This is our last Sunday of Lent before Palm Sunday. Our Gospel of John is beginning to set into motion for us the Passion as Jesus tells His disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” This year in our lectionary cycle, for Holy Week, we will hear the Passion according to Mark on Palm Sunday and the Passion according to John on Good Friday. Our Gospel today marks the beginning point in John’s Gospel for the story of Jesus’ passion and death. And also from John’s Gospel this weekend we receive Jesus’ perspective on the meaning of His life and death for the world.
Our Gospel may seem to begin a little oddly with “some Greeks” seeking Jesus and asking a disciple if they can “see” Him. In the Gospel of John, “seeing” is always more than just seeing with our eyes…it is a much deeper meaning of seeing – one that entails being invited into the revelation of Jesus, really knowing Jesus. So, we have some foreigners here seeking to be invited into the revelation of Jesus. The beginning of our passage connects to the ending of this passage when Jesus proclaims, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” Here in John’s Gospel, at a very important pivot point, we see Jesus’ saving action extend to all of the world, to everyone. An important point of our Gospel passage today is that Christ has indeed come for all, and the passion, death, resurrection and ascension He is about to embark upon will not only be for the Jews, but for everyone.
This emphasis on everyone is also how our Gospel reading connects with our first reading from the Book of Jeremiah. Through the prophet, God tells the people, “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts: I will be their God and they shall be my people… All from least to greatest, shall know me…” From the first reading: “All shall know me.” From our Gospel: “I will draw everyone to myself.”
This week, the last one before Holy Week, we could marvel in the fact that our God wants to be known by us. Knowledge of God and God’s law will be written in our hearts - in ALL hearts. Christ, who when crucified, raised from the dead and ascended, draws EVERYONE to Himself. Our readings show us a God who wants to be known by us, who wants to be really seen by us. As we prepare for Holy Week, we start with this story of salvation: we have a God who created us for Godself and has gone to so great a measure to be known by us, even sending His only Son to suffer, and die to rise again. Who are we that God wants to be known by us? It is with this in mind that we can walk the way of the Cross this year, with a greater sense of awe and gratitude for a God who would do even that to draw us, to draw everyone, to Godself.
Our prayer this week can begin with a simple mantra drawn from our Gospel today, “We want to see Jesus.” Though our seeing will lead us on the path of the Crucifixion, let us stick with it together and go through death to new life with Christ.