Jesus Predicts His Death
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 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. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
The news of Jesus must have spread to the Greeks because some Greeks came to see Jesus and wanted to meet Him through His disciples. They could have wanted to be followers of Jesus, like the crowd of Israelites who had followed wherever He went. But Jesus was predicting His own death. And then He said about the conditions of true followers: "Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be."
He tells about the death of followers as well. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Then who could be His followers? Most people had followed Jesus in order to get something from Him, such as health, fame, honor, or even financial benefits from getting the heavenly authoritie.
These days, people love to follow someone who are famous, favorable, smart-looking, rich men, and even false religious teachers. What is the reason that they follow them? It may not be different from those who followed Jesus, getting something from them. No one could die for them. How could we die for others? What is more important than our lives?
Jesus was saying that His followers should be His servants, and they should die as He had done for all. To be the followers of Jesus is very challenging to me as it does not promise any fame, health, money, or power, etc. Following Him means only serving Him, which means serving others whom Jesus loves, like that He gave His own life. There seems to be no benefit of mine, but only sacrifices to all others. In this case, It looks foolish and meaningless to follow Jesus, in my objective and earthly point of view.
Luckily, there is one sure promise of Him: Then His Father would honor the one who serves Him(26). There is a sure reward for being good servants: Honored by my Father, which is enough to me, though I can not get the honor from now on. I just believe that He would honor me right now or later down the road of my life or in the end of this world.
