Fifth Sunday of Lent
Intention: For justice in our world, especially for all who are forgotten or excluded, abandoned or abused, persecuted or exploited, that good people everywhere will rise to their defense and come to their aid.
Today’s Gospel | John 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like 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. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.
“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
A Lenten Reflection
In Jodi Picoult’s novel, My Sister’s Keeper, a judge is faced with the King Solomon-like task of determining which of the lives of two sisters is more significant in the eyes of the law. As he renders his finding to the court, he says, “The answer is that there is no good answer. So as parents, as doctors, as judges, and as a society, we fumble through and make decisions that allow us to sleep at night – because morals are more important than ethics, and love is more important than law.” His pained analysis points out the tension between legalism and human needs, of often having to employ impersonal structures to respond to personal realities.
In the narrative of the woman caught in adultery, Jesus is asked to choose between the strict teaching of Mosaic Law and his own lessons about mercy. The crowd believed that the sinfulness of one person could bring punishment upon them all, and that the law of stoning was intended to avert this. Jesus knew this, but he also knew that there was larger point to the Law, and that was the problem of relationships. Individual sin wounds a person by distorting the person’s unity with God and wounds the community by distorting its unity with the sinner. And so, the need is both to serve the person through the call to repentance and to serve the community through reconnecting it to the person. This was the full understanding of reconciliation that had become lost in over-reliance on law.
The pastor Tullian Tchividjian once made the observation, “Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.” The spirit of reconciliation is one in which human foibles are seen is calls to empathy and creativity. We can build bonds of understanding on the struggles and imperfections that we share, but only if we are willing to accept that accountability and forgiveness are not opposites, but are companions. Lent is a good time to reflect on how we might grow in our resolve not to look for stones to throw but for ways to love instead.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your Son taught that we should not judge lest we ourselves be judged. During this holy time of Lent, we give thanks for the opportunities to learn to live with compassion. When we see others stumble or fall, help us to be present to them and determined to help without judging. May we want only to love completely, even when we do not completely understand. Teach us to always give of ourselves in humility, trust, and care. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.