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These words come very abruptly into the narrative. But looking carefully into all the circumstances, the fitness of the words is soon seen. If these Greeks had come earlier, and come into Galilee in the thick of the Galilaean ministry, Jesus would have said, "Let them come and welcome. They shall see the works of the Christ in great abundance." But they have come just too late. Jesus has done his last great work in the body according to the flesh - he has raised Lazarus from the dead. These Greeks have come a little too late for one set of experiences, and a little too soon for another. Any day up to the time of sowing the seed you may see it; but when sown, you must wait to see the seed in the glory of the fruit that comes from it.

I. SEASONS WHEN THE WORDS ARE SPECIALLY SUGGESTIVE.

1. Sowing-time.

2. Reaping-time.

There might be an ecclesiastical calendar according to the order of nature. Jesus would have us think specially of his death at the sowing-time, when the corns of wheat are being scattered abroad over so much of the surface of God's earth. What an immense quantity of grain finds its way into the soil the wide world over! And every one sowing, and every one who sees the sowing, is invited to consider that most wondrous of all seed-corns laid away in the soil when Jesus breathed his last natural breath. And as to natural emblems and reminders of the resurrection, there is a long time in which to study them. The moment we see the delicate blades timidly peeping above the surface, then the word comes to our hearts that Jesus also rose from the dead; and then at last, when, instead of the seed that was sown, we behold the stalk with its hundredfold, why, we are helped to feel what a difference there is between Jesus in the days of his flesh and Jesus according to his resurrection from the dead.

II. WE MUST LOOK AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE AT THE WORDS. The more closely, the more encouraging and inspiring they will be. Put a corn of wheat away in a drawer. Leave it for twelve months, and then look. It is there still, abiding alone. But put that corn of wheat into a flower-pot. Let it grow till it is ripe, and then you have a great company of grains of wheat exactly similar to the one you sowed. This indicates just what Jesus wants as the greatest result of his presence among men. He wanted to see countless multitudes with a spirit and a character like his own - holy as he was holy, loving as he was loving, and becoming fit for the glory to which he himself was going. During the days of his flesh, he remained like the unsown corn of wheat, alone. He produced nothing like himself. People would not say of his disciples when they met them, "What good, holy, lovable men these are!" How could anybody say that of them, seeing that not long before their Master's death they were wrangling which should be the greatest? But what a difference when Jesus has died and risen again! Jesus no longer abides alone. He is truly the Firstborn among many brethren. If we be true Christians at all, we are more like Christ than we are to those of our fellow-men who are not Christians. Jesus sees great differences where we see great resemblances, and vice versa. It is demanded of all the children of the heavenly Father that they should be fruitful, and to this end they are to be as branches in the vine. And he who is peculiarly the Son of the Father sets the example that makes our fruitfulness possible. The risen Savior himself brings forth much fruit. A handful of corn has been sown in the earth on the top of the mountains, and the fruit thereof shakes like Lebanon. There is a double resurrection. Not only did Jesus rise again in his own proper personality; he has also risen again in that great multitude concerning every one of whom this is true, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." There is no way of making Christians except through the Spirit of the living Christ working in them. A stalk of wheat cannot be got save by sowing the seed from which it is to spring. And so, too, Jesus himself must be the principle in us of a new, a holy, and an eternal life. - Y.

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KJV: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

WEB: Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.