FROM DEATH, SPRINGS LIFE

DAY 72

John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Today’s text sheds focus on the idea of life springing from death. Jesus uses the analogy of a seed to express this when he presents the story thus “without falling into the earth and dying, a seed remains a single grain. It takes dying to bear much fruit.

Two words can be placed side by side in this context: “planted” and “buried”. While both actions require something to be covered under dirt, the intention for both cases differ. So while planting is aimed towards multiplication, burying is aimed solely at termination.

So Jesus makes reference to ‘planting’, where we plant the seeds of our life, our wills and our desires, in the fertile ground of the Lord’s vineyard. It is only in such planting that the prospect of fruit bearing comes into the fray of the conversation. Being planted requires the seed to deal with the weight of the dirt, the process shedding its external covering, establishing its own roots prior to pushing its way out of the ground. None of these is a comfortable event.

However,

any seed that is afraid of death [being planted], cannot bear fruit.

#sly