The Voice Is for You
Previously in John Chapter 12: Six days before the Passover, Jesus spent time in Bethany with Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead, and the sisters Martha and Mary. A crowd had gathered because of Lazarus, and some Judeans from the Temple began a plot to kill both Jesus and Lazarus because of their popularity. The next day, Jesus entered Jerusalem with great pomp and circumstance, when suddenly, out of the great crowd, some foreigners, Greeks, gentiles, show up for the Passover festival. They say to Philip, “We wish to see Jesus.” Philip runs to Andrew and says “Hey, there are all these Greeks who want to see Jesus! What should we do?” [i]
The two of them run off to tell Jesus that foreigners are at the gates looking for him. Jesus says, in effect, if anyone wants to see me, really really see me, then stick around. You’ll have to deal with my death at the hands of Rome to really really see me. Are they ready for that? Are you ready for that? Begging the question: Are we ready for that?
He then says it is necessary. It’s like a grain of wheat dying in the ground and then coming to life to bear much fruit. A metaphor of dying to life in this world to gain a life in the world as God imagines it can be. “Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” [ii]
Then, quoting Psalm 6 Jesus says, “Now my soul is troubled! What should I say? Father, save me from this hour. No, this is why I am here now. Father, glorify thy name!” The English translation is timid. His heart is not “troubled.” The text says, “My very being is struck with terror!” As well it should be. Then comes a big noise! Some thought it was thunder, so it must have been loud. Some thought it looked as if Jesus was talking to someone, but there was no one there. Must be angels, some surmise. It was the voice from heaven. The same voice he heard at his baptism that said, “You are my beloved. I am well pleased with you.” The same voice from the cloud on the mountain top with Peter, James and John and Jesus that said, “This is my beloved, listen to him.” Are we listening yet?
Now when Jesus says, “Father, glorify thy name,” the voice returns and says, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” It was just thunder. Now he’s talking to himself. It sounds as if he’s lost it. Should we even think of letting the foreigners see him like this? Out of the confusion, Jesus announces, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.” That means for our sake, not his. This voice that keeps coming around is for us, not for Jesus. Which makes perfect sense. He knows the voice. The voice knows him. He has always heard his Father’s voice. Jesus comes to urge us to listen to his Father’s voice. To listen for the voice of God!
The question is: Are we listening? Are we listening for the voice of God? It may surprise us to learn that to this very day, not just in the olden days, but today 90% of the peoples of the world regularly hear such voices? That we modern Westerners are the minority, the anomaly, as those people who do not regularly access this kind of communication with God and Spirits. The question is quite naturally, why not us? Most people say we are too busy to be listening, or think we are too sophisticated to hear voices, or think you have to be crazy or mentally ill to hear such voices. Someone has suggested that maybe it is because we are too grown up. Someone else has pointed out that most other cultures do not make such a big deal about needing to grow up. After all, it was Jesus who says we are to come to God’s kingdom like children!
Of course, it may be that we don’t want to hear anything about having to watch him die, watch him be tortured and executed, the victim of state sanctioned capital punishment? Oh sure, dress it up as being like a grain of wheat, call it what you may, but that is what it is: state sanctioned public execution. In all the debate on capital punishment in our country, how often are we asked to reflect upon what it means that the one who calls us to “follow him” is himself the victim of state sanctioned capital punishment? The same voice that says we are to “love our enemies, “and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven” [iii] This he says just after those liberal talking points called The Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount. Are we still listening?
Listening to his Father’s voice that says, “You are my beloved. I am well pleased with you. I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again.” We are left feeling that for God’s name to be glorified, we need to be listening to God’s voice and learn how to become part of the world’s glorifying process. Holy week, and all it portends, is dark and scary, and lays bare just how uncivilized we really can are. In Sunday School we rarely hear anything about this voice and its being for us. We typically do not spend much time on how to listen for this voice. Yet, Jesus says it is for us. And that suggests that we play a crucial role in the process of the world’s glorification.
The creeds do not appear to discuss listening for this voice.
The catechism does not seem to discuss it. Yet, there it is. “This voice has
come for your sake, not for mine.” Seems as if we best get listening to
hear what this voice says. Nothing less than the glorification and future of
the whole world is at stake according to what Jesus says.
Every single one of us is significant to somebody else. The people to whom we are significant will catch this thing from us if they know that we are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, absolutely devoted and loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the trouble is that, in those moments we think of as off moments, others decide whether or not we are truly committed. The times a person says, “I must talk to you,” or, when we are weeding the garden. Or, working in an office. Grading a road. Nailing on a molding or painting a room. Cooking a meal. Speaking to a child. These are the times and places where the other person decides who we really are. There can be no “off moments” for Christians if our faith and its vitality are to be contagious. [iv]
That is, the glorification of God’s name comes in our most mundane moments. Jesus leaves it up to us to glorify God’s name. To do that we need to listen for The Voice. The Voice that is for our sake, not for his. The Voice speaks to us so that we might know just how Beloved we are. And just how important we are to join with Jesus in re-creating the world in the image of God. For it will be in listening to the voice and following Jesus that we will come to know how pleased God is with us. Once we hear this voice, know the voice, and become those people the voice calls us to be, others will come to see Jesus in all that we say and all that we do. And this is Good News! Amen.
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