This sermon was preached on Tuesday of Holy Week, 15th April 2025.

Bible Reading: John 12:20-36

What do you hope to get out of Holy Week? You might consider this a strange question. What do I want to get out of Holy Week? Is the point of Holy Week to get something out of it? Yes and no. We worship God because we love him, and he deserves our thanks and praise. But it would be naïve to pretend that we don’t receive anything from our worship. 

Let me put it another way. Why did you come to church this evening? Why do you come to church on a Sunday? Do you ever ask yourself this question? Many of us have been coming to church for decades. Church is part of our routine and our regular life. There is nothing wrong with routine. Routine can be very healthy and beneficial for us, but when things become routine for us, we can forget the real reason that got us started in the first place. So, it’s helpful for us to take the time to pause and ask the question: why did you come to church today? 

I’ve been a big fan of this reading from John over the past few years. One of the things that I love about the passage is the Greeks in this story. They are at the temple in Jerusalem for the Passover festival. These Greeks go up to Philip, Jesus’ disciple, and say, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus.’ I don’t know if this is the primary reason these Greeks came to the temple, but when in the temple (when in their church), their desire was to see Jesus. 

When you come to church, do you come to see Jesus? Do you want to see him? I think this is one of the key reasons we gather as a church, and one of the reasons why we are coming out every night this week. It’s because as we come to worship and pray together, we hope to see Jesus. 

In Holy Week, we remember the week leading up to Jesus’ death. In our reading, we see Jesus speaking about his death only a few days before it happened. It could have been on the Tuesday of Holy Week. Who knows? As he talks about his death, Jesus says he will be lifted up from the earth and will draw everyone to him. Jesus is saying that through his death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection, he will make a way to bring the whole world to him so that everyone can see Jesus. All we need to do is come to him, and we will see him. 

Why are you here tonight? Why do you come to church? Do you want to see Jesus? 

Amen.