Jesus’s Flourishing Life Through Death of Self

I (Jesus) tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain.  (John 12:24) 

I remember when my dad got into planting rows of watermelons (Black Diamond watermelons!!!) growing them to sale for the summer. The best I recall there was around 4 to 5 rows, each about 40 yards in length. So, yea it was work to prepare and plant as well as to harvest but it was so cool to observe that each time, we drove out to check on them, to see them sprout, then begin to see the vines begin to “run”, and see the bloom turn into the beginning of the melon.

But the entire process all started from a very small seed when planted in the ground!

In John 12 some Greeks want to see Jesus. Andrew, the bring-to-Jesus disciple, along with Phillip go to ask Jesus about the Greeks asking for a visit. Jesus, in kind of typical fashion responds with an answer that leaves one not sure that He heard correctly. Jesus responds, The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (v. 23) The timing of the Father’s purpose is what occupies Jesus’s heart and mind and that is finishing the mission. The time of earthly visits and meeting others is about to be over.

Describing this time of glorification Jesus once again turns to an agricultural illustration of a farmer sowing seed into the ground. Then how the crucial, imperative step of the seed germinating in the soil must begin so, the seed’s going away—dying—can bring forth a life-enriching process of sprouting, growing, and producing a harvest of grain. The seed’s death launches a crop of life and productivity.  

Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross is the seed Jesus is referencing in v. 24. Jesus’s love-obedience to His Father was a falling into the ground through His death and burial. Jesus’s death would spiritually germinate into His resurrection—an eternal, salvific sprouting that continues to grow and bear fruit to this day!

Jesus’s historical death now becomes our spiritual invitation as followers of Christ to a lifestyle of being a seed that falls into the ground.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. (Gal. 2:20) 

Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23) 

Oswald Chambers, famed author of the daily devotion My Utmost for His Highest, wrote, “The curse of much modern Christian work is its determination to preserve itself. This fundamental principle must be borne in mind, that any work for God before it fulfills its purpose must die, otherwise it ‘abideth alone.’ The conception is not that of progress from a seed to full growth but of a seed dying and bringing forth what it never was. That is why Christianity is always ‘a forlorn hope’ in the eyes of the world.” (The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers, Disciples Indeed, “Workers for God,” 410)

May the Lord empower each of us as disciples of Lord Jesus to say “Yes” to not abide and remain alone but embrace the way of life through daily obedience. The “Yes” will set in motion the crucified life and that through the instrument of death the life and promise of resurrection in Christ comes to bring His abundant life in the Spirit to others.