5th Sunday of Lent - Year B (John 12:20-33)

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  All of what we mean by pastoral ministry is summed up in this brief statement.  All the desire, all the desperate searching, all the hopes and fears of the people who knock on pastor’s doors, who look up from hospital beds, who focus on clerical collars across airport boarding areas; all of this and more is to be found in these few words.  And what is the only possible response for the pastor?  He or she has no choice but to show the seeker the cross.

If all the world’s searching can be summed up in one brief statement, then, of course, the end of that searching can be summed up in one image, the cross.  In the cross we find all our trouble, pain, and death to be sure, but also healing, community, judgment, and glory.  The Evangelist does not minimize the suffering of the cross.  He is not what Martin Luther would call, derogatorily, a theologian of glory.  But that being said, he sees the paschal mystery in its totality.  The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are all of a piece.  As such, the cross is indeed where we see Jesus most clearly and personally.