John 12:23-24 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, 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.
When the Betty Crocker Company first introduced its cake
mixes to the world, the box instructed the cake maker to add water to the mix
in the box, and they would get a perfectly delicious cake every time. However,
despite initial success, the company soon experienced a significant drop in
sales and needed help to determine the reason. The company initiated a
marketing research team to investigate the problem and discovered people wanted
to be more involved in making their cakes. The upper management team decided to
change the formula and have the people add one egg and water. The cake mix
became a huge success and is still going strong today.
From an eternal perspective, death is the way to life,
eternal life. This text is a biblical paradox. Christ Jesus's death on the
Cross made life possible for him and all who accept Him as their Lord and
Savior. The Cross symbolizes the final issue of the sin problem. This Biblical
concept also applies to our lives as well. If we want to achieve something, we
must invest in it. The Beatles' final album was titled Abbey Road, and its last
song was a reprise called "The End." The song's final words were, "And
in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." Death is
necessary for eternal harvest. This concept is a universal principle for any harvest.
Death provides fruitfulness. Our lives will continue to be unfruitful if we
keep them to ourselves. Our Christian lives become fruitful when we cast
ourselves into the fray of living for the Lord.
In a systematic sense, seeds do not die but germinate
before they can produce a harvest. The idea of dying here is symbolic and not
literal. When the seed goes into the ground, it dies; it will fertilize and
reproduce itself. Jesus' death would produce something far more significant
than if He had continued to live. His death would save the souls of all those
(Jew and Gentile alike) who believe in Him. The death of the seed is an
allegory for the death of Christ. A seed must go through a germination process
to produce a plant. If Jesus did not die on the Cross, humans could not have
received eternal life.
Jesus never actually reacted to the Gentile seekers, but He
did on the other side of the Cross. If humanity was to receive new life in God
the Son, Jesus had to die (be glorified) first. Jesus didn't mean that the
Father would glorify Him in the eyes of humanity; that miracle had occurred at
the Triumphal Entry. The glorification Jesus indicated here was His
glorification on the Cross. The world could only see disgraceful humiliation;
Jesus saw the glorification from the Father.
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