From Seed to Glorious Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:35-44a
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44a It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.

As Paul continues his discussion of our eventual resurrection, he employs a brilliantly simple analogy that helps us understand this amazing miracle. Granted, this is one of those things that our finite minds are not going to fully grasp until it happens on resurrection day. So this one is taken completely by faith. But Paul does help us wrap our heads around what this may look like when it happens.

All of us have held a seed in our hands. Generally, they are very small (although there are some that are quite large) and dried out. We learn as children how to put them in the ground and then wait the required weeks for them to sprout and grow. What we learn in that experience is that the plant that grows doesn’t resemble the seed very much. As a child I used to ride in the back of the combine where the harvested wheat fell into the bin. (I know – crazy dangerous, but we did some crazy stuff back then.) My brother and I would eat that freshly falling grain until we almost burst. It was warmed by the sun and wonderfully chewy and delicious. But those harvested seeds looked nothing like the tall, waving, golden plants from which they were harvested. But they were the same! Without the seed, there was no plant. This is the picture that Paul draws for us. Our human bodies are those seeds. Nondescript and perishable. But when planted in the earth and allowed to grow, they are transformed into the glorious plant. On the last day, those of us who have died will be resurrected, gloriously different but bearing the mark of our past as a seed.

If you gain nothing else from 1 Corinthians 15, let it be that image. The forgiving blood of Jesus promises the resurrection of those glorious bodies, just as He walked in a glorified body after His resurrection. It is a beautiful vision of our future!

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