Drawing People In

John 12:20-33 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Predicts His Death

20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

It seems impossible to make sense of the events of the past month.  Parkland, Fl; the bridge collapse in Florida, snowstorms on the east coast, the passing of two young mothers in our very own community, our social and political climates to name a few such events.  As a pastor, I feel this sometimes heavy burden to do the best that I can to make sense of it all, even if it seems impossible. The weight of such explanations weigh heavy when I four year old asks you “How do Kim get to heaven?” and when a loving friend of Kim’s asks to help make sense of it all.  To be honest, I chalked it up to God can only answer those questions because we have been taught for so long that even events like those mentioned earlier have to be the will of God.  We don’t know why God deemed those things necessary but we compartmentalize those events in a way that we believe God is using such events for His will to be done.  We even view the death of Christ in such a way. Think about it... Why do we believe Jesus died on that cross? We have been taught that God is in a way upset with our sins and we need to be reconciled back into a loving way with Him.  For a long time, I have had a difficult time justifying this in my own head and my own faith. If God loves us like Jesus claimed and like we read in the scriptures, why does God need the justified killing of His own son to make things right again?  It comes across as blood-thirsty and in a way, an eye for an eye kind of reconciliation. It seems out of God’s nature to desire such a thing. On the other hand, who am I to be positioning the nature of God but it just doesn’t seem quite right to me.  

Songs and words of comfort are beautifully spoken, sang and written with nothing but good intentions saying that God needed our loved one more than we do... Again, I struggle to think that way... A way that insinuates God needs our loved one worse than we do? I struggle with that.  But it is what we have been taught for so long. It is really the only way we can explain such a tragedy. Does God need the souls of those lost in these senseless mass shootings, floods, snowstorms, tragedies, miscarriages, stillborns, and illnesses more than we do? Is He using their deaths to make a point?  We have been bludgeoned with the idea that we chalk it up to the will of God. And I am at the point that I can no longer stand for such a way of thinking. Think about the nature of God that this way of thinking portrays to those who have lost a loved one... What kind of feelings do they hold about the nature of God?  Think about the potentially damaging ways this way of thinking can hurt someone’s faith. Again, it portrays God not only as blood-thirsty but now selfish.

I can’t, and won’t, stand for this view of God any longer.  I am tired of seeing faces filled with tears and the only answer given to the heartbroken is that “God needed them more than we do.”  This isn’t drawing people in... it is forcing them out. If someone can’t seem to justify their loved one’s death as the will of God the church offers them no hope of ever properly mourning their lost loved ones.  It forces people to abandon their faith because the church offers no other view. I don’t know that I can help you make sense of the tragedies and questions in your life but I can offer you a different view.

I don’t think God is bloodthirsty, nor do I think Him to be selfish.  I don’t think it is His will when tragedies happen. Jesus didn’t die on the cross to end suffering.  We don’t see Jesus skipping and laughing on his way to the cross either. Instead, we are told that Jesus’ soul was troubled and may we not forget that Jesus expressed his emotion of feeling forsaken with his last breathes on the cross.  We often view Jesus’ death and our forgiveness as God bringing us closer to Him.  Instead, I propose it was God making himself human as the way he brought himself to our level.  In other words, he didn’t raise us up, he came down. He came to us.... God didn’t end earthly suffering.  Instead, he endured it. He endured it for you.  And He endures it still, alongside you.

Along those same lines, we have been told that Jesus’ death is what eradicates our original sin.  Again, if that were fully true, wouldn’t the struggles we now endure because of original sin also be gone?  We often resort back to these tragedies being the will of God because it gives us comfort that God is control, even in the face of tragedy.  A lot of people are eventually able to find comfort in that and rightfully so. However, Jesus’ death didn’t only make us more Godly, it made God more human.  What if Jesus’ death on the cross was more about God’s grace than humanities failings. What if God was moving us towards a reconciliation with ourselves instead of original sin?

For a long time I have resisted this way of thinking because it almost seems that bringing God down to our level lessens the power of God.  Instead of raising us up, I have felt like we are justifying our sinful actions instead of being accountable to God and his wrath. So what changed?  How am I able to get past this all of a sudden? Well, it wasn’t all of a sudden. It is life experience and a lot of the reading I have been doing lately and a lot of time thinking about our relationship with God.  It boils down to my thought that God is neither bloodthirsty or selfish. God doesn’t will these tragic events to happen. Yes, I know that means God isn’t in control of everything. And I am ok with that. He made himself like me and suffered like me.  He thought like me. His heart pumped like mine. He cried like me. He laughed like me. He struggled like me. And like Him, my earthly body will someday parish. However, since he made himself like me, I someday, will be renewed like him.

To be honest, it was the wheat seed from our scripture this morning that spawned my ability to collect these thoughts.  Germination is a term used for the likelihood that a seed will grow into a plant. Our scripture quotes Jesus as saying, “...Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  However, a seed never really dies... it only loses germination (the ability to grow). If a seed is planted while the germination level is high, the better chance of producing future seeds it will have. The original seed must fulfill its duty in order to produce the future seeds.  Only then does it perish in part; because the DNA from that single seed is passed onto to every single future offspring it produces. It’s impact fades over time but is never completely erased. The Message translates this same passage as, “Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat.  But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it destroys that life. But if you let go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.” A Christian theologian named Mark Davis wrote, “Jesus dies, not to appease God’s anger over human sinfulness, but because a death like his can be the means for bearing much fruit.”

God’s will is not death, it is renewal, it is new life.  At some point, we will fully understand the scope of what that really means.  Until then, we are better off not explaining tragedy away as the unknown and selfish will of God.  We are better off expressing to those who are hurting that God is hurting with them.  That he knows exactly what that pain feels like.  However difficult it is to wrap our mind around God not controlling such tragedy, pales in comparison to those who have to figure out why God would control such a tragedy.  We will suffer and we will struggle, Jesus dying didn’t change that.  But we don’t have to struggle alone because Jesus’ renewed life changed that.