Lent 5 - John 12 20-33 - Coming To Terms With Death

Coming to Terms with Death
One of the things that I've noticed as I have had the
opportunity to preside over funerals as a pastor is
that the tone, the emotional atmosphere
surrounding a death can vary widely. Some endings
are filled with laughter, memories, and connection.
Others with deep sadness, despair, shock, and even
anger. Many are somewhere between and beyond or
even take place weaving layers of seemingly opposite
emotions upon one another. Many are experienced
differently by different people depending on their
relationship to the deceased. To a long time
caretaker, the final passing may bring a deep sense
of relief and thankfulness that a loved one's "time
had come" is a cause for celebration and
remembrance. Yet, that same final passing, may be
March 21 2021 – Epworth UMC – John 12:20-33

1
experienced very differently by an out-of-state
relative who had not yet come to terms with a loved
one's decline. To them, this was a deep and
unrecoverable loss.
You can sometimes even get a sense of things by
what an end-of-life service is called. A "Celebration
of Life" or a Memorial Service or a Funeral.
Death, when it comes, is one of those things that
forces you to come to terms with a new reality.
Sometimes that reality is very much welcomed.
Sometimes it is very much unwelcomed.

2
Sometimes, its complicated.
Sometimes, it is all three, all at once.
Sometimes, it is one or another, in their own time.
Whatever the case, when death comes into our lives,
we face a reckoning. Things are no longer going to
be the same.
It is hard to ever be fully prepared for death, but
sometimes people are more prepared or less
prepared. And this preparation, very much
prefigures how one will experience death when it
occurs. I believe the categories of right and wrong
break down when you use them to apply to human

3
emotions. Yet, when one is well prepared for the
death of a loved one, it is my observation, that it is
much easier to enter into a space that might be
called a "celebration of life" when that reckoning
comes. This is far harder to do, when death is a
surprise.
In our Scripture today, we read the accounts of
Jesus, the disciples and some Greek visitors who
wanted to see Jesus.
Jesus was busy getting prepared for death. The
Greek visitors and the disciples were not. They were
in the midst of a Passover celebration. This is the

4
festival that is referred to in verse 20. Preparing for
death was probably the furthest thing from their
mind. This was a time of cultural and spiritual
celebration.
Jesus was seemingly aloof to the festival
surrounding him. He was waxing philosophical
about death. Busy finding purpose in his own
death. Busy preparing for death.
Friends, at this moment in Lent, this is what Jesus
invites us to do. We're often much more like the
Greek visitors, already busy thinking about Easter
celebrations. We're looking forward to the world

5
continuing to open back up. Thinking about Spring
Break and making summer plans. When we come to
Jesus, when we start coming back to church, the
last thing we want to do is to be met with somber
reflection. Perhaps I'm wrong, but as we start to
slowly open back up as a church and get back into a
regular rhythm of things, maybe the tone you
wanted to hear was a bit more upbeat than "let us
prepare our hearts and minds for death."
But friends, that is what Jesus invites us to do this
morning. That is the opportunity we have in this
final Sunday of Lent before Holy Week begins.

6
We want life here and now. We want celebration
now. But Jesus teaches us in his words in today's
Scripture and in his actions of the weeks to come,
that death precedes the kind of life that God gives.
The real celebration only begins on the far side of
death.
And here I'm talking about spiritual death. The
entire journey of Lent is a preparation to die to
something within ourselves that we need to let go of.
Something within us needs to die, to fall to the
ground, as Jesus says, so that it may bear much
fruit."

7
Throughout his ministry, Jesus waxes and wanes in
popularity amongst the people. Yet, Jesus is never
seduced by popularity. In fact, it seems to be that in
moments where his popularity has reached an apex,
he uses that exact moment to say some of the most
unpopular of things. I know that next week is Palm
Sunday when the people greet Jesus with palm
branches and shouts of hosanna - the true
culmination of his popularity. But in John's gospel,
that encounter immediately precedes our Scripture
today. In fact, it is out of that crowd that the Greek
people mentioned in our Scripture emerge. Into that
moment of popular celebration, Jesus chooses to
enter the town on a simple donkey. It is like being
named CEO of a company and then intentionally

8
driving into work the next day in some beat up,
broken down car. Or as one commentator puts it,
""Jesus has gone and procured a donkey, as if in
response to their misplaced enthusiasm for
monarchical might. And after this great and grand
celebration, where the crowds treat him like he is
the Grand Marshall of a homecoming parade, Jesus
meets them with a lecture on death and dying. We
don't know exactly what the Greek visitors wanted
from Jesus, but I don't think this was it.
The truth is, death is uncomfortable. That's true
whether it is the death of a loved one or some kind of
internal spiritual death to some part of ourself. We
know that there is a reckoning that must take place.

9
We know things are about to change and it is hard
to know exactly what that will look like. We see it
even in Jesus. Jesus says, "Now my soul is
troubled." This is the point where most of us would
turn back. Jesus considered it. He said, "And what
should I say - 'Father, save me from this hour.'" So
often, we pray to be protected and delivered from the
natural course of things in our world - disease,
death, but also other things too - financial disaster,
ending relationships, conflict with family and
friends, poor decisions, and many other things. Our
prayers often reveal that we treat God as a genie in a
bottle, granting wishes. But in reality, God is the
one who will accompany us on that most difficult of

10
journeys - from the preparation to die to the moment
of death itself and then beyond.
Friends, the Lenten journey is not a journey around
pain and discomfort, but rather through it. Each of
you, no doubt, has your own pain and struggles in
life. I know I have mine. I'm not sure why those
Greeks wanted to see Jesus, but the gospel of John
tells us that the crowds gathered around Jesus
because they had seen him raise Lazarus from the
dead. Perhaps these Greeks had their own dead
relatives they wanted Jesus to raise up. They
wanted to be delivered from their pain rather than
have Jesus help them process it.

