John 12:27-36

right now I am so depressed. No this is my hour.

And a voice from God comes out of the sky

The Dark Night of the Soul

Welcome to bt

Chapter 12

Honor.

Jesus is honored by Mary as she washes his feet. Then the crowds want to honor Jesus as the warrior king but he rides in a donkey declaring that he will not be the king the crushes but the king that lifts up and bring peace. then the greeks seek to honor Jesus and Jesus declares that God honors those who follow him in his ways. god honor us when we follow Jesus self-sacrificing crucified way. I said in the last episode we can live in such a way that honors God and in such a way that God honors us.

Jesus speech continues and we see that he is in a dark place. His sould is troubles or as one translation puts it - right now I am so depressed”

Jesus has moments where his soul is troubled. How human of him. I have had soul troubling moments. Have you? I’m sure you have. If your willing take a moment- stop. think about some of the big moments of your life where you have felt darkness in your soul.

What can jesus show us when our souls are troubled.

Ill read just a few verses. I’m reading from Dale Bruner’s translation and some from the NRSV

“ ‘Right now I am so depressed My soul is troubled. . But what should I say: “Father, save me from this hour”? Oh no! The whole reason I came was for this hour. “Father, glorify your name!” ’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again!’ Well, the crowd standing there, hearing this, was saying, ‘Lightning struck!’ Others were saying, ‘An angel just talked to him!’ Jesus replied, ‘This voice was not for my sake but for yours.’ 

So Jesus speech turns dark. he expiences A dark night of the soul. Jesus questions? Should I seek to get out of this dark soul moment? No its my mission. Father Let your name be honored. A voice cries out from heaven saying my name will be honored and Jesus says this is all for us (the crowds to hear).

Jesus dark time, his depressing time was also part of his greatest mission on earth. It was a time of questions and surrending to living for God’s honor. And it was a time when God revealed himself in powerful ways.

I wanwant to say that is the case for you. I don’t know that for sure. I do want to point you the fact that Jesus hour of the cross is the moment where his mission in life is important - it is the moment of great agony and depression. It is the moment of God clearly at work. it is the moment where God is glorified.

I want to be careful here and not say that’s the same thing for us when we face dark times. I can’t say that is the case for you. Your darkest hours might be the result of some horrible thing you have done that has taken you away from your mission in life. So i’m resisting making a one to one correlation here. We win way more than jesus - though his darkest hour does come about becuase of the sin of the world.

Let me say this.

When you are in your dark hours. When you are wrestling struggling going through something difficult. KNow that Jesus knows what that is like. You are not alone in experiencing that. Jesus - God himself has experienced that. Take comfort in that. You are not alone in your deperssion. You are not alone if you have a troubled soul. He knows what that is like.

In his dark hour Jesus had questions. In your dark hours you can have questions. You can even question whether you should abandon your mission. Jesus has that question on his lips? Should I ask God to get me out of this hour?

In his dark hour Jesus resolved to continue his self-giving love mission. And declared that God should be honored by his worl. In your dark hours you can resolve to continue your life mission - which is self-giving love to God and neighbor (we do have a similar mission to jesus)

In his dark hour -it turned out that God the Father was revealing himself and speaking to him. Now that’s the hardest one for me - I don’t see God talkign to me in this dark place - Be open to the possibility as you press on in your dark moments that God has the ability to reveal himself more fully to you in those moments. It happens with Jesus. It happnes with many followers of God as they press on in love of God and neighbor in dark times. Paul presses on, surrenders to God and God reveals himself to. It happens to folks like the prophet elijah when he comes to his wits end and wants to die. God shows up for Both Ruth and Esther in powerful ways righ in the heart of their dark times. God shows up for the nation of Israel right in the heart of their darkest hours as slave in Egypt.

In your souls dark hour and your depressed moments know that Christ has gone before you (and conquered the darkness. stay open the possibilities of what God might be doing in the dark. Stay open to continuing your mission of love. Stay open to surrendering to God n a depper level. Stay opening to God revealing more of God’s very self in deeper ways.