One Has to Die to Live

“And Jesus answered them saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”.  John 12:23-24

After leaving the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in Bethany, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  It was only a few days before He would face suffering and death on the cross to provide salvation for all who would repent of sin and trust in Him.  The people, after hearing the miracle of the raising back to life of Lazarus by Jesus, they flocked to see Him.  There were some Greeks among them who had come to worship at the feast of the Passover.  They approached Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, and told him that they wanted to see Jesus.  Some scholars think that these Greeks were Jews who had been scattered during the dispersion.  Others believe they were Gentiles who had converted to Judaism.  If these Greeks were uncircumcised, the Jews did not permit them to eat of the Passover, but that didn’t stop them from worshiping.  One of Jesus’ goals in coming to earth besides His main mission, was to stop all of this division among people and bring unity to people as brothers and sisters of Christ.

Philip went to Andrew, another of Jesus’ disciples, to check with him likely to make sure that it was permissible to bring these Greeks to Jesus.  I doubt Jesus would turn them away, but Philip and Andrew were both Jews and had been brought up to shun Gentiles.  It was at this point that Jesus announced to the disciples that His time had come–the whole purpose for which He came to earth had begun.  It was like the Greeks desiring to come to Him was a signal to begin His final mission.  That makes sense because Jesus came for Jews and Gentiles.  I can’t remember if there had been a group of Gentiles who had come to see Him before now, but He did meet with a few on an individual basis, the Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5-13) and the woman from Canaan (Matthew 15:21-28), both of whom He healed those whom they had requested that He heal.  Both of those Gentiles heard Jesus tell them that they had great faith.

Jesus then said, “…Except a corn of what fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”.  Because this was an agrarian society, Jesus used, as He had done at other times, an example of something of which the people were very familiar to illustrate a truth which was a seed.  Anyone with any knowledge at all about plants knows that a seed must be planted in the soil if we expect it to do what it was meant to do, create new life.  That seed will die. It will no longer exist in its present form, because with warmth from the sun and rain from heaven, the outer husk will split, and a tiny sprout, a new life, will emerge, pushing its way up out onto the surface of the soil, and begin to grow.  Little leaves will form, and the plant will grow producing blossoms which will be pollinated by bees, and then the blossoms will produce fruit which will grow and ripen.  The fruit will, in turn, produce seeds within its flesh, and the cycle will begin all over again.  If the seed is never buried into the soil, it will remain a single seed and never fulfill the reason for which it was created.

Jesus is the Seed which died, was buried in a tomb, but on the third day rose to life to bring many to salvation.  Had Jesus never died on the cross, there would be no way for our sins to be forgiven, and thus no way that we could ever obtain new life.  When Christ arose, He became the “Firstfuits” of all those who would eventually rise again in the resurrection of all the saints.  Jesus’ resurrection set the precedence for resurrection.  When He returns to earth, all believers will be raised from the graves and given new, eternal bodies.  Think of it this way.  When Jesus returns to earth, all of those millions who received Him as Lord and Savior and died, will sprout from the earth as the seed that died in the earth but sprouted to new life and created many more just like it.

Jesus then stated that whoever loves his earthly life will lose it, but those who hate, that is, who place no real value on a secular life without Christ, will keep life throughout eternity.  He then stressed the importance of serving and following Him, and those who do would always have Him with them.  Also, His Father would honor them.  There is no true satisfaction in living for the world.  Matthew Henry wrote, ” ‘Skin for skin’ (Job 2:4) a man may give for his life, and make a good bargain, but he that gives his soul, his God, his heaven, for it, buys life too dear, and is guilty of the folly of him who sold a birthright for a mess of pottage (Genesis 25:29-34).  To follow Christ is to serve Him.  To serve Him is to be where He is.  God will honor our service to the Lord.  Where is a better place to be than with Jesus Christ?  We are not told what happened to those Greeks that wanted to see Jesus, but hopefully, after seeing Him, they, too, became His servants.  Who could meet the living Christ, examine Him and His promises thoroughly, and not desire to follow Him?