Hating the World
I wrote this sermon recently for this coming Sunday, March 17th. I thought I would share it today. March 17th is also Saint Patrick's Day, so I wanted to share my favorite synopsis of the life of this great man of God!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bkx_1lY14
In 2009, I received notification that I was deploying to Afghanistan in 2010. It was a pretty shocking moment to hear that I would be leaving my family for a year. What was more shocking, though, was the reality that I was entering an active combat zone and my life would be in real danger. For the first time in my life, I had to think about my mortality. As people found out about the deployment, the most common question I was asked was, “Are you afraid of dying?” To my joy, I realized that I was not. It wasn’t that I wanted to die, but I truly believed that “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Either way, I won! Today we are going to read about Jesus’ words about living and dying.
John 12:20-33
20 Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration 21 paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.”22 Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. 25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. 26 Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came!28 Father, bring glory to your name.”
Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.” 29 When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
30 Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. 32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”33 He said this to indicate how he was going to die.
Greeks (20) – This passage begins with Philip bringing some Greeks to meet Jesus. The passage doesn’t say whether they were Greeks who had converted to Judaism or just Gentiles who had come to Jerusalem to observe Passover. I tend toward the former, but regardless, they were Greeks. As an aside, Philip is a Greek name and his father was likely a converted Greek who had settled in Bethsaida with his wife.
Jesus’ response to these Greeks seems somewhat odd, but it makes more sense if you look at the rest of the passage. Chapter 12 begins with His inner circle, then expands to all the Jews at the Triumphal entry, and continues with the Greeks. This covers all the different types of people who will follow Him. Basically, these Greeks represented the rest of the world, and Jesus was ready!
Death (24) – Jesus is, of course, predicting His death. What’s interesting is that He is connecting glory to death. It is not the resurrection that is glorious, but the death itself. Why? Because the death will result in a massive harvest. We don’t see death as a glorious thing today, but death that is in service to our King is glorious indeed.
Love/Hate (25) – The choice we are given by Jesus is to cling to this life and lose everything in doing so; OR, give up this life and gain everything in doing so. We cannot do both. There are four words for love in Greek. They each describe a different type of love. “Eros,” for instance, from whence we get our word “erotic,” describes a physical type of love. The word for “love” in this passage is “phileo” which is a friendship type of love. Of course, Jesus wasn’t speaking Greek and the word He likely used is a Hebrew word for physical enjoyment and pleasure. It’s not saying that life is evil, but that making friends with this world is a path to destruction. If I live this life with only my enjoyment and pleasure in mind, then I will lose everything.
Instead, Jesus tells us to “hate” this life. This translation says “cares nothing.” The word for hate here means “to oppose with an active will with both word and deeds.” Many Christians think this means that I should want to leave this world and go to heaven, but that’s not what this is saying. It’s not passively abstaining from sinful things until I die. It’s actively engaging what is wrong in this world. Most people in the world don’t care that we follow Jesus as long as we don’t try to push it on them. Hating this world is understanding that this world is not the kingdom God intended, and working to restore it to that perfection. Let me give you an example:
Recently, gray wolves were introduced back into Yellowstone National Park. They were hunted nearly to extinction about 100 years ago because of cattle and sheep farming. The rangers in the park had to constantly keep track of the elk population and other portions of the ecosystem to keep things in balance. When the gray wolves were introduced back into their natural habitat in 1995, they had no idea what would happen, but the result was stunning. Those wolves were the top predator in the ecosystem, and their return resulted in what is called a “trophic cascade.” In a fairly short amount of time, it brought the entire ecosystem back into balance. Now, imagine if the elk and other animals that were hunted by the wolves could talk. Would they be happy about this? Probably not, and yet the wolves kept the populations in check, which managed the food supply for them and a whole host of other species.
Hating the world requires action.
Can you glorify God and spend His money on symbols of affluence?
Can you glorify God and ignore the AIDS victims, the destitute, and the needy?
Can you glorify God and not fight for justice according to His law?
Can you glorify God and avoid sacrifice, self-denial, and serving?
Fence sitters beware. God does not tolerate compromise. He may not send a lightning bolt to strike you down when you glorify the created instead of the Creator, but you will deal yourself right out of the only life you were meant to live. The paradox of life is this: Victory comes from surrender to God. Defeat is the result of fighting for myself.
.”…where I am…” (26) – There is a reason I call this newsletter “Following the Rabbi.” I am not Jewish, except in the sense that we are adopted into Israel as Paul explains. However, Jesus is a Rabbi and we are told here that if we want to serve Him, we must follow Him. I cannot be a disciple, a follower, or a “Christian” if I am not with Him. Of course, this means I will end up in some places I might not like. I would never have chosen to leave my family and spend a year in Afghanistan and another year in Kuwait to serve Him. The much harder places, though, are inside us. I will be 52 in just a few weeks. I just recently started meeting with a counselor that God told me to go see. I am unpacking things that I had no idea were hindering me. Following Jesus into those dark places is HARD, but if I really want to serve Him, then I need to be willing to go into those places too!
Honor (26) – Yahweh honors obedience, not results. Just look at Jeremiah, who accomplished precisely nothing and yet was honored by God. We have the same reward waiting for us. Think about that. If you follow Jesus and faithfully obey, then one day the Creator of the Universe will give you honor. I cannot imagine a greater reward than to stand before the God of eternity and be told, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
If (32) – This translation, and many others, say “when I am lifted up” making it a forgone conclusion. However, what it actually says is “if I am lifted up…” That makes it conditional and means it might not happen. So let’s be clear: Jesus had a choice. He could have chosen not to die. He knew His mission, but He could have said “No.” I think we forget this. Like the translators here and in other translations, we just see it as something that was going to happen no matter what, but Jesus could have just walked away. When I truly understand that, it makes obedience easier. I am not called to do something that Jesus didn’t do first. When I truly understand that, it makes following Jesus wherever He takes me that much easier. He suffered for me because He CHOSE it.
TOOK
As I think about this passage and what we should take away, the first thing that I think we should always remember and be reminded of is that we are called to bring people to Jesus. Philip brought those Greeks to meet Jesus, and we should continually be doing that. Of course, as I’ve said before, since we are the body of Christ, then meeting Jesus means meeting us. That means that we need to be following Jesus in such a way that we look just like Him.
This leads me to the larger takeaway from this passage. Hating this world and living in obedience sounds easy when you read it. The truth, though, is that it’s hard. Paul talks about that in Romans 7. We are not called to sit quietly in a corner, avoid sin, and wait for death. We are called to actively change the world where God has placed us. Saint Patrick did this. Imagine being kidnapped as a child, spending years in slavery, escaping, AND THEN GOING BACK TO SHARE JESUS WITH YOUR KIDNAPPERS!!! Because he was willing to follow Jesus to the darkest place he could imagine, he evangelized the entire island, instituted an evangelism method that evangelized the Celtic regions of Europe, and literally changed the course of history. During the Middle Ages, it was the Christians in Ireland and northern Europe that protected and copied the learning from earlier days.
Many of you reading this are in difficult places where it is hard to do this. Do it anyway. Choose to suffer, just like Jesus did for you. I will not try and tell you how to do this because I’ve never been where you are. All I can tell you is that if you ask God to show you what He wants you to do, He will. Oh, and by the way, the great battle is inside you! Keep up the fight, and I am praying for you!
SONGS FOR SUNDAY
Build Your Kingdom Here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoU0iZ-eaeo
In Christ Alone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFgRRcf5tQ4
Still God, Still Good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei8XWHpFDq4
The Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ55mDL7dA0
...and we are learning
Risen