Judging the World

Lent 5, Week of March 22
John 12.20-33

“Now is the judgment of this world;
Now the ruler of this world will be driven out.”

Jesus is speaking here of his crucifixion, trying once again to explain what is about to happen, the purpose of his ministry. Now, he tells them, the world will be judged by his crucifixion—the world and its rulers, the powers in charge, the systems that control us.

Because we know the end of the story, his passion and crucifixion, we know that Jesus acts to repudiate violence, refusing to participate in the system, exposing the system for what it is—the oppressor of people, the way of death. Once we see the system for what it is, we no longer want to cooperate with its death-dealing ways. Through Jesus’ death, we have seen another way…a way of nonviolence and peace and healing.

Like the grain of wheat, Jesus dies to the way of the world; he dies to the system of control by violence and power and he rises to new life. The question is: What are we, the followers of this Jesus, to do? What is the work of the church that claims Jesus as Lord?

It’s a little like what happened in Gaza in January. The soldiers and tanks and helicopters descended on the towns and villages and marched right into the city itself, leaving a swath of destruction and death. It was a moment of awakening for many people, who saw the flames and explosions on their television screens. They saw death and destruction—and they saw the system of oppression of the Palestinians for what it really is. The attacks on Gaza shined a spotlight on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. What had been going on in the shadows, out of our view, for years, was now exposed: the brutality of life under occupation. It brought the elusive conflict out into the open where everyone could see it, and people all over the world, including some in Israel, were outraged. Once we have seen the system exposed, we no longer want to cooperate in its death-dealing ways. There were mass rallies and peace vigils in Tel Aviv and angry articles in Israeli newspapers, condemning the attacks, the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and the brutality of the Israeli military. The old systems of oppression are beginning to crumble.

Like the grain of wheat, a resurrection sign was reported in yesterday’s New York Times. An orchestra of young Palestinian musicians played a concert for elderly Jewish holocaust survivors in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The young musicians were from the Jenin refugee camp, one of the places where Palestinians fled when the soldiers routed them from their homes and villages in 1948, to make way for the state of Israel. That was the year Zehava Zelevski, one of the elderly holocaust survivors, fled Poland and came to Israel, after her three brothers were killed. In 2006 a young Palestinian from Jenin blew himself up in Holon, one of the last suicide bombers. The Strings of Freedom orchestra performed and the elderly audience learned that not everyone from Jenin is a terrorist suicide bomber. The students were delighted to be traveling outside the West Bank, to escape the prison of the security wall for a day. See a picture and read the article….

Jesus chose to stand in solidarity with those who were suffering under the systems of oppression—the Roman government and the high priestly rulers of Jerusalem. What is the church who follows Jesus to do?

O God, by your death on a cross, you exposed the systems that destroy life. By your death and resurrection you freed us all from the bonds that imprison us. As we strive to follow you, help us use your liberating power in our world today, in all the places where people are suffering and dying. Amen.