I recall hearing that historians feel that the impact of a person’s life on society cannot be determined until at least twenty years after their death. The historians in the congregation can correct me if I am wrong. My point is that the contribution which an individual or group makes to society is often appreciated in retrospect. How many great writers, artist, philosophers, leaders etc. are viewed with admiration not by their contemporaries, but by later generations who find their thinking, their ideas and actions to be models of progress and achievement. That can be generalized with the common observation that people are thought of better in death than in life. Perhaps you, like I have listen to eulogies and thought who are they talking about. Of course I might appreciate someone being willing to white wash a little of my past when the time comes.

The deeper understanding is that portrayed by Jesus as we heard him quoted in the reading from the Gospel of John. It is when a person risk himself for others, like a grain of wheat which remains a solitary grain unless it falls to the ground and dies, but if it dies it can bear a rich harvest. He also goes on to say that a man who loves himself is lost, but he who hates himself or perhaps more specifically, does not view his personal interest and inclinations as the final goal, he will be kept for eternal life. The tighter we try to hold to having our life a certain way or make others see it our way, the less we are able to see the possibilities which life in the hands of God might hold, the less we will attract others not just to us but to that which is great than and essential to both of us. Jesus drew people to himself, by pointing to another, by literally giving himself away and literally losing his life for us.

A well-known German theologian, the late Paul Tillich, in one of his sermons raised the question of how can we understand the mystery of why Christ accepts humanity pushing him away, why does he accept crucifixion. He says,

Let us try to imagine a Christ who would not die, and who would come in glory to impose upon us His power, His wisdom, His morality, and His piety. He would be able to break our resistance by his strength, by His wonderful government, by His infallible wisdom, and by His irresistible perfection. But, He would not be able to win our hearts. He would bring a new law and would impose it upon us by His all-powerful and all perfect personality. His power would break our freedom; His glory would overwhelm us like a burning, blinding sun; our very humanity would be swallowed in His Divinity. One of Martin Luther’s most profound insights was that God made himself small for us in Christ. In so doing, He left us our freedom and our humanity. He showed us the depth of his heart, so that our hearts could be won.

Even before Jesus, Jeremiah, as we also heard this morning, foretold this new covenant, written on our hearts, by forgiving our wrongdoing and remembering our sins no more. So God gives us himself in this most personal and real life way that we might know the depth of his love and might experience his willingness to forgive even our rejection of him, in order that we might trust him with our life.

This act of trusting does not come easy for us, we don’t like to relinquish control, and when we are told that we must be willing to die to ourselves so we can be made alive in God, that requires a lot of trust that what we will become is worth the risk. And that is exactly why Jesus’ passion is the center of our Faith, we see in him the depth of human evil and the unfathomable love of God to overcome it.

As we come to the edge of Holy Week with its intense focus on the details of Jesus’ last days, the reality of his suffering and his sacrifice; may our hearts be touched again or maybe for the first time.

In the words of Dr. Fred Craddock, New Testament scholar, “we are not second-class disciples at a distance, born at the wrong time, in the wrong place, trying desperately to survive on the thin diet of recorded memories of what it was like when Jesus was here. Christ is Here”, that is the declaration of the Christian Church – It is the faith which holds us through all manner of life circumstances, and in the face of death.

Like the Greeks who came to Andrew and Philip may we continue to seek in trust, to “ see Jesus “ and may we find like the disciples on the road to Emmas after Jesus resurrection, that as we hear his words we will feel our hearts strangely warmed, because he is here and will always be. Thanks be to God. Amen.