Golgotha, The Place Of The Skull: This Is Glory
Text: John 12:20-43
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.
For the last 40 days or so we have
been in the season of Lent. Our Wednesday
Lenten Services and our Sunday Morning Services have intended to slow us down,
help us contemplate ourselves and Christ, and gradually funnel us towards Holy
Week. Indeed, we have spent some 40 days
moving a little closer and closer to Holy Week with a sense of soberness, with
a sense of being keenly aware of our sin, and with a sense of seriousness. And now, we are here. We have arrived. We stand at the edge of Holy Week today, this
Palm Sunday. This is indeed the week
where things are supposedly going to get going.
We have been patiently waiting, anticipating, and looking for Christ’s
glory. Do we sense that we are on the
brink of hearing and seeing Christ’s glory this Holy Week?
In our Gospel reading the disciples
must have felt the same sense of anticipation as Jesus continually said to the
disciples over 3 ½ years, “My time has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. It is not my time yet. No, not now my disciples; the time is later.”
Yes, there were countless occasions
where Jesus was either almost arrested or taken by force to Jerusalem, but it
simply did not happen because the time was not right. The hour of Jesus’ glory had not yet
arrived.
However, in our Gospel reading from
this morning, things are a bit different.
We encounter an event that happened right after Jesus came into
Jerusalem on a donkey. After the palm
branches, the great welcome and yelling of, “Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord,” we read in our Gospel reading that Jesus is
interacting with His disciples and a group of Greeks. He then says, “The hour has come for the Son
of Man to be glorified.” What? Yes, after all the countless times of saying
that it was not His time, here in our text, Jesus is now saying that it is His
time. Now is the time for Jesus to
reveal His glory.
Do you realize that this could not
have come at a better time? Jesus is in
Jerusalem, the capital city! They have
given Him a hero’s welcome. The city of
Jerusalem is packed with people for the annual Passover Celebration. There are so many people in Jerusalem that
people are camped everywhere in and around the city. There is a great buzz of energy in the air as
the people of Israel remember and celebrate how God rescued them from the
oppression of Egypt in the days of Moses.
And here in our Gospel reading Jesus says, “The hour is here. The time is now; it is time for the Son of
Man is to be glorified.”
We can just imagine the reaction of
the disciples and others when they heard this news from Jesus. “It is about time. Now, we will see things happen. Yes, the timing is just right Jesus; now we
are going to see something really spectacular.
Let’s capture the buzz and excitement and funnel it towards Jesus as He unleashes
His glory. Yes, Jesus you healed, gave
sight, and imparted health; now you are going to drive out the Romans … restore
the temple … and make Jerusalem great.
Hold on and fasten your seatbelts for we are in for a ride!”
Yes, Jesus said that the hour had come
for the Son of Man to be glorified! “What
earthly glorious pictures those words must have called up in the minds of the
disciples. They were flushed with the glory of the palms and hosannas of Palm
Sunday. This, they thought, was the real Jesus, the royal Jesus. This was Jesus
coming into His own. The kingdom was about to be established.”[1]
Surely, glory is about to be
revealed. The disciples and followers
were on the edge of glory; they were about to experience and see glory in
Jerusalem.
For you and me today, we stand on the
edge of Holy Week looking forward knowing that we will hear and celebrate
Jesus’ glory as well. But what does this
glory exactly look like? What do you
think glory looks like as we stand on the verge of Holy Week anticipating the
glorification of Jesus?
Well, some believe that glory is the
accumulation of power and status. Glory
some others is the gathering of money, health, and influence. Yet glory for another group may be acquiring
first place and having a list of achievements, achievements that provide a
platform for boasting. Victory,
prestige, health, money, power, influence, confidence, status, boasting,
control, and beauty are all words that are attached to and communicate the word
‘glory.’
Thus, is this what we will see in
Jesus? Is this what we can anticipate
this next week as we hear about Jesus being glorified during Holy Week? As we have been journeying towards Holy Week
during Lent, has our slow journey been a steady uphill climb towards the
flashing glitter and power of glory that anchors itself above the troubles of
suffering? As we come closer to Good
Friday will we find that the Roman Empire has been destroyed, that the
Pharisees have been silenced, and that Jesus sits in power and control on a
mighty golden throne? Will we find
ourselves sitting on Jesus’ right and left established in health, wealth, and
happiness?
My friends as we step into Holy Week
we will most definitely hear and see Jesus in glory. However, the glory that we will see is quite
a bit different from the glory that you and I anticipate. It is different from what the disciples
anticipated as well. We will not see
Jesus overcome and destroy the Roman Empire but Christ destroyed, bloodied, and
beaten on a Roman execution cross. My
friends, we won’t see Jesus correcting a crooked justice system but we will see
a Kangaroo court enacting perverted justice upon a truly sinless man. My friends we won’t see a halo, but a crown
of thorns. My friends we won’t see a
radiant Jesus sitting on a golden throne but rather we will see a suffering
servant, spit upon, beaten to mush, and crucified. This week we won’t see anything of renown,
honor, beauty, respect, delight, splendor, and adoration. My friends, it seems that Jesus’ definition
of glory is quite different from our definition of glory.
Yes, instead of rising out of the Lent
Season to a glittery and flashy glorious Holy Week, it seems that we are going
to travel to a place called Golgotha; the place of the Son of God’s death.
But how can this be glory you may
ask? It does not look like glory. It does not sound like glory. It does not feel like glory. I want glory.
I need glory. I don’t want to
know what happens when we plunge deeper and further away from what I perceive glory
to be like. I don’t want to follow Jesus
any deeper or go any darker into the valley of death. I don’t want the cross. I don’t want to see the crown of thorns. I don’t want to be spit upon. I don’t want to hear the hammer and nails. I don’t want blood to be spilt upon me. I don’t want suffering. Where Jesus goes, I cannot go. Thus, my
friends, Jesus goes alone. Abandoned by
His disciples and abandoned by the crowd, Jesus goes to the cross on His own
solidarity. Jesus goes to this
anti-glorious place to be lifted up on a cross.
When the Christ is lifted up on the cross—after being spit upon, bloodied, mocked, betrayed, and forsaken—the scriptures say that He draws all men to Himself. Yes, in this anti-glorious place; in this dark, ugly, low place of shame and death, Jesus drags and pulls the weight of sin from the world unto Himself. Do you and I truly hear this? Jesus chose the crown of thorns. He chose the hammer and nails. He went into the darkness. He chose the cross. He drank the cup of wrath and He drags and pulls the weight of sin, your sin and mine, into this anti-glorious place, called Golgotha, where sin finds death, where sin is finished for you and for me.
When the Christ is lifted up on the cross—after being spit upon, bloodied, mocked, betrayed, and forsaken—the scriptures say that He draws all men to Himself. Yes, in this anti-glorious place; in this dark, ugly, low place of shame and death, Jesus drags and pulls the weight of sin from the world unto Himself. Do you and I truly hear this? Jesus chose the crown of thorns. He chose the hammer and nails. He went into the darkness. He chose the cross. He drank the cup of wrath and He drags and pulls the weight of sin, your sin and mine, into this anti-glorious place, called Golgotha, where sin finds death, where sin is finished for you and for me.
This. Is. Glory. This. Is. Glory.
This is the glorification of Jesus Christ: going where no other person would go and doing what no other person could do, taking the world's sin upon Himself and considering it well-worthwhile.
This is the glorification of Jesus Christ: going where no other person would go and doing what no other person could do, taking the world's sin upon Himself and considering it well-worthwhile.
Now,
the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] (Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel (p.
106) for Palm Sunday, preaching on John 12:20-29)
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