Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 247 · September 4
Except It Die
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
In 1880, the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky printed this verse at the front of his last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, before the story even began. In that book a holy old man dies. Then, in front of everybody, his body begins to decay, and the faith of his closest disciple is badly shaken.
In John's Gospel, these words come straight after a request from strangers. Some Greeks who had come up to the feast go to Philip and say, "Sir, we would see Jesus." Philip tells Andrew, and the two of them tell Jesus. He answers, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified," and then He speaks about the grain of wheat. Foreigners asking to meet Him is the first sign of the harvest, and He answers by talking about being buried.
He says it first about Himself, and in the next sentence He turns it toward everyone listening: "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Three verses later He says, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour." The One who taught about the seed did not find the ground easy. Yet He went on, "for this cause came I unto this hour."
A grain lying in the dark ground cannot see the harvest coming, and that is part of the picture Jesus chose. So here is a plain question to take with you: what might God be asking you to put into the ground, trusting Him with the harvest? You can trust Him with it, because the seed Jesus spoke of was His own life. He went into the ground and came up again, and "if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." He has promised, too, that "where I am, there shall also my servant be."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 247 is Precious Thoughts (Psalm 139:17-18).