You’re Seedy
Jesus says, “Those who love their life lose it, those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life”…John 12:25.
That saying confuses me. I always read commentaries to make sure I am getting the “correct” meaning. I recently realized that the verse preceding it has the same meaning. There is a parallelism occurring. I no longer need to read commentaries for John 12:25 to jump out and speak to me. I read John 12:24 and it all comes together.
Verse 24, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls in the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” YES, these two verses mean the same thing.
If a seed loves it’s “Seediness”, if it loves its life as it is, it loses, LIFE. The Abundant life. It loses the future potential of being a tree and producing fruit, which would be REAL LIFE, eternal life. If seeds love their life, they will not risk and give that life up. But if the seed hates its seediness, it gets a new life forever…never, ever going back to being a seed, but instead becoming a tree and producing much fruit. This for me is a profound spiritual truth of faith. Things must die for new life to arise.
When it comes to being human we have some choices. We can choose to hold on to our “seediness”, those things in life that we want to control, even when it doesn’t make sense to do so. We might rationalize, “That’s just the way it is.” I have to believe in the Trinity, because, “That’s just the way it is.” I have to believe that resurrection happened once, 2000 years ago, because, “That’s just the way it is.” I have to believe that Satan is a force for evil that thwarts the work of God, because, “That’s just the way it is.” I have to believe in Hell, because, “That’s just the way it is.” I have to believe the “CORRECT BELIEFS AND DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY” to be a follower of Jesus, because, “That’s just the ways it is.”
Sometimes our beliefs can get in the way of our relationship with God. Something must die in order to bring new, resurrected life into my spirit and bones. There is no other way. For new life, for seeds to become trees and produce fruit, something must die. “That’s just the way it is.”
The path of death and new life, daily, is at the heart of a healthy mature faith. Holding on, tight-fisted, clinging to beliefs that make no sense, following Sunday Morning rituals that have lost their meaning, could mean they need to die. The seed needs to be buried in order to see what will be birthed.
It’s a risk! Those who take the challenge, grow in trusting God, grow in faith, and produce fruits of the spirit, “That’s just the way it is.”
LET’S LEAVE OUR SEEDINESS BEHIND!