The Hour Has Come

John 12:20-33

Lent 5, Year B

April 2, 2006

INTRO

We have ways of speaking about difficult subjects around the very young. Whenever we want to shield little lives from the full impact of a discussion sometimes we’ll just spell things out. It may be something as simple as saying it’s almost time for the little ones to go to B-E-D, or it may be something as difficult as saying the parents of your child’s best friend are getting a D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Then when our child gets old enough to spell, we move to speaking in euphemisms, smooth ways of saying rough things. Instead of saying Grandpa died, we’ll tell them Grandpa went “bye-bye,” or Grandpa went to be with Jesus.

I. John has his own euphemism in his Gospel. Sometimes it comes on the lips of Jesus, and sometimes it’s John’s own editorial comment. But John’s euphemism is to speak of Jesus’ “hour” or his “time.” Sometimes the meaning is as benign as the words sound, but more often than not there is a sinister tone to the words. As John recounts the ministry of Jesus, the action focuses on two types of events: miraculous signs, and clashes with the Jewish leaders. And the response to Jesus’ ministry stirs up two powerful reactions. Some want to crown Him; others want to kill Him. They’re at opposite ends of the spectrum, but the reactions are on rising arcs that are on a collision course. The more some folks want to make Him king, the more the others fear Him and think He’s got to be eliminated. As the attention gets too focused on Him, Jesus steps aside momentarily—steps out of the spotlight—because His hour has not yet come. After He has fed the 5,000 and the people want to crown Him king, He withdraws (6:15). When His teaching in the Temple gets the religious leaders so angry that they pick up rocks to stone Him, He slips away (8:59).

Jesus zigzags all the way through John’s Gospel, dodging both those who want to crown Him and those who want to kill Him. But after He has two high profile incidents back to back, He can’t seem to zig or zag fast enough to dodge the spotlight. He raises Lazarus from the dead, then darts into the wilderness. But when He comes back into public view, He’s hailed as king when He walks into Jerusalem. For chapter after chapter, month after month He has avoided a collision because, as John reminds us, it has not been the hour. But His entry into Jerusalem signals that’s all about to change. The trigger that sets everything in motion, John says, is when some Greeks come seeking an appointment with Jesus. Greeks, from the other side of the empire, signaling just how far the word has spread. Meaning it’s not just a story for the hometown newspapers, but that it’s now international news, what this man from Galilee has been doing. So when some Greeks approach Jesus’ disciples, asking to see Jesus, He knows. He instinctively knows, and His first words to His disciples are, “The hour has come.” It’s time.

II. “The hour has come” is a code word for Jesus’ death. He knows death is imminent, and He begins to talk about it more and more. He knows if He keeps on drawing attention to himself, He’s going to get himself killed. The more the crowds acclaim Him, the more the religious leaders want to snuff Him out. There may be time to change course, but time is running out. He could pull back, try to smooth things over with the Pharisees, soften His message and live. You can tell it’s been heavy on His mind. His soul is troubled by the thought. He has considered His options. Should He call on the Father to save Him from this hour? Now that the hour has come, should Jesus pull back to avoid it?

Jesus knows He has a choice to make. He can save His life, or He can be a savior, but He cannot do both. And in a rather euphemistic way, He declares His decision. “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

The purpose of a savior is to give His life so others can find true life. The purpose of a grain of wheat is to die so more wheat can be produced. The full impact of the words may not strike us immediately because it just sounds like a 4H project, but He’s talking about laying down His life. He is preparing to die. He speaks the same message with two more phrases:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23).
“I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (12:32).

The hour has come for Him to be glorified. He will be lifted up. And just so we don’t mistake the real meaning of that phrase, John adds, “He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die” (12:33).

The hour has come, He will be glorified, He will be lifted up—they’re all code words for the death of Jesus.

III. It all amounts to a new view of suffering. A new way of looking at our options when suffering is one of our choices. Well, it’s not a totally new view of suffering, but it’s one that still hadn’t caught on by the time Jesus’ hour had come. While there is no value in suffering just for suffering’s sake, we no longer have to assume suffering is a sign God is mad at us, or we’ve done something terribly wrong. That’s the message God tried to get through to Job’s friends. That’s also the message Jesus tried to get through when He healed the man born blind (John 9). But more than that, He’s saying suffering is not just something to be endured. Sometimes suffering is something to be embraced.

It’s a tough message to accept, when we’ve always been taught that self-preservation and avoiding pain are so important. Even when the message is spoken clearly, we seem to have “deaf spots,” which prevent us from hearing. When Jesus announced His decision not to draw back from “His hour,” saying He had come for that very reason, the voice from heaven confirmed it. You’d think that would settle it for all who were gathered. What more could you need than to hear a voice from heaven booming, “Amen”? But as God’s voice echoed out, they just scratched their heads and asked, “Did you hear something? Did it just thunder?” Maybe it was deafness to the voice of God. More likely, it was deafness to certain words in His vocabulary. That deafness still seems to be a problem today. It’s still hard to have God’s voice heard today when He uses words like death, loss, servanthood. Did you ever notice how most of the time when people say they heard God’s voice today, it seems like they always hear, “Preserve, grow, acquire”? But Jesus said He had come to die and give His life away. Unless a kernel of wheat dies. . .

It’s a message for the ages, at least for those who consider themselves disciples of Jesus Christ. He makes it clear that it’s not just His tough decision He’s talking about, but the same decision we all face: “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (12:25).

CONCLUSION:

I don’t know what has to die in your life, but this much I know: there are choices we all must make. When we think of “life or death” issues, we assume the right answer is always to choose life, of course. Jesus says to reframe the question. Instead of seeing matters as “life or death,” see them as “self-preservation or life-giving sacrifice.” For some of us that may mean saying “no” to a career in order to say “yes” to a call. It may mean dying to self in order to save a marriage. Maybe it will mean forgoing first-class luxuries to give life in Third World areas. Sometimes we will have to suffer, we may even have to D-I-E, but that can be used redemptively. The hour has come.