The text this morning is from the Gospel of John, the twelfth chapter:
Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “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. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The time is here. We have arrived right at the beginning of Holy Week with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And right there, right in that place, there were Greek converts to Judaism who wanted to see Jesus. “Sir, we want to see Jesus,” they ask. They wanted to see the One who had done so many miracles, the One who preached the Word of God, the One who came into the city as a triumphant, peaceful King. So, they went to the most Greek guy in Jesus’ apostles and begged to see Jesus. Word got passed around and back to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t outright say yes; in fact, He doesn’t say much of anything regarding those guys. Or does He?
You see, when Jesus begins in on explaining everything that is to come, He is answering them. He’s telling His disciples that the hour has come, and even the Gentiles of the world are coming to see the spectacle that begins this day and continues through Good Friday, and, by the grace of God, even these people will continue to believe and see Jesus Resurrection Sunday.
Jesus says, through metaphor, that He must fall to the earth and die, and if He does, He will bear much fruit, the fruit of all the believers in Him, even the Gentiles. But, to those who love this world more than their God, to those who love their lives, they will not come to Christ in the end. They will be plucked from the vine as rotten and soured grapes, people who reject the good gifts of God in Christ Jesus.
Rather, believers are called to hate their lives, not to despise everything in them, but to abandon the reckless lust of the self. And when believers in Christ do this, when, after having been called by the Gospel to the riven side of Christ, believers forsake their lustful passions, struggle with them, repent of them, take the idolatrous god they created out of the image they see in the mirror every morning, then they are doing what the fruit of Christ does, and, like any good grape, are taken from the vine and made into a vintage of wine that will last forever.
I guess when you put it on paper, it sounds easy. Really, it wasn’t hard to come up with that. But, even Jesus is troubled by this saying. It’s not that He sinned in any way, and it’s not that He disobeyed His Father’s will in any way, but certainly, He says He is troubled by all this. He will have to suffer this week, He will have to die, He will have to be buried. He knew His Scriptures. He knew what was in store for Him: beatings, mocking jeers, whippings, and, finally, crucifixion. No wonder He was troubled. But, in all that He did, He did it to glorify the name of the Father.
All Jesus did was for the purposes of glorifying it, to make the name of God the Father rise above all things so that all of His purposes can be finally and fully revealed. And they are in Jesus Christ. As the Son of God lays upon the coming tree, the name of the Father is truly glorified, for here the Father shows His love for you, you, that He would send His one and only Son to die in your place, the place that you deserve for your sin, that He would pour out His wrath upon His Son so it would never be on you. There, there is much glory for the Father’s name.
And in that glory, lifted high upon the cross, Jesus will draw all people to Himself, even the Gentiles who desired to see Him. There, in the cross, is the true glory of God, it is how our Lord desires to be seen in the world, high and lifted up. Crucified. In His nakedness and shame, the glory of God comes from heaven and rests in its fullness, and that light that beams from the cross is a beacon to the entire world: here is the Son of God, King of the Jews, King of the Universe, your Savior, your Substitute, your Lord.
Truly, this cross is why we are gathered here today. The cross is still a beacon to all of us, it is the way in which we were justified. You were justified, your debt was settled with God the Father nearly 2000 years ago on a hill outside Jerusalem. And that justification has been delivered to each one of you in your Baptisms. It’s how you know you are saved, and will be saved upon the Last Day. The cross of Christ has come to you in your Baptism, you have been washed in His blood, you have been made clean in the eyes of God for He has declared you righteous, and He will never change His mind about you. If you are baptized, you have this assurance.
And our children are before us today, James, Amber, Alyssa, and Shelby. They stand before us today and will make a confession that the Church has always made, that they reject the devil, that they believe Jesus is Lord, that they believe He died for them, and that they promise that they will always be faithful to their confession of Christ, even unto their own death. Today, these four will promise, as so many have before, that they will hate their lives, setting themselves and their desires aside, and that their Baptism has set them apart, made them holy, so that they may now work for the good of Christ, His Church, and their neighbor.
