Day 36—Holy Tuesday, March 31

John 12:20-36

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

When people come to see you, the least you can do is be polite to them. When they go out of their way to listen to you and seek you out and pull strings just to be in your presence, the least you can do is welcome them with a bit of decorum and hospitality. And it’s not like Jesus himself hadn’t just invited people to come seek him out. It’s not like he hadn’t just claimed to be the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18) and called people to come listen to his voice.

But when the Greeks come and say, “We wish to see,” Jesus replies with a curt “Follow me and die.”

No small talk. No gratitude for their effort. No deference or attending to the niceties of convention. He doesn’t give them what they expect or even what they think they want. No, he sees that they’ve come and says, Oh you think you want to follow me? Well, it’s going to be along the path of death. If you want to go where I am, you’re going to have to let go of a lot of things. If you want a better, more eternal life, you’re going to have to be willing to lose the one you have now.

Thanks for coming by.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t so much of a surprise. And maybe Jesus’s unconventional response was a lesson in itself. Because it wasn’t like Jesus could be accused of propping up the status quo. His message and ministry had always been deeply counterintuitive, and so the seeming disconnect may be exactly the point insofar as the call of the Shepherd will be as unconventional as the Shepherd himself.

Because if Jesus is a Shepherd unlike any other shepherd, if he is better than any other shepherd, then maybe following him will be just as unlikely. And maybe… just maybe… the only predictable thing will be Jesus himself.

So, how can we follow such an uncertain path? Well, I suppose, we have to do exactly what Jesus called us to do and exactly what the Greeks began to do. You come to the Shepherd, and then you stay close to the Shepherd. You follow at his heels even when the road leads to places you’d rather not go. Especially when it leads there.

Because the other thing about this good Shepherd is that he won’t call us to a place he hasn’t already gone first. He won’t ask anything of us that he himself has not already done. So, when the Good Shepherd calls us down the path that leads to the valley of the shadow death—to relinquish everything that we know to be true about ourselves and our lives—we can follow because he promises he will be with us. We can follow because he has already walked the path and knows the way.

-Hannah Anderson