And Jesus’s challenging way of love
Lent 5B | John 12:20-33
Greeks, Disciples, and Glory. These are the elements in our gospel story today. And elements that seem designed for us to make assumptions. Not certainties; verifiable with clear data; that elusive modern standard of proof. More like that thing we like to call the educated guess.
And as we drift toward these assumptions and guesses, I want to reinforce that the idea that we are to make educated guesses here is clearer than what we’re guessing about.
Jesus and the evangelist want us making conclusions. Which is something many of us are deeply uncomfortable doing with scripture.
And yet we are called to faithfulness. Which is more important than being perfect. Including perfectly accurate.
Past the Surface
The most obvious assumption we come to about the first half of this passage is that it deals with evangelism to the Greeks—which is an expansion of the church to non-Hebrews. The second half deals with atonement and the glorification of Jesus in the crucifixion. These are what we might call first-glance takes or surface assessments.
Hold onto those while we dig deeper.
The problem we ought to have with the surface readings is they seem to ignore the character of the story. And they ignore the central action in it. Central action that demands we interpret it.
Here’s what we know:
Some Greeks state a desire to meet Jesus. We are in Jerusalem. It is Palm Sunday. Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead and some leaders of the Pharisees, who have been looking to silence Jesus, are now looking to kill Lazarus, too.
These Greeks seek out a disciple, Philip, who is from Bethsaida. That infamous hometown Andrew and Peter are from. Philip finds Andrew and they both go find Jesus.
At this point there are two paths for the reader. Forward and backward. We need to take both paths. Which do we pick first?
[Well, I like to cheat and preview the forward path, double back to the backward path, and then take the forward path. Because who doesn’t want a little anticipation?]
Jesus responds to the request for a visit by talking about how it is time for glorification…which is kinda odd. Jesus is the guy we introduce to people who, instead of greeting you, says
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
You know, a simple “hello” goes a long way…
The journey of discipleship
Before we dive into that weird response, we need to notice that particular arrangement. Of the Greek persons going to Philip who goes to Andrew who both go to Jesus.
It’s a reversal of their particular call story back in John 1. When John pointed out Jesus and Andrew just started following him. Then grabbed his brother. And then Jesus finds Philip, because he was from their hometown.
But this isn’t just backstory—the kind we ignore as unimportant. It is instructive to us. So much so that the evangelist would reveal its place to us in reverse. Of people connected to Philip through his hometown, using that connection to try and meet Jesus.
It reveals a kind of two-way street of discipleship and commitment. Where disciples seek out the people they know and aspirants seek out the disciples they know. And that we seek Jesus and Jesus seeks us.
It shows the place of hometowns when we are on a journey that takes us from them. Growing up, my family would marvel at the people we’d meet on trips that we knew from our hometown. It happened all of the time.
This is the central action of the story.
We might obscure it behind the crucifixion and generic words like “evangelism,” but we’re seeing something tangible and valuable to the story. Human connection. History. Aspiration. Risk-taking. Seeking a messiah of someone else’s people—believing he is for them, too.
And this connects to the glorification of God through sacrifice, humanness, and commitment—the reversal of divine and earthly power. A recasting of liberation through peace rather than the sword. A joy in salvation rather than the excesses of empire (“Babylon”) or Roman authority.
This is why I’m so uncomfortable with an evangelism and crucifixion gloss of the story because it feels domineering and embracing a narrative of God using coercive power to gain the world. The very thing Jesus describes as opposite to discipleship.
A Way of Sacrifice
Jesus’s response to Andrew and Philip when they tell him about the Greeks who want to see him is to talk about discipleship.
Jesus doesn’t play the diva who has rules for being seen. Nor does he play the role of guru—who gets to lord the power of knowledge over others.
Jesus says that following him is hard because we need to love sacrificing ourselves. Doing hard things. Making our lives a vision of the dream God has for the world—which is the complete opposite of how empires rule over it, dominate it, and control its every aspect.
And the glorification of God that is coming is Jesus’s sacrifice. His life. The ultimate proof that the way of empires (of the Babylons and Romes of the world) runs against the character of God. It runs against the dream of God. Empires are anti-Christ.
This is also our invitation. His path is our path. The path the disciples walked is the path we walk as disciples.
How we do it.
This is why this story is difficult. Because we would rather accept a vision of evangelism without sacrifice and glorification with power. And Jesus is saying it’s the opposite!
Which doesn’t feel like Good News when we want to keep all of the things and gain power. Or, in the modern age, keep our budgets balanced, our pews half-to-three-quarters full, and the adoration of the community.
It is hard to embrace a vision of faith in Jesus that runs counter to what’s popular. Much like it is hard to see the victory of God, not only in Jesus’s death, but the decline of the church.
But a church supreme is not the same as the lordship of Jesus. It more resembles a recast Babylon.
Our desires still run counter to the discipleship Jesus describes. Which doesn’t mean we have to throw everything away exactly. Or that our traditions are insufficient.
It’s about the love and sacrifice we embody in all things. The hope and commitment we make to other people. The rejection of desires that harm our souls and our community. Being the children of God inside and out.
That’s why the action this week feels so important—and so easy to ignore! Because these newcomers and disciples show initiative and interest; they are clever and curious. And God invites them to join in the most important act of their lives: to let go of their junk. To find freedom in less and companions on this most difficult and beautiful journey. Knowing that when we follow this way, we are among friends.