Dearest Family and Friends of St. Margaret’s,
Greetings to each of you as we continue our journey together through Lent – this Fifth Sunday in Lent – our last Sunday in Lent before Holy Week – towards Jerusalem – to Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and ultimately Easter Day.
As we near Holy Week, we arrive in Jerusalem with Jesus in this week’s reading from the Gospel of John.
When Jesus finally arrives in Jerusalem in verse 12, he continues attracting a large crowd. John 12:20-36 is Jesus’ final public teaching in the Gospel, and it is delivered to a group of both Jews and Gentiles.
In fact, the arrival of the “Greeks” who “wish to see Jesus” in verse 20 seems to prompt Jesus’ comment that his hour has come in John 12:23.
For John’s Gospel, therefore, it’s not enough just to come to Jesus or “want to see” him; we must have our ears open and vision corrected. As Jesus explains, we cannot avoid darkness and death, but instead, must trust that the light overcomes the darkness.
“Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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.”
The Image of the seed needing to die to because new life is such a profound visual. The mystery of the seed planted, waiting in the darkness, remaining a seed until it finally cracks open to send out a shoot and ultimately breaks through the soil and then rises up towards the sun…..amazing imagery.
Let us remember this image as we look to the next two weeks.
Be well, look out for your neighbor, keep a Holy Lent, be smart, and stay focused on Our Lord.
Jane+
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