John 12:20-33
April 6, 2003
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When I turned 16 or 17, I remembered getting a check from the John Hancock Life Insurance Company for about $1000. My parents like many parents did in those days bought what is commonly called, a “Children Burial” policy for me. Just in case, something bad happened to me, there was a little money to bury me.
Buying insurance is a way many of us protect ourselves when bad things happen. From the church, I have an HMO medical insurance so that I can have periodic medical exams and prescription drugs. I have auto insurance in case I run a red light. I have homeowners insurance in case someone slips in front of my house and I have earthquake insurance just in case when the big one comes. And I still have life insurance to give Joy a peace of mind. Having insurance is something like waging against the odds of when some calamity might happen, that your benefits outweigh the premiums you paid for your policy. Even in the event of a bad situation, we hope something good happens perhaps even in the form of a large financial pay out that will in some way make the bad feel somewhat better.
Although we try to protect ourselves from these unexpected events in life, there are times when the routine of life is brought to a forced conclusion. We do not plan for our lives to be interrupted, but they are. And when our lives hiccup we then have the opportunity to learn an important truth. In these times of unexpected stoppage or involuntary sabbatical, we are made to step back, take stock, and reassess who we are.
As your pastor, how many times have I heard visiting a church member in the days following a heart attack, “It’s the best thing that ever happened to me—I’ll never be the same again. I woke up to the reality of my life, to God, to what is important.” What an amazingly positive thing to say about a heart attack!
There’s a story about Tom who just had his yearly physical exam. Tom’s doctor gave him the news.
“Well, Tom, your blood pressure is way too high. It has shot up since the last time. You are going to have to go under some rather heavy doses of medication, plus a rather extreme diet. I’ve feared this,” said the doctor.
Tom was shocked and dejected. “This is a real shock for me,” said Tom. “This is a terrible thing to happen to a guy in his forties. I can’t figure out why something like this would happen to me.”
“Come on, Tom, you’re not that stupid,” said the doctor. “You have high blood pressure in your family. You have been overweight for a long time. Surely this is not that big of a surprise to you.”
“Why me? Why me?” Tom repeatedly said to himself.
Then his truthful doctor told it like it was: “Tom, you are a great person. You have achieved a great deal in your life. You have a great family. You have made a lot of money. But you are not God. You are a human being. That’s the way God created you. God didn’t mean any meanness by it. You were made with limits. You must respect those God-given limits or pay the price for it. It’s simply as that. You are a great person, but you are not God.”
Sometimes those events that we regard as tragedies are really encounters with the truth about who we are and what we are created to be. When we realize that we are not God, we are then able to ask questions like “What am I supposed to learn from this? What is God teaching me now?”
Close to God
Sometimes, in those confined places in life, when we are trapped and there’s nowhere to escape, we are pushed closer to God, and to what really matters most in life. For instance, it is fascinating to see how many people in the Bible when they were imprisoned in jail is the time when they discovered how close God was with them.
When Paul and Silas were in jail after being severely flogged, they still witnessed to their jailer by affirming that the Lord Jesus will save him and his household.
When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote to Timothy and Titus encouraging them to remain faithful and loyal leaders of the church. Jailed on the island of Patmos, John wrote Revelations describing the struggle between good and evil and the ultimate triumph of Christ and the church.
This reminds us also of the powerful letter that Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote while he was in prison in a Birmingham jail and the powerful meditations written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer while he was imprisoned in Germany.
Sometimes we also have times when we have felt imprisonment. We go through some great loss—unemployment, divorce, or bereavement. It is like an exile, as if we are being forced to move out of our accustomed home into an unaccustomed new place.
One of the practices of a Chinese funeral is to be in mourning for a whole month. You’re to wear black or dark blue clothes. If you don’t wear the blue yarn in your hair or a black armband, you should at least keep it in your pocket. You are not supposed to wash your hair for a whole month!
And you are to not enter someone else’s house in fear of bringing sadness to them until a whole month is up. It is like being exiled and imprisoned by our traditions.
Although we find these customs somewhat strange and odd today, these circumstances can produce new understandings and goodness in our lives. It is amazing how they can be the conditions necessary for new life.
In the case of grieving for a whole month after a Chinese funeral, this sense of exile allows us to reflect and value the meaning of our departed loved one in our lives. We take time to go over personal possessions and discover things of value. It reminds us that what may appear to be a negative circumstance frees us for new beginnings. We are able to see the good in the bad. When we take those little red and white envelopes and eat the candy to cleanse our mouths of the bitterness of death, we believe that something good and sweet is happening here. When we take the money and spend it for something of pleasure, we are trusting in God that having traveled this way, we will continue to be prosperous.
