Sown Perishable
There are two things that are certain in this life: death and taxes. It’s tax season. If you didn’t know that you are in trouble. It’s also death season. Every season is. Because death and decay surround us every day, ever since the beginning.
Palm Sunday calls us to think about the perishable and the imperishable. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, soon to face his torture and death by crucifixion, He was fully aware of the perishable body He inhabited. Yet, His gaze was fixed on the imperishable - the resurrection that lay beyond. Today in whatever struggles or joys you are facing, I want to encourage you to hold tight to the promise of your own resurrection, where what is sown in weakness will be raised in power.
Death must precede resurrection. (35-36)
The Corinthian church that Paul is writing to is amidst a strong Greek culture. We saw this recently in our Acts series. They had a temple to Aphrodite, along with other Greek gods. When we look at the beliefs of the ancient Greco-Roman world concerning life after death, we see that they did believe in life after death, yet without physical form. They valued the separation of the soul from the body, viewing the physical body in a sense as a prison for the soul. Death, then, was seen as freedom from this earthly bondage. Though the idea of an afterlife was common, the notion of the soul residing within a physical body, especially in the realm of Hades, was strongly rejected in the Greco-Roman culture.
So, in this cultural context, the idea of bodily resurrection, that Paul preached, faced opposition, or at least questions. Paul's proclamation that, like Jesus' bodily resurrection, believers would also be raised likewise, was met with doubt by many, even Christians, because they were newly converted out of this pagan belief. Paul foresaw objections to this concept, which we can see from his rhetorical question, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" (35) Skeptics questioned how decayed bodies could be brought back to life and transformed into an eternal state.
We tend to have similar questions. If someone is cremated or dies at sea, how does God resurrect their body? Well, first off, God can do anything. It’s no problem for Him. He formed man out of the dust of the ground. He can resurrect a body spread across the earth. Your question may be about your current body. Let’s just say…you don’t like it. “And I have to be stuck with this thing forever?!” Let me say it again…God can work miracles.
For resurrection to come, though, death must come first. For us to take hold of the hope to be found in the resurrection of Jesus, we must recognize the reality of His resurrection, even and especially if death surrounds us. (35) Just as a seed must die…it must cease to become what it was…before it can bring forth new, glorious life.
What we see now is not what will be. (37-41)
Using analogies from nature (seeds, plants, and bodies), Paul answers their doubts and questions. (36-41) Think about a seed. It must cease to exist in its original form as a seed before it can come to life.
I want you to think about this, because it will really expand our hope. Do you know what the world’s largest tree is? It is a Redwood. The tallest Redwood tree alive is in the Redwood National Park in California and stands 380.3ft tall. Do you know how big a Redwood tree’s seeds are? About the size of a tomato seed.
What we see is just what is around us. We see death and decay and so many small things. What God has in store is so much greater than we can ever imagine. That’s true of our bodies, which is what Paul is referring to here, because he is talking about bodily resurrection, but it is also true about our lives and whatever we may be going through.
I love what Joni Eareckson Tada wrote in her book titled Heaven: Your Real Home. She is a quadriplegic. As a result of a diving accident when she was a teenager, she lost movement in her body from her shoulders down. If anyone is looking for a new body, it’s Joni Eareckson Tada.
She wrote in her book,
“Trying to understand what our bodies will be like in heaven is much like expecting an acorn to understand the destiny of its roots, bark, branches and leaves. Or asking a caterpillar to appreciate flying. Or a peach pit to fathom being fragrant. Or a coconut to grasp what it means to sway in the ocean breeze. Our eternal bodies will be so grand, so glorious that we can only catch a fleeting glimpse.”
We can only begin to imagine the glories that await us in heaven. The vast potential for abundant life that exists within a small seed is what these mortal bodies hold. But this resurrection reality doesn’t just affect our future. It can and should affect our now.
