Nectarines are a wonderful fruit. Our hosts this month, the Blessings, bought a
crate of nectarines and to ensure that they don’t go to waste, I’ve been eating
my fair share of them. Yesterday
morning, I removed the pit from the center of the nectarine I was eating, and
the pit broke into two. A small seed was
contained within and it instantly reminded me of this verse:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it
dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves
his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for
eternal life. If anyone serves me, he
must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.
If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” – John
12:24-25
Suppose for a minute, I look at the nectarine and am
delighted by it’s beauty. It sure is a
nice nectarine; soft and smooth, a lovely hue of orange mixed with red. It contains the most succulent, juicy flesh –
what a horrible thing that such a wonderful piece of fruit should be
consumed! If I leave it alone, perhaps
somehow I can preserve it in it’s perfect condition.
That’s a bunch of tom-foolery! You can’t have your nectarine and eat it too!
Surely you know as well as I do that the
nectarine will rot if it isn’t consumed.
It seems as if the nectarine has one of two practical purposes – either
it’s fruit can be consumed and the seed disposed of – in this case at least the
fruit isn’t wasted. Or, the nectarine
can fall to the ground and ‘die’ and its seed then has the opportunity to
germinate and produce a tree that will create lots of nectarines.
In the verse above, Jesus is referring to his death, which
would open the door for many people to experience life. But Jesus also refers to a principle for how
we ought to live our lives, namely that if we “love” our lives here, we will
lose them. But, if we “hate” our lives,
we will keep them for eternal life. I
wonder if he means that if we spend our lives getting the most out of life for
ourselves, we will find in the end that we’ve rotted and become absolutely
useless. Instead, looking at Christ’s
death and deciding to serve and follow him, if we give up what we can get out
of life, giving it away in love so that others can experience life, then Jesus
says his Father will honor us.
Is it possible that every day I have an opportunity to
despise selfish gain and choose to die so that other people can live? Could it be that in order to live a life that
is truly impactful from an eternal perspective, I have to surrender the right
to a privileged life and become a servant to others? I would have to say yes, and that this is the
heartbeat of the gospel – that God’s love for us and desire for us to have life
was of such a magnitude that he counted it to be a gain to descend from his
high and lofty, privileged place, and walk upon the dust for a while before
being crucified so that he could bring many ‘sons’ to glory. In God’s mind, it is beneficial to suffer if
that means life for others.
So, the life that is most successful is the one that daily
chooses to lose the right to be selfish.
Maybe it’s wise to walk in the shoes of a nectarine every once and a
while, where the goal isn’t to be the best nectarine ever – but the goal is to
die so that a new generation of nectarines may live.
