We Would See Jesus

As an undergraduate student at Baylor University, I was part of a volunteer ministry that arranged for students to minister in churches once a month. I’ve wondered how those mainly small, rural churches tolerated what a kid preacher like myself had to say. But they did, and most of them did so with grace. 

One church (the only thing I remember about it) had a pulpit with a small plaque on the side facing the speaker with the words engraved, “We would see Jesus.”  

It’s a quote from John 12:21 where certain Greeks had sought an audience with Jesus and went to one of the disciples, Philip, with their request. Philip, in turn, went to Andrew, and both of them approached Jesus. The Greeks’ request was simple: they wanted to meet Jesus.

The event occurs six days before the Passover feast. Those Greeks would have probably been “God-fearers,” not Jews but people attracted to the Jewish faith. They would have been with other Jewish pilgrims crowding Jerusalem for the annual feast of Passover. And talk about Jesus was buzzing in Jerusalem that year. Maybe they had heard about Jesus’ miracles—the healing of the man born blind or even the raising of Lazarus. “Could this man be the Messiah?” many were asking. But these Greeks were curious enough to seek out Jesus, and being Greeks, maybe they recognized that  Philip had a Greek name. John makes a point of telling us (John 7:21) that Philip was from Bethsaida in Galilee. Perhaps they guessed Philip would be their most likely entree to Jesus. And so these Greeks, who would have been allowed access only to the outer court of the Jerusalem Temple, approached Philip, requesting to “see” Jesus.

John, the mystical writer he was,  likely used the word “see” metaphorically. So, these Greeks didn’t want to see Jesus to take a selfie with him. They wanted to know him on a deeper level, to “see” him with the mind, to know him in a deeper spiritual sense. 

So what’s the point?

This week is an important week for the religious. These are days to press in toward the inner spiritual recesses of our lives. It’s an opportune time to ponder what we find when we dig deep into ourselves and ask who we are beneath all the exterior protective designs we place before others and ourselves to keep our true selves a secret. 

Who is that, lurking in the shadows? What image do we find? Is it only a reflection of our past doings with no being, simply our lifetime’s accomplishments? Are our lives nothing more than what we’ve done? The accumulation of cherished belongings? A faded family portrait? 

But, if we look only within, we are bound to be disappointed, discouraged, and even depressed because we could teach a masters class in the art of self-deception. Jeremiah, the prophet, warned us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). 

We need something (Someone) beyond ourselves to enlighten us. 

Perhaps our most urgent request this week should be that of the Greeks, “We would see Jesus.”

I wish John had told us what happened to the Greeks. It’s a mystery. Instead, John artfully shifts to Jesus’ words: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” 

That’s it, for the main plot wasn’t the Greeks who sought Jesus, but Jesus who sought the Greeks—sinners like you and me, for whom Jesus would go to the Cross to redeem.

The “hour” has come. These next days, leading from Palm Sunday to Easter, we contemplate the mystery and glory of it all.

The words on that pulpit surely were meant to remind the preacher that Greeks still show up, representing all who “would see Jesus.” And while my days of standing behind a pulpit may be past, I still want to meet with Jesus.

That’s my hope this Holy Week. 

And beyond.

The hour has come. 

“We would see Jesus.”