Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (Jesus in John 12:24).
We are born with two fears—the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. The sensation of falling is an uncomfortable one. Think of when you’re in an elevator and it drops a little or when you’re in an airplane and it does the same thing. We don’t like that, do we? There’s something about the way we’re wired that makes us like having our feet on the ground.
Jesus fell and He calls His disciples to do the same. The “falling” we’re called to is like those trust exercises people used to do where they purposely fell backward knowing there were people who would catch them. Only we fall into our Father’s arms. But it embraces more than that. We also fall into His will, allowing Him to reign over every part of our lives. He rules over our attitudes, actions, speech, relationships—everything!!
For many people, the thought of this is scarier than taking an actual, physical fall. They are afraid that selling out to Jesus will somehow limit their life, lead to being ridiculed, cause them to lose friends, etc. As a result, they live (often uncomfortably) on the periphery of faith.
They serve as a reminder that the only way you can fall is by letting your faith overrule your fear. We see this struggle in Jesus in the poignant account John provides us with in 12:20ff of his gospel. Some Greeks attending the Passover feast requested an audience with Jesus (perhaps to invite him to accompany them back to Greece and teach there?).
Whatever their exchange was, it ignited in Jesus a passion for His mission of the cross. “Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” (v. 27-28).
Jesus refused to ask God to save Him from the hour of the cross but rather asked that God’s name would be glorified. He didn’t do this because He had no choice (if that was the case His words are nonsensical). No, He did this because He had a choice and chose to trust in His Father. He chose to fall! Trust then is the way we fall into the earth and die to all our sinful, misdirected ways. It is the way we allow our life to be used by God.
When we do this, to finish the metaphor, we bear much fruit. One grain of wheat can produce a stalk with eight or more heads—that’s over 300-400 kernels of wheat. That’s fruitful! In the same way, God can take our surrendered lives and produce more fruit than we ever imagined.
Don’t live on the periphery. Make the choice to fall into God’s arms and let Him produce fruit in your life! You will be blessed and be a blessing.
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 