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On Ash Wednesday, we started this season of Lent with a question and then a statement.
In case you have forgotten, the question was: do you want to change. And then the statement was: then be disturbed. Do you want to change? To properly answer this question we need to know that we do, indeed, need to change. That we have all strayed from the ways of God in some way. We need to remember who we are and who we are called to be. We have to have the courage and the grace to then ‘fess up to the fact that we have fallen short of who God calls us to be. OR - in our smugness and self-assurance - we can just stay the way we are. . . This question was followed by the statement: then be disturbed. As we considered in last week’s Gospel: when faced with his own death, Jesus was troubled – and the Greek meaning for the word troubled is: to experience inward turmoil, to be stirred up, disturbed, unsettled, thrown into confusion. To want to change. To want to want to turn from our sins. To want to be more like Jesus – then we have to be troubled or disturbed enough to admit that we NEED to change. That we need to shed some old ways in order to take up some new ways. To turn our hearts over to God – so that as we have sung many times during Lent: Come O God and take us – move and shake us. Come now, and make us anew, that we might live justly like you. Why bother? Why should we put in the effort to change? Because as the disciples answered those who questioned them about untying and leading the colt away in our first Gospel reading: the master has need of us. Jesus needs us - to be compassionate and forgiving. Jesus needs us - to be generous and giving. Jesus needs us - to be kind and gracious. Jesus needs us - to be merciful and accepting. Jesus needs us: so he can continue to build the Kingdom of God on this earth - through us. So if we haven’t dealt with the question or the statement yet: now is the time - it’s never too late. Do you want to change? Then be disturbed.
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Today’s Gospel is taken from the 12th Chapter of St. John, verses 20 to 30.
If we looked at verse 1 of this chapter, John tells us it was six days before Passover and Jesus had just arrived in Bethany, a little town located on the Mount of Olives just across the Kidron valley from Jerusalem. Jesus was going to the holy city to celebrate the Passover that year, just as thousands of other Jews were doing. That year, the Passover began on Friday evening, so six days before meant Jesus arrived in Bethany, sometime on Saturday. Some of his friends, including Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, prepared a dinner for him. It would have been a pretty big dinner - for remember Jesus had 12 apostles with him. Lazarus, some time before as you know - had been raised from the dead by Jesus, an event that led many Jews to believe in him as the Messiah. And led many of the Pharisees to want to kill Lazarus because on account of him, many Jews were now following after Jesus, and NOT them. While at this dinner, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive oil at which Judas lodged a complaint that the gesture was wasteful and the perfume should have been sold to help the poor. NOT because he had a real interest in the poor - but because Judas was in charge of the money bag - which he used for his own good as well as for that of the apostolic band. But Jesus says to Judas: “leave her alone. She is doing this in preparation for my burial.” And indeed, Jesus will be buried by the end of the week. John tells us that the next day, which would have been the first day of the week – news got around that Jesus was going to Jerusalem just across the valley. When a crowd heard he was going into the city – they met him with palm branches raising their Hosannas – at which the Pharisees say: “ The whole world has come out to see him.” Although we won’t commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem until next week on Palm or Passion Sunday – it’s important to keep all that’s going on in this chapter in mind – because the anointing in Bethany and Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem – BOTH – come right before today’s Gospel reading – and are connected to Jesus’ death. After the Pharisees say the whole world has turned out to see Jesus – we pick up today with the fact that it is true – even Greeks have shown up wanting to see Jesus. . . Another twist: most scripture scholars think that it was after Jesus entered Jerusalem that he drove the merchants and money-changers out of the Temple – because that’s where the Synoptic writers: Matthew, Mark, and Luke, place the cleansing of the Temple in their gospels. BUT John had already told us about that incident way earlier in his Gospel, in Chapter 2 – as we heard on the 3rd Sunday of Lent. So when the Greeks sought to see Jesus - Jesus sees this as a sign that his hour had come. HOUR is a key word in John’s Gospel. It described the time Jesus would complete his mission here on earth. It was the time when he would be put to death for faithfully fulfilling his work of teaching, healing, forgiving, and loving. It was the time when Jesus would be raised up - much like the serpent in the desert we heard about last week – Jesus will be raised up both on the cross and in the resurrection - a healing remedy for our sins which gains for us eternal life. Most of today’s Gospel is Jesus’ own reflection on his death. Being human - it’s not something he wants to go through: “I am troubled now,” he says. The Greek word for troubled means: to experience inward turmoil, to be stirred up, disturbed, unsettled, thrown into confusion. Jesus wonders aloud if he should say: “Father, save me from this hour.” If he escapes death or simply just runs away – he would abandon all that he had done and all he came to do and his good works would soon be forgotten. Jesus had to face this hour so that he could be glorified and God would be glorified in him - like a seed falling to the ground so it produces much fruit. Are we willing to join Jesus in being troubled? Are we willing to experience inward turmoil, be stirred up, disturbed, unsettled, thrown into confusion - so that we can produce much fruit in his name? In short, are we willing to lose our lives in this world so as to enjoy life eternal? For whoever serves Jesus must follow Jesus - and where Jesus is: in the garden, under guard, ridiculed, beaten, hanging on the cross – there his servants will be. . . Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; and having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wilder seas where storms will show us your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. Disturb us Lord, to stand with you - as suffering and death on the cross draws ever closer. |
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