Reflections on Isaiah 49:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, John 12:20-36
Perspective: We look at life through the limited lens of our own intelligence and experience, and so our perspective is necessarily limited and full of ignorance –ignorance of all the places we have not been, and all the people we have not met, and all the books we have not read, and all the news we have not heard.
Even the wisest of all human beings is still limited in perception. That is what the Apostle Paul is saying in the epistle reading from 1 Corinthians. God’s perspective on everything is, of course, much vaster, the whole picture, not a part. We simply can’t think big enough, and so our wisest and strongest and best is hardly able to measure up to the wisdom and strength of God.
The ancient nation of Judea was expecting a messiah, and God knows they needed one! Living under the oppression of a foreign ruler, and having their economy raped by the oppressor’s taxes, their life support sucked out of their hands, their expectations of a messiah were too narrowly focused.
They did not remember the words from the Prophet Isaiah in which God was saying, “You think it is a huge task to restore what had been taken away into exile while you were under the foreign oppression of the Babylonians. You think it is hardly possible to raise up again the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel. Well, I have news for you! Your thinking is too small. I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
And so in John’s Gospel we see this coming to realization.
It is the Greeks, the foreigners, those outside of Israel, who come to the disciple Philip, the one with the Greek name, and say those words that blow out the walls of exclusiveness, the limitations of thinking too small, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” And Jesus says, “Now the hour has come.”
And what he says next is the foolishness of God, what is a stumbling block that confounds those who are wise in their own eyes within the limits of the world they think they know. The foolishness of God that is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness that is stronger than human strength –Jesus, God’s anointed One, executed, cut down in the prime of his life, ending an incredibly vibrant and vital ministry of healing and teaching, Christ crucified, the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.
Jesus said 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. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth… Well, that is what the purpose of the seed is for – to get planted. …unless it falls into the earth and dies… Once planted that is the end of the seed’s existence as a seed. What comes next looks nothing like a seed. …unless it falls and dies, it remains alone… The seed remains singular, isolated. …but if it dies, it bears much fruit. The purpose of the seed is to bear fruit, wheat 30-, 60-, a hundredfold on the stalk, harvested and winnowed and ground into flour to become bread for life support, to become the Bread of Life. The death of the seed is a birth into a new and more abundant, fruitful, effective life.
There is a parallel drawn here between the seed and those who would follow Jesus. So I have to ask the question: Do we want, like those Greeks, to see Jesus? Do we want to be disciples? Our purpose as followers of Jesus, what it is that God wants from us, is that we bear much fruit, that our lives are fruitful in the qualities and characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven, that our lives are lights to others bringing them also into the Kingdom. That is the fruit that we are made for and intended to produce –very pragmatic and utilitarian. But it would appear that the process of producing such fruit of being thus useful is by dying.
“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
These are hard words; they confront us, but we would do ourselves a great disfavor if we avoided looking at them, as we often would like to do. These words are too important spiritually to let them pass by unexamined.
What is the life that is to be hated, that is, the life to be renounced? What is the life that we turn our backs on and walk away from?
It is that which we have linked with our self-identity, that which we have claimed ownership with regarding who we say we are. It is how we answer the question, “Who am I?”
Now we may not see this, or realize this, but our self-definition for the most part is built on a fantasy, not reality when it comes right down to it,
because our self-definition is conditioned by implicit conformity to the mind-set of the culture in which we live. It is the perception of ourselves that is so conditioned by the attitudes of the world with all its values and goals that are off target, that go astray from that which we call the Kingdom of God.
Actually the Kingdom of God is another way of saying - Reality.
We are so closely identified with a serviceable illusion of our self-definition that then when we encounter that which breaks through our illusions, such as an encounter with Jesus, or an encounter with the Reality of Creation, we contract away from it, because it seems threatening to the security we have sought to maintain in the world mindset.
Does this way of life, the world culture, work? No. For thousands of years we have tried to make this culturally constructed idea of our own reality work, and instead we continually fail and end up in war, war with those who don’t think as we do!
How do we get clear of the illusions we have about ourselves so that we can see the Kingdom of God, so that we can see the truth of our being?
How do we let the seed fall into the earth? This is the path of discipleship, which is the way of the cross.
By the example of his own sacrifice, Jesus reveals the secret of bearing fruit. In surrendering himself to death, he becomes the source of new life.
Lifted from the earth on the cross, he draws all people to himself. He shows us that clinging to life causes life to decay; but the life that is freely given, is eternal.
So it is that Jesus models discipleship for us, so that as he is, we may be also. The path of discipleship is the way of the cross. Great. Follow Jesus, get crucified, die.
But what dies is the falsehood of self-identity based in the cultural climate. That is a veil covering our eyes and keeping us from seeing what is real.
We are not able to remove that covering from our eyes by ourselves, however. That is the work of the Master, the Teacher, the One who was lifted up on the cross who draws all people to himself.
Jesus said, “I will draw all to myself.” And the word for draw in Greek means to draw a sword, to un-sheath it.
The veil of illusion covering our eyes, the self-identity we cling to, will be stripped away from us by the action of the cross. What is left is our true identity in Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote – I die daily. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. Paul was describing this process at work in him, a process he himself was not accomplishing on his own, but was being worked out in him by the Resurrection of Jesus.
We do not accomplish our own death in this spiritual process, but we can cooperate, we can let the seed fall into the earth.
One of the ways to let the seed fall that I can describe is what has worked for me personally: meditation, sitting still long enough to begin coming awake. Meditation is the process of removing the clouds from the sun. Meditation, we could say, is like a profound auto-immune disease. It is a means for getting the self in position for transformation so we no longer are limited in our seeing; it is setting the stage for a radical shift in perspective.
Here is another way to let the seed fall, one that I present to you for consideration now: The focus now is Holy Week, where we can see the Mystery of how this dying to self comes about. Walk this Holy Week as a disciple identified with your Spiritual Master, your Teacher.
As a disciple during Holy Week place identity in Christ and participate in the full range of liturgies commemorating the last few days of the earthly life of Jesus. Participate in all of the Triduum, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. This is both a beautiful act of devotion and also seeking the reality of the Kingdom of God, wanting to see Jesus.
All of this is so that where he is, we may be also.
May we thus be brought to all the glorious, radiant brightness of the Glory of God, so that, as good disciples, we may bear much fruit, and become also bread of life for others.
