Sara Richards brings us to the fifth Sunday of Lent with John 12:20-33. These words surely must have been a puzzle to Jesus’ hearers:
• Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.
• Those who love their life must lose it.
• If I am lifted up – crucified – I will draw all people to Me.
There’s a lot in here about how God’s kingdom is so very different from what we think and expect, especially the pieces about dying in order to live. Yet even with suffering and death, with what looks like crisis on all sides – in Jesus’ time and currently – the Kingdom is not in trouble. We are not in trouble. The whole season of Lent points us to our hope, our certainty that Jesus wins in the end, even though suffering is part of our life now.
Teaching Pastor: Sara Richards, Next Generation Pastor | Lent 2018 | www.thedoor,org