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. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. (John 12:20-33 NRSV)

***

“We wish to see Jesus”
The Greeks’ question is also our question.
Why?

The Way of the Cross is not easy.
The life of a disciple is not guaranteed to be a fun one.
Jesus does not promise us a rose garden
He promises us our cross.

After all, in this morning’s Gospel reading we find
many strange things:
among the strangest is this little jewel--

“He who loves his life loses it
and he who hates his life in the world will keep it for eternal life.”

This doesn't exactly sound like fun, now does it?
Life can be difficult,
and even the littlest of things can trip us.
Jesus did not call on God to save him from the cross.
He could have called on a host of angles
to defend him,
He could have brought down the wrath of God on the Romans,
the disbelieving Jews,
the faithless disciples,
But, he did none of these things.
He came to die.

Why?

Because of who God is, and because of what we need.

Would you pray with me?

Lord God, our Heavenly Father, move among us so that we, Thy people, may always feel and sense Thy divine power and presence; for we need to know that we are never alone. And speak to each and every one of us in such a way that we may hear, understand, and remember, give us words by which to mold and shape our living; for we confess to you that we are a people who need such words by which to live. For we pray in Thy Holy and Gracious Name. Amen.

It seems to me that our morning’s Psalter reading answers our question
as to why we need Jesus.
As usual, when faced with a perplexing problem,
the best source of answer is the Scripture--
and especially the Psalms.
From Psalm 51:

"Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin."

This plea illustrates why God sent his Son, Jesus, into this world.

We are a fallen, broken, and sinful people.
Thanks to Adam and Eve, we are without hope.
Apart from God's loving-kindness,
God's mercy, grace and peace,
we are helpless,
we are in deep..... trouble.
And, yet, who are we to expect help from God?

After all that we've have done, how can we turn to our heavenly Father
and ask for what we do not deserve?
We are a sinful people, we human beings.
Just look around the world,
if you're in doubt:
the hatred and anger,
the bigotry,
the lack of morals,
the lack of love,
the loss of vision and dream,
war,
famine,
environmental pollution,
and an evil man,
who not only dumps millions of gallons of oil into a sea,
but also blows up hundreds of oil wells,
and fills the atmosphere with tons of chocking, black smoke.

There is no doubt in my mind:
We, as a race, have turned our backs on God.
We've ignored the revelation of the Old Testament,
We've even failed to see and hear the message of the New Testament.
We've ignored the Almighty,
the King of Creation.
How can we expect God to forgive us?
How can we turn to God, and expect Him to help us?

We are in pretty bad shape, my brothers and sisters.
We are all sinners,
None of us has any right to claim perfection.....
although we Methodists claim to be on the road to perfection.

Henry Ward Beecher used to tell a wonderfully funny story about how,
when he was preaching a service at a Methodist church,
he asked the question:
“You Methodists believe you’re going to be perfect someday.
So, I ask you ... is there anyone here who’s perfect?”
The Sanctuary was silent until a lone woman stood up in the back.
“Sister? Are you perfect?”
“No,” she replied, “But my husband’s first wife was.”

We Methodists claim
--and rightly so--
that we are “moving on to perfection.”
But perfection is not something that we can ever claim to achieve
through our own merit or worth.
Sanctification is a gift from God,
given to us through the merit and grace of Jesus Christ.
Why would God give such a glorious gift like Salvation
to such a sinful, rotten species, like ours?
Why would God give even us Methodists,
with all the stupid things that we do,
a chance to come back to Him?

It may sound trite,
It may sound like a tired, worn-out cliché,
but the only way to say it is to say it simply:

God loves us.

We can try to embellish it with fancy words and phrases,
with theological titles and philosophical axioms,
but when it comes right down to it, the simple way is the best way:

God loves us.

God loves us
yes, despite our backbiting,
self-righteous,
gossip-peddling,
self-centered,
egotistical sinfulness,
God loves even us.
The Psalmist's plea has been heard:

"...according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions. "

In due season, God sent His Only Begotten Son,
Jesus of Nazareth,
to live and work
eat and breath
laugh and cry with us and for us,
as one of us,
here on the Good Earth.
God came to be with us and
blot our our transgressions.
The Author of Hebrews said it beautifully:

"Being made perfect he became the source
of eternal salvation to all who
obey him." (Hebrews 5:9)

We are a sinful people,
But Christ has brought us salvation.

In this Lenten Season we are called to repent of our sins
as we await the annual remembrance of Christ's death and resurrection.
As we walk through the two weeks before Good Friday and Easter Sunday,
I ask that we all would look at Psalm 51,
and then at our own lives,
and then pray for forgiveness.

This morning,
as on every morning,
We wish to see Jesus--
And he is here.
We wish to see Jesus,
because he is our only hope in this sinful, backslid world.
We wish to see Jesus.....
But are we ready to see Him?
Are you ready to see Him?
The Psalmist prayed:

"Have Mercy on us, O God, according to your loving-kindness;
in your great compassion blot out our offenses."

When you can pray this,
and know that the Cross answers your plea, then..... and only then ...
You can see Jesus.
Until then,
his death and resurrection will be meaningless.

We wish to see Jesus.
But we must be ready to see Him on the cross, dying for our sins.
If we're not, then on Easter morning we will see nothing at all.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen