Fifth Sunday of
Lent (B) [Jn 12:20-33]
17.03.2024
Jesus
Foretells His Death and Exaltation
1. Theme in brief
Our daily experience of dying
and rising
2. Focus Statement
Only by dying to our self we can
gain life. Or only by spending or losing our lives in self-forgetful love we
can save it.
3.
Explanation of the text
In today’s gospel Jesus speaks
about the necessity of his being “lifted up” (that is, crucified) in order to
draw all people towards the gift of salvation he offers (12:32).
He illustrates this truth with an agricultural example in the context of the
visit of some Greeks, who had come to
But before such a change, first a
“grain of wheat” should fall into the earth and die (12:24). On this occasion Jesus
speaks about his own “hour” of death. He calls it the hour of his glorification (12:23), because it
becomes the gateway to his resurrection and exaltation. Citing the image of a seed used for sowing in
the agricultural setting of Palestine, Jesus says that if a grain of wheat is
not sown in the ground (field), it remains alone as a single grain in a basket
(12:24). But when it is sown it gets buried into the earth and dies (or decays). It is
only by dying it will sprout and later on will bear much fruit (12:24). He applies
this metaphor of the dying grain of wheat sown in the ground to his own
suffering, death on the cross and burial, and its sprouting to his resurrection.
This will bring forth the great fruit of salvation to all those who ‘believe’ in him, that is, put
their trust in him. Then his disciples would become a part of the abundant “harvest” (Jn 4:35-36) –
referring to the universal gift of salvation brought by Jesus
to both the Jews and the Gentiles.
After citing this metaphor about
his own condition, Jesus lays down the requirements for his followers. He
says that the excessive love of self is not going to be the hallmark
of his disciples. He illustrates the kind of self-denial he wants from his
disciples by making use of contrasting phrases: of “loving” one’s life and “losing” it; “dying” like a seed in order
to sprout (rise) and “bear much fruit”; and “hating” one’s life in order to “keep it
for eternal life” (12:25). He instructs that his disciples should not love life
in such a way that all their energies are focussed on themselves; instead, they
should be willing to lose (spend) their life or die to their selfishness. When
they "die" to their selves, they "rise" to new life in him.
“Dying to oneself” means “crucifying” or "putting to death"
one’s self-will and saying
"yes" to God’s will. He wants that his followers should be willing to
“hate” their life (meaning, their self), that is, should take care that they do not love their own
self more than him (12:25). Here the phrase “hating one’s life” does not mean
an intense aversion for one’s own life as we normally understand. It means a
disciple should prefer him over everything else, or be detached from self in order to free oneself
fully to obey him. Or it means a replacement of one’s self with a
total and undivided devotion to him.
Jesus further says that a servant (disciple) must be
willing to follow the Master and do what he does. It means, like the grain of
wheat, a disciple also must be willing to die for bearing a rich fruit or ‘harvest’
(for the salvation of others). The reward for such a self-denial or total
detachment from self is “to be where Jesus is” (that is, a final share in his
eternal life, 12:25) and to be honoured by the Father (12:26). When
applied to the present life, it could mean: where service is, where cross is, there Jesus is; and
there his disciple also should be. A denial of self opens one to receive the
divine life that never dies. Hence, only a self-forgetful love or service can
lead his followers where he himself is. Later on, he will say more clearly that
he will depart from this world to prepare a dwelling place for his disciples
(Jn14:2-3). By his death on the cross and his exaltation to the Father (in
John’s terminology “when he is lifted up from the earth”), Jesus drives out Satan (the ruler of this
world) and draws all people to himself (12:31-32). The cross which is a sign
of defeat and shame becomes a means for the defeat of the devil and the
gathering of all people into a community of believers.
After speaking about
requirements and reward, Jesus speaks frankly about the mental
agony
going on inside of him as his “hour” is approaching. He lays bare the trouble going on in his soul
whether to accept the cross or to run away from it. He wishes his Father could
save him from such suffering (12:27). But he changes his prayer immediately
when he realizes that he has come to the
world for this reason, that is, to lay down his life in total obedience to the Father and to
glorify his name (12: 27-29). As he surrenders to his Father’s will, the voice of his Father
approves his decision and strengthens him (12:28-29).
4.
Application to life
We began
the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday with the intention of practicing more ardently Lenten observances like charitable deeds and sharing of our goods with the needy. Today’s gospel focuses
on the obstacles to genuine love (charity) and the way to overcome them by obeying
Christ’s teaching and imitating his example of self-forgetful, self-giving, self-sacrificing and self-emptying love. In John’s Letter we
read that God is love and love is known by laying down our lives for one
another just as Jesus laid down his life for us (1 Jn 4:8; 3:16). But opposed
to this, we constantly experience an inner pull of selfishness that blocks
genuine love.
In a way, all humans are selfish
by nature, which is a basic instinct needed for self-preservation and survival. No doubt, genuine care for oneself and
concern for one’s own welfare are not only not sinful but also necessary. This
type of justified ‘self-love’ is quite different
from selfishness. Even the biblical command to “Love your neighbour as
yourself” presumes or presupposes the love of self as
the natural condition of all humans. What the Bible commands is to love
our neighbours as we already love ourselves naturally without taking any lesson
from the Scriptures or anybody. Since human tendency is to be preoccupied with one’s own love, Jesus commands or reminds us everyday to win
over this natural tendency by balancing self-love with love
of neighbour. When we love ourselves exclusively or more than our neighbours, or when the balance gets tilted to our
direction more than 50%, we become selfish in the real sense.
