Fifth Sunday of Lent

In the Gospel reading from today change is the magic word. Change is the most constant factor of human life on this earth. We need to die to our old self to become renewed in the Spirit.

It is a kind of remarkable and odd story today in the Gospel. Here are these Greeks who want to meet Jesus. They could have been gentiles or Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora. However, the Gospel writer does not clarify that for us. What the Gospel tells us is that they come to Philip, who apparently speaks their language and make their request. The story continues with telling us that Philip goes to Andrew and the two of them go to see Jesus. The Gospel does not reveal whether they take the Greek with them. The question is how Jesus will respond? If the Greeks are gentiles, will he respond as he did on other occasions? It is also possible they are Jews from the Diaspora. If that is the case, will he remind them of the law as he did to the rich man? Another option is that he invites them to with him as he did with the tax collectors and sinners in Luke's Gospel. Not all of that. Because we know that the Jesus in John's Gospel is a little different then in the Synoptical Gospels.


Instead he talks about dying, glorification, eternal life and his soul being troubled. This Jesus seems a little self-centered. He doesn't respond to the two disciples, neither to the Greeks. The Jesus of the fourth Gospel is sometimes is at times strange and non-responsive. This is not the Jesus we know from the other Gospels. This is more a inward focused Jesus. The dialogue sounds offensive as if he doesn't is impacted by the feelings of others. Some would call it also an “obnoxious” Jesus. The usual meaning of the word obnoxious is “unpleasantly offensive” or “very annoying”. This could fit to the Jesus in the Gospel of today. But it can also mean “subject to the authority of another”. This goes back to the Latin meaning of the word, meaning “liable to punishment or harm”. It seems that Jesus hints at this meaning in the Gospel reading. Jesus emphasizes that he is subject to the authority of the Father. As he says in John 3: “God has send his only son not to condemn the word, but that the world might be saved by him”. That is a a great responsibility! So, rather than give routine answers like the scribes, John’s Jesus gives these obnoxious responses.

They are given to challenge the reader’s understanding of reality and open them up for new possibilities. Would you see Jesus? Then consider a kernel of grain and how its life increases even though it dies. Would you see Jesus? Then follow Jesus, do as Jesus does, do what Jesus teaches. Would you see Jesus? Then listen for the voice of the Father. Jesus’s obnoxious answers seem non-responsive, but they are gateways to new appreciations. They demand decisions. “Now is the judgment of this world,” says Jesus. It implies that judgment has already been rendered and a conclusion reached. But the Greek word is krisis, which means a point of decision. Another way of understanding, is not that judgment has now been rendered against the world, but that now is the time for the world to make a judgment for itself. Now is the moment of crisis and Jesus is asking for a decision. This is underscored by the timing of the story of the Greeks asking to see Jesus. As John tells the story, Jesus has spent the night at the home of his friends Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus. He has then made his way into Jerusalem passing of necessity through the valley of Jehoshaphat which lies between the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat is a compound word of two other Hebrew terms, Yahweh (one of the names of God) and shaphat (“to judge” or “to decide”). In the book of the Prophet Joel this place is called the “valley of decision” where God “will gather all the nations.”

The setting underscores Jesus’ words, “Now is the judgment of this world” or now is the time for the world to make a decision. It requires us to examine the process by which we make judgments in our lives. “the valley of decision” is a great metaphor for decision-making. The metaphor of passing through a valley seems an appropriate image for an alternative for the judgments we make every day. In every one of those decisions we make the choice to follow Jesus or not, in word and deed. Even the obnoxious Jesus of John’s Gospel. When we make big decisions, we usually don't have unlimited resources or time to gather and analyze the information. We are limited in the things we can cope with.  So even though we may try to make decisions bases on a rational process, we accept that our information is limited. We make mountain-top decisions and we make valley decisions. That is life! Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Everybody does it! The Prophet Joel wrote, “Multitudes, multitudes are in the valley of decision” every day. It is as Jesus tells Phillip and Andrew (and the Greeks probably): Now is the judgment of this world.” Now, we have to make the decision whether or not to serve and follow Jesus, even if he is sometimes hard to follow. We have to make only that decision and trust him to teach us as we go along with Him on our journey through life. Amen.