‘The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us…it is the power of God.’
If people—ourselves included—are interested at all in hearing
about Jesus, very often the Jesus that people want to hear about is not the
Jesus who actually existed. Very often, we think that we understand who Jesus
is, and yet we only usually see a glimpse of it.
I often imagine conversations with people who don’t know
about Jesus. ‘So tell me about this Jesus…,’ says the open-minded person who
might possibly be interested. ‘Well, he came to save us so that we can know God.’
‘Oh cool! What happened to him?’ ‘He was arrested, beaten, nailed naked to a
cross, and died.’
At this point, I imagine that many people would smirk. At
this point, many people join with those who mocked Christ: ‘If you are the Son
of God, come down from the cross!’ The human race had victory over Jesus. They
were able to take him captive and kill him. Their power over him was made clear
to all who could see. If you don’t believe me, consider the naked, bleeding
body hanging on the cross for all to see. Not something most people would want
to put their faith in.
The people we put our confidence in are the strong, the
eloquent, the powerful. The people we vote for are the people who say the right
things that inspire optimism. We vote for people who are going to make their
countries great again. We vote for people who are prepared to speak powerfully and
claim to stand up for the freedom of the people whose votes they want. We vote
for those who are going to put their own interests—or the interests of their
country—first. Not those who willingly go to death. Not those who tell their
followers that they are to do the same. Not those who put the interests of
others before their own.
To those who do not see salvation in the submission of
Christ, it is complete and utter foolishness. This is not strength. This is not
victory. This is weakness. This is vulnerability. This is letting go.
The Greeks said ‘we wish to see Jesus’. Very often we, and
others, find ourselves saying the same thing. ‘We wish to see Jesus.’ But do
we? Do we really want to see the real Jesus? Or would we prefer to see a
version of Jesus that we find more comfortable, and more appealing? Are we
willing to see a Jesus who lays himself down for others and asks us to do the
same? Or would we prefer to see a Jesus who does everything for us, and makes
us feel comfortable and warm inside, but doesn’t demand too much from us, and
lets us stay exactly as we are?
Yesterday, we thought about Mary’s extravagant and wasteful
outpouring in her ‘I love you too’ to Christ’s ‘I love you’. It was a letting
go of that most precious thing that she could give that invites us to consider
how much we are willing to give to show our love for Christ. Today’s reading
invites us to look at another aspect of letting go: ‘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’.
Love, real and true love, is not something that we can grasp
and hold onto. It is, rather, something that, in its very nature, needs to be
released. If it is held onto, it does not accomplish its purpose. It becomes
stale and eventually withers. It does not achieve its potential. We have all
been given a grain, a seed. We all have the seeds of love. We love the idea of
what these seeds can grow into, but the question is really this: are we willing
to let go?
If we sow the seeds of love, there is always the danger that
the seed might be taken, it might not grow. Something might happen and then we
have lost everything. We might be held captive by fear and so we hold onto the
seed. We might think that we have held onto something to keep it safe, whereas,
in fact, we have not let it become. We have not let it be.
Letting it be requires a letting go that can be painful. It
requires facing the possibility that it might not bear fruit. It is compared to
life: ‘those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life…will
keep it for eternal life’. It is a dying in order to live.
I often say that, in the Christian faith, where there is
death there is resurrection. It may seem as though all is lost, and yet when we
think that all is lost, it is often then that glimpses of new life can be seen.
Where there is death, there is resurrection. Looked at from a slightly different
angle: there is no resurrection without death.
What Christ offers us is the new resurrected life of heaven.
What Christ promises us is eternity in the presence of God with all the saints
and angels. What Christ promises us is a world in which every tear is wiped
away, in which there is no more pain or suffering. But, without death, it is impossible
to enter into this world. Without the cross, none of this is possible.
If we wish to celebrate the joy of Easter, if we wish to
celebrate the resurrected life of Christ, and be partakers of it, then we need also
to come to the foot of the cross and listen as Christ speaks words of love and
forgiveness, and watch as he breathes his last. Not only this, but we have to
have the willingness to lay down our own lives, to be crucified with Christ. If
we are crucified with Christ, we shall be raised with him.
This isn’t just a nice idea that we might wish to consider
if it feels right at the time. This is an act of sacrifice as we ponder what
Christ has done and respond in love to him.
Although love rejoices in the good and happy times, love is
most fully shown in the dark and painful times where we suffer. Let this be true of our love for
Christ, and for each other.
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