Sermon for the 15th of April - Holy Tuesday

We have entered into, as its name suggests, the most Holiest week of our [the church’s] year. Beginning with Palm Sunday, we’re currently in a bit of a lull until Thursday, when we shall enter into Maundy Thursday, and the three day liturgy of the Triduum, coming to fruition with the Great Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. But, for the time being, that’s still far ahead of us. And whilst in the narrative of the Gospel of John we’re about half a chapter before Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, and several chapters before his arrest, and still more before his death.  Jesus speaks quite plainly about what will happen, and what emotions he feels, quite early on in the terms of narrative.

A question I have often wondered is why was Jesus born at the time he was but. But I think this verse holds a lot of context to that. The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, were, maybe for the first time, more open with the rest of the world - that is, the world of the Gentiles; through trade, through culture, through philosophy. From the 3rd Century BC, the Hellenistic Greeks had set up towns around Israel, some even converting to Judaism. They were known as God Fearing Gentiles. Jewish people were travelling through the networks and roads of the Roman and Ptolemaic empires. The world was beginning to be more open for everyone. This, then, is the pretext for Christ arriving when he did.

We’re told at the start of our Gospel that some of these God Fearing Greeks were in Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. Saint Paul in his letter makes the comment that “Jews demand signs, Greeks desire wisdom” – and Jesus here, shows and performs, both.

Jesus, is anxious of the trails and tribulation to come. As we know in the Gospel of Luke, he sweats blood, a condition which can happen when someone undergoes a great amount of stress – he says his soul is troubled and makes a rhetorical question, asking the Father to save him.

Possibly, a small spark in that anxiety had wanted the Father to save him. Likewise, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays at length about what he is to face, that most agonising torture and death. But no, he outright states that this is the reason of his life on earth. The voice of the Father glorifies his Name in a sign for the crowds, both Jew and Greek. And in his wisdom he says that this is the judgement of the world, and when he is on the cross, all people, both Jew and Greek, in that century and this one, will be drawn to himself in the salvation of the Cross.

“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.”

Christ, knowing and trusting in the power of God, his and our Father, understands that if he does not sacrifice himself on the altar of the cross, there is no fruit of salvation. Despite that agonising torture and death - that which we will recount on Friday, that grief and sorrow that not only pierces the Blessed Virgin Mary’s heart, but ours too.

He puts the world and her people first, acknowledging his stress and anxiety yet over coming it, dies as the grain of wheat, but, in doing so, draws each and every one to himself, both living, and the departed trapped in the underworld, that all may have access to the grace and salvation of the Resurrection.

Jesus Christ, being born and dying in the first century, was there to demonstrate more fully that salvation was not just for one group of people, be it Jew or Greek. And in dying for the sins of the world, sets us free to more fully worship God, through and by him, for in him we are all one. May we, by the Cross of Christ, that which we proclaim of Christ crucified, never forget his sacrifice, agony, and passion, which he undertook for us all. And by the flowering of his resurrection, may we always live to the glory of God’s name.