John 12:24

He not only foretells His suffering and the nearness of the time, but He also alleges the reason why He counted His suffering most precious, saying that the benefit of His passion would be great; for else He would not have chosen to suffer, for He suffered not unwillingly. For by reason of His clemency towards us, He displayed such great and tender kindness as deliberately to endure cruelties of all kinds for our sake. And even as a grain of wheat sown in the earth shoots forth many ears of corn, not receiving through them any loss to itself, but being present by its power in all the grains of every ear; for out of it they all shot forth: so also the Lord died, and opening the recesses of the earth, brought up with Himself the souls of men, Himself being in them all according to the doctrine of the faith, over and above His own separate and distinct existence. And it is not to the dead only that He has granted the power of receiving the fruits of the benefit He brings, but to the living also; if indeed the doctrine is made faithfully to correspond to the form of the parable. For the life of all men, both of dead and living, is a fruit of the sufferings of Christ. For the death of Christ became a seed of life. Can it be then that the Divine Nature of the Word became capable of death? Surely it were altogether impious to say this. For the Word of God the Father is in His Nature Life: He raises to life, but He does not fall: He brings death to naught, He is not made subject to corruption: He quickens that which lacks life, but seeks not His own life from another. For even as light could not become darkness, so it is impossible that Life should cease to be life. […]

Christ is also symbolized by a sheaf of grain, as a brief explanation will show.The human race may be compared with stalks of wheat in a field rising, as it were, from the earth, awaiting their full growth and development, and then in time being cut down by the reaper, which is death. The comparison is apt, since Christ himself spoke of our race in this way when he said to his holy disciples, "Do you not say, 'Four months and it will be harvest time?' Look at the fields; I tell you, they are already white and ready for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving his wages and bringing in a crop for eternal life." … Now Christ became like one of us. He sprang from the holy Virgin like a stalk of wheat from the ground. Indeed, he spoke of himself as a grain of wheat when he said, "I tell you truly, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains as it was, a single grain, but if it dies its yield is very great." And so, like a sheaf of grain, the firstfruits, as it were, of the earth, he offered himself to the Father for our sake. For we do not think of a stalk of wheat in isolation any more than we do of ourselves. We think of it rather as part of a sheaf, which is a single bundle made up of many stalks. The stalks have to be gathered into a bundle before they can be used, and this is the key to the mystery they represent, the mystery of Christ, who, though one, appears in the image of a sheaf to be made up of many, as in fact he is. Spiritually, he contains in himself all believers. "As we have been raised up with him," writes Paul, "so we have also been enthroned with him in heaven." He is a human being like ourselves, and this had made us one body with him, the body being the bond that unites us. […]

(Hom. lxvi. 2) He illustrates His discourse by an example from nature. A grain of corn produces fruit, after it has died. How much more then must the Son of God? The Gentiles were to be called after the Jews had finally offended; i. e. after His crucifixion. Now then that the Gentiles of their own accord offered their faith, He saw that His crucifixion could not be far off.

When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which [flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him?-even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."

Then, lest the disciples be scandalized that He dies at the very time when even the Gentiles had begun to come, He says: "This very thing, that is, My death, will increase the faith of the Gentiles all the more. For just as a grain …

In the middle of time there was both regeneration and the ordering of the Church and spiritual nourishment: therefore Christ instituted these three Sacraments, namely of baptism, the eucharist, and orders, both completely and clearly: first by receiving baptism, then by giving the form and …

Amen, amen, I say to you. After the prefiguration of the calling of the Gentiles has been described, here is set forth the prediction of the fruit of the Passion, and this indeed in the following manner. First, the fruitfulness of the Passion is foretold. …

Then when he says, I say to you, he intimates the necessity of his passion: first, he suggests its necessity; secondly the benefit it brings. The necessity for Christ's passion is caused by the conversion of the Gentiles, which cannot take place unless the Son …

He Himself, of the seed of the Patriarchs, was sown in the field of this world, that by dying, He might rise again with increase. He died alone; He rose again with many.

Unless a grain of wheat die - The late resurrection of Lazarus gave our Lord a natural occasion of speaking on this subject. And agreeable to his infinite knowledge, he singles out, from among so many thousands of seeds, almost the only one that dies in the earth: and which therefore was an exceeding proper similitude, peculiarly adapted to the purpose for which he uses it.

Verily, verily, I say unto you,....

The middle wall of partition that keeps them out from the commonwealth of Israel is on the eve of breaking down, "and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men unto Me"; I see them "flying as a cloud, and as doves to their cotes"--a glorious event that will be for the Son of man, by which this is to be brought about.

Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit--The necessity of His death is here brightly expressed, and its proper operation and fruit--life springing forth out of death--imaged forth by a beautiful and deeply significant law of the vegetable kingdom.

