Lift High the Cross 3-17-24
Lift High the Cross
Jer 31:31-34; John 12:20-33
Jer 31:31-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
John 12:20-33
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “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. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.
Prayer – God of grace, as we draw nearer to Jerusalem and the cross we know that is the way Jesus is headed and we can’t help but be fearful. We wanted Jesus to be something different than he was, powerful, prestigious; a healer of all that causes us pain and to somehow fix all that is wrong with us and the world. Instead, he came to us in humility, patiently teaching us and guiding gradually in your way. How do we follow you, knowing you keep defying our expectations for how you should save us? Show yourself again, O Lord. Open up to us the mystery of your truth. Draw us to yourself, even as the cross is lifted high, so that we might behold your glory – now and always – amen.
Our gospel passage this week is a brief prelude to Jesus’ lengthy ‘Farewell Discourse’ that is a unique aspect of John’s gospel. We are presented with some Greeks who arrive on the scene looking for Philip so they can get a better view of Jesus, up close and personal. And isn’t that what each of us wants? Surely this is the reason why people show up at church on a Sunday like this one – to see Jesus, up close and personal. Getting a good view of Jesus, seeing him for who he really is, is no small feat.
Fortunately, Jesus is not coy, secretive or even elusive, well maybe sometimes he is, but at the end of the day, he wants people to see him for who he really is. He says that he will soon be placed in a position whereby all will have a good look at him – when he is lifted up from the earth. Little did we know, understand what he meant. And when he is ‘lifted up,’ from this vantage point, Jesus will ‘draw all people to himself.’ There is such deep irony is his words.
Jesus’ words to those who wish to see him is to announce that at last, his long-awaited hour has come. What does that mean? His ‘hour’ is what the people of Israel assumed would be when Jesus would kick some Roman butt and take names. And like much of Jesus’ story, his ‘hour’ ends up being crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. In John’s gospel, the cross is not just where Jesus was humiliatingly, horribly tortured to death. Cross is also part of the astounding exaltation of Christ. And so throughout this ‘final discourse’, Johns draws out the true meaning of the ‘hour’ that has come.
As Jesus faces his ‘hour’, so do the disciples face their hour of decision, just as we do every day. Jesus ceases to speak to the world that is bent on rejecting him. When Jesus is ‘lifted up’ he will draw, like a salvific magnet, all people to himself. John surely means an ironic plan of the expression ‘lifted up’ to imply Jesus’ exaltation not only in his crucifixion, but also in his resurrection and ascension. We, the readers and hearers of John, know what the disciples don’t yet know. We know that Jesus will leave them not only when he dies and is entombed, but also when he is ‘lifted up’ in his glorious ascension. The cross, the terrible instrument of cruelty and death, shall be, through the work of God in the resurrection, transformed into a sign of divine victory in which sin and death can never conquer.
This past week I was visiting a patient in the hospital who was mostly one of those folks we call ‘none – no faith or religious preference.’ He said to me early in our first visit, “I’m not that great a believer.” But then he went on to say, “All I know about God is summed up in this.” He weakly was pointing to a cross necklace around his neck. “That’s why, when I die, I want just one hymn to be sung, ‘Lift High the Cross.’ That’s my favorite. That song sums up everything I know, or maybe what anyone needs to know about God.”
Now I don’t know if that hymn was written after the writer read this Sunday’s gospel lesson, but it could have been. Jesus is preparing his followers for his departure. The cross isn’t directly referred to here, perhaps because Jesus thought the very thought of their beloved teacher suffering such a horrendous death was unthinkable. Maybe Jesus wanted some more time to unpack the significance of his impending death of the cross.
Jesus speaks of this cross obliquely, when he says to his gathered disciples, “And when I’m lifted up, I’ll draw everyone to me.” At that point, who among them could have known that Jesus’ ‘lifted up’ had a double meaning? He was talking about the cross, but who among then cold have imagined that he would be the victim of collusion between the state and the church, Roman style? I can imagine that most of his friends gathered around the table that night thought to themselves. “Hot dog, we are going to see some fireworks now. I can’t wait to see what Jesus does while running those Romans right out of town.” After all, he did say when lifted up, he would ‘draw the world to himself.’
Throughout his ministry, Jesus had problems with drawing people to him, or at least having people stick with him. Many were repulsed or confused by what he said and he did – healing the sick, touching the untouchables, including those who had previously been excluded. But now, says, Jesus, he will be lifted up and draw all people to himself. I wonder, if like me, you have experienced the cross as both a means of seeing Jesus and a way of being drawn closer to Jesus.
As a kid growing up in a Presbyterian Church, we used to sing the old hymn, Jesus, keep me near the cross. Amazing that the cross, an instrument of the very worst of suffering and death is, in the light of the Christ, transformed into a way of hope and strength. Millions have gazed upon the cross and found thereby the truth about God and, the truth about themselves. The cross says to us that God’s love for us, you, me, all of us, knows no bounds. God will go to any and every length to have us, to be with us and to have us be with God.
How does it stand between us and God? Is God for us or against us? Look at the broken, tortured body lifted high on the cross and perhaps you will know the answer to the questions. The cross is a multifaceted sign of the truth about us. We are those who are in need of saving, yet have no means to save ourselves. I’ve heard it said that the cross is a reminder of just how messed up we are. A people who could on Palm Sunday, cry out “Hosanna!” and a few days later join a mob screaming, “Crucify him!” Look at the cross and the one lifted high upon it.
Look at the cross where, in just a couple of weeks, we shall see God redefine God. We, who expected to see a God who dropped down from heaven and fixed all our ills, we see God submitting to vile abuse and torture, God nailed to a cross overlooking a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem, God as a tortured to death Jew submitting to us at our worst, suffering the worst of any ills we must suffer, and then dying in agony. The cross is about all of that. And then we dare you to gaze upon it, God high and lifted up, God made explicit, visible and undeniable, God-dying on a cross. The cross thus becomes a window through which we see most fully into the heart of a God who says, simply, I love you this much.
I can remember hearing a youth minister, when asked how much God loves us, respond by saying, “God stretched out his arms in embrace, and we nailed them to a cross.” All of us who have moments when we are downcast, suffer and wonder if we are good enough, if God really exists, let this very same cross draw you toward God. All of us who mistakenly have thought that God was high and lifted up, distant and detached, let the cross show the truth about God who came to us because we could not on our own, come to God.
The cross is lifted up before us as God’s great answer to our need. Here we go, walking behind Jesus as he goes to the cross. In just a couple of weeks, Jesus will not preach to us or teach us with words. Rather, he will show us the depth and breadth of God’s love for each and everyone of us. We, who want so badly to know how it stands between us and God shall see as we look upon the broken body on the cross. Here, lifted up before us is as much of God as we ever hope to see in this world. We shall vividly see to what lengths God is willing to go to draw us to himself. That is what we will see when the cross is indeed lifted high – thanks be to God – amen.