Episode 14 John 12:23-26 Dying with Christ is a sacrifice that produces much fruit

"Jesus replied, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

And very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.

But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be.

And my Father will honor the one who serves me.'" Now, this is, of course, the, um, Johannine equivalent of the parallel passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where Jesus spells out the basic principle that He states here, that we are to follow Him by denying self, taking up the cross, and following.

And so He tells us here, as He does in the other passages, that if we love our lives, we're gonna lose them, but if we hate our life in this world, we're gonna keep it for eternal life.

If we save our lives, we lose them.

If we lose our lives for Jesus' sake, we save them, and this is the paradox at the heart of discipleship.