Look to the Cross
March 17, 2024 Fifth Sunday in Lent
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 119:9-15 John 12:20-33
“Look to the Cross”
Melissa K. Leo
The Greeks were hoping to have the chance to see Jesus, to meet him, maybe to even know him. We don’t know if they ever got that chance to meet him in person.
There are countless stories of men and women who longed to see Jesus. Perhaps the most famous is the wee little man, Zaccheus, who wanted to see Jesus so badly that he climbed up a tree so that the crowds would not block his view. Throughout Jesus’s ministry there were crowds following him, standing on hillsides and shorelines to see him and hear him. Men and women came to Jesus to see him and experience his healing. Children came to Jesus. They all wanted to see him.
Throughout his life, he was seen by many. John the Baptist saw him and proclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”
In John chapter 5 there is an account of a crowd actively looking for Jesus. Throughout the Gospels we read about the Pharisees and teachers of the law who wanted to see him to look for opportunities to kill him.
People wanted to see Jesus.
In our passage this morning, we read about some people who wanted to see Jesus. “Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” This translation does not capture the urgency of their request. The NIV gets closer. It translates our text, “They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”
So instead of just saying, “We wish to see Jesus” they are coming to Philip “with a request.” But it is still more than that. The Greek word, ἐρωτάω (erótaó), is intentionally being used to describe the way the Greeks are asking their question. ἐρωτάω (erótaó) means, “to make an earnest request, to beseech, to ask urgently”. They have come to Philip, who may have been the most approachable out of all the disciples because he has a Greek name, and have made this earnest request, “We wish to see Jesus.”
Why do a group of gentiles want to see Jesus? Because they heard the Gospel. Jesus’s friend Lazarus died. We know the story – Jesus came and was confronted by both of Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
There was something deeply final about the death of their brother. But Jesus responds, “Your brother will rise again…I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
After this exchange, and after Jesus spent time with Mary, he was taken to Lazarus’s tomb and he raised him from the dead. People flocked to see Jesus and to see Lazarus because news of this miracle spread. This news undoubtedly reached the Gentile population, and now there is a group of Greeks who eagerly want to see Jesus.
But they don’t get to see him, or if they did, the text does not tell us. Philip went to Andrew and together they told Jesus about this request.
But Jesus pivots. His reply does not seem to address the request made by the Greeks and instead seems to be something else altogether. But what we will see is that Jesus is showing us how we can see him now.
At the end of the Gospel of John, after Jesus’s death and resurrection, he appeared to his disciples but one was not there. Those who saw Jesus told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!” but he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails and my hand is in his side, I will not believe.” A week later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
We are not going to see Jesus like Thomas did. We are not going to see Jesus like John the Baptist did. We are not going to see Jesus like the crowds did or even like Zaccheus. So how are we to see him?
Back in John 12, Jesus says to Philip and Andrew, “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 bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus is explaining that life comes through death.
We had a foretaste of this through Lazarus’s story – that death was not the last word – but now we have further evidence that Lazarus’s life after death is not an isolated event. Just as seeds are scattered through the death of a plant and produce new life, so too is new life formed from death. This paradox of life through death is not only reserved for horticulture. But be encouraged by the ways God reveals his truth through the natural world. As we pick up the theological pieces, we begin to understand how we are to see Jesus: through his death that brought life.
At the end of our passage, Jesus says, “Now this is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world (Satan) will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.” And we know that Jesus is talking about the cross. Jesus is pointing us to the cross.
When we read the Gospels and experience the discussions between Jesus and his disciples, we have to remember that we stand on different sides of the cross. They are on the side where Jesus is incredibly confusing – they can see him physically, but they can’t see him clearly. It is through the cross that we get a clear view of Jesus Christ – we have seen his glory, seen God’s sacrifice, experience the forgiveness of sins, and so much more. We stand on the side of the cross where we aren’t picking up hints that he was to be crucified – we know he was.
In Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass, he tells a story of Alice who enters a fantastical land, only this time it isn’t wonderland; it is another land that looks similar to London only everything is…backwards. Alice has entered somewhere new through a mirror – through the looking glass. As she tends to have, Alice has adventure after adventure. But what I am struck by is the way that her surroundings both changed and yet resembled something much the same all by viewing them, or entering them, through a new lens.
On this side of the cross, things still look the same – we still sin, people still die, the Gospel is, at times, still confusing. But what becomes clear is who Jesus is, what he came into the world to do, and the hope we have in the Gospel.
Our hope is rooted in the cross – we are not wishing for something we can hardly imagine. We are hoping for something we know to be true.
We are not going to see Jesus like Thomas did. We are not going to see Jesus like John the Baptist did. We are not going to see Jesus like the crowds did or even like Zaccheus. So how are we to see him? We are going to see him by looking to the cross.
Psalm 119 models for us what it looks like to see God in a new way. The psalmist writes, “I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” Let’s join with the psalmist and fix our eyes on the Word – on the Gospel and on the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ.
We will not see Jesus like Thomas did…so let’s turn to the Word that points us to the cross. That is how we will see Jesus.
The cross provides us a new lens to see the world. Not a looking glass that turns the world backwards, but a lens that sets things in a new perspective, a new light, and a new trajectory. C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” This is the way I want us to understand the cross. It changes the way we see everything else. When we look at the cross, it is empty. We don’t have a crucifix in our sanctuaries for a reason. When you see the empty cross you are reminded that Jesus Christ defeated death through his resurrection.
He isn’t dead. He is alive. When you look at the cross you not only see God’s profound love for you; you also see his victory.
“They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Friends, we should share the urgency of the Greeks who wished to see Jesus – we have heard the Gospel – how will we respond? If you respond with a desire to see Jesus, know that we all have the chance to see Jesus if we look to the cross. Let it be your lens into how you understand the Gospel and the world.
Jesus’s death on the cross changed everything – including how we see him, how we approach God, and how we are to live our lives.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 119:9-15 John 12:20-33
“Look to the Cross”
Melissa K. Leo
The Greeks were hoping to have the chance to see Jesus, to meet him, maybe to even know him. We don’t know if they ever got that chance to meet him in person.
There are countless stories of men and women who longed to see Jesus. Perhaps the most famous is the wee little man, Zaccheus, who wanted to see Jesus so badly that he climbed up a tree so that the crowds would not block his view. Throughout Jesus’s ministry there were crowds following him, standing on hillsides and shorelines to see him and hear him. Men and women came to Jesus to see him and experience his healing. Children came to Jesus. They all wanted to see him.
Throughout his life, he was seen by many. John the Baptist saw him and proclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”
In John chapter 5 there is an account of a crowd actively looking for Jesus. Throughout the Gospels we read about the Pharisees and teachers of the law who wanted to see him to look for opportunities to kill him.
People wanted to see Jesus.
In our passage this morning, we read about some people who wanted to see Jesus. “Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” This translation does not capture the urgency of their request. The NIV gets closer. It translates our text, “They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”
So instead of just saying, “We wish to see Jesus” they are coming to Philip “with a request.” But it is still more than that. The Greek word, ἐρωτάω (erótaó), is intentionally being used to describe the way the Greeks are asking their question. ἐρωτάω (erótaó) means, “to make an earnest request, to beseech, to ask urgently”. They have come to Philip, who may have been the most approachable out of all the disciples because he has a Greek name, and have made this earnest request, “We wish to see Jesus.”
Why do a group of gentiles want to see Jesus? Because they heard the Gospel. Jesus’s friend Lazarus died. We know the story – Jesus came and was confronted by both of Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
There was something deeply final about the death of their brother. But Jesus responds, “Your brother will rise again…I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
After this exchange, and after Jesus spent time with Mary, he was taken to Lazarus’s tomb and he raised him from the dead. People flocked to see Jesus and to see Lazarus because news of this miracle spread. This news undoubtedly reached the Gentile population, and now there is a group of Greeks who eagerly want to see Jesus.
But they don’t get to see him, or if they did, the text does not tell us. Philip went to Andrew and together they told Jesus about this request.
But Jesus pivots. His reply does not seem to address the request made by the Greeks and instead seems to be something else altogether. But what we will see is that Jesus is showing us how we can see him now.
At the end of the Gospel of John, after Jesus’s death and resurrection, he appeared to his disciples but one was not there. Those who saw Jesus told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!” but he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails and my hand is in his side, I will not believe.” A week later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
We are not going to see Jesus like Thomas did. We are not going to see Jesus like John the Baptist did. We are not going to see Jesus like the crowds did or even like Zaccheus. So how are we to see him?
Back in John 12, Jesus says to Philip and Andrew, “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 bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus is explaining that life comes through death.
We had a foretaste of this through Lazarus’s story – that death was not the last word – but now we have further evidence that Lazarus’s life after death is not an isolated event. Just as seeds are scattered through the death of a plant and produce new life, so too is new life formed from death. This paradox of life through death is not only reserved for horticulture. But be encouraged by the ways God reveals his truth through the natural world. As we pick up the theological pieces, we begin to understand how we are to see Jesus: through his death that brought life.
At the end of our passage, Jesus says, “Now this is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world (Satan) will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.” And we know that Jesus is talking about the cross. Jesus is pointing us to the cross.
When we read the Gospels and experience the discussions between Jesus and his disciples, we have to remember that we stand on different sides of the cross. They are on the side where Jesus is incredibly confusing – they can see him physically, but they can’t see him clearly. It is through the cross that we get a clear view of Jesus Christ – we have seen his glory, seen God’s sacrifice, experience the forgiveness of sins, and so much more. We stand on the side of the cross where we aren’t picking up hints that he was to be crucified – we know he was.
In Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass, he tells a story of Alice who enters a fantastical land, only this time it isn’t wonderland; it is another land that looks similar to London only everything is…backwards. Alice has entered somewhere new through a mirror – through the looking glass. As she tends to have, Alice has adventure after adventure. But what I am struck by is the way that her surroundings both changed and yet resembled something much the same all by viewing them, or entering them, through a new lens.
On this side of the cross, things still look the same – we still sin, people still die, the Gospel is, at times, still confusing. But what becomes clear is who Jesus is, what he came into the world to do, and the hope we have in the Gospel.
Our hope is rooted in the cross – we are not wishing for something we can hardly imagine. We are hoping for something we know to be true.
We are not going to see Jesus like Thomas did. We are not going to see Jesus like John the Baptist did. We are not going to see Jesus like the crowds did or even like Zaccheus. So how are we to see him? We are going to see him by looking to the cross.
Psalm 119 models for us what it looks like to see God in a new way. The psalmist writes, “I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” Let’s join with the psalmist and fix our eyes on the Word – on the Gospel and on the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ.
We will not see Jesus like Thomas did…so let’s turn to the Word that points us to the cross. That is how we will see Jesus.
The cross provides us a new lens to see the world. Not a looking glass that turns the world backwards, but a lens that sets things in a new perspective, a new light, and a new trajectory. C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” This is the way I want us to understand the cross. It changes the way we see everything else. When we look at the cross, it is empty. We don’t have a crucifix in our sanctuaries for a reason. When you see the empty cross you are reminded that Jesus Christ defeated death through his resurrection.
He isn’t dead. He is alive. When you look at the cross you not only see God’s profound love for you; you also see his victory.
“They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Friends, we should share the urgency of the Greeks who wished to see Jesus – we have heard the Gospel – how will we respond? If you respond with a desire to see Jesus, know that we all have the chance to see Jesus if we look to the cross. Let it be your lens into how you understand the Gospel and the world.
Jesus’s death on the cross changed everything – including how we see him, how we approach God, and how we are to live our lives.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Recent
Archive
2024
January
March
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
No Comments