When Francis had his vision, he was praying in a church that
was quite literally falling down into a heap of rubble. He started to rebuild
the church building brick by brick, but in the middle of the project he
realized that what Jesus was calling him to do was not to restore a building
but to rebuild all of God’s church…all of us…not just a structure!
When I contemplate that icon, I became aware of what Jesus is
talking about in today’s Gospel. Today’s
story from John starts out when some Greeks come looking for Jesus. These were
religious and curious Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism but turned aside
from conversion by the requirement for circumcision. They’ve heard about Jesus
and his message and so come to Philip and then to Andrew, asking about him.
Remember Philip and Andrew? They were the ones who saw Jesus
and followed him and took the news to their brothers, Nathaniel and Simon
Peter. Now John’s Gospel tells us that
some people from outside Judaism are looking to see Jesus just as Philip and
Andrew had once searched for him themselves.
It is only when these two people from outside of Judaism come
calling that Jesus says out loud that his time has arrived: the time for him to
be glorified.
Well and good, except that Jesus’ idea of “glory” and ours
are radically different! When we think of glory, we think of fame and fortune. We think of power, influence and our name up
in lights. Not Jesus. He is thinking of the cross.
For Jesus, glory means embracing the cross, the epitome of
suffering. As the Gospel says:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into
the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears
much fruit. … Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – ‘Father, save me
from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. … And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Jesus is not for a small group of insiders. Jesus is for
everyone. And for that, the Gospel tells us, Jesus is glorified on the cross.
It will be on the cross where God will destroy the division
between God and humanity. It will be on the cross where God renews
creation. We tend to think of the cross
as a failure and a futility that God miraculously turns into something new with
the resurrection. Don’t worry, we are in good company—the apostles thought
that, too! It’s all over popular culture! But the cross is not a defeat, it is the
completion of what Jesus came to do, and
it is the place where he is glorified.
When Andrew took Peter to see Jesus and when Philip brought
Nathaniel to see Jesus, they saw him face to face. The Greeks wanted to see
Jesus, but they will see him on and through the cross. And that is where most of us will see Jesus… on
and through the cross.
Today, those coming to seek Jesus have one more place to
look. And that is to us.
Episcopal priest, the Rev. Dr. Barry Vaughn writes:
Phillips Brooks knew that everyone
who steps into a pulpit and presumes to preach the gospel needs to think about
those words, because the great temptation of preaching is to give our hearers
something other than Jesus….
But it is not only preachers who do
this. All around us are people who want to see Jesus. Do they see him in us? Do
they see the Servant-Lord who washed the feet of his friends? Do they see the
prophet who cleansed the Temple? Do they see the healer who made the blind to
see? If we are to let people see Jesus in us, then we must go ourselves and sit
at his feet, let him heal us, feed upon his body broken for us, and above all
stand at the cross and wonder as the Word that spoke out of the void lapses into
silence and death.
As we approach the end of Lent: with Passion Sunday, Holy
Week and the Great Three Days coming up, we are at once like those Greeks
looking for Jesus who came to Philip and Andrew, and we are like Philip
and Andrew who show Jesus to others.
We want to see Jesus.
We are not alone. Many people seek Jesus. They could be at work, or in a
faraway place or they could be as close as home. And we, the baptized, are the ones who show
off Jesus. We show in our faithfulness, in our attitude towards others, and in
our care for those in need that Jesus reigns, and he reigns from the cross.
He realized that the Church that Jesus sent him to rebuild
was the people of God: people who needed a space and a method to pray, people
who need purpose and hope. People who follow Jesus need a mission. The heart of
Francis’ call was to show people the very same thing he had been shown. He
showed them Jesus. The savior who walked and lived among us is glorified on the
cross, where we see God’s love is so great that not even death can stop it.
No comments:
Post a Comment