"Security in Suffering" (John 12: 20-43)

In this world, there are all sorts of things that can totally upend our lives—violence, broken relationships, broken trust, sickness, physical suffering, disappointments … the list goes on. And try as we might, we can’t just live our lives avoiding suffering. How do we endure suffering, without getting overwhelmed by it?  Or, to put it a different way– how can we find a joy, a settled sense of secure goodness, that suffering and circumstances cannot snuff out?  The Bible has many words for that settled, secure sense of joy– eternal life, justification, redemption, assurance, holiness, righteousness, hope– but in this passage we see it called by another word – glory In this last public sermon before his crucifixion, Jesus shows us where real glory is found, and points the way toward us sharing in the unique, secure glory that he has experienced since before the world began.  In John 12, we see how the gospel gives us a secure joy that cannot be conquered by suffering or circumstances.  QUOTES: "Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance? … In Christianity, the moment we believe, God imputes Christ’s perfect performance to us as if it were our own, and adopts us into His family. In other words, God can say to us just as He once said to Christ, ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ You see, the verdict is in. And now I perform on the basis of the verdict. Because He loves me and He accepts me, I do not have to do things just to build up my résumé. I do not have to do things to make me look good. I can do things for the joy of doing them. I can help people to help people – not so I can feel better about myself, not so I can fill up the emptiness.“ — Tim Keller “A sense of personal beauty comes, I believe, only in the generous, self- giving gaze, the noticing regard, of another person … A sense of personal beauty is nevertheless accessible to all, in the life-giving noticing regard of Jesus Christ. If—when—human noticing regard fails to occur, any person may nevertheless experience it in the gaze of the Lord …. His alone is the face that will not go away, and his alone is our highest joy.” — Esther Lightcap Meek