“Jesus, Model of Acceptance”
John 12:20-33

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fifth  Sunday in Lent—April 3, 2022

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thirty years ago in her book “On Death and Dying,” Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross identified the five stages of grieving.  While these stages of grieving primarily apply to death, the approaching death of yourself or the death of a loved one, we also go through much the same grieving process when we experience other losses and traumas in our lives, such as losing a job, or a divorce, or some other personal trauma.

The first stage is DENIAL: “The doctor made a mistake; I don’t have cancer; this isn’t really happening to me.”

The second stage is ANGER: “This really is happening.  It isn’t just a bad dream.  I really did lose my job.  Why?  Why me?  Why now?  Why at all?”

This often leads to the third stage of grief which is BARGAINING, usually with God: “Lord, if you get our marriage reconciled, I promise to be a better husband and father, and from now on I’ll be in church every Sunday.”

The fourth stage is DEPRESSION, when the depth of the loss, whatever it is, really hits home.  The person who is dying of cancer comes to the realization that he will never see another Springtime; the person who has lost her job comes to the realization that the first month will arrive and there will be no money to pay the bills; the child whose parents are divorcing comes to the realization that he or she won’t be living with both parents anymore.

The fifth and final stage of grieving is ACCEPTANCE, that time when a person has been through the depths of pain and sorrow and has now accepted that nothing can be changed, the things that have happened cannot be undone, and it is time to look to the future, not cling to the present or yearn for the past.  Acceptance is much more than grudging resignation to the inevitability of a loss.  It is a change of attitude resulting in a sense of peace.

In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus is the ultimate model of acceptance.  It is Holy Week, just a few days before his own torturous suffering and death, when Jesus announces, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  Then he explains what he means: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Jesus will be glorified in what seems to us a most UN-glorious way: “He was crucified, dead, and buried.”  “‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.’  He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.”  It IS in his suffering-and-death-on-the-cross that Jesus’ glory is revealed, the glory of his love, the glory of his sacrifice, for YOU.

“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!”  Jesus is the ultimate model of acceptance.  He KNEW full well what would happen to him before that week was over.  “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he told his disciples, “and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.  He will be betrayed, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law.  They will be hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him, crucify him and kill him.”

“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for THIS VERY REASON I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!”  There is no denial, no anger, no bargaining, no depression, but complete acceptance.  Jesus is the ultimate model of acceptance, because he understands his suffering and death as part of God’s plan, for the salvation of the world.  As he says, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. . .  the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

To help his disciples also understand how the traumatic events that will unfold around them that week all fit into God’s plan, to help bring them to acceptance, Jesus uses a little parable about a kernel of wheat:  “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  Jesus is the ultimate model of acceptance because he understands that in God’s plan his suffering and death will result in the salvation of the world.  As today’s Epistle Reading says, “he became the source of eternal salvation.” 

He is the source of eternal salvation for YOU.  His suffering and death was in your place, as your substitute.  A sacrifice to pay the penalty for your sins, and to earn you complete forgiveness.  As Paul says in Romans, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”  Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection means that you are justified in God’s sight, your sins are all forgiven, you will have eternal life in heaven.

“But I, when I am lifted up for the earth, will draw all men to myself.”  “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  Jesus is talking about you.  YOUR salvation is one of the “many seeds” produced by his suffering, death and resurrection.

Jesus is the ultimate model of acceptance.  But, that doesn’t mean it was easy, even for him.  “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. . .  NOW MY HEART IS TROUBLED.”  What amazing, comforting words those are.  For, even though Jesus fully knows and understands how his suffering fits into God’s plan, even though willingly lays down his life of his own accord, nevertheless when faced with the imminence of his suffering and death even he says, “Now my heart is TROUBLED.”  In the Garden of Gethsemane he prays, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” and he tells the disciples, “My soul is OVERWHELMED WITH SORROW to the point of death.”

It is any wonder that we find ourselves TROUBLED and OVERWHELMED when we are faced with a bitter cup of suffering if even Jesus himself was troubled and overwhelmed? Is it any wonder that we have questions and doubts when pain and loss enter our lives, if even Jesus himself prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”?

“Nevertheless,” he said, “not my will but thine be done.”  Jesus is ultimate model of acceptance.  Acceptance that comes not simply from grudging resignation but from TOTAL TRUST in God’s love and in his promise that he is working ALL things together for our GOOD.  That is how you also can come to acceptance of the losses and traumas in your life.

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “We live by faith, not by sight.”  Usually, we CANNOT see how the troubling things that happen in our lives are for our good, or understand how they are part of God’s plan.  But, as Hebrews says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the certainty of things not seen.”

Faith brings us to ACCEPTANCE, faith brings peace, because by faith we know that these bad things cannot possibly be a punishment from God.  As the Lord assures us in today’s Old Testament Reading, “I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more”!  Faith brings us to ACCEPTANCE, faith brings peace, because by faith we trust that God is not punishing us, but is somehow working ALL things together for our GOOD, even when` we cannot see it or understand it. 

In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus is the ultimate model of acceptance: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. . .  Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!”