The resurrection is a future reality that shapes our present lives. (42-44)
Because of the hope we have in the Jesus who is alive, it allows us to view whatever situation we are in with hope. It doesn’t mean it won’t hurt though. Death hurts. Dying to self hurts. These verses acknowledge the perishable. It acknowledges the reality of dishonor, weakness, and the natural world.
Think about the events of Holy Week. It starts with the triumphal entry. Why is it triumphal? Why are people shouting “Hosanna!”? It’s because Jesus raises the dead.
John 12:17-18 – 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.
But think about this…Jesus wept before He rose Lazarus from the dead.[1] He sweat drops of blood on Gethsemane before He walked out of the empty tomb.[2] Why? It’s because death hurts. Death is a foreign enemy imposing itself on a people who were meant to live forever.
But Jesus did raise Lazarus from the dead. And Jesus did rise from the dead Himself. Though death is reality, so is resurrection.
Here, Paul moves from the perishable to the imperishable. Our lives must be lived triumphantly, knowing that the resurrection is not a far-off concept, but it’s a future reality that shapes our lives right now. Every action we take should be a testament to the glory that awaits us, every step marked by the certainty of Christ's victory over death. This transformation is not merely physical but also spiritual, as we are conformed to the image of the risen Christ.
Resurrection is our future reality, but you know what? It hasn’t come yet. My knees still hurt. I still get sad. I tend to have anxiety, sometimes for no reason at all.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
The hope of the future imperishable fuels us amidst our everyday living and dying, physically and dying to ourselves spiritually. Either way, we must die in order to truly live. And we were made to live, forever.
I love how Spurgeon paints this picture:
“The righteous are put into the grave all weary and worn, but such they shall not arise. They go there with furrowed brow and hollowed cheek and withered skin, but they shall wake up in beauty and glory. The old man taut and thinner, leaning on his staff. The paralyzed come there trembling all the way. The halt, the lame, the withered, the blind journey in doleful pilgrimage to this common dormitory, but they shall not rise decrepit, deformed or diseased. But strong, vigorous, active, glorious, immortal. The winter of the grave shall soon give way to the spring of the resurrection and the summer of glory. Blessed is death, since it answers all the ends of medicine to this mortal frame. And through the divine power disrobes us of the leprous rags of flesh to clothe us in the wedding garments of incorruption.”
In Christ all shall be made alive. (45-49)
Through Christ's death and resurrection, we are made new creations.[3] What we were is not who we are. Paul shows us this through the difference in Adam and Jesus.
Earlier, in verse 22, Paul says this: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” Both Adam and Jesus are what is called our “federal heads.”[4] Paul explains it this way in Romans 5:18, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” Both Adam and Jesus function as our representatives. Everybody is of Adam. Everybody is born sinful and broken in a sinful and broken world. Not everyone is of Jesus, though. You are born into Adam, but you must be born again into Jesus.[5]
We’ve been talking about trees. Adam took of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and ate when God said not to. Every other tree was good for them to eat from. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s Word. Because of that, death entered. And it has wreaked havoc ever since.
But Jesus came to put death to death. In Adam all die. It’s been that way since the garden. BUT in Christ all are made alive. Life comes after death. That’s not just true for eternity, but that’s true for now. Life comes after dying to yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus.[6]
Hope is alive even amidst death and decay because Jesus is alive, and so are all who are in Him.
This is the picture we get of the disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus. They were brokenhearted and mourning. They were scared and hiding away. But what happens when they encounter the resurrected Jesus? They not only witness Him alive, but they themselves are given new life. They are emboldened and encouraged. They become people who go and turn the world upside down for the sake of the Jesus who rose from the dead, proclaiming that life is found in Him and Him alone…all the way to their earthly deaths.
As we reflect on the reality of death and resurrection today, we are confronted with a choice: we can either embrace the hope of resurrection or to cling to the despair of death.
I want to challenge you to live in light of the hope of resurrection, recognizing the temporary nature of our earthly lives. Everything you have and everything you are will fade away…will die. It is perishable. Are you living for what is imperishable? For Christ? Have you yourself been made new, given new life?
