“We Wish to See Jesus”

( Psalm 51:1-12/John 12:20-33)

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.  They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.  Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.  Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will be my servant also.  Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled.  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.”  Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder.  Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”  Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.  Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”  He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Sometimes it’s the folks we least expect who seem to say the smartest things.  That’s the way it is in today’s Gospel text.  “Sir,” said the Greeks who had shown up at the festival in Jerusalem, “we wish to see Jesus.”  Once again the foreigners, the outsiders, have led the way in expressing the need that we all have. 

We need to see Jesus.  As I spent some time with this text I couldn’t help thinking about the old hymn, “We Would See Jesus.”  It had to have been inspired by the words of the Greeks in this passage from the Gospel of John.

            The third verse goes like this: “We would see Jesus, on the mountain teaching, at eventide before the sun was set; while birds and flowers and sky above are preaching the blessedness which simple trust has found.”

            We need to see Jesus—we need the blessedness of simple trust in him.  As is often the case in the Gospel of John, the Greeks’ simple request to see Jesus elicits a speech from him, a teaching about his death and resurrection and about the New Order that is coming. 

            “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  They knew their need and recognized who could fulfill it. 

            …Psalm 51 is a beautiful, artful, confessional prayer speaking our human need for God’s healing hand.  Earlier in the service you prayed it.  It is a cry for God’s mercy, a statement of need and longing and trust.  It is a recognition of who we are as human beings (I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me), and it is confidence in God’s power (wash me and I shall be whiter than snow).  But it gives us hope in something new and wonderful, something beyond what we can even begin to do ourselves (create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me).  And, finally, for us Christians, it is a request for what we can experience in Jesus (restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit).

            The Psalmist gives us the confession that we need to pray in this season of Lent, “God, against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.”  

The Greeks who had been talking to the disciple named Philip, demonstrate to us a proper response to a prayer of confession, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

            Then Jesus tells us how it works.  “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit….”   Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are God’s response to our struggle with our inevitable human sinfulness.  We must let go of our self-centered, sinful selves, and when we do, like the grain of wheat when it dies, we will bear much fruit.  We will become the people whom God imagines we can be.  Like the Psalmist suggests, in us can be restored the joy of God’s salvation, and the willing spirit that has been planted within us can be nurtured, fed and grown.

            I think every one of us struggles with this whole business of human sinfulness.  For many decades, even centuries, the church has beaten us up with it.  We have been told that we were born sinful because of Adam and Eve.  Because of that misreading of the Garden of Eden story, people across the centuries have felt dirty and wrong and simply horrid.  

I remember hearing from folks early in my ministry that they didn’t feel worthy to come to the communion table.  Now, there’s something wrong with the message we’re giving folks if they have been schooled to think that there is something that could possibly cause adult people to “sit out” the meal that represents their redemption and forgiveness. 

So, as a result of that mean way of talking about human nature, many of us began to use different language about sinfulness.  Instead of sin, we started talking about being separated from God or not even talking about it at all.  We sort of bristled when we even heard the terms sin or sinfulness. 

            I still do to a certain extent, but I realize that without attending to this critical concept in our Christian theology, we humans have the potential to lose our way; if we don’t claim that part of ourselves, our spiritual compasses may be unable to find true north.  Because we know ourselves to be vulnerable to going down the wrong road at times, we will find ourselves lost and going around in circles; we will forever be trying to be perfect when we cannot, as many of us still struggle with today.

            Let me talk a bit about sinfulness because I think we may carry some misunderstandings around with us.  Rather than focus on the specific things we have done wrong—the things that God might whack us for, I find it more helpful to speak about our sinful natures.

            OK, so what is this sinful nature that all humans have?  Well, first of all, we are born self-centered, and that’s not a bad thing.  Our little babies have got to get what they need, and the only way they can is to be totally and completely about themselves.  But little-by-little with proper guidance and training, most of our children discover some amount of joy in reaching out in love and concern for others.  They and we begin to see that loving means getting outside ourselves and being able to consider the needs of the people around us.

            But we all struggle with wanting what we want, when we want it.  That self-centeredness can lead to pridefulness and arrogance.  It also can lead to the other side of focusing too much on ourselves which is feelings of inferiority and self-focused misery.  These, in whatever way they manifest, combine to cause us to be separated from God, and the further we are from God the more we depend on ourselves, the more prideful or down on ourselves we become and, then, we grow further and further from God.

              This cycle feeds on itself.  If the pridefulness gets us success in this world we begin to think that we really can do it all ourselves.  We start to think that we have no need for God, yet our spirits begin to slowly die for lack of attention and sustenance. 

On the other hand, if we are completely down on ourselves and try to find meaning in other people, obsessing over them, desperately looking for love in all the wrong places, we will get further and further from God, and our spirits will wither.  All this is the manifestation of our sinful nature. 

The answer to all of this is relationship with God, relationship with Christ.  The answer is to open ourselves to God’s cleaning and clearing of those unhealthy ways.  The Psalmist says, “Create in me a clean heart and put a new and right spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit.”  

I just melt when I hear the request to restore the joy in this Psalm.  That tells me that in our early innocence before we got all messed up with self-involvement and trying to make ourselves into something the world wants us to be, we had the joy of God’s saving grace, the assurance of God’s presence, the innocence of asking to see Jesus and knowing that there would be a good outcome. 

I like the idea of asking to be restored, restored to the beauty of God’s vision for each of us, restored to the joy that comes from a close walk with God, knowing that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love in Christ, the joy that comes when we let go of the fussing. 

            And our fussing looks something like this: have I moved up the ladder of success quickly enough?  Is someone trying to impede my success?  Did I say something wrong at that meeting?  Am I doing too much?  Am I doing not enough?  Do people think I’m not doing enough?  That person is not paying attention to me, so I must not be worth being attended to.  I’m not a good enough mother (or father or spouse or friend or son or daughter).  I need to make everyone in my life act like I want them to act.  I haven’t accumulated enough money to prepare for retirement or feather my children’s nest.  My child isn’t conforming to my way of thinking.  …Am I really saved?  Have I done all the things that allow me to be close to God?

When we can let go of this fussing we will begin to experience the joy of God’s salvation, the joy of having Jesus in our lives, the pleasure of living life close to God.

Oh yes, we ALL are always going to struggle with our sinful nature. There are going to be times when we are depending only upon ourselves and not trusting God, times when we have strayed a long way from God, times when we feel lost and alone, times when we cannot feel Jesus’ touch, times when we feel far from God.  This is why we pray and sing and meditate upon scripture like Psalm 51.  Because we can always come back to God.  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 

From the hymn: “We would see Jesus, in the early morning, still as of old he calleth, “Follow me!”  Let us arise, all meaner service scorning; Lord, we are thine, we give ourselves to thee.” Sir or Madame, we need to see Jesus.  Amen.