Sown in the Heart of the Earth

John 12:24–33

“Very truly I tell you, 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. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me. “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your Name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to Him. Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not Mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die.”

He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine  (Mt 26:39, Mk 14:36, Lk 22:42).” Christ epitomised obedience and submission to God for us and the Father responded with a thunderous confirmation (v. 28). Jesus talks of a seed, that gets buried into the earth, and brings forth life ans multiplies it. It seems there will always be or always has been a moment of darkness before glory, “for as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matt 12:40).” And when this precious incarnate Son of God arose, He fulfilled infusing life with abundance, ultimate hope and meaning to those whom who loves Him, whom He had chosen (~Rom 8:28), indeed, in this world, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But Christ came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). We are growing plants who were seeds scattered by God Himself who saved us from futility and lifelessness; we were buried in our sins sown into the heart of this earth, nourished by the dew of heaven and tended to by the awesome Gardener that is Christ. And we have risen and are now growing, for we have been protected from ravenous birds, so let us take strong root, firm foundation in the Word, and not be choked by the world, but yield instead ourselves crops of hundred-fold (Luke 8:5–15). Sidebar: When Jesus says “verily”, or “very truly I tell you” or “you have been taught, but I tell you”, these are clues to His historically unique rabbinic authority, and so the Jews, the Pharisees and other teachers of the law called Him teacher as well, but He was more than just another rabbi, a self-understanding that irked others: “It is insufficient to compare it to “thus says the Lord,” although that is the closest parallel. Jesus is not merely speaking for Yahweh, but for himself and on his own authority… strongly suggests that he considered himself to be a person of authority above and beyond what prophets claimed to be. He could attest to his own truthfulness and speak on his own behalf, and yet his words were to be taken as having the same or greater authority than the divine words of the prophets. Here was someone who thought he possessed not only divine inspiration… but also divine authority and the power of direct divine utterance. The use of amen followed by “I say unto you” must be given its full weight in light of its context—early Judaism (Witherington, 1990).” The LORD’s “amen” is God’s Word unto us. Truly Jesus of Nazareth was Immanuel, God with us (Matt 1:23, Isa 7:14), and today He remains in our hearts. His words therefore are the divine authority over our lives.