Holy Week (3)

The Fellowship of the Cross

Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip *came and *told Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came and *told Jesus. And Jesus *answered them, saying, “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. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”  John 12:20 - 28a.

In the Gospel of John, unlike the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), we see little of what transpired between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. Instead John chooses to focus his attention on Maundy Thursday - the night that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, and His long talk with them in the Upper Room and during their walk to Gethsemane; these events are contained in John 13:1 - 18:11, a significant portion of John’s 21 chapters. What John does tell us about Jesus between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday is contained in John 12:20 - 50 and it begins with the passage quoted above.

Our text does not tell us whether Jesus actually met with the Greeks, but it does tell us what Jesus said in response to Andrew and Philip’s message from the Greeks.

“The hour has come…” The theme of “hour” is prominent in John’s Gospel; from 2:4, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come,” to 17:1, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify you…” The trajectory of the life of Jesus Christ is time sensitive, with each orbit of the earth around the Sun His hour draws closer, and yet closer, and yet closer...until we come to Holy Week. During His recorded ministry He goes to Jerusalem at Passover, again, yet again, and then comes the Great Passover of the cosmos, the Passover when the Hour of the Lamb has come - the Passover of God’s Great Sacrifice.

Now if these Greeks were indeed Greeks and not simply Greek-speaking Jews, then the added significance is that the peoples of the earth are seeking the True and Living God and the hour has come for all peoples to be gathered into one in Christ. But that cannot happen until Jesus dies (Ephesians 2:11 - 22), that cannot happen in its fullness until the Grain of Wheat falls into the ground and dies.

Jesus must die so that He will not remain alone, and as Jesus says in John 10:14 - 16, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”

But Jesus is not only telling us about His calling and impending sacrificial death, He is also calling those who desire to serve Him to follow Him into death as a way of life, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow me; and where I am, there My servant will be also…” This following, as He makes clear, is bound up in His words, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal” (see also Mark 8:34 - 38).

This suffering - resurrection motif fills up the New Testament and the Bible can’t be accurately taught without this being a major theme; it is a theme which is not isolated in the life of Jesus Christ, it is a theme that He calls His people to live, it is a way of life. We die with Christ so that we may live with Christ. We learn to be grains of wheat falling into the ground that others may live, while we are certainly not The Grain of Wheat, we are nevertheless grains of wheat that are the fruit of The Grain of Wheat and our union with Christ is such that His life becomes our life and our life is melded into His life - we are one with Christ in the Trinity (see John Chapter 17).

Are we learning what it is to know Christ in His sufferings? (Philippians 3:8 - 14; Romans 8:18 - 39). Are we embracing the fellowship of the Cross of Christ? Are we laying down our lives for others (1 John 3:16)? Is the Cross imprinted on us (Galatians 6:11 - 18)? Is the work of the Cross apparent in our lives? In the lives of our churches?

Strange as it may seem, we are delivered from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14 - 18) so that we might die for others. So that our lives might be lived for others and not for ourselves.

When we follow the Way of Jesus in the fellowship of the Cross we are with Jesus - “Where I am, there my servant will be also.” Today we can be where Jesus is as we find our fellowship with Him in the Father, as we embrace His Cross, as His Cross works within us and through us. This is a holy place, a place in the Son of God, a place where His Presence envelops us and leads us and guides us and comforts us...as we comfort and live for others.