The fifth Sunday of Lent – beginning Passiontide
Readings for this Sunday: Jeremiah 31.31–34; Psalm 119.9–16; Hebrews 5.5–10; John 12.20–33
Sometimes life’s moments of revelation can be a bittersweet conjunction of joy and sadness. We see hope, but we see mortality, for example.
Jesus had such moments. Some Greeks – evidently Gentiles – came and asked to see Jesus. In a moment of almost comic bureaucracy they are passed from one person to another, and Jesus is told of their inquiry.
We do not hear what happens to the Greeks, because Jesus realises that this is in indication of great hope and change – but one that will come at a price. He is the price, and his sense of foreboding engulfs him – and yet God speaks words of support.
Back to the still-waiting Greeks, who want to see Jesus: what would happen if someone presented themselves at our doorstep, asking to see Jesus? What would we show? The empty cross? Words from the Bible? Pictures? The only way that anyone can see Jesus is through the present-day form of his body.
Those of us in the church are the window through which Jesus can be seen. People will come looking for Jesus: it’s up to us to be a clear window through which he can be seen.
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