Those with Eyes Should See; 5th Sunday of Lent

The days are coming, the Lord says. Clearly something new is approaching. Those with eyes should see and those with ears should hear.

We have been on our Lenten journey now for some four weeks. Still, on this the fifth Sunday of Lent, there is a growing uneasiness. Something is still unsettled, not quite right. Have we done enough? The old is hanging on and the new has not yet come.

I will make a new covenant God promises through the prophet Jeremiah. It will not be like the promises made before. It will be greater than the ones God made with Noah and Abraham. It will be more than a rainbow or the countless stars.

The new covenant will have no outward sign, no stone tablet no written page, but rather a marking of the heart. God will not just give us his Word, as he did with Moses. He will place his Word within us.

God expands his promise - “All will know me, from the least to the great. Because, I will forget all their sins and I will forgive all their transgressions.”

This new covenant of forgiveness makes all things possible as it makes all things new. This covenant is the sacred ground on which we walk on our Lenten journey. On it we cry out, echoing the Psalmist – “create a clean heart in me oh Lord. Make your Spirit within me steadfast and willing.”

We long for a heart full of forgiveness and kindness. We want a heart that is trusting and obedient. We want a heart moved to prayer.

Jesus was moved to prayer. How often did he go off, by himself, to pray to his father.  We heard in letter to the Hebrews that Jesus prayed in confidence, to the one he knew was able to save him and these prayers were heard.

Jesus lived a life of trust and acceptance of his Father’s Will, whatever it looked like, wherever it led him. We see this in signs and wonders, teaching and healing, we see it in the forgiving of sins, and finally, we see it, as a summation and a consummation of his entire being, in his death on the cross.

Jesus knew suffering.  He alleviated it when he could. Under the full weight of his own suffering he never looked away. Even in the garden, when darkness closed in around him and his friends slept fitful sleep rather than stay with him he stared straight at the darkness, the darkness of his own death. A death the world demanded of him. Show us a sign it sneered. And the world got a sign, a confirmation of God’s reign and God’s power, Jesus was made perfect. He was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven and is now eternal salvation for those who believe in him. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves. It is not Easter yet.

In today’s gospel we get a string of statements on; glorification, sacrifice, discipleship, redemption, human frailty, judgment and salvation. Each worth a homily.

Jesus tells Andrew and Philip and the Greeks who sought him out - the hour is coming when the Son of Man will be glorified. Jesus often spoke of himself as the son of man (lower case), which simply means a human person, but today John in his Gospel is referring to the Book of Daniel, where the Son of Man (uppercase) is a divine Messianic title.

The Son of Man, in glory, will sweep away Israel’s enemies. This is just what the people were waiting for. But Jesus, turns this idea on its head.

The Son of Man, will not glorify himself, nor any one nation.  He who comes glorifies the one who sent him. The Son of Man has come to serve, not be served. He has come as self-gift, to be the body and blood of the new convent. A covenant made by the laying down of life. This was not what the people were waiting for.

“Amen, Amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Jesus tells them.

Life, if it remains as it is, is only a passing of time. But, if life is given up for the mystery that is the Kingdom of God, even if that life is diminished in the eyes of the world, even if it ceases to be, it becomes more then what it was. It becomes new. It becomes gift.

We must not grasp and hold on to what is. Whoever loves their life, as it is or for what it has accumulated, foolishly love’s a false treasure. But, whoever hates their life, as determined, governed, and measured by the world, will receive a truer, richer life. Not for a life span, but for eternity.

And we begin to let go of all that is false by turning back to the Lord. We let go by following Jesus. 

 “Whoever serves me must follow me” he says “and where I am, there also will be my servant. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”

 We are also painfully reminded of Jesus’ humanity. “I am troubled now”, Jesus prayed.

In some creeping doubt and darkness that was closing in around him, Jesus continues, “What should I say? - save this life. Save it from the hour that is coming.  I cannot say this Father, for it was for this purpose that I have come.” Jesus knew in his bones that the hour was near, the hour he would have to endure. Jesus, perhaps looking upward, cry’s out in total surrender “Father, glorify your name”.

Then, as at the baptism and the transfiguration, the Father lovingly answers his Son

“I have glorified it and I will glorify it again”

We know glory means Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. But, they did not know this yet. The crowd that had gathered around Jesus did not understand God’s word. They thought it was thunder.

Jesus concludes “when I am lifted up, I will draw everyone to myself”
This is the promise he makes to you and I.
There will be judgement, not on creation, but on the world.
But, there will be Salvation for those who turn back to God and who cling to the new and everlasting covenant that is Jesus, lifted up and marked on our heart. He will draw that heart to himself.

 God will do this - “All, from the least to the greatest, shall know me, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.”

Those with eyes should see and those with ears should hear.