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“Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone:
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
John 12: 24

When the Lord Jesus spoke these words He would have been teaching something familiar to those He was addressing. They would have all been familiar with the process of harvesting wheat or other essential grains. The ground would have to be prepared, then the sower would walk up and down the field fanning the grains of wheat to fall into the earth for a hoped for future abundant yield.

In the days to follow there would be a time of waiting in which it would appear very little or nothing at all was happening. Then all of a sudden the first shoots would appear, and before long the field would be green with shoots of new life. First it would look like grass, but then it would grow taller and taller until it was ready to harvest.

Then the reapers would come and cut down the tall wheat and arrange it into stooks to dry in the sun before being gathered up for threshing. Then all of the grains of wheat would be beaten out in the autumn wind which would carry away the husks and leave the good wheat grains to fall to the ground to be gathered up for processing.

Soon there would be grain enough for food and enough to store for the next year to be planted over again.

Everyone would know that without the grain being buried in the earth they could not expect any crop to follow. This was a principle of life that everyone knew without any explanation.

However, Jesus was drawing the attention of the people to something very precious about Himself.

I suppose if we were to look at a large company of people we would not really observe anything outstanding about any one particular person. We would just observe a lot of people! Then if we were to back away and see the population of the human race we would just see a multitude of people almost beyond our ability to calculate how many.

This would be like looking into a vat of wheat. We would see it as wheat, not as individual grains! We would be hard pressed to pick out one particular grain out of the many millions of them as being particularly wonderful.

Now comes the wonderful thing about what Jesus was saying to His audience: He was a human being, and to all intents and purposes, He looked just like another human being. He didn’t appear on first impression to stand out among the others and many people overlooked this precious Man.

However, there were a few that got to take a closer look at what He did, and payed a little closer attention to what He was saying and discovered He was not like everyone else at all!

This Man had the most incredibly beautiful nature.

He spoke with authority and yet gentleness to everyone. He was approachable by all kinds of people whatever their status; be they men or women, boys or girls, rich or poor, good or bad! Children adored Him, women ministered to Him, young men and older ones alike were captivated by His teaching. He freely spent time with all sorts of questionable people and yet remained untainted. He reached out and touched unclean people delivering them without being contaminated.

There was never a bad thought that entered His mind, or a bad word that escaped His lips. He had complete control over all His emotions, and indeed over His God given power! And this incredible Man had authority over the weather, demonic entities, and over the animal kingdom. I could go on and on because eternity will never exhaust the qualities of such a One as He!

But what made this Man so unique among the generations of people from way back in the beginning right up to date? If the Lord was likening people to grains of wheat, then what was so special about the particular grain of wheat He was referring to?

He was referring to Himself, and without a shadow of doubt He was the ‘Holiest of Grain’!

As He was teaching the people that day about how the grain of wheat goes into the ground and dies in order to grow into a fruitful plant, looking ahead to that day when fruitfulness would only come because He would one soon day also have to die. 

Perhaps for some this might have been hard to hear, but it was necessary that He would be the One to have to go into ‘the ground’ and ‘abide all alone’ in order to ‘bring forth much fruit’.

He was the only Man that ever lived that never deserved to die because He was sinless. He was not born in sin like we are but was conceived in purity because God was His Father. 

Why would such a Man as He die the way that He did? Of course it was inevitable that He who was the only One qualified to bear away the sin of the world would have to endure the shame, the horror, the darkness and separation that He did because our sin was that ugly. If He didn’t do this because He could, then we would have no hope in this world or after we die!

The agonies that we see and know of as recorded in our Bibles are a display of what humankind really thinks of the Lord Jesus. Simeon referred to His suffering and the reason why when speaking to Mary His mother about the future of the precious child he was holding.

“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother,
Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Luke 2: 34-35.

It is a certain thing that the thoughts of mankind were revealed on that dark day when our beloved Lord was crucified to take away the power, guilt and shame of our sin. Man did their worst to Him on that day, but there came a time when the intense sufferings of our beloved Substitute were shrouded in a supernatural darkness. This was the time He, the sin bearer was atoning for our sin between He and His Father. Away from the gaze of human eyes the mighty exchange took place so that every soul that has ever lived could have the grand opportunity to be pardoned and declared righteous by God who is holy.

 The Lord Jesus is indeed the single grain of wheat that ‘fell into the ground', and died all alone.

There might have been some scepticism about whether or not He really died, but we know that He did because the Bible tells us so. The Bible tells also that He would be buried, and on the third day He would raise from among the dead… which He did in victory just three days after being pronounce dead before being removed from the cross where He died in our place!

Imagine that! ‘The Holiest of Grain’, the most precious of all people that ever lived: suffered, bled, and died all alone. He did this out of the greatest and purest love for people like you and me, and out of obedience to do the will of His Father, who is not willing that anyone should perish, but come to eternal life through complete trust in Him alone.

Soon the season will be upon us once again when we will remember the death, the burial, and the resurrection of our precious Saviour. May we be among the many who have been brought into the marvellous benefit of what He accomplished all that time ago. May we be counted in among that abundance of fruit that has come from the sewing of that precious ‘Holy Grain’ into the ground. And may we in turn live out a fruitful life for the good pleasure of the heart of a loving God who reached out to us in all our need. 

Where would we be today without His abundant mercy and grace that ever sent the Son of His love to be the Saviour of all who place their complete trust in Him? We would have no hope for sure, but now we not only have the precious hope of being brought into a relationship with our living Lord and Saviour, but we have ‘the blessed hope’ also to very much look forward to. That is the hope of being caught up to be with our Beloved Lord very soon as He promised to His disciples just before He took His journey to the cross.

This is what He said: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 1-3.

Just look around and see that this world is not our home anymore. Everything in it is descending into chaos and fast headed for a time of great tribulation upon a world of people who will not bow the knee to Him to accept Him and His wonderful gift of Salvation. Today He provides the way to escape His future wrath and the guarantee of His comforting presence while here along with the joy of knowing that we shall be with Him in heaven one day very soon. 

Do not waste a moment of time; take a moment to consider this seeming small insignificant grain of wheat and discover for the blessing of your own soul that this grain was indeed the ‘Holiest of Grain’ who bore in His own body the iniquity of us all. (See Isaiah 53: 6.) 

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