We want to see Jesus
John 12:20-33 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Festival. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” 22Philip went to tell Andrew. Andrew came with Philip and told Jesus.
23Jesus answered them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain. 25Anyone who loves his life destroys it. And the one who hates his life in this world will hold on to it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
27“Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!”
A voice came from heaven: “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.”
29The crowd standing there heard it and said it thundered. Others said an angel talked to him. 30Jesus answered, “This voice was not for my sake but for yours.
31“Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate what kind of death he was going to die.
The Lord promises, “Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). Amen.
Last week, four Shoreland seniors – Abigail, Belle, Kaliska, and Tayven – their orchestra teacher, Ms. Lawson, Shelley, and I were on a mission trip to Hood River and The Dalles, Oregon.
The week before we arrived, Pastor Lawson and members of Concordia and Bethany Lutheran Churches placed flyers on one thousand homes to let them know we would be coming on certain dates to collect food for the local food pantry.
We divided into teams of two to knock on doors. After we introduced ourselves, we told people we were from the church collecting food. Then we asked, “What advice would you give a church who is trying to reach out into the neighborhood.” We received lots of great responses. Most people said, “This! What you’re doing right here in collecting food.” Others said, “People are lonely so more community involvement would be great.” “Host events for the community in a park or at the church.”
We asked people a follow-up question. “What do you think people want to see and hear in a church?” One lady answered that question, “I want Jesus to be like me. A Jesus who smokes weed.” (We were near Portland, after all.)
What this lady said was no different from how most people view God or talk about Jesus. Instead of worshiping the Creator, they create their own kind of god. Instead of believing in Jesus as their Savior from sin, they create a make-believe Jesus who is accepting of sin.
Non-Christians do this all the time. Sadly, even we Christians do this, too. We can learn a lesson today from the Greeks who approached Philip saying, “We want to see Jesus” (John 12:21). Then Jesus tells the crowd about the kind of death he was going to die (John 12:33). This is important because we want to see the real Jesus, not our made-up versions of him.
Jerusalem was packed with out-of-towners for the Passover Festival. Jesus had just entered the city on a donkey and was greeted as a triumphant king to the shouts of “Hosanna.” Then he had gone into the temple to worship, but discovered the chaos caused by all the sacrificial animals
being sold and the money being exchanged in the temple courtyard area, so he chased away the animals and overturned the moneychangers’ tables.
Some Greeks, either Jews who lived in Greece or Greek converts to Judaism, were in town for the Passover celebration. They had heard about this Jesus who performed miracles and taught with authority, and they wanted to meet him. And now, after everything that happened on that Palm Sunday, they really wanted to meet him. So, these Greeks find the disciple with the Greek name, Philip, and request, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” Philip isn’t sure what to do, so he goes to Andrew, and the two of them go to Jesus.
Jesus gives what at first appears to be a strange answer. He doesn’t say anything about setting up an appointment. Instead, he says, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). In other words, Jesus tells them that the time has come for him to be lifted upon the cross, just as Moses had lifted up a bronze serpent in the wilderness. This will be the hour of Jesus’ greatest glory. For Jesus did not come into the world to be the object of attention, a handshaking politician, or a smiling celebrity. He came to be the Savior who will bear our sins in his body, dying to give us life.
It is this Jesus we need to see. It was this Jesus that the Greeks came hundreds of miles to see. They left their homes to travel to the temple in Jerusalem to offer up their sacrificial animals at the Passover.
Another lady we met during our canvassing said that churches should be less confrontational and more like Jesus. He was never judgmental.
This is a common refrain from unbelievers. They’ll say that Jesus hung out with prostitutes and drunkards. He didn’t judge people. Those who make these claims conveniently ignore that Jesus met a woman caught in adultery. Then he told her, “Leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). He met tax collectors and sinners. But then he told them, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus didn’t “hang out” with drunkards and prostitutes. He ministered to them. Afterwards, by God’s grace, they weren’t prostitutes and drunkards anymore. Jesus came to transform people, not indulge them.
Jesus did not come to be accepting, be our buddy, or smoke weed. He came to call us to repentance. To bring us out of our life of sin. To suffer and die to pay the price for our sin. So that we might believe and be saved.
