How can death produce life?
This is the paradox at the heart of the Christian faith: that through the death of Jesus Christ, eternal, indestructible life is offered to all.
Jesus, as ever, has a wonderfully simple picture to illustrate this truth: seeds. A seed is planted in the ground, and through its death – the giving of its life – it multiplies life: giving birth to many more seeds.
It’s wonderful isn’t it? That Jesus gives his life, that he dies, and through this, brings life to us.
But this trajectory of giving up life to bring life to others is, it turns out, not just something for Jesus. Jesus goes first, and in calling us to follow him, asks us too, to give up our lives to bring life to others, to die.
Jesus lays before us a simple but challenging choice: to hold on to our lives for ourselves, which ironically leads to us losing out lives. Or to give up our lives to serve Christ, that we might bring life to others through the gospel, which leads to eternal life.
If we are suffering today – experiencing something of the losing of life that Christ is speaking of – may we be encouraged that we are following the path on which we are called by our crucified Lord, a path that for Christ, and for us as we follow, leads to resurrection and glory.
