Jesus Died to Give Life March 17th, 2024
Loving God, by the power of your Spirit, open our hearts to receive your Word, speaking through the Scriptures. Reveal your truth for our lives and our times, through Jesus Christ, the Living Word. Amen.
“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Now those are pretty strong words which came from our Gospel reading this morning, and what makes them even more startling is that they came from the mouth of Jesus. Here we have the Son of God, who gave us this life, telling us that we must hate it. And not only that, but also saying that if we love our lives, we’re going to lose them. If that’s the case, why did he bother giving us life at all? Are we supposed to just give up on our lives, crawl into a corner, and wait for it all to be over?
Well, as is the case with all the Bible, we just can’t take one line out of context. It's essential to consider the broader meaning when interpreting any verse. Remember that understanding scripture requires careful study and prayerful consideration of what is written. Taking verses out of context can lead to misinterpretation and confusion. We always need to seek wisdom and judgement as we engage with God's Word!
All that being said, let’s have a look at the entire passage from this morning’s Gospel lesson and see what prompted Jesus to make that statement.
The setting is Jerusalem during the week before the festival of Passover. Jesus had just come from the house of two sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus, whom earlier he had raised from the dead. Jesus had come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and the crowds glorified him, waving palm branches and saying “Hosanna”, which means “please save us”. Word about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead had spread quickly and the crowds thought that he was entering Jerusalem to free them from the persecution of the Roman overlords. How wrong they were!
And not long after arriving in Jerusalem we’re told that some Greeks, who had come to worship at Passover, approached one of the disciples, Philip, and said to him, “’Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’” Now, although they were called Greeks, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they were from Greece, that’s more of a generic term which the Jewish people used for Gentiles, that is anyone who wasn’t of the Jewish faith.
What’s important here is that while witnessing the crowds which were excitedly welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem some Pharisees had commented to each other, “‘You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!’” (John 12:19) That was their greatest fear when it came to Jesus and his teachings, not only would a handful of people start following him, but soon all people would come to believe in him as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. And the gospel would go out to both Jews and Gentiles. Salvation would now be proclaimed to the whole world.
We never find out if these Gentiles actually get to speak with Jesus, rather we’re told that he says, “‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’” Now up to this point in John’s gospel, Jesus’ hour has always been in the future. At the wedding feast in Cana, when his mother came to Jesus and informed him that they had run out of wine, he replied: “‘…Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’" (John 2:4) Later, when he was in Jerusalem and the Temple leaders tried to have him arrested, John tells us, "Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come." (John 7:30) And again, when he was in the Temple and said to the Pharisees who were questioning him, “’…You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also’” (John 8:19), we’re told that, "He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come." (John 8:20)
This ’hour’ is the time appointed by God for Jesus’ death and resurrection. And now the coming of these Gentiles to seek out Jesus heralds the arrival of that hour. Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Jesus then says to his disciples, “’Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’” Just as a seed must be buried in the ground to germinate and produce new life, Jesus himself would soon face death on the cross. But his sacrifice was not in vain; it was purposeful—a divine plan to bring forth abundant life.
And there’s not much to a single grain of wheat is there? It doesn’t look like much. You can’t do much with it. But put it in the ground so that it dies and comes to life again and you discover its glory as it bears many more grains of wheat. So too, Jesus’ death and resurrection will bear much fruit. He willingly lays down his life for us, as a grain of wheat that dies to produce a harvest. Jesus didn’t love his life in this world but gave it up for the sake of God's glory and our salvation. And he invites us to follow him in this way of love, to use our life in this world to serve him faithfully. He promises that whoever serves him will be honoured by the Father and will be with him where he is.
Jesus then continued on to say “‘He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’" That doesn't mean you have to hate yourself. It does mean that you must recognize that living for yourself will never supply what you really want out of life. Jesus is talking about living a life of serving him, just like the farmer who is willing to let a seed die, so that it might germinate and create life. To not risk the seed, to keep it in the package, is to not take any risk and by doing so, receive nothing. This is what Jesus is talking about. We must be willing to risk our comfortable lives, knowing that only by doing so can true life result. Only by doing so will we have a harvest of new life and hope.
Too often congregations are only concerned about themselves and their own members. We need to ask ourselves, what does following and serving Jesus look like for us in this community and this neighbourhood? What does following and serving him look like for us in the world in which we find ourselves daily, a world caught up in terror and war? What needs to die, to be planted, in order that life can result?
If we hold on to our lives, our plans, then we won’t grow spiritually. If we commit our lives to following Jesus, then we’ll discover a life that we never knew was possible. We must give up to demanding our own way, to stubbornness, to selfishness and to sin, if we’re ever to come alive to God. And if we do, we’ll come alive for the first time. We’ll say with the Apostle Paul: “’I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” (Galatians 2:20).
Salvation comes not only to people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but people who turn from their sin, repent of all that they have done and call out to God to save them from sin and self. We can easily misunderstand this. Jesus is not calling for denial of the world we live in when he speaks of hating one’s life ‘in this world.’ He asks us to reject the tempting attractions of the world, losing our lives in order to gain eternal life.
Further on in the New Testament the Apostle John writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
We are coming to the end of Lent. Holy Week is approaching. This year we need to experience Holy Week more than ever before. We need to remember the events that are the core of our faith. We need to experience the walk with Jesus towards the cross because we need to know once again, in a very real way, the love felt between Jesus and his disciples on the night of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday. We need to walk the way to the crucifixion on Good Friday and experience the emptiness of Holy Saturday. We need the hope of Easter Sunday. We need to experience this on the deepest of personal levels, not simply as an idea or a story. We need to experience Holy Week because in the world today we need to know that Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit, is always with us.
The good news, the Gospel, is that as we carry on his mission in this world, Jesus is there, to give us life and power. This is the good news that brings us new life, new courage in the face of that which seeks to destroy. The good news is that nothing can take that hope from us.
May we reflect on this powerful truth: Jesus died not only to redeem us but also to give us life abundantly. As we journey through Lent and approach Easter, let us embrace this truth and find hope in Christ's victory over sin and death.
Let us Pray:
Heavenly Father, please help us live a life that bears spiritual fruit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. May we continue to grow these fruits in our lives as we seek to follow Christ's example. Let us put our efforts into following Jesus and to love him more than we love worldly things. Amen