The Fifth Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:1-13 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and it dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
One of the great joys of being with the folks who gather each Tuesday morning for Bible study is that we have the opportunity to ponder, offer insight, ask questions, and wrestle with what we’re hearing and experiencing as we explore the lectionary readings for the upcoming week. For me, these conversations have been a great source of information and fertile ground for relationship building as I often use ideas and thoughts from the group in preparing my weekly sermons while we foster an environment where questions are encouraged and our faith is strengthened. This time of study and conversation is open to everyone and I highly encourage you to add your voice to the dialogue as we explore and glean from God’s word.
Today’s reading from John’s Gospel offers an example of scripture we wrestled with; how does a seed or grain of wheat “die?” Jesus often used images from everyday life in his teaching and the use of an example from agriculture, today’s being of a grain of wheat, is a very common analogy. My recollection is that we didn’t come up with a “good” explanation though we certainly grasped its overall meaning in relationship to Jesus’ death and resurrection. But this idea of “a seed dying?” stuck with me the rest of the week.
Truth be told, I hadn’t really ever thought much about the process of how seeds turn into plants. I do remember vividly a kindergarten project of planting a seed in a dixie cup, putting the cup on the windowsill to ensure it
received the proper amount of sunlight, and carefully watering it every other day while I and my classmates wanted for the results of our experiment. Whalaa!!...in about a week a little green shoot popped through the soil and my humble dixie cup was a big hit at home when I presented it as a gift to my mother. I’m sure it ranked right up with the plaster-of-paris spoon necklace I made and gave her as a Christmas present. Gardening and creative crafting are truly not my gifts.
With respect to the question “how does a seed die?” and after reading a few brief articles and blogs regarding the life and germination process of seeds, I did learn that essentially the seed dies to itself. As one blogger put it, “the seed ceases to be a seed in order that the plant would live, it can no longer find its identity in that of its old self, a seed. And in this way, it has died, it has ceased to exist as its original self.” This reality is more than botanical truth; it is theologically true, as well.
Before I get to some theological thoughts, however, I offer you another analogy, that of a lightbulb. I wish I could remember where or when I first heard this but it goes something like this: As long as the bulb stays in its original package or in a drawer, it remains a perfectly good lightbulb, but it doesn’t produce any light, right? It’s not functioning as intended. However, once it is turned on, it gives light. Interestingly though, it also begins the process of dying as it is being used for its original purpose. It slowly burns itself out and is subsequently tossed out.
In somewhat similar fashion, Jesus uses the analogy of the grain of wheat. If not planted, the grain remains just that, a grain of wheat, much like the lightbulb in its packaging or when left in a drawer. But unlike the lightbulb that ultimately dies and is thrown out after its usefulness has been spent, the grain of wheat that is planted and nurtured, while dying to its original form, nonetheless creates new life in the way of new stalks of wheat.
Today we hear of a group of “Greeks” (aka Gentiles) who, upon finding Philip, make the statement “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” This seems like a reasonable request to me. The crowds have been following Jesus on both
land and sea, have heard the miraculous stories of his healing powers, his casting out of demons, his feeding of thousands, and his raising of Lazarus, the event that is really starting to make serious waves with the Jewish religious leaders. Could this be the long-awaited Messiah? Everyone is in a frenzy. Sir, they tell Philip, we wish to see Jesus. I wonder, do you think they were aware of what they were seeking, especially given Jesus’ response that dealt with grains of wheat, the bearing of fruit, the losing of one’s life, and the call to a new way of living in following Jesus as a willing servant.
I’m going to hazard to guess that this group of Gentile God-fearers wanted more than just to see what Jesus looked like, more than just wanting to hang out with folks who were curious as to what was going on and who was caught up in all the excitement. I’m guessing they wanted to “know” him, to learn from him, to find out what Jesus and his teachings were all about. I’m also guessing that they had no idea what this level of engagement and potential discipleship would entail.
I’m confident that in our own ways, we too want to “see Jesus.” To truly “see” Jesus is more than an intellectual exercise in believing things about Jesus or the various accounts of what the evangelists wrote of what he said and did. Don’t get me wrong, we need to believe in the truths that underlie these accounts because they reveal who Jesus is and what his radical call of discipleship looks like, and the demands it places on his followers. To follow Christ is a commitment to engaging a new way of thinking and being, an undertaking that requires that we learn to die so that we might truly learn what it means to live.
Like the grain of wheat that dies to itself that results in new stalks of wheat, Jesus says that we too must die in order to produce the fruit of faith, obedience, patience, forgiveness, generosity, and self-sacrificial love. Jesus’ call to this radical way of living forces each of us to look at those behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and prejudices that bind us to our old selves. We know too well what many of them are: anger, fear, guilt, need for power or control, living with our past failures, our obsessions, and what we say
and do that damage our own minds as well as our relationships with others. All these behaviors speak of the biggest challenge in all of our lives, our thinking that we live by being self-sufficient. As we’ve talked about previously, this goes to the reality that God offers to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Our self-sufficiency is what we need to let die so that we can receive the life that God offers.
My friends, this brings us to the proverbial $64 dollar question: “Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we hold onto those things that keep us from the life that God wants for us?” The only answer I can come up with is that “it is hard.” We’re so used to surviving and experiencing enough sufficiency through our own way of doing things. For many of us, our lives seem quite comfortable without having to be fully invested with Jesus. Trust me, I’m just as guilty as the next person. But this isn’t what God wants for or from us. If we truly want to “see Jesus” we need to die to the old self and take on a life reliant on the faithfulness and goodness of God. By dying to our old self, we become transformed into a new creation, a new life nurtured by the Holy Spirit that produces amazing fruit of peace, joy, patience, generosity, and love. As our Lenten journey comes to an end and we prepare to walk with Jesus through the trials of Holy Week, by God’s grace may lay down our own self-sufficiency so that we might pick up our cross to not only follow Jesus but that will enable us to “see” him.