Seeking Glory, Finding Death

September 11, 2022 – Holy Cross Day (Observed)

John 12:20-34

 

INI

Only in tragedy can we see glory.

Today we observe holy cross day,

which is actually on Wednesday this week.

But how fitting we also discuss the holy cross on today, September 11^th,

The day that this nation will never forget.

It’s fitting we talk about the holy cross today,

because only in tragedy, can we see glory.

Only in death, can we have resurrection.

 

But the trouble is, death doesn’t seem all that glorious!

Especially when leaders, like Jesus, willingly submit to it.

It’s instinctive for humans to seek out glorious leaders.

Leaders that’re powerful and effective.

Leaders who work by force and domination.

Leaders that can promise any follower an easy life.

That’s why politics are so popular among people without the correct leader.

All it takes is submission –

And what follows is a life of glory under the fruits of such glorious leaders.

 

We see such people in the Gospel lesson today.

They came up to Phillip and said,

“Sir, we wish to come to see Jesus.”

These people were seeking Jesus.

They were seeking a leader, a Messiah!

They were good, faithful Jews,

So of course they would want to follow God’s promised one!

 

But who was this Messiah in their minds?

What sort of images had they crafted about him in their minds?

Was He a Messiah who would take away their problems?

A Messiah that would take away their suffering?

A Messiah that would take away the Romans and restore a Davidic reign?

A Messiah who would make ease for His people,

Like He did when he fed 5,000 people and they wanted to make Him a bread king?

Ultimately, they sought a Messiah that fit their felt needs.

 

In the Old Testament text, the Israelites sought a God that would only fill their needs.

We’re hungry, they said! So, God gave them manna and quail.

We’re thirsty, they said! So, through Moses, God split open a rock and water came out.

They were in the desert, so getting what they got was doing pretty good.

But as people who seek for God to fill their needs,

they insulted God by saying “we loathe this worthless food.”

 

So, fiery serpents bit the people and many of them died.

They told Moses to pray to take the snakes away.

That’s the need they had.

Yet, God granted their prayer in a different way.

The suffering from the snakes remained.

Rather, He gave healing through the bronze snake lifted up on a pole.

 

Often times, those who sought Jesus were much like the Israelites.

Often times, we’re like the Israelites too.

We want God to be a leader who serves us according to our direction.

We want our visions and images in our minds about God to be true,

Instead of listening to God describe how He is,

And loving Him for that.

 

The crowds didn’t like the negative talk that came from Jesus’ mouth in the Gospel.

Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. […] When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death He was going to die.”

 

The crowds don’t understand.

Why all the talk about death and suffering? – they say.

Messiahs don’t die! That’s not very glorious!

The crowd answered Jesus, “we have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever.

How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?

Who is this Son of Man?”

 

They knew that to be lifted up meant crucifixion.

Crucifixion was a horrid, shameful death.

The suffering was excruciating.

It was something reserved for the worst criminals.

In the eyes of man, it was anything but glorious.

The crowds seeking Jesus thought ‘Certainly, a Messiah should never die this way!’

 

However, Jesus gave glory a new meaning and redefined Messiahship:

death and cross.

The disciples didn’t quite understand Jesus at that point,

though they did later, not unlike us.

Death on the cross is not a means by which we or anyone else wants to die.

It didn’t make any sense to the people who sought Jesus.

They wanted His signs and miraculous works and prophecies,

But not the sight of the Son of Man lifted up on a cross.

But the voice of the Father confirmed it, saying that indeed,

This death is His glory!

 

The crowd said, ‘Messiahs don’t get shamefully executed as criminals!

They reign forever!’

In other words, they said, “Jesus, you’re wrong.”

That’s not how you’re to lead us.

They couldn’t comprehend a leaders’ glory in death.

 

Yet, Jesus says that this is why He has come to this hour.

The Father can’t save Him FROM this hour, that is,

suffering a brutal death on a cross.

Because the death of His Son brings glory to His name.

For through His sacrificial death, all people are drawn to and reconciled before God.

 

The cross is the sign of God’s glory, especially in the midst of death.

It’s the bronze serpent that we look to for healing while we suffer.

There’s two stories that highlight the cross as God’s glory in the midst of tragedy and death.

 

In March, Rachel, myself, and Sara, our last foreign exchange student, went to NYC.

We visited the 9/11 memorial,

which was enlightening, heartbreaking, and inspiring to say the least.

But I learned of the World Trade Center cross at the memorial.

If you’re unfamiliar, after the towers had fallen,

in the middle of all the rubble stood a cross.

It was two pieces of metal that had been welded together in its construction,

But when the towers fell, the metal had been broken off at four ends to make the perfect proportions of the cross.

It stood in the rubble, the sign of death,

As God’s own glorification that He brings to death,

through the death of His own Son.

 

Here’s another story.

In 2011, an F5 tornado hit Joplin, Missouri.

The results were devastating.

Entire areas were flattened.

A myriad of churches were completely wiped out.

 

Yet, at one church, a cross that had decorated the outside of the building,

Still stood tall in the midst of a field of complete wreckage.

Again, reminding the world that Jesus brings glory to death.

 

The Gospel reveals this to us.

This is primarily the point.

Jesus’ death reveals the very nature of God –

God’s glory is revealed in His service,

And His power is made perfect in the weakness of the cross.

 

Those who sought Jesus were certainly stunned.

They sought glory from this Messiah,

But they only found death.

They were probably turned off by what Jesus said next:

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

 

The Lord invites those who seek Him to die with Him.

Jesus says, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me;

and where I am, there will my servant be also.”

The holy cross shapes our lives of service as we follow Him.

We see that following Jesus isn’t glorious in the eyes of the world.

Rather, being a disciple of Jesus requires suffering.

It requires death.

But we don’t see death as something inglorious.

But rather, we see the cross of our Savior as the most glorious.

For His death has redeemed man of his sin,

 

This is where Jesus is.

Here you are, seeking Him – your leader and Savior.

And what do you find?

Death. A cross. Water. Bread. Wine. Scripture.

It seems inglorious.

At best, it seems ordinary.

It seems beneath God to be here – in this way, among us!

 

Yet out of His love for you,

He puts the cross of His Son here for you –

Easily accessible, and for your eternal benefit.

 

Here, your leader and Savior serves you –

Not to get rid of your problems,

Not to make life easy for you.

But He serves you with His glorious death,

For through this death, He has drawn you, and all people,

to Himself for all eternity.

 

If you seek true glory, look no further than the holy cross.

The true and only answer to suffering and sin isn’t by evading suffering.

Rather, it’s that despite your suffering,

God has given you healing from all which plagues you.

For through Jesus’ death, springs life from God.

INI