Sermon Palm/Passion March 24, 2024 John 12:20-43

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, the Father spoke from above three times. He did at  Matthew 3, at Jesus Baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 17, the Transfiguration, where “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” And, in our text for today, John 12. Jesus had said, “27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” And then, Jesus prayed. “28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

The people standing around thought it thundered or that angels had spoken. But no, it was the Father's third and final spoken word concerning his only-begotten Son. But Jesus explained it for them when he said, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

In the four Gospels, Jesus has a lot to say. But the Father only Poke those three times. The first two times, the Fathers words serve to give us the identity of Jesus. The second time, “Listen to Him,” is added. But Jesus is not just God's spokesman, or a new prophet. In fact “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” as we read in Colossians 1. He is True God, and True Man.

The hour that Jesus has come to is the hour when he will be “delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles.” All of Jesus predictions of his death (and resurrection) were about to come true.

I don’t know if any of you ever watched The A-Team. The show was about some mismatched military misfits who were always just a step ahead of the Military Police. They traveled around in B.A.'s hot rod Chevy Van and cooked up outrageous plans to right the wrongs of evil crooks. At the end of most episodes, Hannibal Smith, the leader, would usually light up a cigar and say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

As of the time of our text, all of the pieces of God's outrageous plan were about to come together into a whole. It was Monday of Holy week. The plan all along was the cross, the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God for the forgiveness of sins. The one who would shed his own blood and crush the Serpent's head was at hand. This plan had been spoken of from Adam through Noah, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Ruth, Esther, and so forth. Zechariah the prophet spoke of the Triumphal Entry, “9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So, it's true that “In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets. But now in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son.”

Jesus described what would happen as the plan was coming together, “Now is the judgment of this world.” Jesus and his cross would be a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles. But it is the wisdom of God. The world is judged by the cross of Jesus. The cross of Jesus is the one way that people can be saved. God has a plan and the cross is it. This is why the cross is so offensive, and controversial to many. God set the standard for behavior with the Commandments. We are accountable to that standard, but we can never can live up to that standard.

Jesus did not just go to the cross for our “mistakes.” Jesus also did not go to the cross in order to “help” us to fix ourselves. We were beyond our own repair, dead in trespasses and sins. The plan of God to give his only Son into death for sinful people came together in order to cure the sin and death that reigns within us. Jesus went to the cross to defeat the ruler of this world, Satan, the father of lies, by dying and rising. “Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.”

Because Jesus had to die for us, it means that we are hopelessly sinful. Right there, at the cross, we need to see every sin of thought, word, and deed that we have committed laid upon Jesus. We also need to see our innate corruption, our perverseness, there also, laid upon Jesus. Your sin is atoned for, forgotten by God for the sake of Jesus.

The cross is God's way of glory. At the end of the Gospel reading is a strange and strong warning, “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” The cross of Jesus and the truth of God's Word divided people then as it does today.

The cross is still controversial today, and is being removed from many public places, as is God's Word, the Bible. However, the Lord has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Which means that the cross has always been and will always be the focus and the draw of all of history, until God the Father himself draws history to a close with the return of Jesus. For we who believe and trust in Jesus, the cross is a grand and great promise. Jesus told Nicodemus about this promise in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Those are pretty compelling words, because Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that eternity is written on our hearts. The Word tells us that eternity is gained through the cross of Jesus only.

And here, only a few days from the cross, Jesus repeated himself to his disciples and the Greek visitors, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” We've all drawn something towards ourselves. It might be a fishing lure, or a life ring at the lake or pool, or a boat on it's bowline. This is exactly what Jesus means. He is drawing people to himself. The definition in the Greek lexicon makes this observation for the definition of to draw; The object being moved is incapable of propelling itself, or in the case of a person is unwilling to do so voluntarily. The exertion is on the part of the mover. Now isn't that interesting.

God has saved you from sin, death, Satan, and yourself, by Himself, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He has drawn you to the Jesus, who was lifted up for you, for your own eternal good. You know where you are going. God's plan for you has come together, and don't you love it? Amen.

The peace that surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.