We Wish to See Jesus
We Wish to See Jesus by Rev. L. John Gable
March 2, 2022
I trust you are familiar with the concept of six degrees of separation, the idea that any one of us could name any person, famous or not, anywhere in the world, and a connection could be made to them within six points of personal contact? We tested that theory one morning in a Sunday School class I was teaching a number of years ago. I asked for a name and someone shouted out “Bill Gates”, and with that a man raised his hand and said, “My son had lunch with him last week!” So what is that three degrees of separation- us to this man, this man to his son, his son to Bill Gates? You get the idea.
Something like that is going on in our Gospel lesson this morning. John tells us it is the time of the Jewish celebration of Passover and Jerusalem is full of worshipers and festival attenders. Jesus is there with His disciples as are a gathering of Greeks. Even though this is a Jewish festival it was not uncommon for God-fearing Gentiles to be in attendance; in fact Judaism had become very attractive to many non-Jewish adherents as it offered a monotheistic understanding of God in contrast to their polytheism and a strict order of laws and dietary practices in contrast to lax standards of the Greco-Roman world. The one problem, however, was that these Greek worshipers, while practicing Judaism were not converts, which meant they could not enter the Temple in Jerusalem or participate fully in the worship there. Recall there was on the Temple Mount a Courtyard for the Gentiles as well as a Courtyard for the Women, and a fence with this warning, “No man of another race is to enter within this fence and enclosure around the temple.” In other words, “You are welcome here, but not really.”
So when these Greek worshipers heard that Jesus was in town they saw Him as perhaps their ticket to get in. But still there was the problem of how were they going to get to Jesus? John has already told us that the crowds around Him were massive and growing by the day, particularly when the word got out that He had Lazarus with Him, the one He had raised from the dead.
Enter the concept of six degrees of separation. If you don’t know Jesus yourself, the next best thing is to find someone who does know Him, or someone who knows someone who knows Him.
So these Greek worshipers approach the disciple Philip saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”. (I have seen that phrase taped to the inside of pulpits. That is our desire when we come to worship, isn’t it? We wish to see Jesus.) Why, Philip? Perhaps because he had a very Greek name, recall Alexander the Great’s father’s name was Philip the Second of Macedonia. I appears Philip was uncertain as to how to handle the request so he goes to Andrew and without hesitation Andrew says, “Absolutely!” Recall, Andrew was the one who brought the little boy to Jesus, the one who had his lunch with him of five loaves of bread and two fish, just enough to feed 5000 people, with a little miracle help from Jesus. So here again Andrew is making the connection, bringing people to Jesus. They said they wanted to meet Him and he answered, “I’ll do what I can to help.” We all need to be “Andrews” or “Andreas”, “Philips” or “Phyllises” today.
In a myriad of ways people all around us are still asking, “We wish to see Jesus” and that number I believe is increasing with each passing generation. Recent surveys have shown that the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population when asked about their religious preferences and practices mark “none.” Between the year 2000 and the year 2019 one Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll cites these statistics: Americans attending religious services weekly fell from 41% to 29%; Americans who never attend religious services grew from 14% to 26%; and Americans 18-34 who never attend religious services grew from 14% to 36%. The statistics are sobering and the rate change is staggering and I believe the past two years of pandemic has only added an accelerant to it. I share the concern many have for the future of the church, or at least the church as we have known it, lower case “c”; but I am not concerned at all about the Church, capital “C”. I am fully confident that God is still in control and that even this alarming demographic shift will not threaten the work of the Kingdom of God, so we need not lose hope; but it does invite us to look at our surroundings in a new way and begs us to ask some questions we have perhaps never thought to ask before.
For generations many have thought of America as being a “Christian” nation. I won’t argue that point, but most of us have grown up with the assumption that most of the folks around us are Christians and have some relationship with a church, active or not. That is clearly no longer a safe assumption for us to make. So we can either see this as a great demise or as a great opportunity. Like the two shoe salesmen who were sent to a remote region of Africa. One wired back, “No prospects here, they don’t wear shoes.” The other wired, “Send me a shipment ASAP, they don’t wear shoes.”
Given that every man, woman and child has an innate need for God, realized or not, as Pascal put it “a God-shaped void” within them which only God can fill. I believe that means we are surrounded by so many who are asking the question the Greeks asked of Philip and Andrew, “We wish to see Jesus”, which means we are being presented with a marvelous opportunity to share the Good News with a generation of folks who want and need to hear it.
