Tuesday 19 August 2014

Background

The scene is set. Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem forthe build-up to the Passover festival: a time when the city'spopulation would swell to several times the usual number withpilgrims from Jewish communities all over the Roman Empire. In thispassage there is a lot going on and John's Gospel weaves themessage it wants to share about Jesus with story it wants totell.

First, there is the story of Greeks wanting to meet Jesus. Thisbecomes the cue for Jesus to talk about the paradox of givinghimself up to death and yet being the glorified "Son of Man". Theway to real, lasting life is through giving yourself up. What lookslike losing is really winning. That foreigners (the implication isthat these are Gentiles rather than Greek-speaking Jews) arelooking for Jesus is a fulfilment of the traditional Jewishexpectation that at the last the nations would be drawn to Godthrough Israel.

Then there is the element of struggle. John's Gospel doesn'tgive us the precise story of Jesus wrestling in Gethsemane (Mark14:32-42), but something similar is happening here. Jesus'prayer is answered by a heavenly voice that confirms that this isindeed the time for Jesus to be glorified.

Through all this there is discussion and argument. Members ofthe crowd keep asking questions; they aren't sure what to make ofit all. I imagine that the author of John's Gospel uses the crowdin the story to ask the kind of questions that might be asked ofthe new Christian churches by those who found their beliefs and wayof life bewildering. So the words of Jesus addressed the crowd("…believe in the light so that you may become children of light"(v. 36)) are also intended for the readers of the Gospel.

But, of course, there are many who do not see Jesus as the light- in his own time, in the time of John and in our own time. John'sGospel uses Old Testament quotes from Isaiah (chapters 53 and 6)to show that this is because of spiritual blindness. But the Gospelmakes it clear that this is not a sign of the failure of Jesus'ministry; on the contrary, it is all part of God's plan. And, inGod's good time, all will become clear.

To Ponder

• Think of examples of people who have given their lives as'grains of wheat' falling to earth.

• What difficult questions about Jesus do you ask, or find otherpeople asking of you?

• Where do you think the world as it is now needs to have thelight of Christ?