Daily Lesson for April 11, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 12 verses 24 and 25:

24 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. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

We cannot stay as we are. Free and happy as we may now be, we cannot remain as we are. We will eventually stagnate and then begin to harden or shrivel and eventually desiccate and die. This is the death of not only body but also soul. Our freedom and our happiness are wonderful gifts, but when they become ends in themselves then death sets in.  They must be given to and for others lest they be lost.

There is a deep and mysterious paradox in life -- bodily and spiritual -- that one cannot live for oneself alone forever. If we live for ourselves and for our own pleasures alone then we will die. But if we die to ourselves then we shall live. This is the mystery of eternal life -- that it can only be discovered first through dying.

Jesus says of the single grain which neither falls to the earth nor dies nor bears any fruit, "It remains alone."  But we know from the beginning of Genesis in the Garden of Eden that it is "not good" to be alone. We were made not only for our own freedom and happiness but also for others'.  When we cleave too much to our own lives then something in us eventually dies. But when we let go of our own lives and surrender them over for the sake of others then something inside us is reborn to eternal life.

There is life.  And there is death. And then there is the life that is discovered only through death. This is the eternal life of the spirit -- which can only be found after first being buried in the dust of the earth.