Dying Daily
Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me” John 12:20-26
The passage before the one above finishes with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the Pharisees’ comment, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him”’ (12:19). There is probably an interval of a few days between these events and the arrival of the Greek enquirers. In this time Jesus has cleansed the temple, specifically the ‘court of the Gentiles’ where the money changers had their booths (Luke 19:45-48). The Greeks now looking for Jesus could well have been at the temple and witnessed all that happened.
They may have been unsure of Jesus’ attitude to Gentiles and so first spoke to Philip. Being raised in the north, he would have spoken Greek fluently. Philip might have shared their uncertainty or for some other reason seems to have been tentative, so he told Andrew and they both approached Jesus. Jesus sensed an important time in God’s prophetic clock had just ticked over. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Through the preceding chapters the ‘hour’ has always been ‘not yet’ (2:4; 4:21,23; 7:30; 8:20). The ‘not yet’ is over; the ‘hour’ has arrived. So John brings us to the central crisis of the gospel. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He who the Father separated and sent into the world, whose food is to do the Father’s will and to finish His work, will now bring final glory to the Father by the supreme act of obedience through His own death. In this final action the Father will reciprocally crown the Son with glory.
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Jesus’ glorification will be through His own death. He is the grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die. Only by being hidden in ‘death’ under the earth can the seed produce new life. Jesus will likewise be hidden in ‘death’ under the earth. But this will result in a vast harvest of people who through faith in Him will find eternal life. The coming of the Greeks highlighted how deep and wide this harvest would be.
“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus’ giving up His life for others must become the pattern for His disciples. “Whoever serves me must follow me.” What’s true for effecting salvation is also true for effective service. Faith in Jesus means dying to the attractions of this passing world. Following Jesus as Lord and King means we stop following the lords and kings of the earth. This can’t be diluted or softened. “Where I am, my servant also will be.” The guaranteed presence of Christ both here and hereafter doesn’t come any other way. “My Father will honour the one who serves me.”
This life through death principle is a law of the kingdom of God. It’s only in dying that we become life-givers to others (2 Corinthians 4:11,12). Only by our inward struggles, difficult circumstances, opposition, our wrestling with personal weaknesses and other factors uniquely fitted to who we are can we learn to die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). The seed must perish for the harvest to flourish.
To listen to this message, download in MP3 here.