Now is the Time
John 12:20-32[1]
Our faith makes some pretty big promises. Of course, the
biggest promise is that if we trust in Jesus, we’ll go to heaven when we die
and spend all eternity in the presence of his love. For some of us, that may
have been what drew us to faith in the first place. But the problem with that
promise is that we really have no way to test it in this life. We won’t “know”
whether it’s true until we die. In the meantime, we do have reasons for
confidence in that promise. The most important one is that Jesus defeated death
on the cross and God raised him to new life on that first Easter Sunday. But
then, that did happen a long time ago. So I can understand why some people may
have doubts about it. We also have the experience of Jesus living “within our
hearts” as the hymn puts it. But again, that’s not something easily
demonstrated to someone with questions.
There are other promises that do relate to this life,
however. One of them is a promise that we often use in our Assurance of Pardon:
“if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed
away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor 5:17). I think the point is made
a bit clearer in the New Living Translation: “anyone who belongs to
Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” We
might be tempted to think that this is just one particularly dramatic promise.
But that’s not the case at all. It’s one of the themes of the Christian faith:
those who trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who entrust their lives to
him become whole new people. We heard it last week in our lesson from
Ephesians: “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in
mercy, made us alive with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5, NIV). It’s the
promise I like to use when we observe Ash Wednesday: just as God raised Jesus
from the dead, so we too may live a new life (Rom 6:4).
Of course, the problem is that there’s a lot about our
lives that doesn’t look or feel very “new.” We might very well agree with the
objection quoted in 2 Peter: “From before the times of our ancestors,
everything has remained the same since the world was first created” (2 Pet 3:4,
NLT). Or even before that, we might agree that “there is nothing new
under the sun,” as the “preacher” of Ecclesiastes put it (Eccl 1:9). I’m afraid
that’s one of the changes that’s taken place in the last generation or two.
People have lost the optimism that used to define our culture. At least for
some of us. These days skepticism is much more widespread. I’m not talking
about conspiracy theories. I’m talking about the fact that my children’s
generation, and the generation after that, look at the world and they see the
rich getting richer at their expense. They see people abusing power for their
own benefit, regardless of whom they hurt. They see a world that doesn’t look
like there’s much reason to believe in the promise that God is “making all
things new” (Rev 21:5).
This point of view relates to our Gospel lesson for today.
Jesus makes a pretty big promise in this passage. He says, “Now is the judgment
of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am
lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:31-32). It’s a
pivotal point in John’s Gospel. The Jewish leaders have just made the decision
that Jesus must die to keep them from losing their position and power. Up to
this point, Jesus says his “hour has not yet come.” But now, the way events
have unfolded convinces him that he has indeed come to his “hour.” But then
just what that “hour” means takes a little more attention to John’s Gospel as a
whole.
The theme of Jesus’ “hour” in John’s Gospel signifies that
Jesus has a sense that his life and ministry are heading toward a conclusion.
We saw something like that a few weeks ago in Mark’s Gospel when he told the
disciples there that he “must” be handed over, rejected, killed and then raised
from the dead. In John’s Gospel, the idea is similar, but a little different.
We see a glimpse of that in our lesson when Jesus speaks of being “lifted up.”
Of course, we would understand that to mean being “lifted up” on the cross to
die. But the whole idea here is that the “hour” toward which Jesus is heading
is the entire set of events that would lead to him “glorifying” God, and
through which God would “glorify” him: his death on the cross, his resurrection
from the dead, and his ascension to return to his place in God’s presence. That
gives the idea of being “lifted up” a whole different meaning.
There is a sense in which John’s Gospel presents Jesus’
death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father as the crucial event by which
God would change everything. Jesus says it this way in our lesson: “I, when I
am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32). The
fact that Jesus will draw all people to himself also means depriving the
so-called “the ruler of this world” from any and all power whatsoever. Just as
the “light of life” that Jesus has brought means that the darkness has been
dispelled once and for all, so also Jesus’ “lifting up” on the cross, in the
resurrection, and at the ascension deprives the powers of evil of any further
ability to control our lives.
Well, that’s a really big promise, isn’t it? And the truth
of the matter is when we look at the way life goes in our world, we can see all
too much evidence that the powers of evil are thriving as much as ever. How
many people in this world are affected right now by war, hunger, poverty,
addiction, or abuse? How many more are subject to injustice, violence, and
oppression? When you look at the fact that those who align themselves with evil
in this world seem to be gaining power, not losing it, it can make you wonder
whether we can trust Jesus’ promise at all.
But I think it comes down to how we choose to look at
things. We can choose to focus on the negative things in this world. We can
choose to focus on the negative things in our lives. And when we do, it should
come as no surprise that we see a lot of evidence that life in this world is
getting worse, not better. Or we can choose to look at things differently. We
can choose to look for glimpses of “the beginning of the fulfillment” of God’s
promise to make everything new again.[2] We see it every time someone stands up in the midst of all that’s wrong with
this world and demonstrates their hope by choosing to make a positive
difference for others. We see it every time someone turns away from all that
would keep them trapped in darkness and chooses to believe that God loves them
and to live their lives in the light of that love.
We all constantly stand before that choice. Whether to
focus on all that’s wrong and surrender our lives to the control of those who
would harm us and others. Or to focus on the good things that show God is
indeed already working among us to make all things new. Jesus’ “hour” came for
him to “lifted up” in his death, resurrection, and ascension to reign at God’s
right hand. Since that time, the time has come for us everyone in every
generation. And so, for us now is the time to decide what we believe is truly
real: the hatred, violence, corruption, and oppression in this world, or the
new life that God has begun in all of us through Jesus. We can choose which one
we believe, and now is the time to make that choice. Now is the time for
deciding whether we will give up our lives for the sake of others. Now is the
time to decide whether we will open our eyes to see the “beginning of the
fulfillment” of God’s promise to make all things new among us and around us
already here and now.
[1] ©
Alan Brehm 2024. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 3/17/2024 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Henri J. M. Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey: A Diary of his Final Year,
166-167: “life is not empty waiting. It is to wait full of expectation. The
knowledge that God will indeed fulfill the promise to renew everything … makes
the waiting exciting. We can already see the beginning of the fulfillment.
Nature speaks of it every spring; people [speak] of it whenever they smile;
…and all of history speaks of it when amid all devastation and chaos, men and
women arise who reveal the hope that lives within them … .”
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