Church of the Holy City

When I Am Lifted Up

When I Am Lifted Up
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 22, 2015

Jeremiah 31:31-34 John 12:20-33 Psalm 51

John 12 is all about the glorification of the Lord. It is captured in verse 32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” This is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection. And it says that when Jesus is resurrected He will draw all men to Himself. When Jesus says that He will draw all persons to Himself, He means He will draw us into heaven with Him. This is stated earlier in verse 26, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also.” These statements support this church’s view of salvation. We believe that it is the resurrected Jesus Christ whose divine love and wisdom lifts people into heaven. So John’s Gospel says, “and I when I am lifted from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”
Notice what this Gospel does not say. It does not say that Jesus’ death on the cross is what saves. It says nothing about the atonement doctrine. It does not say that Christ’s death is what saves. It does not say that Jesus bore the sins of humanity when He was crucified. It does not say, “When I am crucified I will save humanity.” No. It says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” This is very important. This statement says that it is the resurrection that truly matters. Not the crucifixion.
There are many references in this passage to the word glorification. Jesus says that He will be glorified. So John 12:23 reads, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” References to glorification are scattered throughout the passage. The glorification of Jesus is the complete unification with God. When God and Man are completely one, then Jesus is glorified. And when Jesus became glorified, He was then able to save humanity in a new way. Now through the glorified Humanity of God, God was and is able to come to humanity through God’s own Human Body. Jesus was fully God and fully Man according to the Athanasian Creed. And John’s Gospel tells us just how human Jesus was. Jesus had material form. John tells us that, “The Word became flesh.” And Jesus Himself tells us that He has a material body and gives proof. In an Easter story, Jesus appears before the Apostles,
Jesus Himself stood among them. But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? Se my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them (Luke 24:36-43).
This spiritual and material Jesus Christ–God and Man–comes to each of us through His own power and Humanity. It is the inflowing love and wisdom from the Divine Human that saves.
Jesus explains the power of the resurrected Divine Human in the parable about the grain of wheat in today’s reading. He says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12:24). The metaphor here is that a grain of wheat does nothing unless it is planted. But when it is planted, a sheaf grows up that produces heads of grain and much “fruit.” The plant of wheat that grows up is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection. Just as the wheat seed grows up and bears fruit, so Jesus’ resurrected Divine Humanity draws humanity to Himself, saving all who follow Him. The imagery is the fruit that grain of wheat produces–not the grain of wheat dyeing. So it is the resurrection that is spoken of here.
Jesus grew up in the world and put off the humanity He inherited from Mary. The process of putting off the maternal humanity and putting on Divine Humanity is the process called glorification.
We follow a similar process. Jesus says, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me” (12:26). We follow a similar process of putting off what we inherit from our parents and put on what flows in from God. The process we go through is called regeneration, or rebirth.
We grow up learning coping mechanisms that fit us to life in the world. Our first mind is a worldly mind. Our first way of acting is matched for survival in the world. It can be said that we are an image of the world upon first attaining adulthood. But we need a second birth in order to become spiritual. Our souls need to be formed into a spiritual body that is an image of God. Jesus teaches this in the story of Nicodemus in John 3.
We need to accept spiritual life by living according to spiritual principles. Some people grow up with ineffective behavior patterns. These people need to re-learn better, more constructive behavior patterns. In theological language, this would be putting off worldly lusts and putting on heavenly affections. Some people are born generally good people. But even such people need to live according to spiritual principles. We need to do good because it is Godly. Doing good out of mere habit, or because we want to be respected and honored, or to advance our standing in our communities–none of these approaches to doing good are spiritually beneficial. Doing good for those reasons is really doing good to ourselves. We are doing it to make ourselves look good or we’re just doing it out of habit. It is serving self, not God.
There are many examples of this kind of good. Some people do good to their friends. But this is serving self. Their friends are people that they have made their own. So friendship is a kind of second self. Likewise, doing good to family members is also serving self. We are bound to family by blood or marriage. This is a kind of second self, too. I knew a man who was so filled with love for his grandchild that he thought himself on a par with Christians, whom he held in contempt. He thought himself equally loving. But when I asked him if he felt equal love for other children, he was stumped. His love actually didn’t extend past his own bloodline, and his own.
The real test of spirituality is whether a person can and will do good for a stranger. Will a person do good to a stranger who embodies good qualities. Or even further, and I think that this is hard for any of us, will we do good to enemies? That is the real test of spirituality. If we do good only to people who do good to us, we are serving self. Who wouldn’t do good if they think that the other person will sooner or later do good back to them? But to do good to someone who is a good person according to all appearances but is at odds with us is truly serving God. In a case like this, we are looking at what is good, not what we get out of it. Looking at good wherever we find it is serving God. God is good; good is God. So when we love what is good, we are loving God.
That is why doing good to an enemy is spiritual. That is why doing good for a cause is spiritual. That is why it is not enough to do good out of habit or because we want to look good. To be spiritual, we need to do good out of love for what is good in and of itself.
I don’t think that we are born with this love for goodness. I think that it needs to be implanted in our hearts from heaven and from God. That is the new covenant spoken of in our reading from Jeremiah 31.
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah . . . I will write it upon their hearts (Jeremiah 31:31, 33).
This is the second birth that Jesus teaches. We need to grow up out of our families. We need to realize that the world is bigger than father and mother and brother and sister. We are becoming spiritual when we begin to see the world as brother and sister. And we are becoming spiritual when we begin to see God as our Father and the Church as our mother.
Jesus united God with His Humanity. We become spiritual from being born worldly. The process Jesus followed is called glorification. The process we follow is called regeneration, or rebirth. The risen Jesus comes to us and fills us with His love and wisdom. So He says that when He is lifted up He will draw all men to Himself. And in the resurrected Divine Humanity, God saves us struggling humans. So the wheat seed falls to the earth dead and raises up a head of grain. Jesus’ death and resurrection gives humanity the power to be with Jesus eternally in heaven. That is the fruit born of the dead and resurrected Jesus Christ in His Divine Humanity.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks for coming to humanity when we were in need of your presence. You came to earth and showed us the way back home to you. You struggled with temptations and overcame them all. You taught us that we need to follow in your footsteps. We, too, must struggle with temptations. And as you put off everything mortal that you inherited from Mary, so we, too, must put off our worldly inclinations and put on heavenly ones. We pray this morning that you inspire us with heavenly loves as we turn from worldly passions. We pray that you teach us from your divine wisdom, as we turn from the appearances that the world teaches us. And as you were resurrected on the third day, we pray that we may be reborn a new creation, in your image, and in heaven with you forever.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.