Reflection: John 12:20-33

5th Week of Lent – John 12:20-33

As Holy Week begins to draw near, the Gospels begin to prepare us for the unfolding drama of Holy Week. In the each Gospel this week, there are hints of the drama that will unfold in the days ahead.

Today’s Gospel begins as some of the Greeks who were in Jerusalem for Passover went to Philip and told him that they would like to see Jesus. The Greeks had recently arrived. How had they heard about Jesus? Had word of Jesus and his teaching and miracles spread to Greece? Or had these Greeks simply heard stories about Jesus since they arrived in Jerusalem?

Philip and Andrew told Jesus that these Greeks wished to see him and also hear him speak. However, Jesus did not focus on the Greeks’ desire to meet him. He doesn’t respond to what Philip and Andrew just told him. Rather, Jesus began to prepare his disciples for the events that would unfold in the next few days. Jesus tells them that the hour has come. He also tells them that he would be glorified. Jesus then uses the image of a grain of wheat that has to fall into the ground and ultimately die. Only after dying, would the wheat be able to produce fruit! Did his disciples understand what Jesus was saying? Or was he just confusing them?

Jesus then tells his disciples that he is deeply troubled. Jesus realized that pain, sorrow and death were in his future. Can you imagine the emotion, pain and fear that Jesus must have been experiencing? True, Jesus was God. However, he also was fully human. Yes, he was committed to this path. Did he also experience fear, sorrow and loss? And how would Mary, his mother, deal with his impending death? He was all she had.

Jesus had committed himself to this journey and to his people. Jesus is choosing to do this to glorify God’s name. Then Jesus hears a voice speaking to him from heaven, affirming him in his decision to glorify God’s name. What a comfort it must have been when Jesus heard God’s voice from heaven reassuring him. What a wonderful gift to receive. This experience must have strengthened Jesus for the path that he would walk!

In our lives, we also have moments like Jesus, when we know we need to take a path that will be difficult and painful. Are we willing to surrender ourselves into God’s hands? Do we trust God to be with us, to grace? Do we believe that God also will strengthen and console us? Do we trust that we will not be alone on this journey?

Jesus was human! He experienced many of the unpleasant realities of life that we all have to deal with. Yet, he completely trusted his Father, his God, to support and help him on every step of his journey. Today may we ask Jesus to give us a share of Jesus’ trust and faith in God! And may we say yes to what life is asking of us at this time in our lives! Truly God is and will be with us!