Lesson 12

Life Lessons from wheat.

"Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."     John 12:24

Read John Chapter 12

In this passage Jesus is now predicting his death and he is using the example of wheat. He is speaking to people who understand farming and agriculture and using wheat as a great illustration to connect with people. Not having grown up on a farm myself and instead grown up in a city I didn't learn much about agriculture and so if you're like me, this illustration might be lost on you.

However, thanks to modern technology and the internet we can research pretty much anything. So as far as wheat is concerned there are 4 stages of growth, tillering, stem extension, heading and finally ripening. In simple terms a seed becomes a shoot out of the soil, grows a tall stem, develops a crown of flowers/grain which ripen at which point the stem/plant dies falling over and scattering it's seeds, which can range from around 20-100 seeds. It's pretty cool to see it in time-lapse filming. It can be a lesson in multiplication productivity, one becomes twenty or even a hundred!

So what's this got to do with Jesus and us? Good question.

Later on in chapters to come you will hear Jesus using more farming illustrations as well as the brutal reality of his own death. For now he is likening himself to the wheat that grows, develops a crown of flowers/followers and then he dies, buried in the ground and.....well more on that later.

How incredible it is to imagine that the God who designed and created wheat and all it's stages of growth and development would then be able to live out that same growth, development and death!

Do your own research on this and see what you find.

Some questions to ask:

1: Why would Jesus use this analogy?

2: How many people are following Jesus at this point?

3: If Jesus is going to die, where is he going?

4: Do you want to know Jesus and follow him?

More to come in Lesson 13.