“The Hour”
a sermon by Wayne McLaughlin
March 21 , 2021
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Leeds Presbyterian Church
Jeremiah 31.31-34 CEB
31 The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the Lord!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.
Hebrews 5.5-10 CEB
5 In the same way Christ also didn’t promote himself to become high priest. Instead, it was the one who said to him,
You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father,
6 as he also says in another place,
You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.
7 During his days on earth, Christ offered prayers and requests with loud cries and tears as his sacrifices to the one who was able to save him from death. He was heard because of his godly devotion. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. 9 After he had been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for everyone who obeys him. 10 He was appointed by God to be a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
John 12.20-33 NRSV
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 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 dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27 “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. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
SERMON TEXT:
The hour has come, says Jesus.
Only John’s Gospel uses this terminology—the Hour. Listen to these six instances:
1. John 2:4: And Jesus said to [his mother], “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.
2. John 7:30: Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.
3. John 8:20: He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
4. John 12.27: “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.
5. John 13:1: Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.
6. John 17:1: After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you…
The Hour. It sounds like Jesus has an appointment. He keeps saying, It’s not time for my appointment yet.
People deal with time management in different ways. Some people keep their eyes on the clock; they’re always checking to see how much time they have before they need to take a shower or get dressed or brush their teeth before they have to take off for an appointment somewhere. They’re vigilant. Other people are lackadaisical. They don’t pay attention. They will look at the clock and say, Oh, my goodness, look what time it is! I’m going to be late! And sure enough, they’re late. They are always late. You tell them to start getting ready fifteen minutes earlier so as not to be late. But it doesn’t work. You can count on them—to be late.
Jesus had an appointment in Jerusalem. He was always aware of it. But he never got in a hurry. No need to hurry. He kept telling people, My hour has not yet come. Until we get to today’s reading: John, chapter twelve. My hour has come, he says.
Exorcism of the World
The Hour has come.
In today’s reading Jesus says: Now. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
That last phrase, “will be driven out,” sounds like what happened in the Garden of Eden. The snake tricked the man and the woman. They sinned. And they were driven out of Paradise. The snake stayed there. But now, says Jesus, the Snake will be driven out. Humanity, on the other hand, will be promised a place in Paradise. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus says to one of the crooks being crucified on either side of him: Today you will be with me in Paradise.
The Hour has come. The world will be judged. Christ’s death on the cross is a revelation of the evil present in the world. The one perfectly good person in history was put to death as a criminal and a heretic. Yet, evil was judged on that day. The death of Jesus was like a cosmic sponge, absorbing the toxic moral turpitude of the universe.
When we look at the Cross, we see court in session. We see the worst that evil can do to the best that God can be. We see evil on trial; we see the evidence of evil as an innocent man hangs on a cross. We see evil’s attempt to murder Truth. To murder God! But evil itself is judged and found guilty. The evidence was overwhelming.
As the soldiers pounded the nails into his hands and feet, it was the sound of the Judge’s gavel pounding the desk, saying, “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Evil is guilty of murdering God.
The Devil was run out of town. He was cast out. So many times we read of Jesus casting out demons from men and women. All through his ministry he was defeating the powers of evil and chaos. Now the Hour has come to cast out the Demon which has possessed the world. As he bled on the Cross, Christ exorcised the power of Evil to ultimately destroy God’s prized creation.
There is a Snake in the grass that has tried to resist the love of God by slowly and slyly slithering through cracks in the hearts of people who are full of greed and the lust for power—those who revel in dominating others. The Hour has come to cut off the head of the Snake.
The Hour has come. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
Inclusive
Jesus continues: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
In our first reading from Jeremiah, God speaks of a future new covenant. And God says, “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
That little word all appears in both readings. Jeremiah says, for they shall ALL know me. Jesus says, I will draw ALL people to myself.
This is a universal action of God. All people will know God. All people will be drawn to Christ.
The Hour has come to inaugurate the universally inclusive and liberating power of God through the tragedy of a death—a death authorized by the State and supported by the Religious Establishment.
Lifted Up
In our Gospel Reading Jesus says, When I am lifted up… Like a good novelist, John has already planted a clue back in chapter three. When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he used the same phrase: lifted up. Right before John 3.16 – at 3.14 – Jesus says:
Nicodemus, remember when Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness? Well, so must I be lifted up so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life. God so loved the world that the Creator gave the Only Son that anyone who trusts their life to him will not perish like food left out too long, but will have eternal life. (my paraphrase)
Jesus becomes the Snake that is lifted up—the Saving Snake that brings healing for the soul when we gaze at it with faith.
Notice the phrase, I will draw all people to myself. The term “draw” also appears in John’s Gospel in earlier chapters. Listen to Jesus in chapter six:
No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. (Jn. 6.44)
So, the Cross has some kind of “drawing” power. When we gaze at the Cross of Christ, we are drawn by the love of God revealed there—drawn to the loving heart of God. It is as if a powerful magnetic field has been set up around the Cross. God’s grace is so magnetic that once we look up, we feel the power of God’s covenant love pulling us into the life of God, which is called eternal life.
God does not coerce us into the Kingdom. We make that decision of our own free will. Yet, paradoxically, we can’t do anything else. Because when you fall in love with another person it feels as if you have no choice in the matter; and yet, we do choose to give our lives to Christ.
The “drawing” power of Christ’s death for us is the power of God’s grace.
In the same way, we who are followers of Christ are not to try and manipulate others to become followers of Christ; rather, we draw people into God’s fellowship by our love. Our lives should be a magnetic field of love that gently invites others into the eternal life of God.
When I was young our church had revival meetings—one in the Spring and another in the Fall. The visiting evangelists were experts at telling heart-throbbing stories about people who had missed their opportunity to get right with God and ended up in hell. There was usually one story during the week about someone who was under conviction—almost ready to accept Jesus in their heart—but before they could get to church they were killed in a terrible automobile accident. Ohhh, if only they had made that decision. Now bow your heads and close your eyes…
Emotional manipulation does not “draw” people into the kingdom. It pushes them into a psychological trauma for a short time. Some get over it later, but are left with a faith that has no roots. Others spend their whole lives with a minor case of religiously created PTSD to deal with.
People aren’t argued into the kingdom. They aren’t coerced into it. They aren’t pushed into it. Only the love of Christ can draw us into the loving arms of God.
Authentic evangelism is not manipulation. It is match-making. It is introducing a person to Christ and letting them date each other until they fall in love. God is in love with us. If we allow ourselves to get close enough to God, we will fall in love with God.
Appointment
The Hour of Jesus finally came. He had an appointment, and he kept it. He was on time.
Disappointment with life comes from not keeping the appointment with God. No appointment means disappointment. Life has no point without the spiritual dimension. We wander, lost, without a compass if God is not our magnetic North Pole. There is no point. Life is one long disappointment unless we keep our appointment with God.
The Hour came. Jesus kept his appointment. He was lifted up on the Cross. Now, when we gaze at the Cross, we don’t see a “mere symbol.” We feel an attraction. We experience the Cross as the Sacrament of eternal love which draws us into the very Heart of God.
The Cross is the sign of the New Covenant spoken of by Jeremiah. Christ has been lifted up as our High Priest, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us.
Christ was lifted up so that you and I can be lifted out of our sin and our fear of death—and lifted up into the arms of God, who will never let us go.
