Today’s Gospel – Tuesday of Holy week

20Ἦσαν δὲ Ἕλληνές τινες ἐκ τῶν ἀναβαινόντων ἵνα προσκυνήσωσιν ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ·

21οὗτοι οὖν προσῆλθον Φιλίππῳ τῷ ἀπὸ Βηθσαϊδὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἠρώτων αὐτὸν λέγοντες· κύριε, θέλομεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἰδεῖν.

22ἔρχεται ὁ Φίλιππος καὶ λέγει τῷ Ἀνδρέᾳ, ἔρχεται Ἀνδρέας καὶ Φίλιππος καὶ λέγουσιν τῷ Ἰησοῦ. 

23Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἀποκρίνεται αὐτοῖς λέγων· ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

24ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου πεσὼν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἀποθάνῃ, αὐτὸς μόνος μένει· ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ, πολὺν καρπὸν φέρει.

25ὁ φιλῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπολλύει αὐτήν, καὶ ὁ μισῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον φυλάξει αὐτήν.

26ἐὰν ἐμοί τις διακονῇ, ἐμοὶ ἀκολουθείτω, καὶ ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ ἐκεῖ καὶ ὁ διάκονος ὁ ἐμὸς ἔσται· ἐάν τις ἐμοὶ διακονῇ τιμήσει αὐτὸν ὁ πατήρ.

27Νῦν ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται, καὶ τί εἴπω; πάτερ, σῶσόν με ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης; ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο ἦλθον εἰς τὴν ὥραν ταύτην.

28πάτερ, δόξασόν σου τὸ ὄνομα. ἦλθεν οὖν φωνὴ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ· καὶ ἐδόξασα καὶ πάλιν δοξάσω.

29ὁ οὖν ὄχλος ὁ ἑστὼς καὶ ἀκούσας ἔλεγεν βροντὴν γεγονέναι, ἄλλοι ἔλεγον· ἄγγελος αὐτῷ λελάληκεν.

30ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν· οὐ δι’ ἐμὲ ἡ φωνὴ αὕτη γέγονεν ἀλλὰ δι’ ὑμᾶς.

31νῦν κρίσις ἐστὶν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, νῦν ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου ἐκβληθήσεται ἔξω·

32κἀγὼ ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν.

33τοῦτο δὲ ἔλεγεν σημαίνων ποίῳ θανάτῳ ἤμελλεν ἀποθνῄσκειν.

34Ἀπεκρίθη οὖν αὐτῷ ὁ ὄχλος· ἡμεῖς ἠκούσαμεν ἐκ τοῦ νόμου ὅτι ὁ χριστὸς μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ πῶς λέγεις σὺ ὅτι δεῖ ὑψωθῆναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου; τίς ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου;

35εἶπεν οὖν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἔτι μικρὸν χρόνον τὸ φῶς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστιν. περιπατεῖτε ὡς τὸ φῶς ἔχετε, ἵνα μὴ σκοτία ὑμᾶς καταλάβῃ· καὶ ὁ περιπατῶν ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ οὐκ οἶδεν ποῦ ὑπάγει.

36ὡς τὸ φῶς ἔχετε, πιστεύετε εἰς τὸ φῶς, ἵνα υἱοὶ φωτὸς γένησθε. ταῦτα ἐλάλησεν Ἰησοῦς, καὶ ἀπελθὼν ἐκρύβη ἀπ’ αὐτῶν. [NA28]

Today’s Gospel also comes from the 12^th chapter of John.  Let’s concentrate on the last verses of today’s text.   In verse 34 we are told that it was the belief of the crowd that the Messiah would last forever, and the crowd is wondering how it is that the Messiah should be raised up. If he is forever, then there is no point to dying, for He is eternal.  How is it possible to speak about the Son of Man being lifted up.  There is a time-eternity contrast here that leaves the crowd confused, just as we today are puzzled about time and eternity. We assume that the existence of God, as an eternal being, is an existence which endures all times.  If one accepts a Platonic picture of time as different in essence from eternity, eternity is not “all times” but instead a totally different category outside of time.  Time is a human concept and God is above all human conception in this sense.  Eternity is fundamentally different from time and cannot be known by human intellection, just as all properties that belong to the deity are beyond human intellection.

But we should realize that Jesus is talking about the Son of Man, the archetype of Humanity.  Is he claiming Messiahship?  The crowd wants to know “who is the Son of Man?” ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου;  Notice it is not ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θέου, but ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, they are inquiring about.  One can have all kinds of explanations for this, and one of those explanations is a Theological equation of the Son of God with the Son of Man.  But I’m not convinced, I’m like the Greeks in the crowd, I understand the conceptual difference.  In my world view Jesus refers to himself as the son of man (the archetype of what it is to be human), and not claiming Divinity for himself.  So the charge of blasphemy wouldn’t be applicable, any attorney worth his salt could point this out. 

What follows is a brief discourse on light, harkening back to the Prologue of John’s Gospel where Jesus’ life is the light of mankind – ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων.  But there is also a tinge of the doctrine of the Essenes, with their war between the children of light and the children of darkness - ἵνα υἱοὶ φωτὸς γένησθε.  It is pretty clear that what Jesus wants to convey is that the son of man is the archetype of mankind enlightened.  His life and teaching is what we ought to do, as His followers.  Death has no hold on what is the right thing to do.  In an important sense Jesus is the ultimate deontological moral Philosopher, even Thomas Jefferson recognized this when he put together (literally cut and pasted) his book The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.  Light upon our path shows us the way to go, while darkness leaves us confused, and we stumble. I am reminded of Immanuel Kant’s subjective formulation of the Categorical Imperative: “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”

In the end Jesus departs after saying these things and hides from the crowd.  A physical demonstration of what He is talking about; the light is only there for a little while and after that the choice is ours to enlighten our own path (taking the light as the children of light) or stumble around in the dark.  Again we are on our own, we can no longer merely depend on Jesus as the lantern leading us along, we must shine our own light on our own path, presumably as children of the light with the light of the Son of Man in mind.

Again; we ARE on our own; we have an exemplar, but the judgment as to what to do is up to us…