Jeremiah 31:31–34
Hebrews 5:7–10
John 12:20–33
“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” It sounds like a simple request, right? One goes to a clinic and say I would like to see Dr. so and so. One would think that a simple answer would suffice, like OK, or when, etc. But Jesus’ response seems like a disconnect. On the surface it looks like it is no response at all. But in reality the request, ‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus,’ opens up a new dimension as to who Jesus is. For Jesus such a request signals something beyond him, as it were. The request does not come from one of his own; it comes from beyond his people, from the Greeks, from the outside world. In reality, Jesus takes it as sign that his God and Father has begun something new in this simple request. Jesus responds first by announcing that a change is taking place. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus knows that he is entering the final stage of his presence in the world.
So what does Jesus want the Greeks to see? Who is the person that Jesus wants the Greeks to see, what kind of person is he? To answer the question of the Greeks, Jesus offers us an image of himself and an image of what it means for outsiders to be asking for him. He chooses an agricultural image, that of a grain of wheat. This grain must fall to the ground and die. The image that Jesus offers the Greeks is an image of himself as a dying man. But then that is what happens to a grain of wheat. To be what it is supposed to be, it must die. So Jesus comes to the realization that if his life to have any meaning, then it means that he must die like a grain of wheat. The question of the Greeks brings forth the understanding that he cannot remain alone, he cannot remain single, he cannot remain one belonging to his own people. No, he must die like a wheat grain so that he produces fruit. The grain of wheat must produce many grains. From being one, he must become many. He cannot be for himself alone, he must be for others. To bear fruit is to die, to let go of himself so that he can bear the fruit of a community that encompasses more than just his own.
The coming of the Greeks provokes Jesus into his hour, into the crisis of shedding his enclosed world of self and allowing it to break open so that he can call others into being. His dying is essential if his task is to call humanity to fruitfulness, to community, to solidarity. He seems to be aware that dying on the cross is becoming visibly lifted up so that others can see and come to him. His singleness and uniqueness is bearing fruit in a drawing of humanity toward the Father through him. But the only way to bring humanity together is to die, to surrender, to let go. Jesus can only answer the request of the Greeks if he dies. But only then will he also be true to himself. That is what his hour challenges him to.
Those who come to see him must understand that they must also make the same journey as he. They want to see Jesus, and the Jesus they will see is a Jesus who gives himself up to death out of love for his Father. If the Greeks, the outsiders, want any part with him, they must do the same. All who follow Jesus must do the same. In his Semitic way of putting it, they must hate their life in this world, to gain authentic life. If you love your life you will lose it. This is a way of saying that if you remain loyal to this world’s way of thinking and seeing, then you are really choosing an alternative that will bear no fruit. But if you choose the dying model, like the grain of wheat, they you will have an authentic life. For those of us who take seeing Jesus seriously, it will mean dying in some form or other. Ours is culture that does want to consider death as the avenue to life and growth. But if you have invested in Jesus, then there is no other way. Dying in this case covers all aspects of life in this world. Death to self-preoccupation, to our so-called independence and isolation, death to wanting things my way and only my way. My loyalty, my love must be directed to another: to neighbor, to Jesus, to the Father? Then my self will bear fruit.
This kind of dying is not easy. We do not let go of illusions easily. Jesus struggled with giving up his life. The Letter to the Hebrew speaks of ‘loud cries and tears’. Jesus says he is troubled. He asks himself, maybe I should pull out of this dying, save myself the trouble of living for others. In the end he moves toward acceptance of the hour. “No, I will not ask to be saved from dying. It is for this that I came!” And just where does Jesus find the strength to enter into this unknown world of letting go? He finds it in his relationship to the Father. He remains loyal to the Father. And the Father remains loyal to him. I will glorify you, I will honor and respect you. For when you embrace dying out of love, then you are my Son, you honor and reveal my love for the world.
When Jesus dies, the single grain that he is becomes many grains. It produces the fruit of a new community, a community that can hold both his people and the Greeks. Lifted up Jesus begins to pull together what is scattered and weave it into a new whole. The old order wants to divide, separate and cause discord. The new community wants to pull the diversity into a new form of unity, a unity that the prophet sees as being written on our hearts. The fruit of Jesus dying is a new humanity that is led from within its heart. Those who see Jesus and serve him then become part of the coming together that the love released in his dying brings about.
In our Eucharist today, Jesus is lifted up. And this love raised on high is the signal that we, too, need not be afraid of dying to self and coming alive in the life that is God’s. A new covenant is being celebrated here at the altar, a covenant formed out love poured forth on the cross. For those of us who want to see Jesus, it is in becoming part of the covenant sealed in his blood, that we will see him and will preserve our human life for eternal life.
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB