6th Sunday of Lent

Hebrews 5.5-10; John 12.20-31

This Sunday in Lent used to be called 'Passion Sunday' as we begin to look towards Holy Week and the events surrounding Jesus's last days up to his crucifixion. And today's gospel contains one of my favourite Bible quotations. As Jesus is talking to his disciples, telling them something about what it means to be a follower of his he says 'Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains just a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit.' And then Jesus goes on, as it were, to think out loud about what the consequence of that means for him, and we are given an amazing insight into Jesus's own vulnerability at that time as he thinks about what's in front of him. 'Now my soul is troubled' he says. 'And what should I say - "Father, save me from this hour"? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.' What wonderful words these are. And they go right to the heart of what it means to live out the gospel. They go right to the heart of what we mean when we talk about sacrifice and living sacrificially.

One of my commentaries on this passage talks about Jesus referring to our dying when he's talking about the grain of wheat, because, it says, he knows what happens to us when we die. I would profoundly disagree with that. I don't think you can make that assumption at all. Even now, 2,000 years after Jesus's death and resurrection we are still as mystified about death and what it means for us as people were then. In the same vein, you could say that he was troubled, not because he didn't know what was to happen to him, but because he knew what pain he had to go through before the glory of the resurrection. But if you do that I think you take away much of the power of Jesus's words here and much of their significance for our life as we have it now. We have the belief that particular things happen to us, but none of us is certain. And I think that Jesus here was talking more in terms of this life as it was as he shared our humanity when he was talking about the grain of wheat than he was about the next life; and he was talking here about living our Christian life, and walking the Christian journey and the sacrifice that means for all of us.

When you think about that grain of wheat, Jesus uses the description of its dying, in giving rise to the plant and then bearing fruit. And in reality, it is as though the grain does give up its life for the plant that grows from it. When the plant is fully grown and bears fruit there is nothing left of the grain that fell into or was planted in the ground. And Jesus is telling us that for Christians, life is like that. As we grow in the Christian life there is much that we have to give up, much that has to, in a sense, die in us if the Christian life, the Christian way is to flourish and bear fruit in us. Much of the time we have to give up our selfish or self-centred desires; we have to put to death in ourselves what seem to be some 'natural' inclinations, for Christian values to flourish and bear fruit - the fruits of the Spirit that St. Paul lists - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc.

And this for me is where the notion of sacrifice comes in also. I think many Christians have the idea that sacrifice means working yourself into the ground for God, walking the extra 5 miles instead of the extra mile. They have the idea that if the Christian life doesn't bring you terrible pain its not really an authentic Christian life, that you must experience discomfort for it to be true. And that's resulted in the past at the extreme, in all sorts of mortification practices that are so far away from God's desire for us that they are more the stuff of horror and nightmare than of love and goodness and peace. But sacrifice in Christian terms, for me, is simply, walking God's way. It's very simply, giving up all the other ways that are open to you and choosing God's way instead. That's the sacrifice that God calls us to, and I don't think there is any other meaningful way of defining that word.

And Jesus, here in this reading today tells us that included in the meaning of sacrifice is seeing the journey through to its conclusion no matter what it brings us, joy or sorrow, peace or chaos. We only bear fruit for God if we are prepared to continue the journey to its conclusion and we bear the fruit on the way. As our own self-centred way of doing things dies in us, the Godly way grows and bears fruit. And the choice is ours. And we are continually challenged to make that choice so that we, along with Jesus we can very often find ourselves saying 'now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?' How many times have we said that in our Christian life when we've been tempted to give up, when the pressures and demands of the life have borne down upon us in one way and another, when the spiritual life has become dry or meaningless?

But we are called to go on beyond that in the terms that Jesus puts it - 'Father, glorify your name.' For here he shows us that in the end we are called to the Christian life and to see the journey through for his glory. And when people see our faith, our faithfulness and the fruit of the Spirit in us they too will see God glorified, and be drawn to the life themselves. And that's why, right at the end of the gospel reading today we hear Jesus say 'And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself'. People see Jesus complete his task and his journey and it's that that draws people, that draws you and me and millions like us to God.

So this 'Passion Sunday' is about committing ourselves to the Christian journey with all it means in terms of making the choice that excludes all others; of committing ourselves wholeheartedly to it and seeing the journey through to its conclusion, and on the way bearing the fruit of God's Spirit in us. And it's that, in the end, more than anything else that will bring others to God and to glorify his name.