In this morning’s reading from the Gospel of John [12:20-33] Jesus was clearly speaking to all of those who were around him, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”[1] Both his followers and those who were present to challenge him in this time of conflict had heard these words. The real shame is that all too often these words of Jesus are glossed over by both those who would attempt to claim that Jesus was simply a fraud and those who would falsely claim to be the real followers of the teachings of Jesus. You see it’s all too easy to claim that following Jesus is simple if you believe that the teachings are only about the relationships that are to exist between “true believers” rather than how we are being both encouraged and challenged to treat everyone in the world. Being a Christian is much easier if we are asked to treat with love and justice only those who are exactly like us; the same race, the same nationality, the same language, the same gender, the same level of education, the same faith traditions … and the sad truth is that this list can go on and on forever.
Humanity has been, and continues to be, all too willing to discriminate against those whom they have judged as not being among the chosen. But as true Christians, we are each personally called to discover that both the teachings as well as the actions demonstrated by Jesus, his disciples, and his early followers within their daily lives are continuously pointing to a total restoration of a truly deeper relationship between God and all of humanity.[2] This relationship restoration isn’t just to be between God and some chosen group of individuals; rather it is God who is calling on all of humanity to be in a true and deeper relationship with both God and with each other.
In Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews [5:5-10], we also heard that “[Jesus] became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”[3] No mention was ever made of a restriction on this offer being established as to gender, age, race, ethnicity, color, wealth, occupation, faith or any other category of restriction. The only restriction mentioned was that eternal salvation was offered to all who obey the teachings of Jesus.
We must be careful in our understanding of this call to action by Jesus; we are not talking about taking up one’s cross and heading for crucifixion, but rather we are called to live a life of serving Jesus. Rather than being challenged to suffer punishment and isolation, we are being called to a life of real and active service. We truly have been called to help restore the loving and compassionate relationship that should exist between not just ourselves and God, are rather we have been called to help in restoring the truly compassionate relationship between all of humanity and God. This is the true goal of such service; we have been called to help in the restoration of our relationship with God, Jesus, and all of our Sisters and Brothers.
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