[asa] More for Easter

All,

I was just reading something in John that caught my attention. In
John 12:20-26, it tells of "certain Greeks who were among those going
up to worship at the feast" who came to the disciples and asked to
see Jesus. Jesus's response to them is the familiar verse "unless a
grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself
alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit."

John puts this after the triumphal entry.

I recently listened to Jeremy Macinerney's lectures on Ancient Greek
History for the Teaching Company. There is a fascinating discussion
of what has been reconstructed of the Eleusynian mystery cult, which
concerned the myth of Demeter and Persephone and was connected to the
supposedly dying seed and mourning during the darkness of winter and
the reviving of the seed in spring.

MacInerney describes the similarity of the mystery cult initiation
service and a Greek orthodox Easter service that he attended in
Greece. The initiates went through several days of ritual
purification and teaching on the meaning of the myth. They then had a
midnight service in which a priest entered the dark hall full of
initiates with a torch and multiple torches were lit from the one
torch.

My amateur interpretation of the fact that Jesus responded to Greeks
with the verse above is that He was saying "You all were on the right
track with that mystery. Stay around this week and you will see what
it really referred to."

He went on to say "He who loves his life loses it; he who hates his
life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If any one serves
me, let him follow me; and where I am there shall my servant also be."

In saying this He was saying, "what applies to me applies to you,
too. If I have to die to this life to be resurrected, so do you." If
it was hard for Him, it will be hard for us as well.

Preston

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sat Apr 11 21:02:32 2009