The Seed that Dies
One
Responding to the Greeks
It was after Palm Sunday, the time for the Passover was approaching, and Christ’s enemies were preparing their plans to have Him put to death.
And yet, despite the danger, Christ was present, not hiding, not afraid.
And some Greeks came to Philip, and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
We don’t know, for sure, why they wanted to see Him.
Did they want to become His disciples?
Did they want to have a stimulating discussion – talk about theology and philosophy and the meaning of life – with an original thinker?
Did they want to warn Him about the danger to his life?
Or did they want to invite Him to come to their own country, where He would be more welcome?
We don’t know. What we do know is how Jesus responded to their interest.
Philip told Andrew that the Greeks wanted to see Jesus, and Andrew brought the message to Jesus.
And the Lord responded:
“The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains but a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
So what kind of response was that?
Two
The Hour
When Christ speaks of His Hour, He is referring to the Passion.
He is glorified through His death on the Cross, for only if He dies can He rise again.
This is Christ’s answer to the Greeks – He is not just a teacher, not just an intellectual, not someone who is merely instructing us on how to live a good death.
He is someone who has come not to give us the meaning of life, but to give meaning to death, by the glorification that comes from it.
Everyone wants their religion to make their lives easier, more fulfilled, more pleasant.
That’s not the Christian religion. Anyone can find meaning in life – we have come to preach the meaning of death as the portal to a new, more glorious life.
This is why we worship a crucified God.
As St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Christ preached to the Greeks what He offered to the Jews: glorification through death united to Himself.
Three
Folly to the Greeks
Paul says that a crucified, resurrected Christ is folly to the Greeks.
After all, have you ever been to a funeral? Have you ever touched the corpse?
Who would look at that dead thing, and come to the conclusion that it would ever rise again?
And so Christ gives the Greeks an example from nature: a seed that becomes a grain of wheat
Who could look at a seed for the first time, not knowing what it is, and imagine what it can turn into if you just bury it in the ground?
That little seed? Turned into a great stalk of wheat? A mustard seed, grown into an enormous tree, with branches and leaves? A kernel of corn, grown into a great stalk with ears growing out of it?
Is it more marvelous that our bodies, planted in the ground, should become gloriously resurrected? If God can give such power of transformation to His seeds, and not be able to give it to His sons and daughters?
Shall God’s nature do what God’s children cannot do
Four
Stumbling Block to the Jews
Paul also says that a crucified, resurrected Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews
They didn’t want their great, victorious, Messiah-King to die.
They didn’t want want to let go of their old dreams, their old rituals, their old ethno-centrist customs.
They didn’t realize that if they allowed Christ to die, He would be transformed into eternal, universal glory.
They didn’t realize that if they let go of their shadows, they would be transformed into reality.
Their old sabbath would become the new Sunday of Resurrection
Their old Sacrifices would become the New Sacrifice of the Mass
Their old circumcision would become the rebirth of Baptism
Their laws of obedience would be preserved and elevated into the law of love.
Unless a grain of wheat fall to the earth and die, it remains just a grain of wheat.
The Jews wouldn’t bury Judaism – and so Jerusalem remained just Jerusalem
This is the Holy Land – but it’s holy like a relic, like something dead – something carefully preserved, and encased in a small shell in a small dusty corner of the world.
But Christ’s Church is alive, animated by the Spirit.
It stretches to the four corners of the earth
It fights evil and error under every new guise
It continues to grow, and to incorporate new expressions of truth and goodness and beauty wherever it finds it.
The Church is the grain of wheat that has died, and bears much fruit. It is the mustard seed, that has become an ever-growing tree, and the birds of the air – all the peoples of the earth – find shelter in its branches.
Five
Death as Planting
St. Paul, still writing to the Corinthians, reminds us that our bodies are like the seeds that die in order to bear a harvest. He says,
“Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life. And the thing that you sow is not what is going to come. You sow a bare grain of wheat and then God gives it the sort of body that he has chosen…” 1 Cor 15:37
So who can imagine what we shall be before the throne of God?
Seeds look so plain, and so similar, before we put them in the ground.
And so do we – so do people. Maybe a little older, or younger – a little heavier or slimmer.
But when the seeds blossom! Just think in terms of flowers – imagine planting seeds in the ground, all different kinds – and you don’t know which seeds will become which flower in advance.
How exciting it is to see some come up rosebushes, others lilies, others orchids, others enormous sunflowers.
What will we be? What will our friends and families look like, when Christ has raised us again? When we have sown a perishable body, and harvested a glorious body?
The moral is, don’t worry too much about your body now. Don’t become attached to this life. It’s just a seed. You don’t want it to stay a seed –
Jesus said to the Greeks: “Unless a grain of wheat fall to the earth and die, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who despises his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life.”