Rude Jesus
This is the message I shared with St. Timothy Lutheran Church this past Sunday. The sermon was slightly modified for St. Mark's . The scripture was John 12:20-33. In today's gospel, once again we see Jesus acting in an unexpected way. Unlike the previous weeks of grumpy, angry Jesus, today Jesus just seems to be rude. John tells us about some Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. They were in Jerusalem for the feast, so they were not pagans. They were likely Jewish proselytes, converts to Judaism. First they talked to Philip and then Philip talked to Andrew and then Philip and Andrew talk to Jesus. Jesus responded to the Greeks by saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified..." What in the world does that mean and how does it have anything to do with the Greeks' desire to meet with Jesus? Prior to this, in John's gospel, Jesus kept saying that his hour had not yet come, even when his life was threatened. ...