“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John12:24).

How are actors, poets, singers, great doctors, and inventors celebrated in our world? How are scientists and artists honored? We often hear of the accolades, awards, and Nobel Prizes bestowed upon them following remarkable achievements. If still alive, they eagerly share their favorite moments from the project—the inspiration behind their work or the life-saving impact of a new medicine or invention they created. They never diminish themselves or seek to fade into the background just to have their work recognized. Only a few embrace a life-giving purpose born from failure or even death.

But Christ did. Days before His death on the cross, He taught His disciples another profound lesson. He could have felt honored that some Greeks attending the Passover festival sought an audience with Him. Yet, He remained focused and spoke to them about one of the most paradoxical truths: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies…” They were still puzzled why a King like Him, with such power and potential, would follow a path to glory so different from the world’s expectations.

But Christ teaches that the only way to bear life-giving fruit—a fruit that embraces people of every color, race, tribe, and age, including men and women of all social statuses, even the Greek men who sought Him—is through death. His death, which grants us life. Eternal life. I believe the grain of wheat began this journey of dying with His first act of obedience to the Father’s call when He replied, “Here I am, send Me” (Isaiah 6:8).

He understood the burden of the cross, felt the torment of the thorns, the unending beatings, and the cruel sting of mockery. When the nails pierced His fragile body, the grain of wheat fell and was buried in the earth. His glory was won through loss and sacrifice. Giving, surrendering, and dying were not the end of His mission on earth but the essential path to harvest a plentiful crop of believers—a multitude born through loss, through subtraction. God’s mathematics differ from ours. In her brief booklet titled “If,” Amy Carmichael issues a profound challenge: “IF I refuse to be a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies—‘separated from all in which it lived before’—then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

What are you afraid to die to? Is it your ego, material possessions, status, or worldly ambitions for His sake? Are you hesitant to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ? I know they are hard. Yet Jesus faced them before us, and as a great Teacher, he is showing us the path. We have a Helper—the Holy Spirit—who guides us and reveals all His ways.

One of the most profound biblical truths I embraced in my late teenage years, beyond salvation through faith in Christ, is found in Hebrews 12:2. This verse portrays Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith, who endured the cross for the joy set before Him. I was deeply moved to be considered worthy of His sacrifice, but to be called His joy was a revelation I had never fully grasped. Until then, I had never truly personified joy; I understood the concept but had never connected it to a person. In that moment, I realized how an adjective had become a noun—people. Us. We are the reason. We are the harvest yielded from that single grain of wheat falling and dying.

You were the Joy for which He gave everything, His greatest triumph as He walked the Via Dolorosa and faced death at Golgotha. He knew glory awaited just beyond, on Sunday. We celebrate Easter because of the love shown at Calvary. Oh, how deeply grateful I am for that love—words cannot fully capture or comprehend it, yet I meditate on it in most sincerest ways.

John Piper expressed it beautifully: “He invites us to join Him. My dying for your salvation is my design for your imitation. I pay the price for one (John 10:16). I give the strength for the other (John 15:5). It won’t be easy, but it will be significant. It will be eternal.”

That is how I want to live. I made it my lifelong mission to know the Calvary love and to imitate it. To be the grain of wheat that surrenders self and all distractions, so I can fully abide in the new life He provided for me and one day share in His glory. Would you join me on this path?

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”.  (John 15:4)