John 12:21–22

These Greeks were not Greek-speaking Jews. They were Gentiles — people outside Israel. Their desire to see Jesus is what brings in the third great testimony to the glory of Christ as the Son of Man. The Gentile had no claim on Christ as the Messiah. So these Greeks were right to approach the Lord through the Jewish disciples. The Gentile centurion had done the same earlier, sending his request to the Lord through the Jewish elders.

The request did not come from the Pharisees or the chief priests. They had plenty of chances to see Him and hear Him at that very feast. No, it was the desire of Greeks (Gentiles) who had come to worship there… It is in itself no small testimony to the glory of His person who was among them. Israel rejected Him, but the despised Gentile came looking for Him. The one refused Him; the other asked for Him. The last is first.

The Greeks did not approach Jesus directly. They came through Philip and Andrew. In the same way, when He comes in His glory as the King of Israel, the nations will see that God has blessed His people, and they will go up to worship at Jerusalem. Then His House will truly be a house of prayer for all nations.

But what could Philip do? Were not these Greeks outside the boundary? Would the Lord receive them if he brought them to Him? Philip was a puzzled servant that day, because he did not understand. But he goes and tells Andrew, and in that he was wise. He felt that Andrew would find a way out of the problem. And Andrew did, for he brings him straight to the Lord with the difficulty.

His thoughts turn at once to the hidden meaning of granting such a desire to the Gentiles. It signified His death. Rejected as Israel's Messiah, He would take the wider place of Son of man. As Psalm 8 shows, that title covers a much larger range than the "Anointed" of Psalm 2. But to fill that larger range, He must first die!

He Himself was the true grain of wheat that would bear rich fruit. Yet even He could do so only by death and resurrection. This was not, could not be, from any lack of power in Him. It was because of man's condition that it could not righteously be otherwise before God. Only death can meet the evil, or fill the void — and only His death… Living, He must remain alone. Dying, He bears much fruit in the power of His resurrection.

In the Greeks standing before Him, Jesus sees a sample of the gathering in of the Gentiles. The Lord knew well that only one thing could draw the Gentiles: His own cross and His glory in heaven. So He looks through all the scene that lay in between, for He had to accomplish redemption and to go up on high. But from this little sample He connects everything with His glorification, and speaks of it as a present fact.

Do you say, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus"? My answer is, Look at the centre cross on Calvary. THIS IS JESUS — the thorn-crowned Nazarene, despised and rejected by men, crucified on a criminal's cross. This is Jesus, and beside Him there is no other.

The Greeks here are pure Gentiles, not Greek-speaking Jews. Still, they worship the true God as revealed in Israel. They share the hopes that Israel's prophets had stirred up. So they come forward and respectfully use a disciple as go-between to gain a meeting with Him. Going through a Jew was a natural thought for a Gentile who believed the prophets. In that prophecy the Gentile seeking God takes hold of the skirt of the Jew (Zech. 8:23).

We take it they really wanted to get to know Christ. So they went to Philip, one of the twelve disciples. These Greeks may have known him in his home town. Philip did not tell the Lord at once. He knew of course that Christ's mission was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to them only (Matt. 15:24). He sought out Andrew, his fellow apostle from the same town, and passed on what these Greeks wanted. The two of them together tell Jesus.

Philip seems to be in something of a dilemma. But he goes and tells Andrew his difficulty. Andrew had no difficulty at all, for we read that at once he and Philip go and tell Jesus. We gather that Andrew had some idea of the overflowing grace in Christ Jesus. That grace could and would reach outside and beyond the bounds of the Jewish nation and take in the Greeks.

Though it is true we do not hear much about Andrew, what we do hear is very lovely. This seems to have been a special line of work with him. The next time we see him is in John 6:8, and there he is bringing "a lad" to the Lord Jesus. Again we find him at the same work in John 12:22, where he is bringing the Greeks to Jesus. Happy work! May the Lord teach every one of us to bring others, one by one, to Himself.

Philip, cautious as his people were in such matters, brings another man in with himself to approach his Master. And Andrew takes the lead in telling the Lord what they wanted.

It seemed a strange event. Yet a natural connection gave the occasion to pass it on to Jesus. Philip tells Andrew. He too, with Peter, was from Bethsaida; and they tell Jesus, gaining strength in this way.

The Greeks had come to worship at Jerusalem, but they were strangers to the covenants of promise. It took an entirely new order of things to bring them in. They had no right to the promises; Jesus must die to lay the foundation for this new order.

The Greeks did not approach Jesus directly. They came through Philip and Andrew. In the same way, when He comes in His glory as the King of Israel, the nations will realise that God has blessed His people. They will go up to worship at Jerusalem. Then His house will truly be a house of prayer for all nations.