Seeing Jesus

For a third week in a row, I have found myself challenged with what to say and how to say it when it comes to the Gospel. I had stuck in a joke about "seeing Jesus" as in the Ralph Kramden, "Pow, zoom, to da moon, Alice! To da moon!" idea of "seeing Jesus" but when I read it out loud to my wife, she didn't get it. So I dropped it. This is more or less what I said from the ambo. 

See what you think.

Text: John 12: 20-33

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There’s a line that stood out for me in this Gospel…possibly for some of you as well.

It’s at the very beginning.

Some Greeks come to Philip, and they say to him:

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

That kicks off a game of telephone with Philip passing the word on to Andrew and then Andrew passing the word on to Jesus.

And Jesus takes this idea of “seeing him” in a direction that might not have been what these Greeks initially meant.

He starts talking about death.

Jesus uses the description of a grain of wheat falling to the ground that brings about more life than if it just stays standing tall. 

Jesus talks about being “lifted up from the earth and drawing people to him”.  

This is an allusion to his death on the cross.

And then he says that one must lose one’s life in order to gain eternal life.

This whole portion we’ve heard from John’s Gospel takes place  right after he’s entered Jerusalem.

 He knows that he’s in for a showdown with the powers and principalities of his day.

And as he considers the meaning of his death…we hear him acknowledge his fear and vulnerability.

Jesus says, “Now is my soul troubled.”

His death will be a literal death…a terrible public execution meant to frighten anyone daring to stand up to those with power and privilege.

Why wouldn’t this make him afraid?

But there’s also death in a more metaphorical sense… this idea of “dying to self” that is also important and necessary.

And it too leads to fear the command to be vulnerable.

It is a “death” that I think troubles us…his disciples of today.

Because we must also “die” that metaphorical death if we are to live into eternal life.

Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry I think rightly points out that the thing that is the true opposite of “Love” is not “Hate.”

It’s self-centeredness.

It’s that sense of our self-importance that puts us…you and me…at the center of the universe.

It creates in us a need for self-preservation…and protection.

Being so centered on ourselves can manifest in ugly ways.

It leads to greed and selfishness.

The type of selfish ambition that when push comes to shove…we are more willing to trample on others…separate ourselves from each other… just to have power…and avoid feeling vulnerable.

These are the walls our ego likes to put up around our hearts to preserve that sense of “self” to keep us thinking that we don’t need each other.

And if we don’t need each other then we definitely have no use for God.

Imagine our Christian story if Jesus thought he could face the Roman Empire and the bullies and the tyrants of his day all on his own?!

I think we wouldn’t have much of a story to tell on Easter.

This all goes back to that idea of these Greeks who show up at a time of a Jewish festival saying,

“We wish to see Jesus.”

Jesus says basically says to those Greeks…the Gentiles of his day…

”Oh, you and my fellow Jews will see me in my glory.”

And again…as it happened at his baptism…and at the transfiguration…an other-worldly voice confirms that Jesus’s glory has come.

The time is now.

Seeing Jesus…in this case…means more than perceiving him in his flesh and blood body.

To “see Jesus” means seeing his way and his teachings come to life.

Jesus becomes manifest in what will bloom in the hearts of his followers in the wake of his death…when his ministry begins to take root.

People will see Jesus when we liberate the oppressed…help those who have been blind to God’s abundant love to see and experience it fully.

People will know Jesus when we bring release to those trapped in their own versions of hell…and free them to experience a life where they’re no longer being held back.

In other words…the way to “see Jesus” comes through the way his disciples…both then and now…make him visible to others through living…and being…Christ-like in the world.

That’s the promise Jesus is making in this Gospel.

It’s a promise kept….if we are willing to embrace it.

And that’s the key here: we must make that commitment for ourselves.

We have to break down the walls we put up that keep us from being in relationship with God and with each other.

That includes examining and questioning our prejudices.

I remember one time there was a woman in my massage therapy class who I really didn’t like.

Just everything about her rubbed me the wrong way.

And I felt uncomfortable being in her presence…like these bubbles of anxiety would start percolating in my body whenever I was around her.

One day…while I was sitting in a local coffee shop with my journal…I decided I needed to do something about my attitude toward her.

So I started to write.

I put down on paper the things that bothered me about her.

And about halfway through this exercise…. I began to realize that some of the basic things I didn’t like about her were really related to those parts of me that I wasn’t fond of either.

I remember putting the pen down…and re-reading what I had written…and thinking, “Whoa!”

I can’t say that I ever really liked this person.

But having realized that the things that I didn’t like were just as much about me as they were about her…helped me to be less anxious…and more compassionate toward her.

By clearing away all that clutters our hearts and minds…and refusing to stay focused on the real and perceived slights that cloud the light of Christ within us…we can become more capable of relationship.

Then we can live more fully into the mission and ministry that Jesus calls each of us to engage in every day of our lives.

We don’t know which “Greeks”…will come across our path on any given day seeking to see Jesus.

But they will come…and they will be looking to us to see the God who is Love.

They will be watching us and listening to us to see what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

And we need to be ready to show them.

Give some thought to who in your life has helped you to see the light of Christ.

What was it about that person that helped you to see Jesus?

I’ll leave you with this prayer…taken from the book “Daily Prayer for All Seasons”:

God of love…give us the grace to see your hand at work in the lives of those around us so that adversity will not overwhelm us, nor resentments possess us. Remain with us, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.