lifted up

The Word for today:
John 12:20-36

mark this: 12:32-33:
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself."
This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

We take some Bible verses personally. John 12:32 is one of those personal verses for me. Permit me today to reminisce and re-commit.

I read a Bible sometime just after my son Frankie was born, in 1994. I kept on reading that Bible, front cover to back cover, front to back, front to back; on each passing page falling ever deeper in love with the major character.

Then I showed up at a church one day around the year 2000, when Shelley and I saw a sign for Vacation Bible School, which prompted us to think that maybe Frankie and Eddy, 5 and 6 at the time, would benefit from "Veggie Tales." But I remained wary of church and hid in the pews for the next four years.

One day I showed up at a Sunday School class for men. Dan Verratti was the teacher. They were discussing a John Eldredge book. I loved that class. The next semester I went to Mr. Brown's class on the book of Daniel. Fantastic! When the class ended after its allotted 12 weeks, I asked Mr. Brown if we could just keep sailing into the next book of the Bible--Hosea--and then keep going all the way through until we got back to Daniel. But the next set of classes were already scheduled, he told me, and there wasn't a classroom available.

I spoke to Shelley on the way home about my request and about what Mr. Brown said.
"Why don't you teach a class that goes cover to cover, Franklyn."
"I wouldn't even know where to begin."
"How about Genesis?"

I taught my first class in January of 2005. The church was torn up for renovation, and the only place left to hold a class was in the church kitchen. So amidst the pots and pans and sinks and stoves and a big old freezer which hummed and thrummed so loudly that I had to shout over it, I started: "In the beginning, God..."

We called that class "Lifted Up." The theme was taken from John 12:32-33:
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.
This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

Jesus came from eternity for this hour, for this cause (1): to die a redemptive death, taking the judgment and curse of sin upon himself. Then he rose from the dead, verification that his sacrifice was accepted. The plan, decided before the foundation of the world (2), had worked!

The cross was his purpose, and the cross is our purpose. We can't die for the sins of others, but we can communicate the cross; we can lift him up.

Then we can lift him higher:
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple (3).

(1) see John 12:27; (2) Revelation 13:8; (3) Isaiah 6:1