a dream in which he heard the words “we beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us again.”

And so it is this St. Patrick showed up again in Ireland. He left his homeland behind to answer a call to Ireland, and there he stayed and served the people for over 30 years. He shared within his famous prayer:

“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,

Christ in the eye that sees me,

Christ in the ear that hears me.”

Where I am, my servant will be also. If only we show up. St. Patrick showed up and found that wherever he served, God was there. May we have the courage to keep showing up and find Christ rising to meet us. To God be the glory. Now and Always. Amen.