How to Ruin a Good Religion

February 18, 2001

TEXT: JOHN 12:20-33

LISTENING TO THE TEXT
This is a story about some people who wanted to see Jesus. Sounds like a simple thing. They make a formal request for audience with some of the disciples who take the request to Jesus. What we might expect is for Jesus to say something like, "Oh, some people want to talk with me? Fine, let's go to them and have a talk." But that's not what happens at all. Instead Jesus begins a rather long discourse on what it means for the Son of Man to be glorified and to be "lifted up from the earth." Did Jesus not hear the question correctly?

Actually this seems rather typical of Jesus. He just can't resist bringing up this sacrifice and cross stuff all the time. And that's how you ruin a good religion—you keep talking about a cross.

These Greeks just wanted to see Jesus. They just wanted to have a nice conversation with Him and learn more about His fascinating teaching. He has no time for that now. He points them instead to a cross.

ENGAGING THE TEXT
The Need
Where is the "trouble" in this text? Perhaps it's in the fact that we often come to Jesus in the way these Greeks did. The Jesus we really want to see is the one who is interesting. We want a Jesus who makes us feel better about ourselves and gives us things. We want a Jesus who makes life simple and enjoyable. After all, does this business of Christianity really have to be so hard? Yet, when Jesus talks about His kind of religion—life in the kingdom of God—He consistently points to the Cross. That's where we really see Jesus.

God's Answer
Simplistic religion wants everything reduced. What's the least I can do and still make it to heaven? Sometimes we get the strange feeling that when people talk glowingly about the "simplicity of the gospel," what they really mean is a religion that isn't too uncomfortable, a faith that doesn't have to get its fingernails dirty.

What Jesus is offering is not "simple" religion. Here is the mystery of the Cross and the strange but powerful principle that in the kingdom of God life comes out of death. When you lay down your life, that's when real life begins.

These Greeks just wanted to see Jesus. They were pointed to a cross. We just want to see Jesus, and every time He points us to a cross.

Our Response
How do we approach Jesus? Is our religion "simple" in that we want it to be nonthreatening and comfortable? Does it ever trouble us to be followers of Jesus? Do we ever shudder when, in the shadow of the Cross, we come face-to-face with our "undoneness" before God? If not, if that kind of thing never happens to us, then we still haven't seen Jesus. The life He is calling us to is the journey of the Cross.

All this talk about a cross may ruin a good religion, but it'll save you. Do want to see Jesus? Look to the Cross.

PREACHING THE TEXT
The story is told of a young preacher who came to his first church right out of seminary. His preaching was, of course, filled with the many exciting ideas he had learned. He was so excited about delivering his learning to these good folks. But, quite frankly, you could often see a strange look of bewilderment on their faces.

After several months of that, he stepped into the pulpit one Sunday morning to find a note that had been left there by one of the members. It read simply, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

I served the people of Chicago First Church of the Nazarene for several years. It's one of the oldest churches in our denomination with a rich and wonderful history. Some of the greatest preachers in the movement have proclaimed God's Word from that pulpit. And in the old sanctuary on the south side of Chicago, in the top of the pulpit so the preacher could clearly see, there were engraved into the wood those same words, "Sir, we would see Jesus."

Now I guess the assumption those good folks are making is that Christianity need not be as complicated as our conversations in systematic theology. The gospel is simple. It's just a matter of seeing Jesus. In fact, some would say that that's been the basic problem with the church all along. We make religion too complicated, too cumbersome, too heavy, too serious. We just need to see Jesus, that's all. It doesn't have to be all that hard. It doesn't have to be cumbersome and heavy. It's just a simple matter of seeing Jesus. Isn't it?

This is one of those "straw men" we referred to earlier in this issue. We "set him up" only to "tear him down" so that we might bring people to the truth of the text. The truth is that Jesus refuses to allow our following of Him to be simplistic. Being a disciple is not "simple" in the sense that it's not demanding. Jesus pointed the Greeks in this story to His suffering and death. He does that with anyone who would be a serious follower. If you want to "see" Jesus, look to the Cross.