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WE WANT TO SEE JESUS…
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It’s a simple enough request, on the surface: we’d like an introduction to your Master for a get-to-know conversation—can you arrange this for us, please?
But there’s much more to this (as is almost always the case in the Fourth Gospel) than a simple desire. Let’s start with the beginning: the ones making the request are “Greeks.” They are not Greek-speaking Jews but Gentiles (perhaps “God-fearers” since they had come up for the Feast (Passover, as it seems). But Jesus has excited their interest, and they want to see Him.
To see is very often a metaphor for comprehending or believing in. Think of phrases like “Now I see!” or “I was blind but now I see” from Amazing Grace. Think, too, of Zacchaeus (in Luke 19)—he climbed a sycamore tree just outside his town, so he could see Jesus. And see Him he did!
What is Jesus’ reaction to the request? “The hour has come…” All through the Fourth Gospel we have been anticipating then “the hour” would come (beginning with the wedding feast in Cana, when Jesus said His hour had not yet come). But Jesus’ presence is one that is intended to bring all people to God: “But to as many as received Him, He gave power to be children of God…” (John 1:12). He is the grain of wheat that dies but which bears much fruit—He is the one who, when lifted up (as He told Nicodemus—John 3:14f), will draw all things to Himself. There is an old text (one of the very oldest, actually) that has “all things” instead of “all people”—I like that variant. Jesus is the King of the entire universe, after all.
The scene in its own way has echoes of the Garden of Gethsemane and the Transfiguration: Jesus will exclaim that whatever the suffering, whatever the cost, this is why He came to this hour—the Father’s voice confirms it (just as it did at the baptism and on Mt Tabor). And, as both of these other episodes emphasize, this scene shows the intimate relationship between Father and Son—so much so that Jesus could say “The Father and I are one” (John 10:3), and “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9-10).
We can be like the Greeks—we can observe from a distance the signs Jesus works; we can be drawn to the compelling content of His preaching; we can long to see Him fully. The Greeks came to Philip surely because he also had a Greek name, and they must have been convinced he’d make a good appeal on their behalf. Who would we turn to, to take us to Jesus? What would make us long to see Him?
