Fifth Sunday of Lent
Year B : 25th March 2012
We have reached the point in St John’s gospel
where the Passion of Jesus, his ‘hour’, begins
to dominate. Orders have been given to arrest
him. Mary has anointed him. He enters Jerusalem,
welcomed by a crowd, those who have seen or
heard of the raising of Lazarus, and who await
the Messiah. The Pharisees say: “The world has
gone over to him”, and some Greeks arrive to
prove the point. They approach two disciples
who have Greek names, Philip and Andrew, both
of whom are from Bethsaida, a northern town
close to the Gentile Decapolis region. The Greeks
wish to ‘see Jesus’. ‘Seeing’ in the gospels
often has to do with believing, with faith.
The coming of the ‘hour’ has been foretold
earlier by St John in 2.4; 7,6; 8,20. Now it
has arrived, with the world coming to Jesus
in the persons of these Greeks. Jesus is about
to be ‘lifted up’ in giving himself for the
life of the world. The grain of wheat will remain
alone if it does not fall into the ground and
die. In the ground it will gather and produce
fruit. The disciple must be prepared to let
go and give himself as Jesus does. This may
involve suffering and death, as early Christians
were to experience, but also honour. “Now my
soul is troubled” is a reminder of what Gethsemane
holds in store, although “it was for this very
reason that I have come to this hour” may show
anxiety about whether the disciples will prove
steadfast in the future.
The Voice from heaven testifies to the glory
of God which has been revealed in what Jesus
has accomplished up to the present and in what
he will accomplish on the cross. Even though
the Voice spoke for the benefit of those present,
the crowd do not recognise the presence of the
Father. The ‘lifting up’ reminds us of Moses
last Sunday, putting the serpent physically
on the standard for all to look at. The result
will be the drawing to him of all people.
We have problems with Jesus’ use of words
like ‘glory’, ‘glorify’ because we associate
them nowadays with stars of sport or music,
rather than with the presence of the Almighty.
We do not know God as He is, the God of love
and mercy, prepared to go to extreme lengths
to help us see what He is like—if we are prepared
to look up at the cross and see, unlike many
of the audience in today’s reading.
• When I am lifted up from the earth I shall
draw all men and women to myself. I wonder
if I was attached to the foot of the cross
by a large elastic band, how much tension
would there be on the elastic? Enough to catapult
me in against the wood with a bang? So slack
that I would barely notice the strain? Might
I check to make sure that I was not the only
one so attached or attracted?
• No pain. No glory. Is that what is put
before me?
• I believe in God. Do I
believe in God who took on my human nature,
who ‘went about doing good’, put himself at
the mercy of people who rejected what he taught,
who insulted and made fun of him, whose leaders
had flayed him alive with whips and put to death
as a rebel and renegade, and all because of
the high regard he has for me? Can I believe
that?
• Unlike me, people whom I meet in the gospel
do not know what happened next.