Today, Palm Sunday, Confirmation Day, is about death. It is about the death of Christ, and it is about the death of these four, and it is about the death of all believers. We promise, with the help of God, to remain faithful to Christ and the confession of faith unto death. And that death may indeed come. It may come in your sleep, it may come through the great ravager, cancer, it may come through disease or sickness, or it may even come at the hand of one who hates you.
And make no mistake, for your faith, the world will hate you because it has hated the One who has come into the world, Jesus Christ. It hates Him most of anything and desires to see dead any who bear His name. But we don’t give up our confession because it gets hard. We don’t give up our confession because it’s easier. We don’t give up our confession because we can do things in secret. We don’t give up our confession. We die before we do that.
If Jesus is an example for us, and He certainly is, then we follow our Lord to His cross, even if that means we could be crucified at His side. But we do so humbly, following in the way of our Lord as He went to His cross. And we do so gladly, singing songs, and hymns, and spiritual songs. What can the world take from you if God has given you everything? If we are called to hate the sin of self-service, what can the world take away from you? It caters to those who love themselves. God has given to you eternal life with Him forever. You can’t serve yourself into heaven, God gives it to you freely. There is nothing you have that the world can truly take away, for it is all God’s. You have inherited all things through Christ who gives you strength. Jesus is Lord, and He is the One who gets to say what you have and He says and promises that you have everything.
So, when we fall to the ground, when we are buried six feet under, when we breathe no more in this sin-filled life, we rejoice, for our God is good and gracious. At that moment, we already have life eternal, for we received that in our Baptisms. We await only the resurrection from the dead which is soon to come. We are the Gentiles Jesus has drawn unto Himself by His cross, and so we follow in His footsteps, for He has redeemed you, a lost and sinful, broken people. And in His name, He has set you above all things.
We now, having the name of the Lord put upon us, we get to go out and live according to His Word. We get to be Jesus to our neighbor through acts of service and love. We work for our neighbor, doing the good that God would have us do to them. If you are a student, learn well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If you a doctor, heal and do no harm. If you’re a comic, make people laugh. If you are a plumber, plumb well. If you are cook, cook well. If you are a parent, parent well. If you are a child, obey your parents. Serve your neighbor, for Christ has set you free from sin to do such things.
And continue to learn. Dwell on the Word of God, diving into His Word as it a deep pool of refreshing water that will never dry up. Drink of it, swim in it, live in it, for it is your lifeblood. The Word of God will dwell in you richly if you remain in His Word. Make your promises count; study the confession you have made and hold it fast unto death.
This is Jesus’ answer. He must die for your sake, that you may be His forever and He may be yours. Today, we are reminded of all that Christ has done for you. He has set you free from sin and made you His own servants. And you serve those whom He loves. He has justified you, declaring you righteous. You live righteously then. He has sanctified you, made you holy, set you apart from the world. And so you tell others of the hope that you have in Jesus Christ, namely that you will be raised from the dead to live forever. He has strengthened you through His Word and Sacraments. Make use of them. Remember your Baptism. Hear His absolution. Receive His true body and blood. Be forgiven, set free, strengthened in the one true faith unto life everlasting.
And Jesus, by His death, has killed you. He has killed the Old Adam in you and has raised a New Adam in its place. Jesus drowned you to make you alive in Him. Die to the world. Die to yourself. Die to your passions. Die to your lust. Die to your lack of service. Die in every way that is sinful. Live in Him.
Perhaps, dear friends, dear Confirmands, do this: be like the Greeks in today’s Word. Continually ask, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Ask your parents. Ask your pastor. Ask your friends. Ask your neighbors. Ask all you want; “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” Today you do see Jesus, not face to face, but through His Word. Through His Word and Sacraments, Jesus is put before you that you may see Him clearly. And as you grow in the faith, as you continue to make your confession, the image clears ever more, until that final day, when your eyes open out of death, and you see Jesus helping you from your grave.
“Sir, we want to see Jesus.” A simple request. This is the Christian life. See the One who lives perfectly for you, the One who suffered the agony and shame of crucifixion for you, the One who died for you, and, as the Church celebrates it, the One who, in seven days from now, will rise from the dead for you that you may always be with Him. See Him, for He is here, and He is the One who will strengthen you in the confession you make of Him so that you may see Him with your own two eyes. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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