If It Dies • John 12:20-33
By Clay Anthony
Are you old enough to remember singing from hymn books? Do you remember hymn books with shape notes? Some of my most cherished memories involve hearing the harmony sung out across our church family that those songs required.
Hearing the words sung aloud of the hymn, “I Want to Know More About my Lord,” resonated in my young heart. The desire for the old hymns means even more to me now even than it did back then. There is a hunger inside that desire to simply know more about Jesus.
The Apostle John records a scene that involves certain men holding this same desire (vv. 20-22). They want to see Jesus. Seeing that He has just raised Lazarus, perhaps they wanted to see a miracle or to see what all the fuss was about.
Unbeknown to them, there is much more to Jesus than just seeing Him. Their request leads to a much deeper and detailed view of just who Jesus is and His true purpose.
If someone walks into your church this Sunday and asks, “‘Can you introduce me to Jesus?’ you would be thrilled. Imagine how perplexed the disciples of Jesus must have been when He shows no signs of being thrilled but begins a monologue about dying. Grain dying? Bearing fruit? Losing our lives? Jesus, these folks just want to see you!
The crowd was missing the point. No one simplyseesJesus. The process of seeing Jesus leads to change. The biggest change that Jesus demands of us is to die to yourself. Your desires, dreams, and plans no longer exist. The point Jesus is making is clear — to see Him is to follow Him and to follow Him is have every part of your life forever changed for the better.
Part of that life change is that those desiring to see Jesus and who are changed by Him are in fact bringing glory to God the Father (vv. 27-28). To give God glory merely means that you are giving God credit. When we receive a blessing and are quick to give God glory, are all we are doing is giving credit where it is due?
God did it, not us. Upon seeing Jesus and being transformed by Him, it is to always be noted that God moved on our behalf. Any transformation brought on by God is accomplished by God. If this crowd who wanted to simply see Jesus had been transformed into a crowd now willing to die for Him and spread His message to others, then that change was instigated by God alone.
The glory belongs to Him. The act of giving away the credit for a changed life has a purpose beyond what these early followers of Jesus could comprehend. The change brought on by God was never meant to stop with them. If you will note the beginning sequence of this scene, it was Phillip who was first approached by the curious group to inquire of Jesus.
Phillip in turn runs to Andrew, who joins with his brother to get these people an audience with Jesus. Phillip could have told a first-hand account of what Jesus had done. He could have recited verbatim the sermons that Jesus had preached.
Phillip had that opportunity but he lacked the ability to bring about the aforementioned change that these people needed because that could only have come from one place.
To see Jesus clearly is not necessary to witness His healing power or to hear His unmatched preaching. No, to see Jesus is to see the purpose for why He came — to save souls. Blind receiving sight and dead receiving life again were truly miraculous moments.
Power over nature and oratory skill were no doubt reasons to seek out Jesus, but ultimately only seeing Him lifted up (vv. 29-33) will satisfy God the Father and bring decisively what this crowd and we today truly need.
Like that child who found the words of the old hymn captivating when they spoke of knowing Jesus more, let us realize that to see Jesus in the fullest of terms is to see Him dying on a cross for our sins.
The clearest picture we can share is the one of everyone looking to Jesus for forgiveness of their sins. The best way to display such a picture is to show them what our lives look like now that we have died to self.
That is a message to sing as loud as our voices can to as many ears as can hear it.
Anthony is missions pastor at Harrisburg Church, Tupelo. He may be contacted at claynell@aol.com.
