Glorious courage

This week's verses are John 12:20-28:

Now some Greeks were among those who had gone up to worship at the feast. So these approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew, and they both went and told Jesus. Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. The one who loves his life destroys it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards it for eternal life. If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

“Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me from this hour’? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 

These verses take place as Jesus is sharing about his upcoming crucifixion. To the Greeks and Jews both, he shares about eternal life and about how much more valuable the big picture is than the day to day life. He talks about self-sacrifice. And then he says "if anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too."

In other words, Jesus is saying that the message about self-sacrifice and honoring eternal life is not just for himself, but for anyone who wants to follow him. If we want to follow Jesus, we have to be where he is. We have to follow in his steps. We can't just watch from a distance, or pay other people to follow him and tell us how it goes.

All of that, to some extent, is the sort of stuff we hear in Sunday school. "Jesus died for our sins." "Eternity is more important than our lives on earth." "We have to share our blessings with others." "Self-sacrifice is a good Christian thing to do." In a way, we've heard this message before, but it sounds different when you're being asked to follow in footsteps that lead to a humiliating and painful death. We're comfortable with Jesus on the cross, but less so with ourselves being put up there.

The second paragraph is the real meat of the message to me, though. We picture Jesus as being fairly relaxed about going to the cross. In all of the paintings, he looks like he's come fresh from the spa, after a good nap and a visit to the hair stylist, ready to step onto that cross as if it was no more involved than a visit to the dentist. 

But here he's saying "Now my soul is greatly distressed." That means he's upset and uncomfortable. He is not looking forward to being crucified! It's an extremely unpleasant experience! How many of us, when presented with the opportunity to be tortured to death in order to save someone we love, would be like "Actually, now that I think about it, no thanks! I like her, but I don't like her that much."

But that's not what Jesus does. He mocks our human cowardice: "And what should I say? 'Father, deliver me from this hour'?" In other words, "What do you expect me to do, run away?"

Instead, he recognizes that it's a difficult experience he has to endure for us, and one necessary for the Father to be glorified: "No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name."

This sort of courage is the courage that Jesus demonstrates for us. This is the standard he holds out for us to follow. When the apostles were martyred, or had to endure grim persecution, their souls were probably distressed too. But because they had chosen to follow Jesus, they endured and overcame, and God was glorified through their struggle.

When your soul is distressed, what do you do? When the right thing is very costly, do you shy away? Do you ask God to hide you as you retreat into the shadows? Or do you follow Jesus with glorious courage and recognize that that's why you're here. Let the Father be glorified through your choices, and boldly live out your decision to follow and be where Jesus is.