Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. - John 12:23-33


John 19 - The Crucifixion of Jesus

What would the world look like if Jesus had not come? When was the last (or even first) time that we took a historical inventory of all the incredible and world-altering events that originated from the life, and in particular death, of Jesus Christ? What was birthed from this decisive day when love triumphed and grace prevailed? The teachings of Christ did not get buried in the tomb. His revolutionary ideas that are altogether holy and righteous and beautiful did not get forgotten or put aside. No, his followers clung to their crucified God and faithfully carried out his will through the power and gift of the Holy Spirit.

If you have ever felt the sting of racial, economic, or gender inequality and longed for a movement to arise against such injustices, then you have been touched by the message of Jesus and movement of God's people who adhere to these words in Galatians 3, "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Do not be mistaken. This idea of equality for all was unheard of in ancient times. Women were subjugated to men, ethnicities were discriminated against without shame or remorse, the poor and indebted were oppressed and mistreated. There was no concept of equal standing in these categories, nor was there any noticeable desire to demonstrate the equal value that every individual shared with one another. It was, in a word, inconceivable. But the God of the Bible spoke truth and made it known to the world through his Son. What we take for granted so much today and write off as a given moral standard would never have entered human history without the person of Jesus interjecting himself into our deplorable situation and challenging the worldviews that lead only to death and rebellion against God.

Jesus also gave us the possibility of hope and faith, rather than fate and cyclic existence, through his willing sacrifice on the cross and subsequent resurrection into unimaginable glory. Rather than living a fatalistic life, where no matter what you did or tried to change fate would ultimately decide, Christ defied that utter foolishness and gave people a message that was truly good news. With hope, came even the possibility to do science, to try to understand the world and make sense of it through our mind, logic, rationale and intellect. Before Jesus, before hope, who would have cared to attempt the previously unknowable? There was nothing to hold on to or rely upon. But now so much has been created, invented, explored, discovered that we are tempted to believe it was always the inquisitive human spirit that pioneered such things. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the Spirit of Hope that gives humans the drive to push forward and persevere when failure seems imminent.

Think of things like a calendar or a watch. It was monks who changed the way we keep track of days, with the incarnation and manifestation of Jesus as the central reference point rather than Rome. Time itself points to the defining role of Christ in history. We live in the year 2011 A.D. meaning 2,011 years after our Lord was born. The concept of 24 hour days arose because monks wanted to keep track of when it was time to pray.

The notions of helping widows and orphans, providing for the poor and needy, taking care of the sick and showing compassion to the weak - these are realities that only Jesus, and later his disciples, had a heart for. Cultures in the ancient world essentially viewed children as garbage and did not hesitate to throw them out. Literally. If a person was ill, they too were disposed of for fear of contaminating others. There would be no orphanages or hospitals if the followers of Jesus were erased from the history books. Neither would there be education, for no other religion, philosophy, ideology or creed ever posited human beings to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind."

What stood out to me even more is how our current American political theory can find its roots in Jesus' own statements. He said such things as, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." In John 18, he admits to being a king but says, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." We fancy the separation of church and state as being something relatively new, when in fact Jesus' own words imply this prescribed reality. It was not God's design to have a theocratic form of government, like the present-day Islamic countries embrace.

He also introduced the unthinkable command, "Love your enemies." How else could this make sense aside from the story of Jesus - a love story, wrought with pain, suffering and a crowning crucifixion, but which is encapsulated in grace, mercy and forgiveness for those he set out to win over, his (God's) enemies. He has shown us how to truly live and how to treat one another, whether we be family, friends, fellow citizens, foreigners, strangers, or hardened enemies.

Jesus in the flesh spoke to all of these elements of human existence. He inspired monks to place great value on knowledge and preservation of writings for future generations to learn and understand. He inspired them to create notation and ways of expressing music in worship to their amazing God who is so worthy of praise through song. From the seed of this dying Jesus, he brought forth a world full of millions upon millions of more seeds - those who would come to believe in his name and put their faith in him. They are his hands and feet on this earth. They are his ambassadors and spokesmen - for human dignity, for human rights, for ethics, for education, for nonviolence, for truth, for mercy, for healing. For all that is right, good, true, beautiful & just. None of these would be possible apart from the loving, sacrificial, humble, servant king, Jesus Christ.

I am speechless before this amazing God who entered human history to die for us, to be that first seed to fall and die so that we may be born from his sacrifice. Let us too, a single seed, die to ourselves so that more seeds may be produced for his name. Our God is so worthy!