Week 33: A Kernel of Wheat Falls to the Ground

Day:  230          Verses Memorized:  566          Working On:  John 12

The John Squad
Please click here to chart your own progress - even though I'm the only one still doing this

My Progress:
This week I reviewed every previous chapter and was pleasantly surprised at how easily I could recite each one after only a short time of practice.  However, I officially declare myself "Chapter Sixphobic."  At any rate, because God has super-motivated me lately and my review went well, I decided to go ahead and start memorizing Chapter 12.  So I'm pretty good with the first 30 verses and plan to finish that this week.  This is the longest chapter left, so after this week, they should start to go rather quickly (I hope).  However, while they are shorter in length, I believe they will be more difficult emotionally.  But we'll just take one verse at a time. 

Some Thoughts:
I have many favorite verses from this chapter already and I'm only halfway through.  First of all, the coolest thing about this chapter comes in the first verse, "six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived..."  Now, I had just spent a week memorizing how Lazarus died.  It took me extra time to get down the parts where the mourners are comforting Mary and Martha.  Large crowds were gathering to weep at the loss of Lazarus.  Then this week, I decided to skim over Chapter 12 to see what was ahead and the first thing I read, "...where Lazarus lived"!  God just continues to show me how He can transform anything:  water to wine, blindness to sight, sin to righteousness, and death to life.

My next favorite verse of this chapter, "and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."  I love this story of how Mary pours perfume on Jesus' feet.  And I love how John adds this detail about how the house was filled with its fragrance.  Just another beautiful picture of love that John adds to his Gospel that never ceases to overwhelm me.

This is an amazing chapter.  Jesus is preparing for his death and nobody understands what's going on.  He is entering Jerusalem but receiving half-hearted, thrill-seeking praise rather than true commitment.  I know the Father was always with Him, but I often wonder if He felt alone.  Crowds upon crowds of people, but nobody truly believing in Him.  Twelve devoted disciples, but none of them really understanding Him. 

Jesus sure had a way of painting pictures with His words.  "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." 

It makes me sad to read, "now my heart is troubled".  How dare I ever take His sacrifice for granted.