John 12: 20-36
Today’s gospel story starts off by introducing us to a group of people who are living on the outskirts of Jerusalem. They’ve come into the city in search of a sign of hope, so they ask to see Jesus. John refers to these people as Greeks, implying that they are gentiles and therefore not followers of the Jewish faith. Some commentaries I’ve read suggest that perhaps these people were actually Jews who had been previously displaced. Whatever the case may be, it was significant enough for the author of John to want to differentiate this group of people. The author wanted us to know that these people were out of place in Jerusalem.
Perhaps in these moments we might find ourselves being able to relate to this group of people, whoever it is that they were. Perhaps we too are feeling out of place or a sense of displacement from our communities as we face a global pandemic. Wanting desperately to see a sign of hope or maybe even a miracle.
We don’t know if these people ever got their wish to see Jesus, the story isn’t clear on that. But what we do know is what Jesus had to say in response to their request. Jesus offers to his disciples an illustration of hope. Frustratingly, in typical Jesus fashion, this illustration of hope is also a paradox.
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.” John 12:24, NLT
Jesus tells his disciples that where one thing comes to an end, there is the potential for many new things to come from that ending. But the thing is, those kernels aren’t going to produce a new harvest overnight. Rebuilding takes time. Nurturing new life into existence, that can take even more.
A handy thing about Jesus is that he rarely sugar coated anything for us. He never tells us that this will be easy. As a matter of fact, it can be scary and even painful. Directly after he shares this illustration of hope he shares that his soul troubled. Jesus readily admits how afraid he is of facing his imminent death. Jesus had faith in God, but that didn’t mean he didn’t fear what was yet to come. Instead, he reminds us that the end of one thing isn’t really the end if new life is able to come out of it.
I’ve had this illustration hope that Jesus uses on my mind lately as I’ve continued to see pictures posted on social media of some of the baked creations that folks have been making now that they find themselves with more time on their hands. As a result of this, I’ve found myself reflecting on the spirituality of cooking and baking, and what unique gifts they both are to us. To be able to take the harvest of the Earth and transform it into something new once it can no longer continue to grow, it’s as if we become co-creators with the Earth, and co-creators with God. Take for example the process of baking a loaf of bread. When the ingredients needed to bake a loaf of bread can no longer continue to grow, they are harvested. Once they are harvested, they are combined and over time, they are transformed into something beautiful and new. The ingredients themselves are gone, but their presence is not.
What new creation is God going to create for us out of the remains of something that seems dead? And when the time comes, how might we become co-creators with God?