Chapter 12 of the book of John is pretty monumental.

Jesus says that Mary is preparing him for death; Judas gets called a crook; and the whole city of Jerusalem gives Jesus the equivalent of a ticker tape parade.

Read 12: 17-22

“The whole world” really has gone after Jesus. Jesus has won. He’s won the hearts of the crowd, as they gather in the streets to wave palm branches, as they give the sign that Jesus is God’s chosen Messiah. He’s won over even the Gentiles, who now have come and want to meet him and know him. The whole world, even the Gentiles, has gone over to Jesus.

Now, we’ve grown up knowing that Jesus died on the cross. It’s a fact that is a part of our culture, something people know whether people follow Jesus or not.

But what if we try to forget we know the end of the story, and put ourselves in this moment? What would we be feeling and thinking as one of Jesus’ followers right at this moment?

The disciples, led by Thomas’ words, have gone to die with Jesus.

But instead, they see the power of God through Jesus bring Lazarus back to life. They are with him as he comes to the center of Jewish power on the planet, as he comes to Jerusalem at the Passover. They are with him as the crowd goes wild, celebrating and honoring Jesus. They are with him as even Gentiles come and want to meet Jesus.

All of their hopes must have been back on the table. Who cares about the death sentence from the men in power? The power to overcome death, the power of the crowd, the sign that God is even moving Gentiles to come to Jesus…all of their wildest hopes are right on the verge of being fulfilled.

It’s time to ride the wave. It’s time to seize success. It’s all there for the taking.

If you forget that you know the end of the story, how would you be thinking?

What would you encourage Jesus to do?

This may be one of the easiest places for us to really understand how different God’s ways are from our own ways. It may be the way we are shaped by the American dream, it may be simply something at the heart of what it means to be human…but if we are honest with ourselves and put ourselves in this moment without knowing the end of the story, we would probably follow these verses with completely different words than the ones Jesus speaks.

What are some of the expressions we have that show what WE would more likely do in this moment? The first that I think of is, “Strike while the iron is hot!” What are some of our expressions that capture our at least American idea of adding to our success? [ASK]

Most of us, myself included, live life in such a way that we are always trying to add on more.

We are achievement oriented. We are success oriented. It’s a rare moment in our lives where we end something and set it aside, when something ELSE good comes along. The much more usual experience is to add the new good thing on to an already full life.

I first wrestled with this lesson in college, and I still wrestle with it today. In high school, I’d been able to do it all: sports, extra-curricular stuff, school, church stuff, family stuff. It was possible to do it all, even if it was a little stressful at times.

But my sophomore year in college, I had to face the fact that my pattern of adding on was taking its toll. I had to give up something to survive. I had to give up baseball, and that was a very difficult thing for me to do.

Moving forward in life, being faithful to God in life, finding health in life meant giving up and sacrifice, not adding on. I’d love to tell you I’ve obeyed that lesson ever since, but that would be a lie.

We often live a false lie that says we can and should have it all.

What’s perhaps the most scary thing about that is how much it has permeated even Christian thinking in our country.

Listen to some of the titles of the best selling Christian books right now: “Your Best Life Now.” “Ask and It is Given.” “Morning and evening meditations to literally create your heart’s desire.”

When we put ourselves in this part of the story of Jesus’ life, when we recognize how we would want him to go for it, to take on the Jewish leaders and kick out the Romans and capitalize on his power and success…when we do that, we realize how great our tendency is to want to follow God for what God can do for us.

We realize how much we assume that it’s possible to have it all, without any struggle along the way. We realize how much we assume that if God really is good and all-powerful, life should not involve suffering or sacrifice or saying no.

Have you faced your own desires to have it all?

Have you faced your own assumptions about who God is and how God will work?

Because when we go on to read what Jesus says at this crucial moment when all success is wide open to him, we will come face to face with how differently God views success.

Before we go on to read how Jesus will obey and glorify God, before we see the path that we are asked to follow as well…would you take just a moment to think about where you are right now in your life?

