“Unless a Kernel of Wheat falls to the Ground and Dies…”
John 12:20-33
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus unveils the pattern of life we all experience as human beings on this earth.
It is the pattern of life for all living things.
Jesus says, “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.”
There it is the pattern of life is the pattern of loss and renewal that runs throughout our lives and our world.
And even if you’ve never thought of this as the pattern of life, you’ve lived and experienced it, sometimes by choice and other times by chance.
Either way, it’s there.
Think of the way this pattern has happened in your life.
Have you ever fallen in love and committed your life to one another?
If so, you had to let parts of your old life go and something of your single life died so that you could be with that other person.
How about parenting?
If you are a parent you know that there are sacrifices of yourself and your life to be made in order for the new life of your child to take root and grow.
We give up parts of ourselves for the other.
Parents are continually letting go of their child so that she or he can grow up.
(pause)
Have you ever been a caretaker for someone?
If so, you could name the parts of your life that died so that another person might live with dignity, compassion, and love.
(pause)
What are the costs, the losses, you paid for an education or a career?
You chose certain losses and let go of some things so that other things could arise.
For every choice we make, every yes we say, there is at least one “No” and probably many.
We see this same pattern in nature.
We can see it in the changing of the seasons, falling leaves and new blooms, and the rising and setting of the sun.
And think of the Scriptural stories of loss and renewal:
Abram left his country and his people so that he might be made a great nation, renamed Abraham, and be a blessing to all families of the earth.
Jacob lost his identity and was wounded so that he could become a new man, Israel, with a new life.
James and John left their father, boats, and nets to become disciples of Jesus and fishers of people.
Jesus taught His disciples that “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
This pattern of loss and renewal is everywhere, dying and rising, letting go and getting back, leaving and returning.
It’s at the core of our baptism and it’s what we declare before we take Holy Communion: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”
What in your life do you need to let go of today?
What might you need to leave behind?
What needs to die so that something new can arise?
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that John 12:20-33 is set in the context of the Passover Feast.
Remember what that’s about?
The Passover is the celebration of the Israelite’s liberation from bondage in Egypt.
It’s about freedom and new life.
It’s about letting go, leaving behind, and moving into the new.
There’s something about this pattern that is the lens through which we see Jesus.
In our Gospel Lesson some Greeks come up to Philip and say, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
I don’t know why they wanted to see Jesus but I have a few guesses.
Jesus turned water into wine.
He cleansed the Temple.
He healed the son of the royal official.
He healed the paralytic.
He fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.
He walked on water.
He gave sight to the man born blind.
He raised Lazarus from the dead.
“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
Me too!
That’s the Jesus I want to see.
Don’t you?
Philip tells Andrew about the Greeks and their request.
And both Philip and Andrew tell Jesus.
Jesus says to them, “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.”
That’s His response to those who want to see Him; to the Greeks, to you, to me.
(pause)
Dying is more than our physical death.
It’s about that but it’s so much more than that.
We die a thousand deaths throughout our lifetime.
The loss of a loved one, a relationship, health, opportunities, a dread; all deaths we don’t ask for.
Other times we choose our losses and deaths.
We give up part of ourselves for someone else.
We change our beliefs and values so that we can be more authentically ourselves.
And sometimes there are things we need to let go of, things we cling to that deny us the fullness of life we want and God offers: fear, anger or resentment, regret and, disappointment, guilt, the need to be right, approval.
Seeing Jesus isn’t a spectator sport.
It is a Way to be followed, a Truth to be embodied, a life to be lived.
It’s being a kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies so that it might produce many seeds.
That’s where we see Jesus.
It’s the letting go, the emptying, the leaving behind, and the dying that makes space for new life to arise.
Have you ever had at least one time in your life that when you look back on it you say, “I never want to go through that again.
But I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.”
What time was that?
What happened?
As difficult or painful as that experience was it produced many more seeds or as other versions of the Bible put it, it produced much fruit.
You were changed and your life was renewed.
It was one of those times when you were the kernel of wheat that fell to the ground and died.
And I’ll bet it was one of those times when you knew you had seen Jesus, when you experienced the holy when you were convinced that God was present and working in your life.
At the continuing education event, I was at this past week in Pigeon Forge, I got into a conversation with someone who once had been the Youth Director at East Ridge United Methodist Church, the Church I pastored before coming to Red Bank.
For some reason we started talking about a young lady whom this Youth Director had especially taken under her wings and we were both admiring how she has been so successful in life and how amazing it was that she was such a straight-edge kid with such good grades when she was in the Youth Group.
Her parents were alcoholics and drug addicts, and so she had so much staked against her.
It’s unusual for children to grow up in such an environment and be so stable and successful.
The former Youth Leader began telling me about a time when she had been helping this child—Jennifer—with a homework assignment.
The assignment was, “What do You Picture as the Perfect Happy Life?”
The Youth Director was worried she would have trouble with this paper since her life seemed so miserable and Jennifer, was, indeed having a tough time coming up with an idea.
So, the Youth Director kept trying to suggest things:
“What about a life where you go become a successful business person and live in a nice neighborhood with a white picket fence?”
“No,” Jennifer said.
“How about a life where you’re parents have enough money to send you off to an Ivy League College and pay all the costs?”
“No.”
That didn’t work either.
It went on and on and on and Jennifer said no to all of the Youth Director’s ideas.
Finally, it was time for Jennifer to go home, and her Youth Director felt so bad for Jennifer—she couldn’t seem to even dream of a perfect happy life.”
Then, a few hours later, Jennifer texted the Youth Director.
She wrote, “I know why I’m having such a hard time coming up with a perfect, happy life.
It’s because I am happy even though my parents are alcoholics and drug addicts.
And that is because if it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have such a close relationship with Jesus.”
Tears of joy welled up in the former Youth Director’s eyes as she told me this story.
Jesus is with us all the time.
Sometimes it is when we have nothing to cling to but Him that we come to know Him the best.
Jennifer’s kernel of wheat had fallen to the ground and died, but it wasn’t something she chose, and through her faith in and experience of Christ it produced many seeds or much fruit.
She is now happily married, has a young child whom the youth director is the “unofficial grandmother” of, and has a Master’s Degree in Social Work.
She works with children who are born into alcoholic and or abusive families.
Jesus gives us new life where there is death if we are open to it.
Jesus says, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground…”
“Unless.”
You know, Jesus uses the word “unless” a lot throughout the Gospels.
“Unless someone is born again he or she cannot see the kingdom of God.”
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
“You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”
Peter said to Jesus, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”
“Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”
“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.”
What is the kernel of wheat in your life today that needs to fall to the ground and die?
What are the things that if you lost them you are sure you would just die?
Maybe those are the very places waiting to bear much fruit in your life.
Maybe that is where you will see Jesus.
Let us Pray:
Dear Lord,
We would like to see Jesus.
Whatever needs to die in our lives, please, enable us to allow it to die.
For nothing compares to You.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray.
Amen.