I believe there is a growing number of people, who we know well, who are asking themselves, “Who do I know who knows Jesus?” A number of years ago I was visiting with a friend named Ed who told me of an experience he had had at work that week. Some of his colleagues got in to a discussion about some aspect of faith and they wondered what a Christian might have to say about it, so they looked around the office to see if any of their co-workers might be a Christian, and they approached Ed. He was rather embarrassed as he told me the story, but I was thrilled. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if when our neighbors and friends and co-workers wondered about what it means to be a Christian they thought of one of us? Jesus’ words are as applicable today as they were long ago, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” People who still today wish to see Jesus are looking for people who know Him and love Him and follow Him by living lifestyles which reflect His values with integrity and genuineness and love. It is a sobering truth that you and I may be the closest some people will ever get to seeing what a real Christian looks like. They will evaluate the Lord we worship and serve by the way we live our lives. Friends, we have been given a great opportunity, so let us ready ourselves and “seize the day”.
When those inquirer’s asked to see Jesus John doesn’t tell us whether their request was honored or not, that wasn’t his point in telling the story; rather he records that Jesus launches in to a rather lengthy soliloquy which gives them, and us today, an even better insight in to who He was than a meet and greet with Him ever would have given.
As we’ve heard elsewhere, Jesus begins talking about His pending death, which at this point in the Gospel is imminent. He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He then explains the benefit and necessity of His death using the analogy of a grain of wheat which must die to itself in order to produce a harvest. Of course, Jesus was talking about His own suffering and death which would secure the way of our salvation, but He was also talking about the cost of discipleship for those who would be His followers. We too are called to “lay down our lives and take up our cross”, to humble ourselves in service, to give of ourselves sacrificially, to surrender pride and privilege for the sake of others, and to demonstrate the “upside down” values of the Kingdom of God in which the “first become last and the last first”. In these ways we point to Jesus.
Continuing on, Jesus says,“Those who love their life will lose it and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Rather a harsh teaching to be sure and no doubt Jesus was using hyperbole, but His point must be well-taken. Dale Bruner translates this passage, “If one hates. (or we might say rejects), the way life is lived in this world (fallen, messed up, other-hurting, self-seeking, unjust and rebellious) then one will, by living counter-culturally, preserve one’s life in to a deep and everlasting life.” As much as we may enjoy the benefits of this temporal life we would be fools to become so invested here that we abandon the riches of the Kingdom of God yet to come. As Jim Eliot so aptly put it, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”
Did those Greeks ever get to meet Him? We don’t know, but they sure got a good insight in to who He is and how He calls His followers to live.
There is one final aspect to this teaching that I’d like for us to explore for a moment. Rather than identifying with Philip and Andrew in this story, as the recipients of the request as we most typically do, what if we identified with the Greeks who came asking? What if we were the inquirers in this story, then or now, asking “We wish to see Jesus”, who would we look to, what would we do?
I believe all of us need to surround ourselves with role models and mentors in the faith whether we are new or long in our journey of faith. We need to continually look to and for those who walk closely with Jesus and then follow them. I have been blessed throughout my life to have those kinds of mentors and role models in my family and friendships, in the churches I’ve served, very much including you. You should know, when I describe you to others I often say, “I am inspired by the people with whom I get to serve” and I mean that sincerely.
So who do you look to and in what ways do you seek to “see” Jesus?
Jesus gives an answer to that question here that is timeless when He says, “Whoever serves Me must follow Me, and where I am, there will My servant be also. Whoever serves Me, the Father will honor.” Where can we go and what can we do when we want to “see” Jesus? Of course we immediately think of worship and prayer, but here Jesus calls us to the service of others in His name. Recall His teaching in Matthew 25 when the disciples asked, “Lord when did we see you, hungry, naked or imprisoned?” and He answered, “When you did it to the least of these My brothers and sisters you did it unto Me.” We see Jesus in our service to others. Mother Teresa captures the essence of this beautifully when she ways, “I see Jesus in the faces of the poor”, which means every one of us is surrounded by Jesus in disguise, poor materially and the poor spiritually.
The opportunity for us to see and to show Jesus to an inquiring world is all around us. Let us be known as a people who know Jesus and who introduce others to Him, and as we do that the six degrees of separation gets narrowed down to two: they come to us and we introduce them to Him, and in order to do that we must know Him first and then live lives which reflect His presence. Amen.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN