Seeing Jesus

March 18, 2018

Helen Jacobi

Lent 5     Jeremiah 31:31-34     Psalm 51     Hebrews 5:5-10     John 12:20-33

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

“We wish to see Jesus”.

They were a group of Greeks, foreigners; they come to Philip, one of the disciples and say “we wish to see Jesus”. Philip is not sure what to do – Greeks?! really? are we going to waste the Master’s time with more foreigners? So he goes to consult Andrew and together they go to ask Jesus. Safety in numbers.

So if a foreign tourist came up to you as you were walking into the church and said “we wish to see Jesus” what would you say? You might be a bit perplexed but you would probably invite them into church?

But if they came up to you on the street away from here, or at your workplace, or across your neighbour’s fence and said “we wish to see Jesus”; first of all you might think they were a little crazy. But if they insisted – They wish to see, to know, to experience Jesus. [1]

You might say

• when I look after my grandchildren and see their delight in playing on the beach I know the joy of Jesus

• when I sit with someone as a volunteer at the hospice I know the courage of Jesus

• when I serve one of the street people who come to the City Mission for dinner I experience Jesus in the person I am serving

• when I rage in grief at the loss of someone who died too young. I hear the words of Jesus – my God why have you forsaken me

• when I have achieved something at work or school that was complicated, and took all my focus, I hear the parables of Jesus from everyday work situations – the farmer, the vinegrower, the merchant, the woman at the well

• and you might say – I wish to see Jesus too, who seems elusive often, and other times so present. And so I come to worship, to be in community, and to seek nourishment, to know him.

You might talk about the conversations we have had this Lent about worship – and how our worship forms our identity, like a garment we might wear. How in worship we engage all of our senses as well as our mind. How we need each other to discover who Jesus is.

We wish to see Jesus – what would you say?

What is it about our life and experience of faith which draws us here; what is it that we value in our own faith and so we want to share with that faith others. I know in our very secular A/NZ context we find it hard to talk openly about our faith. Faith is ridiculed and belittled all the time in the media and in the public domain. We feel awkward. But new people show up here every Sunday and in my office during the week looking for something, looking for Jesus.

This year we have 2 people being baptised on Holy Saturday and 5 being confirmed at the end of April. They have bravely said – we wish to see Jesus. We wish to stand up and be counted; we wish to claim our faith in Jesus and to seek the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have been doing some work together to prepare and the most powerful part of our group discussions is not the Bible study or the topics we discuss, but each person’s personal story which we are sharing one person a week. Precious stories of family, life and faith. Stories where we hear the call of God on our lives.

Cate told us the story last week of a young girl asking about the meaning of the eucharist. And Cate said it was a really hard question to answer when someone has no idea of the story of Jesus or the biblical context.

And when also she did not know the girl’s story. Our faith becomes real within the story and tradition passed to us and within the context and story of our own lives. That is what “incarnation” is all about. Jesus incarnate – means Jesus made flesh, a human being; and Jesus here amongst us in our lives too. In our language, in this place, in this time.

Cate said of the eucharist: Around this table we re-enact, make real in our time that which Jesus did with his disciples.  … There is something curiously more to this than simply action and word. When we engage in this drama we do so together, it is not an individual enterprise, and we engage not just with our intellect. We gather around this table to hear a story of identity revealed in the person of Jesus and we choose whether to take this into ourselves, and in doing so we are willing to be changed. 

Then she asked the question: What do we know of this Jesus of whom we speak, what might be the outworking of ingesting such identity ? what might be required of us? [2]

Going back to the original story with the Greeks and Philip and Andrew buddying up for support; what answer does Jesus give?  Well we don’t know if the Greeks actually ever got to see Jesus. But Jesus says to Philip and Andrew – “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Which doesn’t really seem to be an answer to the request “we wish to see Jesus”. “those who lose their life will save it.” That’s not an answer either.

Or is it. Jesus’ answers are about himself and those who will follow.

Jesus will lose his life and find it; in baptism we are called to “die to our sins” and to be born anew; over and over again each year in our liturgical cycle at the beginning of Lent we are marked with ash; then we walk this road to the cross and come through to the other side; like a grain that dies in order to bear fruit.

So if we want to answer the question again, modelling ourselves on Jesus, we might say

• I see Jesus best when I have decluttered my life of too many possessions

• when I give a decent donation to the cyclone Gita appeal even when I think I really can’t afford it; and cut back on dinners out instead

• when I sacrifice some time to help a neighbour who most of the time I find really annoying

• when I lose myself in the music on a Sunday morning

Different ways of the grain seed dying to bear fruit. Different ways in which we allow ourselves to see Jesus.

Next Sunday we begin the walk of Holy Week which moves from Palm Sunday through Good Friday to Easter. I would encourage you not to jump from Palm Sunday to Easter Day without at least attending on Good Friday; seeing Jesus and knowing Jesus is only possible via the way of the cross, the way of suffering. None of it makes sense otherwise. Jesus incarnate means Jesus present in all of life the bad and the good, the suffering and the joy. The labyrinth walk that we will have installed in Holy Week also helps us slow down and ponder the journey of Jesus and the journey of our lives. It helps us see Jesus.

The prophet Jeremiah promised long ago that we would all know God – he said God’s law will be written in our hearts. Our worship together in Lent and Holy Week writes the story of Jesus into our hearts. All we need to do is say – we wish to see Jesus.

[1] The word the Greeks use is “eido” which means to see, and to know, and to experience.

[2] Sermon 11 March 2018