John 12:20-33

Lent 5 - Year B

John 12:2-36

What is the chain of command in your faith community to connect inquirers with your source of authority? Would folks know you are in that chain of command and ask for next steps?

In the storyline there is a temptation to make Jesus’ responses into a scary kind of evangelism fit only for saints, not the faint of heart. His response to being asked about some Greeks wanting to have an audience was to talk to his chain of disciples about how hard his work is and to depart, to turn down the request.

We don’t know if the inquirers we a part of later crowds, but on the surface here, they didn’t draw near to Jesus because his soul was troubled, he was out-of-sorts, even grumpy, and out of here.

The passage continues with a reference to all Jesus had given his disciples and they still didn’t get it. This would tend to suggest that what the disciples didn’t get was their own part in salvation history. For some reason they still saw the way to G*D going through channels, works-righteousness, and a top-down structure. Imagine if Philip had said, “What can I help you with, for to see me is to see Jesus?” Disciples are reflections of their modeler. Even more, what if Philip had said, “What can I help you with? Together we can partner with G*D.” As Jesus is to reveal G*D, so we are to reveal G*D. Anything less is to discount our discipleship. You and Philip have choices about bumping people one step closer to a disappearing Jesus or acting out the humble authority of following Jesus all the way to G*D.