Paul names the move, and John gives it a seed.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.
— Philippians 2:5–7; John 12:24
Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.
Kenosis is Greek for emptying. Paul uses it for what the divine did: made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. Whatever you make of the theology, the shape of the act is clear. Whatever was highest let go of being highest in order to be here. That is the mechanism the Beatitudes described from the outside.
John’s line is the same mechanism as agriculture. The seed that keeps itself stays a seed. The seed that goes into the dark and stops being a seed becomes a field. Notice that nothing in the image is punishing. The grain is not sacrificed. It is planted. Read the two passages together and let the first one tell you what emptying is and the second one tell you what it is for. Then set the reading beside Course IV’s subtract daily and see that the Taoists were saying the same thing about a different crop.
What would have to fall into the ground today for something to grow?