The Hour is Come: A Palm Sunday Meditation on John 12

 

And Jesus answered them, saying,

The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

Verily, verily, I say unto you,

Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,

it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

 

He that loveth his life shall lose it;

and he that hateth his life in this world

shall keep it unto life eternal.

If any man serve me, let him follow me;

and where I am, there shall also my servant be:

if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

 

With Palm Sunday we begin again the Church’s high feast days of Holy Week which culminate in Easter Sunday.  While Jesus’ path to Calvary began with the promise of redemption and salvation which God gave to Adam and Eve after our race’s Fall into sin, the final steps begin here less than a week before His betrayal and crucifixion.  He came into Jerusalem in fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, accompanied by crowds of people who sang His praises, not least of which were for the resurrection of Lazarus who accompanied Him.  Even the Greeks who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover wanted to see and talk with Jesus, and the rulers of the Temple found themselves powerless to stop what was coming.  The hour had come—a time echoed in Law and Gospel down through the ages and made present in the Incarnate Word as Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem.

 

Of course, not everyone was pleased with this hour that had come.  Religious and political leaders had their own concerns, plots, and schemes, none of which required a Messiah.  There was money to be made, deals to be struck, and masses to be manipulated.  There was power to seize and to maintain, there was ceremony and pomp and pageantry to present, and there were thousands of visitors to fleece.  Passover in Jerusalem was a time of great performance for the religious and political leaders, as they cemented their control over the faithful.  Their system was lucrative, and they enjoyed their power, turning the House of God into a corrupt house of merchandizing and trade.  Jesus’ presence among the people threatened to lift the veil of darkness from the people’s eyes that they might see their leaders for the frauds they had become, and that their relationship with their saving God might be restored.  The Light was with them for a little while longer, as Jesus’ Word pierced their darkness, broke their chains of slavery to sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, and revealed the clownish machinations of their faithless leaders who presented themselves as the wisest and most pious among them.  Here, at the center of the world’s history where thousands of years of prophecy and promise came barreling toward confrontation with the corrupt systems of fallen man at every level of society, the denizens of hell and their corrupt disciples schemed for a way to get rid of Jesus, and preserve their gaudy façade of piety as they crushed all people into spiritual slavery.

 

Then, as now, Jesus’ coming is not stopped by the wicked intentions of darkened souls.  Then, as now, the corrupt ruling class of political and religious leaders, hell bent on maintaining a system of manipulation, control, and slavery, cannot withstand the presence of the Incarnate Word.  Then, as now, those who abide in darkness fear the Light because their deeds are evil, and their judgment is that they loved darkness in spite of the Light which had come to set them free.  Then, as now, Jesus moves inexorably to the Cross which will cost Him everything, so that mankind might live forever, forgiven and free.  Then, as now, no plot or scheming of dark forces infesting every level of the world’s ruling classes can stop the coming of Easter, and with it, the proclamation of the lifegiving Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

 

Jesus’ Words of grace and mercy echo down to us today with the same saving power they held when first He uttered them.  His kernel of wheat, once laid in the cold earth as dead and buried, rose again that He might dwell in the company of all those who abide in His eternal life by faith in Him.  Jesus offers no schemes, no manipulations, no angling for power or political control; He makes no Faustian deals of quid pro quo to fool the witless into servitude; He creates no system of economics where His grace might be bought or sold in ecclesiastical treasuries.  Rather, Jesus gives His life as a ransom for many, that all who would repent and believe in Him might not perish, but have eternal life.  He has not come into the world to judge the world, but to save it, for His Word alone will judge the living and the dead on the Last Day.

 

This is how we understand that to follow Jesus, is to follow Him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to walk with Him through Good Friday, and to emerge with Him on Easter morning.  Here we find the truth of His injunction that to love a sinful life in this world is to court eternal condemnation and a living death in hell forever, but to love the eternal life He gives despite the rigors and sacrifices of life in this corrupt world, is to have a blessed and eternal life in His gracious Kingdom unto ages of ages.  This is the Gospel which no tyrant or heretic or apostate can quell, and which presses forward into every time and place to shatter the gates of hell, bringing light and life and freedom to all who will receive it.  Come, let us walk with Jesus in His Hour of sacrifice and victory, which secures for us and for all generations the free gift of eternal life which can never be taken away.  Hear Him as He calls to you through this Holy Week, that we might together sing His praises on an Easter morning whose dawning day of grace knows no end.  Amen.