REFLECTION to the WORD on Sunday, April 6, 2025.
GOSPEL OF JOHN
"12:1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 12:2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. 12:3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus's feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”
On a beautiful May morning a farmer took his kid to the wheat field to show him the emerald green crops as the breeze fondled them in gentle waves.
See the life in the crops, feel the pulse of the universe said the farmer.
As the agricultural clock of the temperate climate advanced, they went back to the wheat field in June to check on the crops as their emerald color began to turn into mature gold and the corn in the ears became fat.
The harvest is close, son, said the farmer. "What is harvest ?" asked the kid.
When we come, and we will cut the crops in order to gather it. For cutting we used to have sickles and scythes. Cutting the wheat is really hard work, but it is just the very first part of the harvest. When the crops are cut we used to tie them into bundles.
Then we have these bundles carried to a flat, huge threshing floor to separate the grains from the stalks. We spread the bundles out and the oxen Tramp over the stalks to release the grains.
And it is still not over, because they are still mixed together on the ground.
This, after threshing we used the winnowing fork to separate the grains and chaff by tossing the mixture into the air on a windy day. The wind would blow the chaff away, and the way heavier grains fall back to the ground to be collected, putting the grain into storages.
Then we grind the grain into flour, and we bake bread and cakes.
Did you get it? The wheat field finally turns into bread.
I understand, said the kid. I like bread, and even more I like cake, and oatmeal and barley soup, and pudding. BUT. What but? asked the father.
You said that the emerald and then golden wheat field, waving as the sea, is alive.
If we cut them the plants will die. Do we want them die in order to eat?
It is not selfish from us? Good question though, said the father.
First of all it is in the Book of the Creation, called the Genesis, that exactly this is the food we should eat, as it reads:
"God said, 'Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food."
Secondly, the crops are designed by God in a pretty spectacular way, because normally cutting the plants would mean they die. However, these crops are designed only for living through a single summer, no more.
Their seeds are sown, they became plants on order to grow new seeds we call grain, then they die anyways, leaving the seeds or grain behind in order to start a new life. It is almost the same with the trees who bears fruit, except that the trees live exceptionally long, and there is no need to cut a fruit tree or a fig tree in order to eat their fruits.
Just as Jesus said in the Gospel of John, chapter 12:
“24 Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
This parable points toward the core message of the Gospel of John which is written in chapter three:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
It should be understood that only the eternal life is life eventually, everything else is just like life temporary where perdition is immanent. It can be understood, what he meant, if we pay attention to the disciple in the Gospel of Matthew, who said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
It may mean that in the eyes of God, or rather in the view of the author of the Gospel of John, that whose who did not come to FAITH, they are considered dead, or presumptive dead, or just temporary alive.
It might be not a zealous exaggeration, because this view is exacerbated from the Gospel reading from last week, where the Father told the firstborn son regarding the prodigal son that “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
But it is appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.''
In the Gospel of John, the resurrecting of Lazarus is depicted with traumatic and even graphic language as they approached the cave grave, and Jesus told them to remove the sealing stone, Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
It might be obvious that the author is telling a real time event to the audience, but it is also true on the spiritual side, when the story is a cover story for the coming into faith, where the greatest miracle ever is not really the physical resurrection, but when someones comes to Faith, because it is like a resurrection.
Just as Jesus declares it in the Gospel of Luke:
24. 'Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn't come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
That is why, with Jesus or without Jesus is not a negligible condition.
It is literally a matter of life and death.
He says it himself, that “He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn’t gather with me, scatters.” Many people are wasting their days on vanities and futilities, not thinking about purpose and meaning, task and the great mission of life, and they also do not think that the day of Accounting is approaching, or sometimes it shows up suddenly and unexpected.
The Gospel keeps urging all that please pay attention, that life is greater than the physical and material phenomena, we have to awake from being lost in the world. The Gospel says that “who believes in him is not judged.” ...
Most certainly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God's voice; and those who hear will live.
May our names be written in the Book of Life, registered in Heaven, AMEN.
