Lent Devotions

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April 3: There Is Glory in This Death

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 07:15 AM PDT

Read: John 12:20-50

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (v. 24 NRSV)

Life out of death defies all logic. Corpses don’t live again; they decay. Did Jesus have a fixation on his own death? He spoke of it often. On the Monday after Jesus’ popular march into Jerusalem, he said he came to die. A seed planted in the dirt appears dead, but it will spring to life. The mutilated body of Christ hanging on a cross would live again.

Some scholars suggest that Christ was a martyr whose teaching was perpetuated by imaginative disciples. Christ’s life is understood in his death. Great men and women are measured by how they live. Christ’s glory is in his death. Carl Sandburg’s six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln has only a few pages on the assassination. In John’s Gospel on the life of Christ, half tells of his death and resurrection. For most people life is all about living; for Christ life was all about dying.

The key which unlocks the secret of this God-man’s life is the cross. “I,” he said, “when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). –Ron Geschwendt

Prayer: O Christ, you died for us. You took our deserved punishment on the cross. The cross is filled with glory. Grant to us, we pray, this glory. Amen.

Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/wor