John 12:20-26

John 12:20-26 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Next spring, think through the process of planting.  You dig a hole in the soil, and then you place a seed in it, covering it with soil.  Try telling the seed that you're doing this so it will grow into something marvelous.  It doesn't make sense, does it?  But it's the only way we can get apple trees and sunflowers.  The seed has to be buried in order to be transformed into something truly beautiful.  The seed has to give up what it knows and enter the unknown so that it can fulfill its true calling.  If it clung to what it knew, it would never be more than a seed, and it would eventually shrivel and dry out and be useless.
  So let us not run from death -- only through death can we truly taste the life that is truly life, the abundant life that exists in the fullness of the Kingdom of God.  Facing death with hope requires a tremendous amount of faith and trust in God, but Jesus has gone before us to demonstrate that God has power over death.  We do not travel this way alone, and we are not the first -- Jesus has gone ahead to offer assurance, and Jesus returns to walk with us, taking us by the hand and assuring us that it's a path well traveled.
  We can lose our life with confidence, because we know that it will be found.  We can let go of the things in this world we cling to, because they cannot bring life -- the harder we cling to them, the less focus we have for turning to what truly matters, the abundant life that is brought by the King who humbly came to serve.