Late in His ministry, as Jesus sees things falling into place for the final victory in His death, burial, and resurrection He says this:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:23–25
Okay, I get Jesus’ allusion to His approaching death, but why does He bring in His teaching about surrendering our lives to God just here? Let’s think about what he’s saying.
He’s speaking of wheat, not corn, but allow me to use that as convenient illustration that we
may all be more familiar with. On average, a single kernel of corn (maize) that germinates and grows into a single stalk will produce between two and four ears. Again, on average, each ear will produce about 800 to 1,000 kernels. So when we do the math, that means a single kernel of corn can produce 2,000 to 3,200 new kernels . . .if it dies! But if it falls out of the seed sack and ends up isolated on the floor in the corner of the barn, it produces nothing. Which would you like your life to be like?In the movie, Anthropoid, two Czechoslovakian agents are sent from London back to their occupied country to assassinate a vicious German general who has been subduing and wantonly executing their countrymen. In the process of blending in, among the locals, one of them falls in love with a young Czechoslovakian woman and wants to marry her. His companion/commander asks him the right question: “Why are we here?”
Imagine a CIA secret agent being sent to Disneyland for a weekend because it is suspected that two notorious terrorist leaders are planning to rendezvous in the park. So the agent spends the designated weekend there and then reports to his commander. But as he delivers his report he speaks of how much he enjoyed this and that ride and feature of Disneyland, instead of the key information he was to gather that would prevent a nuclear device from being detonated in downtown Manhattan. Yipes! He forgot why he was there.
In this world, you can live your life for yourself and be like the Czechoslovakian agent who was getting caught up in a normal civilian life and neglecting his strategic assignment, or like the CIA agent who enjoyed Disneyland, but failed to avert a national disaster, or like a kernel of corn that never produced a single other kernel.
Jesus said:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it.”
At your funeral, which would you rather have said:
“He (or she) was a fun-loving person who really enjoyed themselves.”
Or:
“Because he (or she) gave up their own life, God used them to touch many others lives, and because of them the world, and the courts of eternity will never be the same!”