A Kernel of Wheat

When Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem the crowd that had come for the Feast went out to meet him shouting, "Hosana!" (which meant "save"!). This is interesting because Jesus' name in Hebrew was Y'shua which means 'God who is saving His people'. The crowd that gathered that day was the same crowd that was with him when he raised Lazarus from the dead. They had spread the news, so many had come out to see Him as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus knew this was the ride down the road that would lead to death. He also knew he had to die in order to live. He had said to his friend Martha just days earlier, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Jn. 11:25. Jesus now turns to the crowd; to those who were crying shouts of Hosana and says, "the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am my servant will also be. Jn.12:23-26.
Jesus had explained to his disciples that he would suffer many things. He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Then He said to them all, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."
The God who saves, Y'shua, Jesus, chooses to die, that we might live. That is how He saves us. We have to die if we want to live. Paul said in his epistle to the church of Philippi, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ....I count all things loss but for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I might win Christ....that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. Phil. 3:7-10. Paul also said, "For to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain." Phil.1:25.
He who suffered is the One who is saving. He who died has been resurrected and He who was dead now lives. Man was destined to die once, but after this the judgement: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Heb. 9:27,28.
Remember what John talked about on the Island of Patmos? The suffering, the kingdom, and the patient endurance that are ours in Christ. Suffering is part of the plan for saving. Dying is part of the plan for living. Job, whose life was the epitome of human suffering said, "though He slay me, yet will I praise Him." Only by His last breath, as a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, do we live and produce many seeds.