John 12.20-33
+ This coming June, we will be celebrating a big day. Our
confirmations students will be confirmed. I have really enjoyed our
confirmation class. We have some very articulate and precocious students. Nothing drives that fact home more for me than
something we do at the end of our regular confirmation classes. At of our class, I give the students an
opportunity to “Stump Fr. Jamie.” To
“Stump Fr. Jamie” students can ask any question they would like regarding
theology or spirituality or the Church.
Let me tell you, these kids do a very good job of trying to stump
me. And once or twice, maybe—just
maybe—they’ve come close to actually stumping me.
Now, it’s not really fair. Because any time I might not be able to
answer their questions, I just concede to that wonderful thing in the church we
have called “mystery.” Some things are
just mysteries and we should accept the mysteries of our faith. I know. I know. What a rotten thing for a
priest to say. What a cop-out.
But what I have discovered every time our confirmation students
ask questions is that, in actuality, they really are seeking. And they are sometimes surprised to their priest
himself is a seeker as well.
The fact is, I have never made a secret of the fact that I am also
a seeker, just like all of us this morning. We’re all seekers. We’re here this morning seeking something. People who aren’t seekers don’t need to come
to church. They don’t need to listen and ponder the Word. They don’t need to feed on and ponder the
mysteries of the Eucharist that we celebrate at this altar. People who don’t need to seek, don’t come
following the mysteries of their faith.
I have discovered in my own life as a seeker, that my seeking, my
asking questions and my pondering of the mysteries of this life and my
relationship to God, are what make my faith what it is. It makes it…faith. My
seeking allows me to step into the unknown and be sometimes amazed or surprised
or disappointed by what I may—or may not—find there.
In our Gospel story for today, we also find seekers. In our story, we find these Greeks seeking for
Jesus.
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” they say.
This one line—“we wish to see Jesus”—is do beautifully simple. There’s
so much meaning and potential and…mystery, to it that I don’t think we fully
realize what it’s conveying. And what I doubly love about it is that as
beautiful and as simple as the petition is—“we seek Jesus”—we never, if you
notice, find out if they actually find him. The author doesn’t tell us. We find
no resolve to this story of the Greeks seeking Jesus.
However, despite it being a loose end of sorts, it does pack some
real meaning. What’s great about
scripture is that even a loose end can have purpose. One interpretation of this story is
that that the Greeks—as Gentiles—were not allowed to “see” Jesus until he was
lifted up on the Cross. Only when he has been “lifted up from the earth,” as he
tells us this morning will he “draw all people to [himself].” Jesus’ message at
the time of their approaching the apostles is still only to the Jews. But when
Jesus is lifted up on the Cross on Good Friday, at that moment, he is revealed
to all. At that moment, the veil is lifted. The old Law of the Jews, according to this
thinking, has died—the curtain in the Temple has been torn in half—and now
Jesus is given for all. It’s certainly an interesting and provocative take on
this story. And it’s especially
interesting for us, as well, who are seeking to “find Jesus” in our own lives.
Like those Greeks, we are not always certain if we will find him—at least at
this moment.
But, I am going to switch things up a bit. Yes, we might be seekers here this morning. But as Christians, our job is not only to be
seekers. Our job, as followers of Jesus,
as seekers after Jesus, is to be on the receiving end of that petition of those
Greeks. Our job, as Christians, is to
hear that petition—“show us Jesus”—and to respond to it. This is what true evangelism is. Some might
say evangelism is telling others
about Jesus.
Possibly. But true evangelism is showing people Jesus. And,
let’s face, that’s much harder than telling people about Jesus.
So, how do we show Jesus to those who seeking him? Or, maybe, even to those who might not be
seeking Jesus? We show people Jesus by doing what we do as followers of Jesus
and seekers after God. We show people Jesus
by being Jesus to those around us.
Now, that sounds impossible for most of us. The fact is, it isn’t. This is exactly what Jesus wants us to be. Jesus
wants us to be him in this world. He
wants to be our hands, helping others. He
wants to speak through our voices in consoling others, in speaking out against
the tyrants and despots and unfairness of this world. He wants to be our feet
in walking after those who have turned away and are isolating themselves.
When we seek to bring the Kingdom into our midst, we are being
Jesus in this world.
We might not always succeed in doing this. We might fail miserably in what we do. In
fact, people might not find Jesus in us, at all. Sometimes, whether we intend it to or not, we
in fact become the “Anti-Jesus” to others. But that’s just the way it is
sometimes.
In seeking Jesus and in responding to others who are also seeking
him, we realize the control is not in our hands. It doesn’t depend on any one of us. Which, trust me, is comforting. I personally don’t want all that
responsibility. Nor, I’m sure, do any of
you. Who would?
In today’s Gospel, we find Jesus saying: “Very truly I tell you,
unless a grain of wheat falls on the earth and dies, it remains just a single
grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In those moments in which we seem to have
failed to be Jesus to those around us, when those who come to us seeking Jesus
find, rather, nothing, or, worse, the “Anti-Jesus,” we find that even then,
fruit can still come forth. God still
works even through the negative things life throws at us. God still works event through our failures and
our shortcomings.
Jesus can still be found, even despite us. Jesus can still be found, even when we might
not even be seeking him. Jesus can be found, oftentimes, when we are least
expecting to find him.
Certainly, Jesus is here this morning in our midst. His Spirit speaks to us in our hearing of the
Word. He is here in the Bread and Wine
of our Eucharist. He is here in us,
gathered together in God’s Name. And let
me tell you, Jesus is definitely out there, beyond the walls of this church,
waiting for us to find him and show him to others. He is never far away.
So, let us, together, seek Jesus. Let us search for God, here, in the Word where
we hear God speaking to us, in this Eucharist, in which we feed on Jesus’ Body
and Blood. Let us search for God in going out from here and encountering those
people who need God. And let us also
help others who are seeking.
“We wish to see Jesus,” the Greeks say to the disciples.
And people still are saying that to us as well.
“We wish to see Jesus.”
Let us—fellow seekers of Jesus—help them to find him.
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