Even as Christians we fall into the trap of creating our own gods by loving the wrong things and denying the right things. We adore the wrong things and defile the right things. We love sex and defile the marriage bed. We love a pleasurable life and deny life to children. We love a fun time and avoid our vocational responsibilities. We love money but not our neighbor. We hide in the shadows and love the darkness. We reject rebuke and covet flattery. We justify our sin and refuse our Savior. Because of our sinful nature, we don’t want to see Jesus. He’s going to ruin all the fun our inborn nature wants to have.
By God’s grace, Jesus sought us out when we were not seeking him. The Holy Spirit has called us to faith so we can be like these Greeks who now do want to see Jesus. But it is a dangerous thing to find Jesus, to follow Jesus.
Jesus used a farming illustration to teach us, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24). The kernel of wheat is going to die and be buried. There is a harvest that’s coming. That harvest begins with Jesus. He is the firstfruits of the great harvest from the dead. Jesus must die and then
rise again. As Christians, those who believe and follow Jesus, we must die with Jesus to then rise at the great harvest.
Jesus continues, “Anyone who loves his life destroys it. And the one who hates his life in this world will hold on to it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. (John 12:25. 26).
When we are creating false gods of our own making, when we are loving the wrong things, when we are denying ourselves the right things, we lose the eternal things. Therefore, we must lose the wrong things, surrender our sins, give up the gods of our imagination, repent, and then receive eternal life.
This eternal life is a gift. This gift is free to those who believe, but it is not free from cost. Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). When Jesus rode into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday morning, he rode in as the Lamb of God. While those in Jerusalem were selecting their lambs for the Passover celebration on Thursday, Jesus would be laying down his life on the altar of the cross during the Passover. He was sacrificing himself for the sins of the world.
This is the real Jesus. He isn’t accepting of our sins. He’s suffering for our sins. He doesn’t hang out with prostitutes, tax collectors, and drunkards. He dies for these sinners. He doesn’t allow us to mold him into the kind of god we want. He enters the gates of Jerusalem on Sunday so he can die outside the city gates on Friday and then rise again on Sunday to be the God-Man we need.
The gift of eternal life is free to all who believe in the real Jesus. But we and everyone else need to know that this gift was not free for Jesus. The gift is covered in blood – the divinely human blood of the God-Man – Jesus the Son of God the Father and the Son of Mary. This bloody gift gives eternal life to all who accept the real Jesus and believe in him as the Savior from their sin. Those who accept this eternal life then accept living this life for Jesus.
A life of living for Jesus means a life of repentance. That means loving the right things and hating the wrong things. There is such a thing as godly hate – hate for sin and death and the devil. Hate the things that lead you away from Christ, outside of his Church, and far from his voice. Hate your sin and repent. Sin separates, hurts, and harms us and our neighbors, and it grieves the Holy Spirit. Sin leads to death and eternal death if un-repented. So, love the right things and hate the wrong things. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.
Jesus admitted, “Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27, 28)! Of course, Jesus’ heart is troubled. He knows the kind of death he was going to die (John 12:33). He also knew he would be glorifying his heavenly Father through this humiliating death. God the Father answered from heaven, “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again” (John 12:28).
Jesus then said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). The Romans weren’t the only people who used crucifixion as a punishment, but they perfected it. The Roman writer Cicero called it the most cruel and hideous of all tortures. Sometimes bodies would be left hanging on crosses for days so that everyone could see them rot. The Romans used crucifixion to force social conformity. The public display was meant to send a message: commit a crime, and the same thing could happen to you.
Jesus was no criminal and had done nothing wrong. But he was crucified publicly for everyone to see. There was no doubt that he was lifted up, nailed by his hands and his feet to a cross. There was no doubt that he died while hanging on a cross.
Jesus knew that was the kind of death he was going to die. But he didn’t mind it being public. In fact, he wanted everyone to know about it because his death was for everyone. Jesus took the punishment of death and hell for all people, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life.
Jesus draws all people to himself through faith without regard for nationality, ethnic affiliation, status, age, or gender. No matter what has happened in your life, no matter how good or bad it’s been, Jesus draws you to him. Jesus draws you to him whether you’ve been in the church your whole life or started coming today because someone recently invited you.
The Romans meant death on the cross to be shameful. But there’s no need for you to feel ashamed of Jesus Christ. He was lifted up so that you would be drawn to him as your Savior.
This is the real Jesus. By God’s grace, we want to keep on seeing this real Jesus. Amen.
The Lord promises, “You are precious and honored in my eyes, and I myself love you” (Isaiah 43:4). Amen.