The Glory of the Lord
John 12:20-43
Palm Sunday
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for Palm Sunday is the Gospel reading John 12. On Palm Sunday Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. People were there waving palm branches and shouting “hosanna.” Many people wanted to see Jesus. Just days earlier, Jesus had performed a great miracle – the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Everyone was taking about it. The air was electric with anticipation. Even in an era before social media, it’s safe to say that Jesus was “trending.” And yet we see that the Lord did not get distracted by the limelight. After Jesus entered the city, He started to speak about His death. Our Lord said these words. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Jesus goes on to explain that His being “glorified” means being “lifted up from the earth” to draw all people to Himself. Jesus’ ultimate glory is His crucifixion, by which He draws us to Himself.
The Lord Jesus makes it clear on what is going to happen to Him by using a metaphor. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus is that grain of wheat. Try to keep it and preserve it, and you will get nothing. But bury it in the earth, and it rises up to bear much fruit. So it would be for Jesus. He would go the way of death and the grave, just like a seed cast into the ground. Jesus will lose His life only to take it up again three days later. And in His dying and rising, He will bear much fruit; He will earn the gift of your salvation. That is what we would expect to hear at the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus talking about dying and rising. It’s why Jesus came. It’s why we commemorate this week as holy.
But then the Lord says something unexpected. He starts to speak about us. “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” And then Jesus goes on to say this. “If anyone serves me, he must follow me.” That’s you Jesus is referring to. You must follow Him. How it goes for Jesus, so it shall it go for you. Expect to get treated like Jesus: trials, temptations, turmoil and eventually dying and rising. Follow Jesus and that is what you get.
We don’t much care for this way of speaking. But at least nobody can accuse Jesus of false advertising. Jesus never claimed that following Him would be easy. Yet that is the popular myth that many Christians believe. We think that following Jesus means you can expect nothing but the best, here and now, in this life. Follow Jesus and watch life’s pressures and disappointments melt away. Follow Jesus, and you won’t have depression or sickness or worry. Follow Jesus and you will have an easy life. That is not what Jesus says. In reality, what Jesus says is, “Follow me, and give up all control. Follow me to the cross and grave. Follow me and fall into the earth like a grain of wheat and die.”
Everybody dies, of course, so what’s Jesus talking about? What does He mean? Well, the Bible tells us that Baptism is a kind of death, that in Baptism we are buried with Jesus unto death. In Baptism we died, and our life is now hidden with Christ. But remember, the dying and rising of Baptism isn’t a one-time event. It’s a daily occurrence. Baptism is a way of life: dying to sin, rising to new life with Jesus. It is a life of repentance and forgiveness. At one point Paul wrote, “I die every day” (1 Cor 15:31). What he meant was that, as Luther says in the catechism, every day, our old Adam with all his filth and sin needs to be drowned and die.
What needs to die in you? What part of you needs to be put to death? What part of you needs to be drowned? We often think that we can live in complacency and comfort without having to change our sinful life. We think that we can follow Jesus and love the world at the same time. It cannot be done. To love the world is to turn away from Christ. Our Lord has called us to follow Him. To follow Christ means a life of repentance.
And so again I ask: What in you needs to die? What needs to be buried? Is it your need to be in control and in charge at all times, or is it your apathy, indifference, and laziness? Maybe it’s that you draw your identity from what other people think about you. Maybe you get your self-worth from your good grades or your career instead of understanding that your identity is in Christ. Perhaps you have made yourself so busy with the things of this world that you have no time for the things of God. Maybe you have let yourself be defined by your defeats and you’ve resigned yourself to victimhood. What part of you needs to be put to death? What are your addictions? Do you lack generosity because you’re holding your money and possessions too tightly? Are you filled with anger and rage and find it hard to control your temper? It could be anything. I am sure it is something different for each of us. But whatever it is, it is evidence of how much we love our life in this world. Whatever sin enslaves you, recognize the threat. Put it is to death. Bury it with Jesus.
It’s not easy. Your sinful nature is going to howl. A life of repentance is painful and difficult. But with Jesus all things are possible including repentance. There is an old saying that says, “No guts, no glory.” We are often lacking in the guts department, but we have a Savior who is all guts and all glory. Jesus saw His death on the cross as His greatest glory. Being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For all the sin in you that needs to die – Jesus died for you. And it was His moment of glory.
It's a strange combination: death and glory. We would never even think about using those two words in the same sentence. What seems glorious to us in this world usually means applause and accolades and compliments. For us, glory means basking in the spotlight, fame, and fortune. It means winning, not losing, and certainly not dying. But the glory of Jesus is centered on the cross. The glory of Jesus does not shine but it bleeds. It bleeds for you and for your salvation.
Jesus greatest glory is to do the will of the Father. It is to lay down His life as a sin sacrifice for the world. Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” Buy His death on the cross, Jesus lifts you up out of your sin and shame and draws you to Himself. Jesus lifts you up from death to life. In that glorious death, God and sinners are reconciled. Your sin is forgiven. You are justified. “If we have been united with (Jesus) in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5). Die with Jesus and rise with Jesus. The Lord is drawing you to Himself, and He will not stop until you behold Him face to face in all eternity. You have been crucified with Christ. His glorious death is your glorious death. His resurrection means that you will rise and bear much fruit. May this Holy Week be for you absolutely glorious! Amen.