There is more going on in some people's minds than we are aware of. The case of the Greeks before us is a remarkable proof of this. Who would have thought when Christ was on earth, that foreigners from a distant land would have come forward in Jerusalem, and said, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus"? Who these Greeks were, what they meant, why they desired to see Jesus, what their inward motives were—all these are questions we cannot answer. Like Zaccheus, they may have been influenced by curiosity.

There is more going on in some people's minds than we are aware of. The case of the Greeks before us is a remarkable proof of this. Who would have thought when Christ was on earth, that foreigners from a distant land would have come forward in Jerusalem, and said, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus"? Who these Greeks were, what they meant, why they desired to see Jesus, what their inward motives were—all these are questions we cannot answer. Like Zaccheus, they may have been influenced by curiosity. Like the wise men from the East, they may have surmised that Jesus was the promised King of the Jews, whom all the eastern world was expecting. Enough for us to know that they showed more interest in Christ than Caiaphas and all his companions. Enough to know that they drew from our Lord's lips sayings which are still read in one hundred and fifty languages, from one end of the world to the other. We learn, for one thing, from our Lord's words in this passage, that death is the way to spiritual life and glory. "Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground, it abides alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." This sentence was primarily meant to teach the wondering Greeks the true nature of Messiah's kingdom. If they thought to see a King like the kings of this world, they were greatly mistaken. Our Lord would have them know that He came to carry a cross, and not to wear a crown. He came not to live a life of honor, ease, and magnificence, but to die a shameful and dishonored death. The kingdom He came to set up was to begin with a crucifixion, and not with a coronation. Its glory was to take its rise not from victories won by the sword, and from accumulated treasures of gold and silver, but from the death of its King. But this sentence was also meant to teach a wider and broader lesson still.

CERTAIN Greeks desired to "see Jesus." They informed Philip of their desire, Philip consulted with Andrew and the two disciples together informed their Master of what seemed to them to be a very important matter. As wise men from the East once came to see Jesus, so now would these Gentiles from the West do the same!

CERTAIN Greeks desired to "see Jesus." They informed Philip of their desire, Philip consulted with Andrew and the two disciples together informed their Master of what seemed to them to be a very important matter. As wise men from the East once came to see Jesus, so now would these Gentiles from the West do the same! Probably Philip and Andrew expected that Christ would display His miraculous power before the eyes of these enquirers, but our Lord, instead of going on from His triumphal procession and the hosannas of the multitude to something outwardly grander, began at once to speak about a glorification far other than either His disciples or these Greeks desired—a glorification which was to follow upon death and burial! Is it not very noteworthy how our Lord's mind was always dominated by the anticipation of that Baptism of His, that immersion in grief and suffering, that decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem? This was the main thought of His whole life and nothing could make Him forget it. In His heaviest moments of trial and in His brightest moments of joy, His heart was equally at the Cross—He was longing to complete His atoning Sacrifice for the salvation of His people. O brave, loving heart of Christ, so firmly fixed in love, so resolute to be pierced for the Beloved—we admire and love You in return! Surely we make too little of our Redeemer's death. I fear that even we, who preach most concerning it, dwell too little upon it. That we who pray, plead it too little. That we who sing, praise our Lord too little for His wondrous death and that we who live upon His Grace, yet think too little of the channel by which it flows to us! Christ's death is His Glory and it ought also to be ours.

Verily, verily - An expression denoting the great importance of what he was about to say. We cannot but admire the wisdom by which he introduces the subject of his death. They had seen his triumph. They supposed that he was about to establish his kingdom. He told them that the time had come in which he was to be glorified, but not in the manner in which they expected. It was to be by his death. But as they would not at once see how this could be, as it would appear to dash their hopes, he takes occasion to illustrate it by a beautiful comparison. All the beauty and richness of the harvest results from the fact that the grain had died. If it had not died it would never have germinated or produced the glory of the yellow harvest. So with him. By this he still keeps before them the truth that he was to be glorified, but he delicately and beautifully introduces the idea still that he must die. A corn - A grain. Of wheat - Any kind of grain - wheat, barley; etc. The word includes all grain of this kind. Into the ground - Be buried in the earth, so as to be accessible by the proper moisture. And die - The whole body or substance of the grain, except the germ, dies in the earth or is decomposed, and this decomposed substance constitutes the first nourishment of the tender germ a nutriment wonderfully adapted to it, and fitted to nourish it until it becomes vigorous enough to derive its support entirely from the ground. In this God has shown his wisdom and goodness. No one thing could be more evidently fitted for another than this provision made in the grain itself for the future wants of the tender germ. Abideth alone - Produces no fruit. It remains without producing the rich and beautiful harvest. […]