Fifth Sunday in Lent; 17 March 2024; Lent 4B (RCL); Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33.
I believe this is one of the central passages of John’s Gospel, and key to interpreting the whole. John loves the device I call parenthesis. He opens the device with a parenthesis (like Jesus addressing the plural you telling us that we will see visions of angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man) and then keeps us in suspense until he closes it (with Mary’s vision of angels in the empty tomb). Here, John open the parenthesis with the mention of “certain Greeks,” and then leaves us in suspense, and never closes it.
Among those who went up to the festival were certain Greeks — already, this is curious enough. How would Greeks participate in the festival, since they would not be allowed to eat the passover lamb? The approach Philip (a good Greek name, meaning “lover of horses”), who then approaches Andrew (another good Greek name, meaning “Man”), and together they approach Jesus. Jesus replies with a complete non-sequitur — the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it 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. What?!
And then those Greeks simply disappear from the narrative, never to return. John leaves them as a hanging question, to be answered by us, the readers of the Gospel. When Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection, he breathes on them, and says, “Receive Holy Breath. Just as the Father has sent me, so I send you. The sins of whoever you forgive are forgiven them; the sins of whoever you retain are retained.” Are we going to admit those sinful Greeks, or not? It is we who must close that parenthesis.
The grain of wheat is the identity we cling to. Unless we are willing to let go of that identity, we will remain alone, but if we fall into the ground and die, we will bear much fruit. Remember, when Jesus was with the Samaritan woman at the well, he point out to the disciples the fields of wheat white for harvest, and adds “I sent you to harvest that which you did not sow.” Samaritans, Greeks — are we ready to admit them to our community? Are we ready to fall into the ground and die? If we can hate our life in this world (with all the identities it assigns to us — white, cis, etc.) and let them fall into the ground and die, we will keep it for eternal life.
This, I think, is the clue to what John means by the life of the ages (which we translate eternal life). It is the life of all of humanity gathered into a fruitful community, each willing to forgo the things that we cling to so tenaciously, in order to honor and welcome others. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
I think both the Jeremiah reading and the passage from Hebrews touch on the same thing. Jesus’ qualifications for being a high priest after the order of Melkizedek include being chosen by God, and from among mortals (see verse 5:1). In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications. Note that the author mentions nothing of Jesus’ ethnicity. It’s his humanity (the days of his flesh) that qualify him for his high priesthood. Later in the letter, the author will draw the analogy between Jesus and us. We join our prayers to the prayers Jesus offers in the true inner sanctum, in the presence of God, as a high priest, making atonement for the world.
And in Jeremiah, no longer will anyone teach another, know the Lord, for they will all know God, from the least to the greatest. The covenant will be written in the hearts of humanity. The psalm reminds us that, like the rest of humanity, we too have sinned, and being gentle with our own sins, we must be gentle with others.