You’re probably familiar with this classic comedic sketch: a person owns a fragile and priceless object that they cherish such as a vase or sculpture, but do not keep it in a safe place. Rather than ensuring their prized possession is secured in a display case or on a high shelf out of harm’s way, they inexplicably perch it on a pedestal or precariously on the edge of a table. Inevitably, a clumsy buffoon soon comes along, bumping the item which crashes to the floor. The person who broke it will often go to great lengths to repair or replace it, usually causing further calamity.
Who has experienced this—a special ornament dismounting from the wall, a piece of a dinner set broken in the cupboard, or perhaps a valuable sculpture accidentally bumped into and knocked over, falling to the floor and breaking to pieces. It is so upsetting when that happens, especially to an irreplaceable item with sentimental attachment.
Yoshimasa Ashikaga, who was a 15th century Japanese Shogun, had a tea bowl that he treasured. One day he discovered that it was cracked. Because he cherished it so much, Yoshimasa sent the piece to China to get it repaired. However no one had the skill to repair cracked pottery, so the bowl was sent back with a clamp on it. Yoshimasa was disappointed with the appearance of this, so he ordered a local craftsman to find a better solution to repair the cracked pottery. Rather than trying to conceal the crack, the craftsman sought to emphasise it, filling it with gold lacquer. This was the beginning of the unique artform of Kintsugi, a Japanese word meaning “Golden joinery”. The art form was built on the idea that every break is unique and instead of repairing an item like new, an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art can be created. Over time, the craft became so popular that people started deliberately breaking their ceramics, simply so they could repair them using the eye-catching gold lacquer.[1]
This reminds me of last Wednesday’s midweek Lent theme: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth”. We heard when Adam and Eve they first sinned, they didn’t rejoice in the truth, but delighted in evil, in two ways. The first was failing to hold dear the truth of God’s word. They went against God’s command. They wanted to be place of God, judging what was good and evil; right and wrong. The second was the fallout after they had sinned. They tried to cover up and hide from God. They tried to justify themselves by blaming each other, the devil and even God: “The woman you gave me—she made me do it!” “The devil deceived me!”
No—it was nobody’s fault but theirs. It was on them. God expelled them from the Garden. Unholy people could not be in the presence of the holy God and live. When Adam and Eve sinned against God they plunged the whole human race into sin, death, evil and hell. The relationship between God and the people he made in his image was broken, and the relationship between humanity was broken too, like shattered ceramics. It wasn’t an accidental bump that caused the valuable piece to fall. Human sin wasn’t an accident. We quite intentionally threw God’s valuable fragile object to the floor, and deliberately shattered it.
Just as Yoshimasa’s tea bowl could not repair itself, we could not repair our relationship with God and with one another ourselves either. We needed a Saviour to save us from our broken state, the One promised right back in the Garden, who God announced would do some breaking of his own—he would crush Satan’s head with his heel.
That Saviour is the one we hear of in today’s Gospel. Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
The way we think of glory was not the idea of glory that God had. We say ‘death or glory’, for God it was glory in death. A grain of wheat remains a single grain in the wheat spike, but when it falls to the ground and dies, buried under the soil, it produces many seeds, from which many new plants will grow. Although Jesus would be lifted up, it would not be on a throne but a Cross, and he would ‘fall’ to the ground and be buried. As a grain of wheat that falls into the ground produces many seeds, Jesus’ death would mean others would rise from death to eternal life through faith in him. Although his soul was troubled, Jesus said: “…what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”
Jesus would bring glory to God by redeeming the world, so that many from all nations would put their hope in him and call on his Father in Heaven. In today’s text we hear that happening already—there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the great Passover Festival at Jerusalem. The Passover was the commemoration of God’s rescue of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God passed over the homes marked with the blood of sacrificed lambs to spare them from his judgment, before leading them through the Red Sea. Thousands would make the great journey from their homes throughout Israel to go up to Jerusalem for this celebration.
John’s mention of the Greeks being among those who went the Passover festival is quite deliberate. The Jews held that as the descendants of Abraham, they were the true people of God. While there were some from other nations who revered the God of Israel (known as ‘God-fearers’), the Jews did not consider them to be full members of God’s people. They could visit Jerusalem for the great feasts, but they were not permitted to pass beyond the outer court of the Gentiles when they went to the Temple.
Now, Jesus is the new Temple where the fulness of God dwells, where people from all nations to come for divine favour and mercy, for he is also the new Passover Lamb sacrificed for the world. He took upon himself the sin of the world so that it would be crucified with him, emptying death of its power by his own death, and casting out the ruler of this world, by the shedding of his holy and precious blood. God’s salvation is no longer for Israel only, but it is for all people who look to Jesus.
John tells us that some Greeks came to Philip with a request. “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” During Lent especially, we are called to fix our eyes on Jesus. But it is the Spirit of Lent who is at work to do this, gathering people from all places and backgrounds to look to Jesus. In his explanation to the Third Article of the Creed, Luther moved from personal, individual focus to a communal one. He said: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church day after day he fully forgives my sins, and the sins of all believers. On the last day he will raise me and all the dead and give me and all believers in Christ eternal life.” (Small Catechism, 3rd Article)
The Spirit of Lent is our Gatherer. Like the Kintsugi artists who treasure their cracked and broken ceramic items so much that they don’t throw away, replace, or even repair them to their original state, but make a beautiful new creation with them—the Holy Spirit salvages and gathers the pieces of our broken human race together. Though we are undeserving people, fragile, frail, and broken; unable to repair our relationship with God and others ourselves, God didn’t throw you away, replace you, or even try to repair you. But he joined you with Christ through faith and therefore with the saints of all times and places, with all our chips and cracks, filling us and uniting us with his Holy Spirit, who is like the precious gold lacquer binding the pieces of ceramic together, to make something new and beautiful—a new creation; his church.
We are, then, to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:3-6).
If we reflect back on the Sundays of Lent we have focused on the Holy Spirit as:
- The Gatherer of God’s people;
- The Pilot who takes the aircraft of the church to Christ,
- The Optometrist who corrects our vision to see Jesus as our Saviour, and ourselves as spiritual beggars,
- The Housecleaner who purifies our hearts, making us holy, bringing us into a holy communion,
- The Power Source for faith and strength to repent and believe the Good News, losing our life to find it, by taking up our cross and following Jesus.
The future of the church is not in any of its people, but the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of Lent, who has worked, and continues to work in our hearts, that we might hate our life in this world to keep it for eternal life. He has called and gathered us here again today, to receive his grace, to have our hearts purified by the washing away of our sins, to be sanctified in truth, and strengthened in faith, that we might join with the Greeks at Passover in saying: “we wish to see Jesus.” We wish to see Jesus at work with his grace and mercy in our life. We wish to see Jesus at work in the world. We wish to see Jesus, and all his grace and blessing when he comes in power and glory to bless his repentant people and take them home—where our Father in Heaven will honour all those who serve Jesus. Amen.
[1] References: Kintsugi, (author unknown) https://kintsugi-australia.com.au/ last accessed 1:20pm, March 16, 2024, and The History of Kintsugi: The Art of Japanese Pottery Repair (author unknown) https://classbento.com.au/the-history-of-kintsugi-the-art-of-japanese-pottery-repair last accessed 1:24pm, March 16, 2024
