Jesus knew the crowds who welcomed Him into Jerusalem would turn on Him in just a few days.
He needed to prepare His disciples for what was about to happen. He’d told them before that he would die and rise again in three days, but they didn’t understand it. Not yet.
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,’ Jesus told them again.
Soon He would return to heaven. To His rightful place. To the place where His character was in full display. But first, Jesus had much to accomplish.
How could He explain it so His followers would understand?
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Like a single grain of wheat who gives everything to bear thousands of grains of wheat, Jesus would lay down his life in order to give life to an infinite number of people.
His followers must choose whether or not they would die to themselves. To work for the Kingdom of God, they must die to themselves: die to their own plans, their own ways, their own will. He wanted them to understand that they could trade the love of this life for the love of eternal life. Any believer who died to themselves in order to live for Jesus would not feel deprived. No, Jesus would give them an abundant life. A life beyond their expectation.
Jesus told them what His followers who lived for Him would have when their abundant life ended:
“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him,” Jesus assured them.
Today, we can each ask the same question of ourselves. Will I die to myself, so I can live for Jesus?
Carla Killough McClafferty