Greeks Seek Jesus: A Prophetic Encounter

A group of Greeks visited Jesus shortly before his crucifixion. Jesus reacted unusually: “Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus.’Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’”  John 12:20-23.

Jesus spoke to the crowd of being glorified instead of speaking to the Greek visitors.  ‘Glorified’ means He was to suffer, die, rise again, and ascend into Heaven (John 2, 7, 8, 30). Why did the Greeks trigger this response from Jesus?

The appearance of the Greeks fulfilled a statement that Jesus made during the cleansing of the second temple: “And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Mark 11:17.  ‘

It also fulfilled a prophecy made more than 600 years before Jesus was born:  “And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.” Isaiah 56: 6-7.

Foreigners coming to Jesus was the last step in God’s plan.

Nothing stood between Jesus and the cross now.