4th Wednesday of Lent, March 17. All peoples

For the audio recording: https://youtu.be/eMKmykEv9rI
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Prepare to Listen.  Remind yourself of God’s promise: I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
 
Prayerfully Read John 12:27-36a
27‘Now my soul is troubled.  And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”?  No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.  28Father, glorify your name.’  Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’  29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder.  Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’  30Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.  31Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’  33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.  34The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?  Who is this Son of Man?’ 35Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer.  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you.  If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’  After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
Jesus continued to use the Greeks’ request to see him to teach about his mission.  This time he shared a personal fact, “Now my soul is troubled.”  Despite this, he refused to reject his mission.  No one then understood his talk about dying since they believed Messiah would live forever.  They got Jesus wrong and protested his teaching (v34), eventually rejecting him.
 
People still get Jesus wrong, and expect him to fulfill their agendas and ideals, destroy their enemies, promote their chosen rulers.  But, as Jesus taught the people then, that’s not what he came to do.  His death (that is, his glorification) would inaugurate a revolution, and the ruler of the world (Satan) would be decisively defeated.  The revolution wasn’t to rescue one nation.  It was a world revolution.  When Jesus’ disciples finally understood they believed and taught, as N. T. Wright wrote, “That something had happened [on Good Friday] that had changed the world.  That by six o’clock on that dark Friday evening the world was a different place” [1].  On the day Jesus was lifted up, all peoples (not merely one nation) were drawn to him.  The revolution began and continues in us today.  We’re invited to join it, engaging in something far bigger and more all-encompassing than anything we could imagine.
 
Prayerfully Reflect
What do you believe Jesus came to do?  How does/doesn’t it match with Jesus’ teaching?
 
Respond to Jesus
Saving Lord, in the glory of the cross you embraced the power of death and the ruler of this world, breaking its power over us.  Keep drawing all peoples to yourself and let me help you.  Amen.
 
Go live obediently in the world.  Submitting to Jesus’ rule.
[1] Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, 2016, p. 3.