Fifth Sunday in Lent

‘The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you unless of grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains a single grain: but if it dies it bears much fruit’ [John 12 v. 24.]

Today the fifth Sunday of LENT IS ALSO CALLED Passion Sunday. Throughout the previous four weeks of lent the reading for each Sunday and weekday have been calling upon us to consider our discipleship – our following in the way of Jesus. Today though, Lent begins to take another turn. The discipleship theme is still there for us, but from now on we begin to focus our attention upon Jesus and upon the cross that is the end and the completion of Lent. In some Churches all the ornaments in the Church are veiled with either purple or crimson Passiontide veiling to mark the change that this Sunday brings and the special solemnity of it and the days that follow. Lent leads to the cross and today we turn four square in its direction. Hence Passion Sunday, because the word Passion in this instance means suffering – from the Latin Passio which means suffering love. An apt description I think – suffering love – the love of Jesus for us is indeed suffering love as the cross demonstrates all too clearly. As someone once said: ‘It wasn’t nails that held Jesus to the cross it was love for us’.

Well now if Passion Sunday is a crucial turning point in the season of Lent, then this passage that we read earlier and my text from it also forms a crucial turning point in the Gospel of St John from which it comes. St John’s Gospel is structured in two main parts. The first part preceded by the prologue is called by some scholars the book of signs and consists of long section of Jesus teaching about himself and his relationship with God as his unique Son equal with the father. This teaching is summed up at the end of the section when Jesus declares ‘I and the father are one’. The lengthy speeches of |Jesus found in this first section chapter 1 -11 are interspersed with signs – or as we would call them miracles which signify all that Jesus as come to do. So for example in chapter six Jesus feed five thousand people to signify that he has come to be the Bread from Heaven which gives life to his people – that is eternal life. Throughout this first section Jesus is heard on a number of occasions to use the enigmatic phrase: ‘My Hour’ – usually qualified with "My hour has not yet come".

We learn as the Gospel unfolds that the phrase ‘My hour’ is pregnant with meaning. It means my hour or my time of glory, my destined moment, the time that is the fulfilment and the purpose of my whole life. Like Lewis Hamilton winning the world championship – this is what his whole life has been about.  This is his moment his hour his moment of glory. But for Jesus the hour is also the hour of his suffering and his death. It is the hour of the cross. The hour when he will be lifted up from the earth in suffering and shame for all to see. And here we meet the great paradox in John’s understanding of the cross – that the cross is for Jesus the supreme hour of his glory.   

And so now the second part of John’s Gospel which is going to focus on the cross begins with this passage of ours: ‘The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit’. Now Jesus' hour has come – or at least is very close. It is the hour of glory through shame. It is hour of life through death. It’s the hour of victory through defeat. It is the hour of glory as God understands glory and as Jesus lives it out. Here we see this strange paradox of the glory of the cross. For through the cross and through the cross alone Jesus will give glory to God will himself be glorified and he will win life for his people. ‘When I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself’. That lifting up is a lifting up in glory and exaltation. And it is being lifted up upon the cross to die in shame. The two go together.

In John’s Gospel this is Jesus' hour, the hour of the cross is the hour of glory. And now the hour has come. And now to show what he means Jesus turns to the use of a parable or of imagery. He uses the image of a grain of wheat in a way that is reminiscent of the other Gospels seed parables. Now I have to confess at this point to you that anyone who knows me (particularly my wife Isobel) will tell you that I know nothing whatsoever about gardening. I once was famously showing off some Canterbury Bells only to be told that they were foxgloves. Jesus says that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and be buried. Its external husk has to be broken open for the life within to come out of it. Only if it dies will it bear any fruit at all. But if it dies it will bear much fruit. That is how Jesus sees his own forthcoming death. It would be so easy to avoid it. It would be tempting to take the human path to glory As Son of God he could have all the power and the authority and the glory that heaven and earth could bestow. Or he could follow the wishes of the crowd as demonstrated at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem when they welcomed his as the Blessed Saviour of the nation. They welcomed him as the one come to restore the throne of David and to reign upon it for evermore. ‘Look the whole world has gone after him’ they said. Jesus could have had that glory for the taking.

But if the seed is not placed in the earth to die it remains alone. The glory that he must seek is not for Jesus it is for God and it is for the people for whom his death will bring the glory of eternal life. Now bearing in mind that I know very little about horticulture and not much more about agriculture yet I did come across these facts the other day: That one seed can reproduce itself fortyfold in the ear of corn which grows from it. And these are all replanted and so on each year it would take only just six years for that one seed to have produced as many seeds as there are human beings on the earth. All from one seed buried in the earth.

Jesus’ path to glory will put him into the ground in burial but from that burial will come the fruit of eternal life for all who believe in him. In this Jesus both teaches us and demonstrates to us that the cross is the way to life. As far too many human conflicts show those who fight to try to preserve their lives often end up losing them. Jesus teaches that those who sacrifice their lives in this world will find eternal life. That those who forget themselves and their own desire for glory in whatever way will find a life and a glory that is really worth having. Thos who live for the benefit of others will find true happiness. Those who allow God to replace their own outgrown ego will find the true peace of the status of a child of God. The paradox is that in such self-denial we are with Jesus following in his way, and like him being honoured by his Father and our Father. Although all of this is expressed in John’s own language and theology yet it is the message that is at the heart of the other three Gospels. Indeed it is the message that is at the heart of the Gospel. That there is no profit for anyone to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul. That to follow Jesus one has to deny oneself and take up the cross and follow him. And if you think about it that is the way it works out in life.

If we always go for the easy road, if we avoid all danger, if we stay away from all challenges if we avoid all that makes life hard and difficult – if we go for an easy life. Well we may exist for longer, but we will never really live. The cross is the way to life. The cross is the way to really live. Look back on your life. When were you most fully alive? Was it when you were relaxing and taking it easy? Was it when you were looking for an easy life? Or was it when you were most tried, most afraid, most hurt, and yet you endured and won out? When were you most fulfilled and at ease with yourself? Was it when you were taking care of yourself and yourself alone or when it when you were caring for someone else? The chances are that your greatest moments were the ones that cost you the most. All the great virtues bear the imprint of the cross. Unless a seed fall in the ground and dies it remains a single grain but if it dies it bears much fruit.

Jesus could have avoided his hour. He could have avoided the cross. But if he had not been lifted up from the earth in crucifixion he would not have been exalted in glory and he could not have drawn us to himself. On this Passion Sunday Jesus says to us:  ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of what falls to the ground and dies it remains a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit’.