Opening Prayer
Lord, let us know the power of Your resurrection and become partakers of Your suffering. Amen.
Text: John 12:23–32
But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
Devotion
Jews and Greeks wanted to have earthly glory with Jesus. O aren’t we the same too? The desire of the old Adam is for worldly prestige, power, and pleasure. Let all who hold to Jesus examine themselves well to see if it is not such things they seek from Him! Let each and every one examine himself! “You will gladly go forth with Me as in a wedding procession. But to follow in danger – are you ready for that? You would gladly sit with Me in My Father’s kingdom, but to ascend there you must be better accustomed to the cross.”
Deny yourself, be humbled, hate your life in this world and lose it, be crucified and die; this is the way of Christ. He Himself went this way and He travels it in all His believers. Only in this way does He become our Savior, and only in this way do you have part in His sufferings and His glory. If He didn’t have to atone for our sins, and free us from the devil, then He would not have had to suffer the death of the cross and He could not have drawn us with Himself to heaven, if He had not been cut off from the land of the living. Through death and the grave He went to the Father and gathers to Himself a countless generation (Isa 53:8). Now the wheat bears much fruit. Now the cross has become the ladder to heaven (Gen 28:12), but only the cross is the ladder of heaven. Only the way of the cross is the way to heaven, otherwise there is no bridge from death to life.
This way of the cross to heaven’s glory is prepared for all people, as many as want may come. He wants to draw all to Himself — on the cross and on the throne of heaven. But whoever will not die with Him cannot live with Him. Our life on earth: our evil nature, all sinful desires in us, which Paul calls “the body of sin” (Rom 6:6), the combined force of evil desires, which has its life in self-will and its powers in pride and deceit—this worldly life in you must die if you shall live. Let it be sacrificed in God’s name. You are baptized into the death of Christ. Your old man is crucified with Him. Seriously try out the power of your baptism. If you believe in the Lord, then you truly have grace to mortify the flesh and to live a new life in Him. He also helps you with it very much during times of need and tribulation: afflictions, temptations, poverty, sickness, and pains. But the power itself comes from Jesus’ death and resurrection. From these the root of your new life springs forth and from them it must draw nourishment to grow. He gives the believers the strength of His death and His life in the Word and Sacraments, and through them we have grace indeed to mortify the flesh, take up the cross, and live for heaven.
Closing Prayer
God, help us in this, so that we too may thus bear much fruit. Amen.
Hymn
When Thou Thyself for me did offer,
Denied Thyself so tirelessly
And for my sinful guilt did suffer
The pains of soul deserved by me,
How could I then Thy grace abuse
And Thy salvation still refuse?
Help me in Thy will to be striding
In steadfastness and faithful love,
That nothing may be me dividing
From Thy sweet friendship from above,
Until my soul with holy cheer
May rest within Thy bosom dear.
O grant that I with Thee may suffer,
To bear Thy cross, the sweetest yoke,
And by Thy pow’r myself to offer;
O write my name within Thy book,
Inscribed upon Thy hand by Thee
I now am Thine eternally.
Swedish: Med dig, min Frelser, vil jeg lide L 531:4-6 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Wer weiß wie nahe mir mein Ende (ELH 483); alternate hymn: Beneath the cross of Jesus kneeling ELH 288