The seed of resurrection faith

John 12:18 The crowd that had been with him when he raised Lazarus from the dead and called him out of the tomb continued to talk about this event, and the reason why the crowd went to meet him as he entered Jerusalem was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “Look, the world has gone after him. No-one is listening to us anymore. ” Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 7:30, 8:20).

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead the Jewish leaders asked for anyone who saw Jesus to tell them, so that they could put him to death (They were plotting to kill Lazarus also). So Jesus stayed out of sight with his disciples (and Lazarus) in the surrounding area. Then a few days before the Passover Feast when the crowd that had seen Lazarus raised from the dead had spread the word about Jesus, the locals and the visitors streaming in from the surrounding regions to attend the Passover Feast had swollen into a massive crowd, all wanting to see Jesus. Then they heard that Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem and the crowd became a huge parade that lined the roadway and threw down palms for Jesus to ride in on the donkey. Jesus then went into the temple and threw down the tables in the ‘court of the Gentiles’ the only area that the Gentiles were allowed to enter and pray. (Mark 11:17 …House of prayer for all the Nations), and where the money-changers extorted money from the foreign visitors.
And now some Gentile Greeks wanted to see him too but weren’t sure whether Jesus would talk to them so they went to Phillip and Andrew, who may also have been uncertain (Matthew 10:5). These Greeks would have also seen or heard of the overturning of the tables in the temple. The seeking of him by the Gentile Greeks was a sure sign for Jesus to now proclaim that he was going to die on the cross and be resurrected for the salvation of the whole world (The hour had come), but the disciples only realized all this afterwards when Jesus had risen. The Pharisees could see ‘The whole world going after him’ and knew that no one was listening to them anymore - an amazing prophecy.
Vs.24 Then Jesus said ‘Truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (The world). Whoever loves his life (isolated independence) loses it (inner Spirit life), and whoever hates (loves less) his (isolated independent) life in this world will preserve it (inner Spirit life). If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
A new kind of resurrection life was about to come into existence in the earth. The curtain raiser was Lazarus but what Jesus was about to do would change the entire world forever. Jesus said in effect ‘You will look the same and mostly feel the same and the world will seem the same but you will be entirely different. This is what I came to do, to be the seed of your new life, my life hidden within you.’
1. The seed - The hiding place of a life that dies to live and grow and bear fruit.
2. The soil – The nurturing environment that anchors the new emerging life in its caring soil.
3. The outer shell – The barrier between the waiting inner life and the nurturing environment of care.
4. Abiding alone – Our isolated independence that resists trusting God for the inner life to come forth.
6. Dying – Allowing the hard outer shell to soften for inner life to be nurtured and to grow. We would think that dying means isolation but it is just the opposite. In Christ it is life before death!
7. Bearing much fruit – The inner life that has now emerged out of the soil to receive the sun (God’s love), and rain (Holy Spirit) and air (New life) from above and multiply its life.