THE GREEKS ARE INQUISITIVE

Brother,

None of the other gospels tell of this incident. But, as Barclay puts it the fourth gospel was written to present the truth of Christianity in a way that the Greeks could appreciate and understand and it is natural that in a gospel with such an aim the first Greeks to come to Jesus should find a place.

It is not strange that there were Greeks in Jerusalem at that time. They were inveterate wanderers and driven by the desire to find out new things. But the Greeks were more than that. They were people with a seeking mind. I wonder how it was that these Greeks had come to hear of Jesus and to be interested in him?

Barclay quotes J.H. Bernard who has an interesting answer to this question. It was in the last week of his ministry that Jesus cleansed the temple and swept the money-changers and sellers of doves from the temple court. These traders were doing business in the Court of the Gentiles which was the first of the temple courts. The gentiles were allowed to come into that court but they were not allowed to pass beyong it. Now if these Greeks were in Jerusalem at all they would be sure to visit the Temple and to stand in the Court of the Gentiles. Perhaps they had actually seen that tremendous day when Jesus had driven the traders from the Temple and perhaps they had wished to know more of a man who could do things like that.

Whether or not this was the case, this is one of the great moments of the gospel story because here is the first faint hint of a gospel that was to go out to all the world and you and I became eligable for salvation. Thank God for his great mercy!

So the Greeks came with their request to Philip. Why Philip? Perhaps because he had a Greek name and they thought he would be more sympathetic. But Philip didn't know what to do and he went to Andrew. Andrew was in no doubt. He led them straight to Jesus. Andrew had learnt that no-one could ever be a nuisance to Jesus and that Jesus represented an open door that no-one can ever shut.

There is hardly a passage in the New Testament which comes as a shock to those who hear it for the first time as this one! Barclay points out that it begins with a saying everyone would expect and ends with a series of saying which were the last things that anyone would expect.

Jesus begins by saying that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. To the Jews the Son of Man stood for the undefeatable world conqueror sent by God so when Jesus said this, his listeners would have caught their breath. Barclay says that they would have believed that the 'trumpet call of eternity had sounded and that the might of heaven was on the march and that the campaign of victory was on the move'.

But Jesus did not mean by 'glorified' what they meant. By glorified they meant that the subjected kingdoms of the world would grovel before the conqueror's feet; by 'glorified' he meant crucified! So the first sentence which Jesus spoke would excite the hearts of those who heard it; then began a succession of sayings which must have left them staggered, bewildered, amazed - because they were saying which spoke, in in terms of conquest, but in terms of sacrifice and death.

I suppose we will never understand our Lord and Saviour Jesus until we understand how he turns our ideas upside down - a dream of conquest into a vision of the cross. No wonder they/we did not/do not understand him!

Mark