RCL reading for Sunday, March 29, 2009:
Excerpt from The New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
John 12:20-33
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.
21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’
22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
23 Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.
27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.
28 Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’
29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’
30 Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’
33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
QUESTIONS
In verse 20, is it significant that Greeks wanted to see Jesus? Why or why not?
In verse 23, what does Jesus mean by “the hour has come”?
In verse 25, when Jesus says “Those who love their life lose it,” is he implying that we should not enjoy our lives?
In verse 28, a voice comes from heaven. Can you think of other examples of that happening?
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I'm sure someone will say (and probably rightly) that the significance of the Greeks wanting to see Jesus, and then Jesus saying that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, is yet another instance of the Epiphany, of revealing God to nations other than the Jews.
ReplyDeleteFor my part, I am wondering at, first, the bureaucracy it took to get to Jesus (talk to Philip, who talks to Andrew and the two of them go to talk to Jesus), unless there's something else going on here for all that hierarchy, but also, second, that it's not clear here that Jesus actually ever met these Greek folks! Or what they thought upon meeting him. I can almost picture Philip and Andrew saying, after this sermon to the crowd, "Uh, Lord, about those Greeks we mentioned? They're still here, waiting to see you. Do you have a minute, or should we pencil them in for later this afternoon?" But later, in verses 35 and 36 (not as part of this reading), Jesus says, "The light is with you a little longer," and then, "While you have the light, believe in the light" ... and then, after saying this, "he departed and hid from them"! I mean...what??? When he says you have the light "a little while longer," he meant "the next two minutes or so, then time's up"? Very confusing.
The coming of the Greeks is described by Raymond Brown as the hinge of the fourth gospel. It is at this point that Jesus realizes that Israel has had its chance and now the new covenant is for all men. Their coming means that the powers of Jerusalem cannot allow Jesus to live. For Jesus personally this means humiliation, brutalization and extermination. For us it means crucifiction, resurection and ascension and for the unnamed Greeks,too. His grim fatalism at this point must have had a devastating effect on the disciples so he explained how he couldn't turn away now that the die was cast. The miraculous voice from heaven should have given them some reassurance. He will draw all men to him as the Risen Lord and we are left with the problem of what that "all" means. The elect but not the reprobate? The Arminian but not the Arian?
ReplyDeleteDerek, I agree with you; the timing is confusing. Maybe the Greeks heard the thunder and ducked into a coffee shop? But seriously, I also think it's sometimes hard to know when things happen because the chronology gets choppy from Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem until the crucifixion. Why is that?
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