The selfishness or egotism of this type is the root of all sins and totally goes contrary to
God’s nature. The selfish persons are interested only in themselves and desire
everything for themselves. They find no joy in giving, but only in receiving or taking. They focus only on what
they can get from others, human society and country, but never bother to think
of what they can give. They relate with others only in terms of their usefulness to themselves. Such selfish persons are incapable of loving not
only others, but also themselves. If we selfishly hold on to life to
safeguard our own “little world,” we will stay alone like an unsown grain of
wheat in a basket. Jesus was alone on the cross, but out of his sacrifice he has brought forth the fruit of millions of followers. Jesus invites us today to spend and give
life rather than save and hoard it. Only by spending our lives for the love of others do we save
it. Or only when we die to our selfishness, we rise to
new life. Hence, true death is not physical death but withdrawal into ourselves and refusal to give ourselves. Our
life becomes fruitful only when we lose/ give/ spend life and die to our
selfishness and bury it.
Look at the ways people try to save or prolong their life! As the rate of illnesses related to blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol goes higher and higher, people are becoming more and more health conscious. They meticulously follow the latest medical tips of water-therapy, naturopathy, morning walks, jogging, yoga practice, physiotherapy, sugar-free/ cholesterol-free food, etc. If we go to public parks early in the morning in many cities we find them crowded with morning walkers and joggers. All these health precautions are good and necessary for life. But more important than this is to think why we want to live longer. If it is only for own fitness, enjoyment, long life, welfare and security, we may live longer, but will be forgotten very soon! If we do not take care to spend our lives in self-forgetful service and live only for ourselves without lifting a finger for doing good to others, then what Robin Sharma writes in one of his books will be true of us: “Who will cry when you die?”
Who are the people we remember the most in our life even after their death? Who are our role models? Of course, those who went out of their way to contribute substantially for human cause and spent their life in generous service. We have been greatly influenced by such role models, because they did not think of only their safety, security, selfish gain and advancement. Only by spending their lives in selfless service, they retained it, and they continue to live in our memory. Jesus invites us to imitate not only him but also such models by putting to death and burying our personal desires and ambitions. Nowadays, social analysts point out that children mostly consider film stars and sports hero-heroines as their role models and not their parents and teachers! Today’s gospel makes us reflect on the reason for this……...?
See
the bad impact of our failures to make self-denial: an ever increasing rate of corruption, fights, groupism, hatred, complaints
(when one’s wish is not fulfilled), grumbling, bitterness, desire for revenge,
non-cooperation, indifference, etc. In the Lenten Season, this passage invites
us to spend our life more and
more in love and service and not to hoard it by withdrawing into ourselves. Therefore, if we
want to practice charity more ardently in this Lent, we need to keenly observe
who needs our service, where it is needed and how can we render it. Jesus’
teaching about self-giving and self-sacrificing love needs to be shown in concrete or practical
ways by visiting the classmate/ neighbour/ relative/ colleague who is sick; doing
household chores without being ordered by parents; giving tuition to poor children; consoling somebody who is in distress or
sorrow; volunteering to do a
community service which others do not want to do; sharing our resources; becoming sensitive to the needs of others, etc. When we proactively serve anybody in
need or make sacrifices for the welfare of others, we “die” to self. This leads
to the experience of glimpses of joy and glory of eternal life already to some
extent here on earth, and finally to the fullest extent when Jesus’ “servants”
(we) will reach where their Master is.
Our
whole life is a series of dying
and rising. When I reflect on
this principle, I realize how much I have to struggle everyday to die to my own
comforts or needs to work for others’ comforts or needs; how much I need to move
from my own rigidity to flexibility, arrogance to humility, coldness and
indifference to zeal or enthusiastic service, insensitivity to others’ needs/
feelings/ religious faith/ culture to sensitivity and respect, narrow/ghetto
mentality to pluriformity, and from my own comfort-zone to another zone of sacrificial
offering of my time and energy for the welfare of others. If I want to die to my arrogance, intolerance, superiority, perfectionism,
I’m-ok-you-are-not-ok attitude, beforehand I need to count the cost of daily
self-sacrifices or self-denials.
Dying to self is also called self-emptying just as Jesus emptied himself of all his heavenly
privileges to become obedient to the point of death on a cross (Phil 2:6-8). This
type of death to the false self is a form of suffering and may
generate physical and mental agony in us. Like Jesus, we too wish that God
should save us miraculously from all suffering (12:27). We are tempted to rebel
against God’s will and evade crosses. But like Jesus we need
to surrender wholeheartedly our will to the will of the
Father. By our union with Christ we learn to share in his life of sacrifice. Then, as Paul says, we learn to crucify our old self with Jesus so that the body of sin might be destroyed,
and we might no longer be enslaved to sin (Rom 6:6).
5.
Response to
God's Word
Do we love ourselves exclusively or more than our neighbours, or does the balance of love gets tilted to our direction more than 50%? Do we find joy only in receiving or taking, or also in giving? Do we prolong our life through health care only for enjoyment of long life, or want to contribute something lasting our family and human society? For what we like to be remembered? What are the negative consequences we have faced by loving only our own life or failing to die to self? Do we give our life more and more in love and service, or hoard it by withdrawing into ourselves? What self-sacrifices or self-denials Christ expects from us in order to follow him and to be where he is?
6.
A prayer
Lord, grant that I may be a
grain of wheat sown in the field to bear a plentiful harvest for you. Give
me the strength to follow you faithfully by walking the path of self-sacrifice,
self-denial and self-emptying so that I may be where you are. Remain with me in
my struggle to die to my selfishness and rise to share in your divine life. Amen.
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