A very significant pivot happens in John’s Gospel in chapter 12. Some Greeks who were in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast wanted to see Jesus. They made their request known to Philip. Philip informed Andrew. And the two of them went and told Jesus. This, in some way, was a sign to Jesus because upon hearing the news, he said, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (v23), by which he meant his crucifixion. From this point forward, in John’s Gospel, Jesus is very intentionally and purposefully headed to the cross.

Jesus, of course, was not dispassionate about or unconcerned by this intentionality towards the cross. In fact, in the very next verse, after our Passage for Meditation, he says, “Now is my soul troubled” (v27). But, right after receiving the sign of his imminent death (Greeks seeking him at the Passover) Jesus reminds himself and his disciples of the way in which God brings about redemption to his world and people: through sacrificial love.

In our Passage for Meditation Jesus uses the metaphor of a grain of wheat falling into the earth, dying, and bearing much fruit to describes his life (and the Christian life). If he had decided to not suffer and die, he would have remained alone. Similarly, to the extent a Christian decides to not die to themselves, their agenda, and their kingdom, they too will remain alone…constantly battling other humans who are also looking to advance themselves at the cost of everyone around them.

In yet another paradoxical statement, Jesus compares life in this world with eternal life. The human who loves theirlife in this world (who tries to protect and promote their life in this world), loses it. Notice the present tense. Jesus does not say that investing in life in this world causes us to lose our life in the next (although true). But being self-focused now causes humans to lose their life now because humans are not made for self-worship and self-promotion, but worship of God and inter-dependent community. At the same time, believers who hate their life in this world, will keep it (their life) for eternal life.

While Love and Hate in the Bible do include emotional realities, these words primarily speak to a mentality, framework, or mindset. When you love something, you use other resources to serve it. When you hate something, you use it to serve something else. With this in mind, to hate our life in this world means to use our life in this world to serve something else (and not this life).

In v26, Jesus clearly tells his disciples that if they choose to serve him, they will follow him to where he is…constantly choosing to die, to go low, to hate this life in order to bear much fruit that the Father will honor in his time and way.