Fifth Sunday of Lent, 2024 - Discipleship in a Grain of Wheat

 The gospel of John is the most theologically oriented gospel of the four gospels. Its theology far surpasses that of the other gospels.

Each of the gospels is unique, written for a different purpose, to a different audience. The gospel of Matthew—written for a Jewish audience—presents Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah who fulfilled what was written in the Hebrew Scriptures. The gospel of Luke—written for a Gentile audience—presents the key characteristics of the kingdom of God as reflected in the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus and in his death and resurrection. The gospel of Mark describes what it means to be a follower of Jesus, portraying the discipleship journey as moving from the way the world trained us to think and live to the servant spirit Jesus taught and lived.

In contrast to these three synoptic gospels, the gospel of John teaches us how to think about God and the ways of God—theology. It is full of stories found in no other gospel. Each story presents theological truth and/or is followed by theological teaching.

·       This gospel teaches us about the incarnation—the Word made flesh (John 1:1-18). A repeated motif in the gospel is descending and ascending—“coming down from heaven” paired with the theme of ascending back to the Father (resurrection).

·       In Jesus—the Word made flesh—we see what God is like. “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son who has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus said to Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

·       The gospel of John teaches us that God loves the world (John 3:16), which means God loves us. Because of God’s great love for the world, God gave the gift of Jesus his Son.

·       It tells us about God’s gift of eternal life—God’s quality of life—that is given through Jesus (John 3:16, 10:28). “And this is eternal life, that they my know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent” (John 17:5).

·       It is the gospel of John that teaches us the need to be born again from above (John 3:3).

·       It teaches that true worship is to “worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).

·       This gospel teaches about the Spirit, the “spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:18, also 7:38-39). The Spirit—like Jesus the Son—is also a gift of the Father, sent “to be with you forever” (John 14:16). The Spirit—who “abides with you” and “in you” (John 14:17)—teaches us the ways of God that Jesus taught (John 14:26; 16:12-15).

·       It is in this gospel that we find the great “I am” sayings of Jesus—each a theological metaphor. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35, 48), “I am the bread that comes down from heaven” (John 6:41), “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12, 9:5), “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), “I am the gate of the sheep” (John 10:7, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14), “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), “I am the true vine” (John 15:1, 5).

·       It is the gospel of John that presents Jesus’s new commandment. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35, 15:12). This teaching is the gospel’s clearest statement about what is involved in being a disciple.

·       This gospel—using the metaphor of a vine and branches—teaches us about abiding in Christ (John 15:1-17). Abiding is the key to discipleship as it leads us to experience the joy of Jesus (John 15:11) as we love on another as Jesus loved (John 15:12).

·       Instead of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane, the gospel of John records Jesus’s high priestly prayer (John 17) in which he prays that his followers “may be one, as we are one” (John 17:11).

·       This gospel speaks of Jesus’s death and resurrection as being glorified (John 12:16, 23, 28; 17:1).

The primary focus of the gospel of John is Jesus as the Word made flesh—revealing the Father, doing the work of the Father, glorifying the Father. Interwoven with this central theme, amid the various stories, are hints about what it means to be a follower of Jesus—discipleship.

 Discipleship involves being born again from above (John 3:3), participating in God’s quality of life—eternal life, worshiping in spirit and in truth (John 4:23), experiencing the Spirit as “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14, 7:37-39), owning responsibility for one’s own life and wholeness (John 5:1-14). The gospel repeatedly presents being a follower of Jesus as embracing and following his teachings. This repeated emphasis is the theme of chapters 6-10, i.e., eating his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6:53-58), walking in the light of life (John 8:12), embracing the truth that sets us free (John 8:31, 36), recognizing and following the voice of Jesus (John 10:3-6, 14).

Beyond these subtle hints are three specific teachings about discipleship. Two were identified above. The heart of discipleship is loving one another—the new commandment (John 13:34-35; 15:12-17). The key to discipleship is abiding in Christ (John 15:1-17). Abiding is a dimension of the Spirit’s presence and work in our lives (John 14:15-27). This abiding is what empowers us to love one another. The third teaching expresses discipleship in a nutshell—or, rather, as a grain of wheat.

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor” (John 12:24-26).

Discipleship involves dying. Specifically, discipleship involves dying to the self we unconsciously constructed in order to be accepted and valued by the world—what I call the egocentric constructed self. We constructed this self by following the thinking of the world, conforming to its expectations. It was constructed through self-effort as we measured up to the expectations placed upon us by those around us. It is grounded in merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking. At the core of this false persona is a comparing and competing spirit. We seek to be like those we consider to be successful and significant. We compare ourselves to those who fail to measure up as well as we do, unconsciously feeling superior to them. To refer to this identity as egocentric is to say that it is self-focused. It operates out of a self-centered, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit.

Dying to this egocentric constructed self is what it means to “hate their life in this world.” It is to reject the thinking of the world and what it values. It is to die to who the world told us we needed to be. Holding onto this egocentric identity is to lose our life. It is to miss the God-quality of life for which we were created. It is to miss who God created us to be.

This kind of dying is what Jesus did. He refused to live by the expectations and demands of the world. Rather, his life was shaped by who he knew God to be and by the ways of God. As a result, he was out of step with the world in which he lived. He was constantly in conflict with those around him. Ultimately, this refusing to conform to the expectations of the world led first to being misunderstood and then to being rejected by the world, ultimately resulting in his being executed on a Roman cross.

Reflecting on a grain of wheat, Jesus identified a principle which God had designed into the fabric of life. This foundational principle is rooted in God’s own divine nature of self-giving love. The principle: dying is the way to life. Death leads to resurrection. When a single wheat seed is planted in the ground—i.e., dies—it bursts forth in a stalk of wheat that produces more seeds. Similarly, Jesus understood his death would lead to life for others—eternal life. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

Dying to our egocentric constructed identity is necessary if we are to love one another as Jesus taught. Loving one another requires a self-giving, servant spirit—the opposite of the what’s-in-it-for-me spirit of the egocentric self. It requires us to move beyond comparing and competing, beyond deserving-oriented thinking. Loving as Jesus taught requires us to reject the way the world taught us to think and what the world values.

Dying to our egocentric constructed self is only possible as we abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ is staying attuned to and in step with the Spirit. Dying to the egocentric constructed self is the work of Spirit who lives in us. It is the Spirit who teaches us what Jesus taught. It is the Spirit who empowers us to love as Jesus taught. It is the Spirit who guides us in loving one another.

The gospel of John is the most theologically oriented gospel of the four. Even its concept of discipleship is a theological concept, grounded in the theology of the incarnation. In a nutshell—or a grain of wheat—discipleship is dying in order to live. It is giving oneself in love for the sake of another. It is dying as Jesus died—the incarnation—which results in living as Jesus lived—the resurrection.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).