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Author: Stephen Weller
704 words, 4 minutes read time

The Hour Has Come

Scripture: John 12:20-23

We ended the previous lesson and section indicating the great value of Jesus sacrificing his life for us. With this lesson we begin a longer section in which we consider how Jesus will be glorified through his death.

J^{n 12:20} Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. ²¹ So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²² Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

“Greeks” refers to Gentiles, and not necessarily from Greece. These would be people who embrace God and have come to Jerusalem to worship during this Jewish festival. They know Jesus and the disciples well enough to be able to identify Philip who was from Bethsaida; Bethsaida in Galilee is considered one of the Greek cities of Decapolis. Many commentators refer to Philip’s Greek name as an attraction to him on the part of these Greeks. It is possible that these Greeks lived in the area of Bethsaida and knew Philip. In any respect, there was something they knew about Philip that caused these Greeks to seek him out and make a request for help in seeing Jesus.

Since these Greeks had many opportunities to see Jesus, this request then suggest that they wanted to talk with Jesus. At this time this could be seen as a somewhat tense moment because Philip may have understood how the crowd might perceive a conversation between Jesus and a Greek proselyte during this time of turbulence in Jerusalem. Because of this Philip goes to Andrew, who was the earliest of the disciples, and explains the request to him for advice. They go to Jesus and explain to him the request made by the Greeks.

^{Jn 12:23} And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

We are not told whether the Greeks went with Philip to Andrew and then with them to see Jesus. It seems safe to assume they did and would then be there when Jesus answered the request made to see him. Jesus does not ask the Greeks what they wanted to see him about, but instead said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

The “hour” being referred to here is the time of his crucifixion and saying that it “has come” means that the events that led up to it have begun. It is the hour in which his saving work is accomplished in his atoning death. There have been times in the past when his enemies tried to capture him to kill him, but he always managed to escape. Now the hour has come when he will surrender himself into their hands so as to complete the work he came to do.

Identifying himself as the “Son of Man” denotes his union with man. This title is used instead of “Son of God” because as a man he had been humble, poor and despised, but the time has come when, as a man, he was to receive the appropriate honors of the Messiah.

We will continue with his response in the next lesson.

Conclusion

The hour has come when the enemies of Jesus will finally arrest him and nail him to the cross, but in the process the death of Jesus will purchase our salvation and through his resurrection he will be glorified as the Messiah. Even though the hour has come, there is still much to cover.