As a pastor, I have constantly been surprised by how often people will report how situations in life, situations that by all accounts ought to be terrible, turn out to be good. And even in situations when the burdens that are placed on people are crushing their spirits, they become opportunities whereby we experience fresh and new power from God.
New Lease in Life
Although my father bought the “Children Burial” policy for me, I didn’t have to use it. But instead my father died of cancer when I was only in Junior High school. More than one person in our community of families and church friends wondered how my brothers and I would go on. Who would be there as the father figure for us?
After my father’s death, it turned out that I became the “father figure” for the family. It turned out that I was not weak or immature, but rather strong and confident. My father’s death while something I would never have wished or desired, became an occasion whereby I became a very different person. Rather than following my father’s wishes that I major in electrical engineering, I realized that my interests and passion were in ministry.
My father’s death led to the end of my life as it was. I may never have known the real me if my father was present during the years when I was choosing a career. My true identity and the gifts that I had been given may never have emerged from me or for anyone else to see. I received a new lease in life also at a time of deep sorrow.
It takes time, space, and a place for God to work in our lives. In a way, it is sad that we have to wait for a death in the family, this un-wished event, to recognize that we need Sabbath time to discover who we are. Maybe this says to us that we ought to be more intentional about seeking our times, places, and opportunities in order for this practice of discovering who we are to happen.
We know of people who after losing their jobs at last had the opportunity to develop new hobbies and interests. Getting layoff was one of the best things that ever happened to them.
We know of people who after retiring thinking that they have lost their most essential identity of who they are, discovered how meaningful it is to work with children in the schools. They found they are rejuvenated with life.
We know of people who continue to worry and struggle with the meaning of life and unable to let go of negative thoughts eventually realize that life is indeed too short to hold on to grudges and resentments. They will find that there is forgiveness and life is worthwhile again.
In all of these scenarios, we can see that in the bad situations of life, there is goodness too. This is more than some Pollyanna smile placed over life’s struggles. Rather, it is that hopeful, expectant confidence that arises from the Christian’s conviction that no matter where life takes us, God is there too. The God who did not run away from enduring the shame and suffering of the cross in order to be close to us shall not avoid standing beside us during our times of suffering as well.
Grain Must Die
In our Scripture lesson for today, the passage starts off like it was just another routine day. Some Greeks came and wanted to see Jesus. The disciples passed the Greeks’ request along until it got to Jesus himself.
Like some unexpected event, Jesus interrupts what appeared to be a simple visit by the Greeks by announcing that “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” The Greeks were probably wondering what is all this talking about bad things like dying, losing, and being a servant all about. Jesus said,
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and
dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it does, it bears much fruit.
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this
world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the
Father will honor.”
God’s glory is revealed in Jesus’ unjustified suffering on the cross. God is God not only because he is great and eternal but God is God because he can be completely humble, completely self-giving, and completely willing to die. Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross is the atonement for our sins so that we may be forgiven. In Christ on the cross, we see the good in the bad.
Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father save me from this hour?’ No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”
Like us who may be facing unexpected and crushing burdens, Jesus found the time before his crucifixion troubling as well. But Jesus, obedient to God’s will, didn’t ask his Father to save him from this hour. Jesus realized that out of this awful event that will happen to him, it is the reason for his life. From his death comes resurrection to glorify God’s name. From something bad that will happen, something good will come too.
Until a seed of grain falls on the ground and dies, no stem of wheat will grow to bear more grain. The grains of wheat need to be grounded into flour and mixed with water and eggs to become bread. Until a grain dies, it wouldn’t be able to bring nourishment and life to others. Something good has come from the bad.
Until Jesus Christ glorifies God by giving up his life on the cross and taking upon himself all of our sins, we would be forever unable to know God with our mind, heart, and soul. Something good has come from the bad.
Until we realize that when we lose our life in this world by serving God, we would not discover that God knows us and promises us eternal life. In our own suffering and openness to facing the unexpected trials in life we will be able to see Jesus. The only way to see Jesus is to take up our cross and follow his path of voluntary suffering. Only in shouldering our own cross will the glory of God be revealed.
There’s no doubt that you and I will continue to buy insurance policies to hedge our bets that nothing bad would happen to us. But as human beings, you can be sure that circumstances will come our way that will bring sadness and disappointments. At these times, we must remember that the good will come from what this world sees as bad because Jesus Christ has come to lose his life so that we might find it.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, help us to see our times of suffering and difficulty as opportunities for us to share in your redemptive suffering for the sake of the world. Give us not a way around the pain. but a way through it, for your sake and the gospel, we pray. Amen.