A Grain of Wheat: John 12:20-36

Following Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, John shifts focus and draws our attention onto what was likely Jesus’ biggest proclamation in the temple during His entire ministry. In this declaration, John draws our attention onto a dilemma the crowd faced when hearing Jesus predicting what will happen and having that conflict with what they knew the scriptures said concerning the Messiah.

This event begins with an interesting detail that is not really resolved anywhere in the Bible. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 20, John tells us that:

²⁰ There were some Greeks among the people who went up to worship during the feast. ²¹ They came to ask Philip for a favor. Philip was from Bethsaida in Galilee. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” ²² Philip went to tell Andrew. Then Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

Pausing briefly here, nothing is said, implied, or suggested in the passage regarding whether Jesus left where He was standing to talk with these Greeks who wanted to see Him. I can suspect that Jesus went to speak with them, because it would have been the polite thing to do, but nothing in the Bible passage that I can see suggests this.

What follows next might be after Jesus has went out into the outer court where the Greeks would have been, or it may have happened immediately when Andrew and Philip told Jesus about the Greek individuals’ request but prior to Jesus heading to the outer courtyard to meet with these Greeks.

Either way this event happened, we continue in verse 23, which tells us:

²³ Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to receive glory. ²⁴ What I’m about to tell you is true. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only one seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵ Anyone who loves their life will lose it. But anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it and have eternal life. ²⁶ Anyone who serves me must follow me. And where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

²⁷ “My soul is troubled. What should I say? ‘Father, keep me from having to go through with this’? No. This is the very reason I have come to this point in my life. ²⁸ Father, bring glory to your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven. It said, “I have brought glory to my name. I will bring glory to it again.” ²⁹ The crowd there heard the voice. Some said it was thunder. Others said an angel had spoken to Jesus.

³⁰ Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. ³¹ Now it is time for the world to be judged. Now the prince of this world will be thrown out. ³² And I am going to be lifted up from the earth. When I am, I will bring all people to myself.” ³³ He said this to show them how he was going to die.

³⁴ The crowd spoke up. “The Law tells us that the Messiah will remain forever,” they said. “So how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

³⁵ Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light. Do this before darkness catches up with you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. ³⁶ While you have the light, believe in it. Then you can become children of light.” When Jesus had finished speaking, he left and hid from them.

In this passage, we discover some powerful ideas, and we also discover God the Father’s third declaration about who Jesus is. It is interesting to pay attention to the moment God the Father spoke, because with the crowd’s reaction, we find an interesting conclusion. When God spoke from heaven, everyone heard it. I suspect that the disciples understood it. Others recognized that it was a voice but they did not understand it. Even others simply discounted it as thunder and not a true voice.

I wonder if this reflects our varied experience with God. When God speaks into our lives, it’s most likely not going to be with a thunderous voice, but I wonder if God speaking into our lives might be met with the same three varied responses. Some people might understand God when He speaks. Others may recognize that God is speaking, but they are unsure exactly what He is saying. Still others might simply discount God’s voice as insignificant and ignore it. Whichever case we might fall in, the issue is with us and not with God.

However, what Jesus tells us in verse 24 is also significant: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only one seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” In this verse, we have an opening for Jesus predicting His upcoming death, and Jesus understands that it is through His death that His life will produce the greatest harvest. In an interesting way, we also discover the powerful truth that without Jesus’ death, there would be no harvest, because without Jesus’ gift, the only ones able to pay for our sins are ourselves and the payment is death.

God loves us more than we could possibly imagine, and because of this, God made a way for us to be redeemed while also keeping His Law in effect. If God discounted His Law in order to amplify forgiveness, then Satan would win by claiming God is truly unjust, holding different people to a different standard. If God upheld His Law without any hope of forgiveness, Satan would also win because his claim is that God is unloving towards those who break His Law.

The path where Satan loses and God achieves victory is through God paying the punishment for our sins, because this path proves both justness and love, and this was demonstrated through Jesus’ death on the cross.

In this declaration, we also have the powerful promise that Jesus gives us in verse 26, when He tells us that: “My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

If we want to be honored by God, the best way for us to do so is by serving and obeying Jesus. We are able to serve Jesus by obeying what He commanded His followers to do, and by modeling Jesus’ life and His love to the world around us. Jesus’ life consisted of helping as many people as God brought into His life, challenging those who wanted to build themselves up at the expense of others, and opening the door to God when the religious elite had tried to close the door and lock it for those outside of their clique of legalism.

We serve Jesus the best by proclaiming God’s love and inviting all who are willing to come to Jesus and accept the free gift He offers to us. Through Jesus’ death, we can have a new life with God, and because Jesus gave His life for us, we are guaranteed an eternal life with God when we accept Jesus’ life and His sacrifice on our behalf.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to accept Jesus’ gift of His life on your behalf. Reject Satan’s lies about God being unloving and unjust, because looking at what Jesus accomplished for us proved once and for all how big a liar Satan really is, and how much God was willing to go through to demonstrate His love for all of us.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, paying special attention to Jesus’ life and His mission to this world. The whole Bible draws our attention onto the theme of God’s love and His justice, and even with the challenging parts of the gospel message, when we look at them in light of the cosmic conflict over God’s character and Satan’s accusations, we discover a bigger picture of God than we realized before.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!