11
Jesus could see that the miracles he was performing
were not always being received as intended. People
want the miracle without the transformation. They
want resurrection without the preparation and
death. This is often a shadow side of Christian faith.
We want the benefits without the costs. We pray for
miracles - to be delivered from situations of pain and
death. But God is not in the wish granting
business. God isn't in this for a popularity contest.
God offers to be there with us in the midst of our
pain and struggles - and yes even death. And in so
doing, God will help to transform that pain and
death into something beautiful, redeeming,
abundant and eternal. But God is not a cosmic pain
killer. Rather, God will guide you towards the kind

12
of pain and death you need so that rebirth and
resurrection may occur.
Jesus teaches us today that it was only in dying that
we can bear fruit. It is only in hating life, that we
can have eternal life. If that language rubs you the
wrong way, think about it like this - Jesus is saying
short term pain, for long term gain. God is in the
business of transforming this world and to do so,
God needs servants willing to put others before
themselves. It is only when we think of others needs
before our own, that we can truly shift this world
from one in which we're looking out for ourselves to
one in which love and community are the defining
values. Jesus's glory wasn't found in the raising of

13
Lazarus, his adornment by the crowds, and being
sought after by admirers. Rather, it was found in
his selfless love to die for the sake of others, even
though that death was unjust.
For Christians, dying for the sake of others is
glorification. We are a faith of putting others before
our selves. I don't think Christianity would be so
popular if we were more explicit about this. But this
is the true core of the Christian faith.
Our prayer focus this week is spiritual death.
Perhaps you've gone this far in your Lenten journey
and some part of you still looks for what you can get

14
out of faith. People often get frustrated with church
because they claim they are not "getting anything
out of it." Friends, this is exactly the problem. This
is how the crowds, the Greeks were approaching
Jesus - what could they get out of him? The point of
faith and church isn't for us to get something out of
it. But rather it is to learn how to die to our own
desires, to learn how to serve others, to begin to hate
this "instant gratification" culture and yearn for
something more eternal and abundant. Friends in
your prayer time this week, on this final week before
Holy Week, may we spend time earnestly seeking
how to serve. How to let God walk with us through
the pain rather than pretend God will take it away.
May we seek to quiet that voice that says, I, I, I - me,

15
mine and begin an others-first way of thinking, way
of seeing the world. May we continue to die to
egocentric ways of seeing the world and begin to
adopt an others-centric way of seeing the world.
But here's the hard truth about that - that shift feels
a lot like dying. Lots of attachments and desires will
simply need to go unfulfilled and unmet. But here's
the Easter truth - God has better things in store
than what we can imagine in the here and now. Let
us walk in faith, which so often means walking into
some kind of pain, suffering, abandonment, even
death without any certainty how things will be
resolved. In so walking, we put our full faith in

16
Christ, who will draw us all to himself in a glory that
only God can imagine.
Would you pray with me?

17

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Coming to Terms with Death

One of the things that I've noticed as I have had the

opportunity to preside over funerals as a pastor is

that the tone, the emotional atmosphere

surrounding a death can vary widely. Some endings

are filled with laughter, memories, and connection.

Others with deep sadness, despair, shock, and even

anger. Many are somewhere between and beyond or

even take place weaving layers of seemingly opposite

emotions upon one another. Many are experienced

differently by different people depending on their

relationship to the deceased. To a long time

caretaker, the final passing may bring a deep sense

of relief and thankfulness that a loved one's "time

had come" is a cause for celebration and

remembrance. Yet, that same final passing, may be

March 21 2021 – Epworth UMC – John 12:20-33

experienced very differently by an out-of-state

relative who had not yet come to terms with a loved

one's decline. To them, this was a deep and

You can sometimes even get a sense of things by

what an end-of-life service is called. A "Celebration

of Life" or a Memorial Service or a Funeral.

Death, when it comes, is one of those things that

forces you to come to terms with a new reality.

Sometimes that reality is very much welcomed.

Sometimes it is very much unwelcomed.

Sometimes, its complicated.

Sometimes, it is all three, all at once.

Sometimes, it is one or another, in their own time.

Whatever the case, when death comes into our lives,

we face a reckoning. Things are no longer going to

It is hard to ever be fully prepared for death, but

sometimes people are more prepared or less

prepared. And this preparation, very much

prefigures how one will experience death when it

occurs. I believe the categories of right and wrong

break down when you use them to apply to human

March 21 2021 – Epworth UMC – John 12:20-33

emotions. Yet, when one is well prepared for the

death of a loved one, it is my observation, that it is

much easier to enter into a space that might be

called a "celebration of life" when that reckoning

comes. This is far harder to do, when death is a

In our Scripture today, we read the accounts of

Jesus, the disciples and some Greek visitors who

wanted to see Jesus.

Jesus was busy getting prepared for death. The

Greek visitors and the disciples were not. They were

in the midst of a Passover celebration. This is the

March 21 2021 – Epworth UMC – John 12:20-33

festival that is referred to in verse 20. Preparing for

death was probably the furthest thing from their

mind. This was a time of cultural and spiritual

Jesus was seemingly aloof to the festival

surrounding him. He was waxing philosophical

about death. Busy finding purpose in his own

death. Busy preparing for death.