42 - 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.’ -John 12:24.

Scepticism is childish when it remarks that the seed or grain does not die; as a seed it does die, and is no more; and without such dissolution the germ contained in it could not come into play. It is buried out of sight; destruction lays hold upon it; then that which is indestructible finds a sphere for its energies, and the new plant begins to be.

Some Greeks had expressed to one of the disciples a desire to see Jesus. These are not thought to have been Hellenic Jews, but Greeks proper, who, like Cornelius, had received a certain measure of light, and had come up to worship at Jerusalem, though they had not access to the temple, and had not the opportunity that others had of seeing Jesus. They asked for a private interview. The ministry of Jesus was restricted to the Jews. So long as the middle-wall of partition stood, he religiously observed it. Call to mind the affair of the Syro-Phoenician woman; also his instructions to the disciples to go only to the house of Israel. But he looked forward with glad anticipation and irresistible desire to the hour when the barrier should be removed, though he knew well that the cross stood between him and that longed-for liberty. "I have a baptism to be baptized" with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!" He was straitened - cabined, cribbed, confined - until he could command the Gospel to be preached to every creature. He replies to Philip in a way that intimates that the Greeks must still wait a little. If he had entered into converse with the Greeks, it would have given plausibility to the opinion already expressed by many of the Jews, that he was lax in his attachment to Judaism, and had a leaning towards the Gentiles. Some had already asked the reproachful question, Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles (Greeks)? But the heart of Jesus leaps within him when this desire of the Greeks to see him is conveyed to him. He hails it as a providential intimation that the long-expected hour is at hand. In those simple words he seems to hear the Divine promises of Isaiah 49:6 : "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."

Christ had been announced in prophecy as the Desire of all nations. Very remarkably, the Jews, notwithstanding the mighty attraction of cohesion constituting them one, notwithstanding their affection for Palestine, had during the last centuries of their national existence become widely scattered over the whole Roman world, and had adopted the languages of those among whom they dwelt. Through these colonists the Gentile world had become very extensively acquainted with the Jewish expectation of a Saviour, and the predictions regarding him had been even incorporated into the Sibylline writings. The time had now come of which Haggai had spoken; and these Greeks might be regarded as the delegates of the Nations, conveying their desire.

’The hour is come,’ says Jesus, ’that the Son of man should be glorified. But the path to the glory which I seek is that which lies through Gethsemane, the Praetorium, Calvary. I must drink the dregs of humiliation; I must myself be lost, in a sense, lost with reference to what this world calls life and honour, and power and religion, and God, that I may be glorified with the glory that belongs to me, the glory that I seek, the true glory of God in the salvation of men. In much fruit is my Father glorified, when that fruit is manifestly from him, and not traceable to anything in man.’ The path to the cross was a path where solicitations stood on the right hand and on the left, all the way along, urging the Lord of glory to turn from the ignominy and the loss and the sorrow, and the solitude and the darkness and the profitlessness, and to confound his enemies by a revelation of his glory. And these solicitations were greatly strengthened by the affinities and affections established between him and his disciples; and by a multitude of influences to which his human heart was keenly sensitive. But he was more than the greatest of prophets; he was God’s only-begotten Son; he was the Saviour of the world; and he went to the very end of the path of self-crucifixion. And we must be crucified with him. This is discipleship. "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve," he says to his disciples as he is about to throw himself into the via dolorosa of Calvary. ’If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am there shall my servant be.’ This law of the seed-corn that perisheth applies to our sinful natures as truly as to Christ’s sinless nature. But where shall our humanity find the strength and courage to give up self to the cross? In Christ. By faith. It is on Christ’s cross that we are crucified. It is the Divine love that reaches our heart through Christ’s tears and blood, that nerves us to deny ourselves and lose our life for his sake, and be with him in his resurrection power and glory. Poverty of faith makes imperfect consecration; the faith that overcomes is the faith that leads to entire consecration, entire crucifixion. Have you a will that is not Christ’s will? Habits that the Spirit disallows? Aims that are not warranted by the Gospel? Desires that open a door to the tempter? Or, to come still more home to you, is there anything in you that you shrink from narrowly scrutinising? Any unvisited chamber of your heart? Are you unwilling to inquire earnestly whether there may not be tasks for you of which you have not dreamed? Have you gone to work to make your life easy, letting in just so much light of truth as you can conveniently dispose of, and encouraging yourself by the thought that the Christians around you must know, and that your way is theirs? Ah, how vain for me to lift up my voice, when a thousand around you give such a different exposition of the summons of Christ! At least let me see to it that I deceive you not by my example; let me follow Jesus in that path that leads to crucifixion before it leads to glory.