What is most on your mind? In that situation, can you see a way where you are perhaps believing a lie, believing you can have it all, believing that if God really was there and really was loving and powerful, that of course God would act in this way?

In what ways do you want to have it all? [WAIT]

[READ 12: 23-28a]

Let me confess that I know I may be beginning to sound like a broken record.

My life for upwards of seven years now has been one of God yanking me out of the easy path I seem to map out for my life, and sending me down a road that I was not expecting and that involves sacrifice.

Because of that, I think, I’ve been hyperly attuned to the message of sacrifice and surrender and the cross that is found in the bible.

I’ve become convinced that the cross really is the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Not just the cross in the sense of the way that we receive forgiveness because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, although of course that is true and right.

But I keep seeing the way that Jesus and the bible holds up for us the cross as a way of life, an essential way of life. And when I use it that way, I mean the conscious choice to sacrifice my own thoughts and desires and even successes to something more important.

The cross as a way of life is choosing to give up the dream of having all I ever wanted, and instead center my life around honoring and obeying God.

This is what Jesus does. He recognizes and speaks a truth that goes completely against the “have it all” lie that we hear and believe so often.

He recognizes that it takes death for a harvest to happen. It takes sacrifice for something greater to occur.

It troubles him, it scares him, it bothers him. But he knows the truth. For him to obey and honor and glorify God, for a greater work to happen, for “the whole world” truly to be drawn to him, he must die.

With the shouts of the crowds and the accolades still ringing in his ears, he set his will on obeying God to death. Rather than have it all, he will sacrifice it all.

This is somehow a truth, a deeper truth about how life works than what we so often believe.

I don’t pretend to know why God made the world this way, or why Jesus couldn’t have it all, or why God in all God’s creative, loving power couldn’t come up with a way that didn’t involve sacrifice.

What I do know is what the book of John speaks: that Jesus is God himself come into the world as light and truth, and when Jesus himself had the chance to have it all, he chose instead to die.

The heart of following Jesus is radically different than the way most of us live our lives. Following Jesus is not something which gives us a power or a tool to having all that we ever wanted in life.

Following Jesus is not something we “add on” to already full lives so that we can have even more of the things we want.

Following Jesus is to follow his example to ignore what is success in the world’s eyes, and to sacrifice out of obedience to God, to bring God honor.

Any of us who want to get off the hook and think that it was only Jesus who had to do this, that it was only Jesus who had to take this way of suffering in our place…we can only get off the hook if we refuse to read verses 25 and 26.

If we love our lives in this world, the world which teaches we need more and more and more, we’ll lose our life.

If we reject the message of adding on and achieving more, and replace it with a brand new orientation, of seeking to obey and glorify God with our lives, than we’ve found eternal life.

If we want to be his disciples, Jesus says, we must walk where he walks and go where he goes. We must re-orient the direction and goal of our lives, away from wanting more and more for ourselves and seeing God as the tool for that, and instead GIVING more and more of ourselves and seeing God as the GOAL of that.

This is a scary, somewhat illogical journey, this journey of following Jesus.

When we face into it, we begin to understand why Paul in his letters talked about the foolishness of following God, the foolishness of the cross.

But here is the message of hope in the midst of all the foolishness: the book of John does not end in chapter 12. It doesn’t end here! And it doesn’t end in the tomb in chapter 19, either.

Beyond Jesus’ sacrifice is God’s power of resurrection. Beyond the craziness of not using the power of the crowds to create what we think would be heaven on earth, is God at work through sacrifice to draw everyone to Jesus.

There is hope in following the way of Jesus!

But the hope doesn’t come without chapter 12. The hope of resurrection and God’s vindication and power don’t come without setting aside our view of success and power. Hope doesn’t come without re-orienting our lives to bring glory to God, rather than ourselves.

Where does this speak to you today?

Does it speak to your job, your career, toward what you are doing or will do with your work?

Does it speak to your desire for a particular lifestyle? Does is speak to your desire for a spouse or a friendship or respect and accolades from others?

What would it look like for you to sacrifice your desires, and instead pursue the glory and honor of God?

What would it look like to “use” ourselves for God, instead of to use God for ourselves?