🦁 Lent 6-6

Readings: Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 71:1-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; John 12:20-36. 

Reflection

Good morning. This is Tim Tribble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Isaiah chapter 49, verses 1 to 7. Psalm 71 verses 1 to 14, First Corinthians Chapter one, verses 18 to 31. And the Gospel of John, Chapter 12, verses 20 to 36. 

Welcome to Holy Tuesday, also known as Great and Holy Tuesday Great Tuesday and Fig Tuesday. This is the third day of Holy week, which starts on Sunday. So you've got to remember here we're working this is the Jewish festival, the Passover during this week. So we work things off of the story. So Sunday was Palm Sunday. Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly with Holy Monday, which we discussed, just like this Holy Tuesday in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, which were not part of today's reading. This is the day that the going to the Bethel, the Bethany and he curses the fig tree. But in today's reading from John, we have the story of the Greeks coming to see Jesus. 

Now, this is kind of important because everybody thinks of Jesus as the Messiah of the Jews. Well, there were Greeks who feared God. They believe that that's who these people were. And so they went to Philip. Well, part of the reason for that is all the other disciples had very Jewish names. Philip is not a Jewish name. It's a Greek name. So I want to. Do you want to? Philip said they wanted to see Jesus. 

And of course, Jews want Andrew. And then they both of them went and they told Jesus. Jesus said, The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. And this is where he starts talking about what's going to happen to him later in the week. So he says, Very true. I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls onto the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. This is another way that Jesus is trying to explain things Agriculture to agrarian references would have been very well understood by the people in the Middle East at that time in the Mediterranean area. We've talked about if you take a grain of wheat, you give that little grain, that's all it will ever be. You have to plant it. It has to die and become the wheat stock. So Jesus is saying, you know, I'm this this is all I am. In order for me to bear much fruit as in the analogy, then I have to die. 

Then he goes on to say, Whoever loves their life will lose it. And those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Okay, so this is a little different. And what this is referring to is eternal life. So even the Jewish apocalyptic writers always knew that losing your life or eternal life would be a good thing. So this is not about hating your time here on Earth. That's that's not that's not the gist of this, although that has been preached many, many, many, many times. This is talking about we need we're we're looking forward. We want we want to lose ourselves for eternal life. 

And he goes on to say, whoever serves me must follow me and where I am. Will my servants be also whoever serves me, the father will honor you. And this is the walk of Jesus. This is what we are called to as Christians to be Christ like. And then Jesus said that his soul was troubled. Oh, this is the part that means a lot to me. Jesus knows what's going to happen to him. He is the son of God. He knows what's going to be going on the whole time. That doesn't make it any easier to suffer what he went through starting Thursday night. One Judas betrayed them just after the Last Supper to the crucifixion on Friday. 

People do not understand in this day and age how horrible of a death that was. When they say he was flogged, accused, flogged with the the used strips of leather with glass wrapped in them and they would beat them and they would literally tear their skin off bone would be exposed muscle, etc., as horrible told they were completely mistreated, was a very, very not only physically painful and horrible way to die, but they were mistreated and just, you know, they used the whole world of psycho psychologically and physically beating them down. 

And then he says, But I'm not going to ask my father to save me from this hour. No, that's not why I've come to this hour. And Jesus realizes this is what I'm here for. And then it says, Father, glorify your name. And God says, I glorified it. And I would glorify it again. Cause everybody there, they hear of thunder. And once the angel is spoken, this is very common. The the thunder, this voice from above. You'll read that a lot in the Old Testament. Every time Gods spoke to the Israelites. 

It's referred to as thunder and lightning. Not the still small voice that we talk about now. And then Jesus said that that voice had come for them, not for him. It was false for them to try to get them to understand who he is. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be driven out. So there is a concept. The Jews always felt this was normally associated with the final day, but in Jesus, it had begun. And the ruler of this world, Jewish texts, recognize This is from the ESV Study Bible, a Jewish text recognized state and dominion over the world, though there's no record of them using that title. But this is talking about this be driving the devil out. And when I'm lifted up from Earth, I will draw people to myself. This, of course, is speaking to the resurrection. 

And that was so people would understand the kind of death he would die. But yet the crowd we've heard from the Lord, the Messiah remains forever. Well, guess what? Immediately. Yeah, but how can you be the Southern man when you must be? Look, look Who is the son of man? They still don't get it. They still don't believe in Jesus. Like the light is with you for only a little longer. Walk with the light so the darkness may not overtake you. But they didn't. So he departed and hid from them because they just weren't going to give it to him. So as we continue our path through Holy Week, our journey this week, think about the sacrifice that Jesus made and how human He was. Here is the first reading that we have where he's sitting there going, I don't know about doing this and be asking God to save me from this. My father. But now that's why I'm here. Amen.