Reflection - Fifth Sunday of Lent

Photo: Thao Le Hoang on Unsplash

We understand that a grain of wheat has to die in the ground before it produces more wheat, even if we are not farmers. It applies to human life and especially to Christian life and our relationship with God.

There is the paradox of a person who loves their life and can ‘lose’ it yet another who ‘hates’ their life, will gain it. This is clearly illustrated in sport. In tennis, a player must remain loose and relaxed in order to win. Becoming tense will hinder good shot-making or stamina.

Martial arts are similar. Judo, for example, requires a contestant to be as relaxed as possible, to be seemingly at the mercy of the other contestant’s strength. But the opposite is true, the strength of the opponent is used to win the contest.

Jesus says the same thing. We must let go of our egoism and become like him in our manner of living and thinking. The Buddhist religion indicates likewise that a person must empty their inner self in order to become ‘full’.

Jesus is clear about how to live our lives. Unless we are like wheat losing our life, we can never produce new growth, new wheat. The new, ‘life in Christ’ must replace the old, the old and the new cannot co-exist. But we do not do it by ourselves. We still want to be in control and give our lives to God but Jesus says God is the one in control. So hard for us yet so easy.

The paradox with which it is difficult to come to terms is that the crucifixion of Jesus is also his triumph. In being lifted up on the Cross he will heal and revive all people who look on him in faith just as the people in the time of Moses looked on the serpent raised in the air and were healed. The crucifixion is a fulfilment of that part of their history of disobedience and a healing of their past disobedience.

And again a voice, the Father’s voice is heard and understood by Jesus. The ‘hour’, the time of trial and suffering is imminent. We come to understand through John the evangelist that the Father glorifies the ‘hour’ that is about to consume Jesus. The paradox continues, life from death.

And not just for the Jews, but for all people in the world, then and now. The Greeks who came to speak with Jesus may have been Greek-speaking Jews, they may have been Greeks. The Greeks of the ancient world loved to wander and gather information and learn new things.

The communities of Christians had come to understand Jesus’ words: ‘if a person serves me, they must follow me’ through the persecutions and troubles that assailed them because they were Christian. But they also took to heart the words of Jesus: ‘If anyone serves me, my Father will honour them.’

These words are understood in people’s experience to this day. 

Columban Fr Gary Walker is currently living at the Columban house in Sandgate, Brisbane.