The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
John 12:23 “And Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. 27 Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, “Father, save Me from this hour?” But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”’ 29 The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’ 30 Jesus answered and said, ‘This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. 31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. 32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.’ 33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.” (NASB)
Theologies of glory are approaches to Christianity and life that try in various ways to minimize, defeat, and interpret difficult and painful things and in so doing makes them more harmful. They do so because they do not see God at work in these kinds of things. If He is at work in such things, it is solely a function of judgment and punish. They teach that prosperity, success, physical and emotional well being, and happiness and satisfaction, among other things, are results of the good life and are clear manifestations that God is please with a person’s performance. God “blesses” those who behave and please Him, while punishing those whose lives are not what they ought to be.
In the Heidelberg Disputation of April 1518 in his Proof to Thesis XXI, Luther wrote that the theologian of glory “does not know the God hidden in suffering. Therefore, [the theologian of glory] prefers works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil.”
A theology of glory is the default setting for human beings. It is the fundamental supposition upon which all religions of works righteousness are built. Do “A” or “B” and God will reward you and yours with “X” and “Y.”
A theology of the cross, by contrast, sees the cross as revealing the fundamental nature of God’s involvement in this sinful world. The crucifixion is the place where our sins are atoned for. But the crucifixion also teaches us about how it is that God works in this world for our eternal good.
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the God of opposites. God achieves His purposes by doing the exact opposite of that which human beings expect. God triumphs over sin and evil by allowing sin and evil to triumph over Him. He destroys death by dying Himself. In regard to Christians, God’s real strength is demonstrated through what human beings believe see as weakness. Again Luther;
So our Lord God passes by the greatest and highest might of angels in heaven. He takes the very simplest, plainest, most unlearned, and weakest on earth. He sets them against the highest wisdom and power of the devil and the world. These are the works of God, for He is a God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17), such are His nature and His attributes. He proves it with the grain in the field; “unless it falls into the earth and dies,” Christ Himself says, “it abides alone.” But if it dies, rots, and loses its husk and flour in the earth, it grows, roots, blades, and ears and “bears much fruit.” In summary it is God’s nature to show His majesty and power through vanity and weakness.
In the Gospel lesson for this morning some gentiles have come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. It is now just a few days out from Christ’s Crucifixion. The gentiles approach Philip. “‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came, and they told Jesus.” (John 12:21-22)
Jesus’s response is a bit of a surprise to modern Christians, who see Jesus as the “nice guy” par excellence. After all, how could He just ignore these “seekers?” Jesus wouldn’t do that, but that is pretty much what He does. “Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’” Jesus is telling the disciples that He must turn His attention elsewhere. This is not the time for social visits. The hour has come. Jesus is focused on what is approaching–His glorification.
The response must have been disappointing to the Gentiles, but kind of exciting to the disciples. After all, the disciples like the rest of humanity are by nature theologians of glory. For three years they heard Jesus say that His hour had not yet come. But now finally, He says it. “The hour has come.” The Son of Man is going to be glorified.
Now the problem is the definition of “glorified.” The disciples, theologians of glory think that the Son of Man, the King of Israel, the Son of the Living God is going to be glorified by virtue of an exercise of great visible power. He is going to take control of Jerusalem, deal justly with all who oppose Him, and provide health and wealth and success and an overall good feeling of brotherhood to God’s children. They think He is going to usher in the good life. They believe Jesus was going to make it clear to the world that the Israelites will no longer be threatened, picked on, or occupied by anyone.
Instead Jesus was about to teach them the correct definition of “glorified.” He was about to teach them how it is that God works in this world and that it is exactly the opposite of what they and everyone else expects.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus defines His glory by His death and resurrection. He must die and fall to the earth first if His work is going to bear much fruit.
It’s not an academic lesson for Jesus. It is not an idea or principle. Jesus is deeply troubled by what is about to happen. He has now turned His attention to what He came into the world to do. “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 “Father, glorify Thy name. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
The real glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is to be seen in Jesus’s crucifixion. That’s how we sinners are to look upon the cross. In fact, that is how we are to look upon all of our weaknesses, sufferings, and death. We are too look upon them all through the lense of the cross. Jesus crucifixion is the center point of everything; everything in history and everything in your life. It is the place where Jesus draws all men to Himself.
A cross. A crucifix. You know that “thing” that the American Evangelicals and the big church growth movement gurus tell the peddlers of a defective Christian faith not to display in their buildings and theaters. It’s too depressing. It reminds people of their sins and the own weaknesses. Its okay to refer to Jesus’s death here and there to get the desired response– a commitment, but only as a means to get to a greater glory of obedience, success, victory, and the good life.
“There came therefore a voice out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” God the Father speaks and assures Jesus that His name is glorified and will be glorified again. It’s a strange statement. After all, I just said we are to look upon the crucifixion, the lifting up of the Son of Man and see the glory of God in it. But here is sounds as if God has both “had” and “will again” glorify Jesus’s name. This implies that there will be a time when God the Father doesn’t glorify the name of Jesus. It sounds as though He glorifies it, then stops for a moment, and then continues again.
That is what happened. It was on the cross in that moment when God the Father forsook His Son, when Jesus became sin in His and its entirety that God the Father ceased to glorify God the Son in God’s eyes. Jesus became sin and nothing but sin in God’s eyes. God the Father forsakes God the Son. But then, as quickly as it stopped, Jesus’s name was glorified again.
From Genesis 3 onward, the children of God waited for the Seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent. That’s what the entire Old Testament drama about. When would the Seed sprout? When would the Seed defeat sin, death, and the power of the devil?
What most of God’s children had forgotten was that the Seed would have to fall to the ground and die before the Seed would bear fruit. In Christ’s obedience, suffering, and death the glory of God is seen and found. Thus the Epistle lesson for this morning. [Hebrews 5:7-9] “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”
A Christianity that does not have the crucifixion front and center, a Christianity that is based on a theology of glory is on the verge of not being Christianity. Jesus wants those who wear His name to see Him primarily in one way. As the One Who was lifted up from the earth, crucified as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Paying the price for all men’s sins is the glory of God.
Christians, must make sure we have the theology of the cross front and center in our minds and hearts when we find ourselves suffering, no matter what the source of suffering is. We don’t like this fundamental truth of the Christian Faith. But the truth is that we must constantly be suffering, constantly struggling, constantly being put to death by daily repentance.
The curse applies to us as well. As we get older and closer to the grave, our life looks more and more like a seed that is drying up. It looks more and more humble and powerless. In time it is tossed to the ground. But that is what God has ordained for all men and Christians are not exempt from this process.
But the Christian is following the path, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are to embrace and patiently endure, because even in our weak and pathetic state the glory of God is being revealed.
The prosperity and power preachers of the day would have you believe that Christianity is all about the power to overcome. But we worship the God of opposites as St. Paul wrote, “ And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast [a]about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with [b]insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9-10)
The most glorious thing of all is the Cross of Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.