Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain

 

 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.  Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."  Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.  But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.  Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loaves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."

 

- John 12:20-26 

 

 Yesterday we read that a great many of the prominent people from Jerusalem knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.  But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.   The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:"Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  The King of Israel!"  Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:  "Fear not, daughter of Zion;  Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.  Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness.  For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.  The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, "You see that you are accomplishing nothing.  Look, the world has gone after Him!"

 

 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.  Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."  Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.  But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified."  My study Bible says that these Greeks are Gentiles who believed in the God of Abraham, and they have come to participate in the Passover feast.  That they are still called "Greeks" shows that they were not yet full proselytes (converts).  Since Jesus had taught His disciples not to go to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5, 15:24), the disciples approach Christ before bringing these inquirers to Him.  Glorified, my study Bible says, refers to Christ's death on the Cross.  His obscure response indicates the following:  first, the answer these Greeks seek will not be found in words, but in the Cross; and second, the Cross will be the event that opens all manner of grace to the Gentiles.

 

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loaves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."  My study Bible comments that this image of the grain of wheat dying in order to be fruit gives a significance to Christ's death:  His death will give life to the world.  At memorial services in many Orthodox churches, it is customary to serve whole grains of wheat, boiled, sweetened, and spiced, for the departed faithful.  This gives the image of the grain of wheat Christ uses to convey the promise that those who have died in Christ will rise again to life.  This may seem like an unusual response to the information that there were Greeks who wanted to speak with Christ.  But it is a significant new juncture in His ministry:  now the word and knowledge of Christ will go out to the wider, Greek-speaking world, thus producing much grain.  And this will happen through the Cross, and Christ's sacrifice.

 

 Jesus gives us the image of the Cross, a type of exchange, of one life for another, of one way of life for the promise of one of abundance, when He says, that "unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain."   He makes this clear to us when He gets deeper into its significance:  "He who loaves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."  In following Christ, we find a different way of life, a different energy, a different outlook than the type of life "the world" promises us.  In Christ we have an exchange, and we also have the action of the heroic, of letting go of one thing for another -- the sacrifice of what is lesser in order to gain something greater, to be a part of a bigger picture which we can't always grasp and the world so often fails to acknowledge.  He vindicates the Cross by saying, "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."  This is the promise He made when He taught us to take up our cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27).   We exchange our way of life for His; in following Him, in taking up our own cross, we may be also with Him and honored by the Father.  This is what is understood as a heroic way of life.  It has the underpinnings of sacrifice for something greater, even for a whole community united in Christ, for one contribution contributes to the whole.  It is for this reason that we honor saints and martyrs.  This sense of a heroic life, one couched in the proper understanding of sacrifice, of greater goals and better life, is one that can't be seen from a purely materialistic worldly perspective.  It does not fit a commitment merely to consumption or constant gratification.  It does not appeal to our immediate grasping for what we see in front of us, but instead asks us to go to the heart of faith to find meaning, value, sustenance, and a transfiguration of our lives, suffusing whatever we do with meaning.  A priest whose blog I often read comments today that in the Christian life, nothing is wasted.  This means that even in the worst of time -- and maybe especially then -- we take up our cross and follow Him, and we simply don't know in the very short run, in the immediate awareness, what good will come of that or us, what future outcome that will bring.  But we know for certain that Christ makes something great of our sacrifices done in faith, and there is nothing left out of life in this transfiguring, redemptive power of God which turns the instrument of Roman punishment into the instrument of salvation for all, the symbol of Resurrection.  It is in this sense that we lose our lives in order to save them.  Today, appropriately, marks the Feast of the Cross (also called the Elevation or Exaltation of the Holy Cross) across many denominations.  In the Armenian Apostolic Church, we now enter the season of the Cross.   Looking around at our world, it seems that it is an appropriate time to take in what we see around us:  the violence, injustice, corruption, and coercion of every kind, and see it all in the light of the Cross.  We know what injustice, manipulation, violence, envy, and selfish blindness constitutes the motivation to put Jesus to death on the Cross, and yet we are also told nonetheless that His Passion is His glorification, and that He goes willingly -- as it will also become, in God's hands and with God's transforming power, the instrument of our salvation.  And this will mean salvation not just for this world, but for a universe, an entire created order.  We should give pause to consider what must have been devastating for Christ's disciples, His mother, and His friends, and think about what the life of the cross means for each of us.  For we have no idea how God might use anything in our lives, every sad or painful act, every hard truth.  And this is the real message of the Cross:  the Cross is something we could call the tree of prayer.  It saves and redeems if it is beheld with the eyes of faith in Christ, who will be lifted up just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness so that those who beheld with the eyes of faith would be saved (Numbers 21:5-9, John 3:14-16).   Let us begin this season by seeking that glorification, the vision of the Cross in faith -- the Cross as tree whose leaves can grow for us with our prayer and transfigure all of our own painful experiences.