LESSON FROM THE GRAIN OF WHEAT

LESSON FROM THE GRAIN OF WHEAT

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  25  He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.(John 12:24-25)  

It is easy to visualize the Lord’s parable of the grain of wheat  planted on the ground, for people who live in the farm. The vivid picture which runs in the Lord’s parable is the use of ordinary, common place occurrence like farming.

Man has survived on this planet from the grains planted and grown on vast tracts of land. Basic practice in agriculture  is almost universal, and what could be more clear than the  use of  this  common scene to illustrate  deep spiritual insights.  

Another distinct mark of the parable is that the lesson given is paradoxical.

When the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of life, death, and God’s Kingdom, He reduces these weighty  concepts in parables.

In this parable  there is the picture of the grain of wheat falling on the ground and dies. When a grain of wheat is planted the grain actually dies and new wheat grows and yields more grains which are harvested.

The spiritual analogy  is that death leads to life. The paradox is one dies like that grain of wheat, in order to have new life. When we "die" to ourselves, we "rise" to new life in Jesus Christ.

A farmer would have no difficulty understanding this inspiring message of hope, and so are we. The seeds which are planted on earth literally die and in dying they rise and grow as new plant life becoming fruitful and yielding more grains.

This parable further describes a man who terribly clings to his earthly life on earth, anchoring his hope only upon his earthly existence, and loves only the things of this world. He is mindless of or perhaps rejects the reality of a life to come through Jesus Christ. The Master describes this man like a seed who abides alone, sadly lifeless.

The Lord says this man we will lose what real life is.

Saving the life and losing the life is a figure of speech.

The Savior, the Christ of the Christians, has explained this to his disciples in this way: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it whoever loses his life for My sake will  find it.”(Matthew 6:23-25)

The picture of the grain of wheat dead and buried on the ground and growing, yielding a harvest is a metaphor of our Lord’s own death, burial and resurrection. And here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.(2 Timothy 2:11)

My friend my earnest wish is for you to believe in Christ, who proclaimed: “I AM the resurrection and the life. He who  believes in Me will live even though he dies, and whoever  lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John  11:25-26)