To better appreciate salvation, we need to ingrain into our consciousness that to approach Easter, we go through Good Friday. In other words, we reach the Resurrection by going through Calvary. In Year A, both the themes of Death and Resurrection are covered through the story of Lazarus. In Year B, we cover them through the parable of the grain. “Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and died, it remains only a single grain. But if it dies, it yields a rich harvest”.
What lesson can we learn from this?
Firstly, it is natural and part of our survival instinct to preserve ourselves. We are by nature not suicidal. Normally, we fear death and nobody in the right frame of mind wants to die. However, the recent pandemic seemed to have heightened our fear of death to the point where we took measures to avoid death at all costs. Again, this is not advocating the wanton waste of life. But the death which Jesus refers has to be more than the “death” which no man can escape from. Not even Lazarus or the son of the widow of Nain. All those whom Jesus raised from the dead had to suffer death again. So, the grain that must die does not refer to the inevitability of death.
Rather, the death of the grain refers more to the kind of dying in which we must undergo as part of life after the Fall. This type of death is far from the drama surrounding the end of life. Instead, the death best exemplified for us is dying daily. The notion associated with this daily dying is called self-sacrifice.
To a certain extent, the people of this great city of Johor Bahru know first-hand the experience associated with sacrificing. Children get up when most civilised people are still asleep in order to get to school across the “Longkang”. The same for parents who daily leave home for work only to return late in the dark. They brave the congestions at immigration check-points both sides of the divide. Of course, JB is by no means unique as there are other major cities in this Federation where suffering citizens run the same gauntlets of traffic congestions. People suffer just to put food on the table.
However, such sacrifices revolve around the self. Sacrifices, even if linked to one’s self-benefit, can teach us to die to oneself. But what is crucially needed is a kind of sacrifice which goes beyond self-advantage. It is a kind of dying which benefits others.
Earlier it was mentioned that the Pandemic may have fostered a certain fear of death. This fear could very possibly be a symptom that our generation have lost the stomach for selflessness. Think about it. Daily we are challenged to die to our selfishness, to say no to our self-centredness. In our culture which is big on self-promotion, it could simply mean we become less self-referential. As C.S Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less”. Like fasting from having to be right in every pronouncement we make. Whatever I say is right and fasting from that is dying to pride.
When death terrifies, maybe it is because we have forgotten to embrace the daily difficulties and the inconveniences of life. We do not just “die”. Instead, we learn to die through self-sacrifices. It is this daily dying that gives us the freedom to follow Jesus closely.
One of the challenges Jesus issued to the Disciples was to take up the Cross and to follow Him. It sounds noble until we realise that it does not come from out of nowhere. Life presents us with countless chances to die to ourselves. Can you imagine Peter remonstrating with Christ when the Lord predicted His own death. “How can, Lord?”. This denial could have stemmed from not making the connexion between daily life and the inevitability of death.
Perhaps we can visualise this better with the image of a candle. To be useful, that is, to provide light, the candle must necessarily burn itself out. In summary, a candle is only as good as it is being burnt up.
To follow Jesus is to follow Him to His death. Martyrdom is not restricted to the shedding of blood. White martyrdom consists of the kind which is inescapable in life and which to a certain extent takes its toll on us. But we plod on because inherent in suffering is the very sense that we are not alone. It sounds too easy to state it because those who are suffering can feel terribly lonely. But our suffering makes sense because we, in Christ, endure it for the benefit and the sake of others.
Finally, the saying, “unless a grain of wheat should fall and die” refers to Jesus Himself. He is the supreme model of word and deed. What makes it better is to pair it with another great saying of Jesus. “No greater love a man has than to lay down his life for his friends”. Indeed, the Christian notion of life is premised on death but precisely because it is a death that gives life to others. Christ died so that we might have life to the fullest.
