A Grain of Wheat | The Chaplaincy of Poitou Charentes

<h2>Unless a grain of wheat</h2>

These words of Jesus from John 12.24 have followed me around for many, many years: 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone; but if it dies it bears a rich harvest.' In times of difficulty, I have heard this invitation of life through death, and in this season of Lent I have returned to them again and found myself challenged afresh.

The words reveal the very heart of Christian faith. Jesus is the grain of wheat who falls into the ground and dies in order for there to be a harvest of life and salvation. This is the truth we see unfolding in the Easter story, culminating in the joy of resurrection on Easter Sunday. But it is also a truth for us, for verse 25 continues: 'Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life'. 

The language of hating our life is extreme and is typical of the extravagant way of teaching in Jesus' day. Perhaps today we would express it in terms of ego. Ego is necessary, and we need ego strength to get up in the morning and walk through our day, but ego needs to be God's servant. The little life we need to lose is the ego life which tries to control everything and manipulate everything in our favour, which compares ourselves to others and wants to 'win' at all costs. This is the little life in this world that we can become absorbed in - a life which seems to promise everything, but in the end delivers nothing - no fruit, no harvest. 

And Jesus says that the way through to real life is via death! The life instinct is strong in us and most of us want to avoid death in all its forms. We resent the little deaths, the losses, the humiliations and the failures which inevitably come our way and find it hard to see that anything good could come out of them. This is a hard truth, that the way to true life - what the Bible calls eternal life, or life in all its fullness - is through dying to this little life of ours. Apparently, the way up is the way down.

What would happen, I wonder, if we could 'lower' ourselves down into God, letting ego find its rightful place, 'dying' to the little narrow life, dying to our desire to be in control, to be somebody, to do things...?