I'm sure you've eaten a piece of fruit or some vegetables that are not yet ripe. They can be tough to eat, tasteless, and they can leave you with a sick stomach. We have to wait until the time is right. Then the fruit is ripe and ready to be eaten.
Usually you have a reasonable idea when the fruit will ripen or when the crops are ready to be harvested
Big farmers use technology to measure the moisture content in wheat to decide accurately when the time is just right to harvest. We use our tastebuds to decide when its right to pick the apples off the tree.
For Jesus, the time is right
There is a time called "God's time". It is not measurable by a clock or by a calendar. It has more in common with the image of fruit or crops ripening. Jesus knows that the time is ripe when some Greeks ask to see him. He knows that humanity has had just enough of him never to forget him. The Good News has taken root in the hearts of the disciples and is just about to spread beyond the Jewish world into the world of the Greeks. The time is right for Jesus to be planted in the ground like the grain of wheat, to die that we might live.
Suffering is never easy, even for Jesus
Jesus struggles with the suffering that he knows is ahead of him, but he opts for the glorification that God calls him to. The cross, especially in John's Gospel is a glorification. As Jesus is lifted up from the earth on the cross, God is glorified in him. And with the cross firmly rooted in the earth, Jesus becomes the unforgettable bridge, covenant, connection and communion between God and humanity, heaven and earth.
Its hard to understand suffering when we're in the middle of it
Like Jesus, we don't want to suffer. We would rather live a painless life. But, the lesson of the cross is that our suffering leads to new life. Jesus' death on the cross is the exaltation and glorification of God. Somehow our difficulties, suffering and pain today lead us firmly into new life, especially when we ask God for the grace that he wishes to give us to make it through. Suffering, grief, testing and pain tell us that we are fully human and fully alive. The most real moment of Jesus' earthly life was the cross.
The time is ripe for us
Whatever stage we are at on life's journey, the cross presents itself in some way. We are continually letting go of one part of ourselves and taking on another. This is growth and development as a human being. It is the dying and rising of new life. There is no growth without some death.
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