Responding to the Greeks

In John chapter 12, the time for the Passover was approaching, and Christ’s enemies were preparing their plans to have Him put to death. And yet, despite the danger, Christ was present, not hiding, not afraid. And some Greeks came to Philip, and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” We don’t know, for sure, why they wanted to see Him. Did they want to become His disciples? Did they want to have a stimulating discussion about the meaning of life? Or did they want to invite Him to come to their own country, where He would be safe? We don’t know. What we do know is how Jesus responded to their interest.

Philip told Andrew that the Greeks wanted to see Jesus, and Andrew brought the message to Jesus. And the Lord responded, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

So, what kind of response was that to the Greeks who just wanted to see Jesus?

The Hour

When Christ speaks of His Hour, He is referring to the Passion. He is glorified through His death on the Cross, for only if He dies can He rise again. This is Christ’s answer to the Greeks: He is not merely a teacher, an intellectual, or a philosopher offering advice on how to live well and die with dignity. He came for something far greater. He did not come simply to explain the meaning of life; He came to transform the meaning of death. Through His death and resurrection, death is no longer the end. It becomes the passage through which God brings about our glorification.

Everyone wants their religion to make their lives easier, more fulfilled, more pleasant. That’s not the Christian religion. Anyone can find purpose in life. Christ came to preach that by dying to the old life of sin and then by death itself united to Christ, we pass through the doorway to a new, more glorious life. This is why we worship a crucified God. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Christ preached to the Greeks what He offered to the Jews: That united to Christ and allowing our old life of sin to die and accepting our physical death is the way to glory. 

Folly to the Greeks

Paul says that a crucified, resurrected Christ is folly to the Greeks. After all, have you ever been to a funeral? Have you ever touched the corpse? Who would look at that dead thing and come to the conclusion that it would ever rise again? 

And so Christ gives the Greeks an example from nature: a seed that becomes a grain of wheat. Who could look at a seed for the first time, not knowing what it is, and imagine what it can turn into if you just bury it in the ground? That little seed? Turned into a great stalk of wheat? A mustard seed, grown into an enormous tree, with branches and leaves? A little acorn becomes a giant oak? The transformation seems unbelievable. And yet we see it happen every year.

If God can place such astonishing power of transformation in a seed planted in the ground, why should it be incredible that the human body, planted in the earth, should rise again in glory? Shall God give such power to seeds, and not to His sons and daughters?

Stumbling Block to the Jews

Paul also says that a crucified, resurrected Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews. They didn’t want their great, victorious, Messiah-King to die. They didn’t want to let go of the things in which they found identity and safety, the Temple and its sacrifices, the Law, the Nation, and the Land. They didn’t realize that if they let go of these things, Christ would transform them into something infinitely better: Jesus would become the Temple, and then they would become the Temple of God with God dwelling inside them. 

Their old Sacrifices would become the New Sacrifice of the Mass. Their old circumcision would become the rebirth of Baptism. The promised land would become Heaven. Unless a grain of wheat fall to the earth and die, it remains just a grain of wheat. The Jews wouldn’t bury Judaism, and so the Temple and its sacrifices came to an end, Jerusalem was destroyed, and they were removed from the Land. 

But Christ’s Church is alive, animated by the Spirit. It stretches to the four corners of the earth. The Church is the grain of wheat that has died, and bears much fruit. It is the mustard seed that has become an ever-growing tree, and the birds of the air, all the peoples of the earth, find shelter in its branches.

The Seed Must Die

Christ’s answer to the Greeks reveals the deepest law of the Christian life: The seed must die.

Tomorrow we enter Holy Week. The hour of Christ has come. The grain of wheat will fall into the earth. Through His death, the world will be given life. And the same law governs our lives. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

Lent has been the time for that death: the death of pride, selfishness, and the sinful habits that keep Christ from living fully within us. If we allow that old life of sin to die, Christ begins transforming us even now, into people of virtue, people of charity, people of holiness. Into souls capable of the deep prayer the saints describe. As the Psalm says, “They shall be inebriated with the richness of your house, and from the torrent of your delight you will give them drink.” Ps 36:8

So the question today is simple: What seed must die in me? What pride must die? What selfishness must die? What sinful habit must die so that Christ may live more fully within me? Holy Week is not only about watching what happened to Jesus. It is about entering His mystery. So choose one thing that must die. Ask yourself, “What seed must die in me?”

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