Crucis: Judgment
The Cross is the Judgment of God
John 12:20-33
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. March 17th, 2024
I’ve always been poor at math. My family’s attempts to get me some remedial math instruction didn’t pan out. It’s far easier to find help with reading than there is finding help with math. So I graduated high school having gotten no farther than Algebra II and was very happy to be done with it all. When I got to undergrad I took the easiest math course I could to fulfill my requirement: Math for Teachers. A math class intended for elementary school teachers. All was good until my senior year when I discovered my minor required I take a math class that year. And not just any math class. This was a math class in the university’s great books program. So instead of reading a textbook we were reading Euclid’s Elements or Descartes La Géométrie or Newton’s Principia Mathematica. We covered Euclid through to non-euclidian geometry. Some of you may note that Lovecraft’s horrifying lost city of R’lyeh where dead Cthulhu lay dreaming was built on non-Euclidean geometry. I experienced much the same horror. I, who had never heard of a derivative before had to calculate Newton’s fluxions. I’m pretty sure the nightmares I have around final exams to this day center around this class. I was out of my element, trying to wrap my mind around things I was not prepared to wrap my mind around, trying to grasp things that were very difficult to grasp. I barely survived.
But I digress.
I imagine following Jesus around was a lot like being in a math class that is way over your head. At least if John’s testimony here is anything to go by. The whole gospel is a series of misunderstandings and incomprehension. Jesus seems to speak in riddles and double entendres. He tells Nicodemus you must be born again, or born from above, and he wonders why he needs to crawl back into his mother’s womb. He tells the woman at the well that if she asked he could provide running, or living, water and she wants to know where this stream is because the well is the only source of water for miles around. He multiplies the loaves and fishes and the crowds want to make him King, he tries to get them to see that he is the bread of life and they are to feed on him. But that only scares them away. When his disciples tell him this is a very hard teaching he replies, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?” And even in this line he is making an oblique reference to his death, his crucifixion, where he ascends to the sky on the cross.
Here, too, Jesus is puzzling and difficult to follow. There are greeks in Jerusalem who have come to celebrate the festival and they wish to see Jesus. Philip doesn’t know what to do, since they hadn’t been reaching out to greeks before, so he asks Andrew, Andrew asks Jesus. And Jesus replies with what seems like a complete non sequitur. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He says. Then he gives them a parable. Unless a grain goes into the earth and dies it remains just a single grain. But if it dies it will bear much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Jesus must honor him, and wherever he is there his servant may be.
He then prays openly to the Father, “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, in an astounding passage a voice comes from heaven, presumably the Father’s voice, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowds are astonished, but divided. They don’t know where the voice came from, or if it even was a voice. Some think it is thunder. Others think it is an angel. But as they are disputing what has just taken place Jesus, unhelpfully, lets them know this voice came for their sake. Though they do not comprehend.
Then Jesus says, “Now is the judgment 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.” This, John helpfully editorializes, is to indicate how he was to die. That is, being lifted up on the cross.
The presence of the greeks seems to indicate to Jesus that the time has come to go to the cross. Which is why he gives this teaching on the nature of his death, and need to follow him in death. Perhaps the greeks presence has something to do with the cross drawing all to himself. God is rather indiscriminate in the people he lets into his Kingdom. But even so, this doesn’t get to the core of what is difficult about this passage. Why is the cross glory? How is the cross judgment?
The words of Jesus can be like the words of the Father in this passage. Ambiguous. Difficult to discern. Hard to comprehend. We shouldn’t expect much less. These are divine matters, after all. Much like I had difficulty doing non-euclidean geometry, should I have any less difficulty comprehending the things of God? Should we not, at times, be perplexed? Must we always grasp in totality what Jesus has to say, what God has to say? Here we witness a mystery. And a mystery is always outside our grasp. But the mystery can be expressed, and contemplated, and lived.
Here is a mystery, that the great judgment seat of Christ is not on a white throne but is instead on a cross. This is the judgment of the world where the ruler of this world is cast out. It is here that Jesus prays for the forgiveness of those who do not know what they are doing and welcomes the thief into paradise. It is here that he completes the work of redemption and wins for us salvation. Not through might but through weakness. It is here where his enemies seek to nail him in place and do away with him that they only extend his arms wide to embrace all. It is here where they seek to kill him that he kills death. It is here that we may feel the guilt of the sin that necessitated his death.
But in the cross a decision must be made. Do we see love or do we see an execution? Do we see the source of life or do we see yet another life lost? Do we see salvation or do we resign ourselves to the way the world is? Like the thunderous reply from heaven Jesus can only be ambiguous here. We see his crucifixion, but do we see what it really is? Do we see through it? That is the judgment. That our King rules from a cross. Can you see it?