Our text opens this morning with Philip, a disciple of Jesus, being recognized by someone from his home town. He hadn't counted on that. He thought that he could move around Jerusalem incognito at the time of the Passover, for the city was filled literally with tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world who had come to the Holy City on this most holy of seasons.
Andrew is with him. Andrew is also from Bethsaida. They expected to pass anonymously in this crowded city, because Bethsaida is a long way from Jerusalem, way up in the north. It is on the northern most side of the Sea of Galilee.
Bethsaida was thought to be a city with a large ethnic Greek population. In fact, Philip and Andrew are Greek names. Of course, they are practicing Jews, but part of a large Greek ethnic population that settled in that part of Palestine. Jesus went to those people, particularly at Caesarea Philippi (you remember that name, a Greek city, only a few miles from Bethsaida), because Jesus wanted to make sure that the Gentiles were included in the Kingdom, and recipients of God's grace.
It would make sense that somebody from their home town would recognize them, so John begins our text for this morning with these words.
Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."
Then the text says that Philip went to see Andrew, and then they went to see Jesus. But that is all that it says, and that is not enough, so I will tell you want really happened.
These two Greeks from Bethsaida spotted Philip. They pulled him into a doorway, looked around to see if anybody was looking, and said, "Take us to Jesus."
That is when Philip went to Andrew, who was probably buying supplies for the band of disciples, and asked, "What shall we do? Can we trust them? Are they police?" You see, Jesus is in hiding now. This scene comes in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of John. The eleventh chapter is the pivotal chapter in the Gospel of John. There are twenty-one chapters in John, so the eleventh chapter comes right in the middle. In the first ten chapters Jesus is teaching. The eleventh chapter is devoted to the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Then from the twelfth chapter he is in Jerusalem preparing for the cross. So, the eleventh chapter tells the story of the raising of Lazarus, the most important miracle that he performed. In the Gospel of John, the miracles are called "signs," because they reveal who He is and what He means to us.
In the Lazarus story, Jesus is in Bethany, at the home of Mary and Martha. Lazarus is Mary and Martha's brother. Mary and Martha are supporters of the cause. They are dear friends of Jesus. Whenever Jesus is in the neighborhood he always stays with Mary and Martha.
He told Martha at the raising of her brother from the dead, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."
When he brought Lazarus out of the cave, a crowd gathered to watch. Just before he came out, Jesus turned to Martha and said, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?"
That could mean only one thing. With the raising of Lazarus, the Kingdom was about to break into the world. The power that represents the Kingdom, the power of new life, the power of creation, was about to break in.
There were secret police in that crowd at Bethany. They saw everything. They heard what Jesus said. They went immediately back to Jerusalem to tell Caiaphas, the high priest. They told him everything, what they had seen, what they had heard.
As high priest, Caiaphas was a government official in a city crowded with religious pilgrims, hoping that this is the year that the Messiah will come. They came expecting this will be the year the Messiah will finally come. Among the pilgrims there are revolutionaries, anarchists, and "sicarii," which means "the daggers." They were revolutionaries, planning to overthrow the government. They hoped that something would happen with the crowd that they can exploit to create a mob that would throw the Roman oppressors out.
So for a person who is responsible for governing in a volatile situation as Jerusalem was at the Passover, the news about what happened in Bethany is like learning that a fuse has been lit, and there is only a short time before there is an explosion, only as long as it takes for the news to travel from Bethany to Jerusalem, before Rome comes down hard, maybe even destroying the city. So Caiaphas, the high priest, said this. "It is expedient for one man to die to save the people." Later the Christians would look back on those words, remember them, and say Caiaphas knew only the half of it. For God works beneath, through and behind the decisions that we make, even the evil decisions that we make. God is at work to accomplish God's salvation. So John writes that Caiaphas, without knowing it, is prophesying the meaning of the cross when he says, "It is expedient for one man to die so that all can be saved." But that is faith, looking back from the perspective of history. At the time Caiaphas said it, it meant only one thing. They were going to hunt down Jesus and arrest him.
So the eleventh chapter concludes with these ominous words: "So from that day on they took counsel as to how to put him to death. Therefore Jesus no longer went about openly, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town named Ephraim; and there he stayed with the disciples."
Which brings us to the twelfth chapter, and to our text. He is in hiding now. We know where he is, he is at Ephraim. But nobody else knows where he is. For some reason Philip and Andrew decide they will go into the city, into Jerusalem. It is just their luck that someone, other Greeks from their home town, recognize Philip. They have heard what happened at Bethany. The verses just before our text relate that the word has now reached Jerusalem about the raising of Lazarus.
This man says to Philip, "We want to see Jesus." Philip is suspicious. He says to them, "Wait here." He goes to find Andrew. "What shall we do? Are they working for the police? Will they reveal the hiding place? Are they interested only in the reward? What do we do?"
They decide to take no chances. They go to tell Jesus. Jesus says, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified."
It is just amazing. It reveals that he is not really in hiding. He is not running away from the future. He is making plans to seize the future. He is declaring that what is about to happen to him is not the end of his mission, but the fulfillment of his mission.
Evidently it was the Greeks asking that question that prompted him to say, "Now is the time..." When they said, "We wish to see Jesus," that was the opportunity to explain what the cross is for. He said this is what the cross will mean, "When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself."
The Greek question was, "How can we know Jesus?" It is the question that everyone after that time will ask. All of us who were not there in Palestine 2,000 years ago are going to ask that question, "How can we know Jesus?" How can we receive the power that was demonstrated in the raising of Lazarus, the power to bring new life into our lives? How can we experience new life if we were not there with Jesus?
The answer is, you can know him from the cross. "When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself."
He is not hiding from the cross out there in Ephraim. He is getting ready, preparing himself, to take up a cross, to demonstrate in his death, and in his resurrection, what he had preached all of his life. It is there on the cross. You are forgiven. Be reconciled to God. God loves you as a son or a daughter. It is there on the cross. "God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."
He is preparing himself to bring his mission to a close. What a closure. What a climax to his mission. This is really a most fascinating scene when you compare it with the other gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the preparation for the cross takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. If it be your will, let this cup pass from me." That is what happens in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is a soul-wrenching time of agony and doubt.
It is not that way in John. In John there is no Garden of Gethsemane agony. There is a Garden of Gethsemane, but it is a brief little scene where he is arrested. The purpose of the Garden of Gethsemane in John is to provide the opportunity for Jesus to be arrested. It is almost as if here, when he is in Ephraim, he is refuting the versions of his prayer in the Garden that said, "Let this cup pass from me." Here he says, "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour'?" It is a rhetorical question. He answers, "No, for this I have come to this hour."
He sees the cross not as a tragedy, but as a plan that is greater than our plan, and greater than Pilate's plan or Caiaphas' plan, both of whom had good reason to see him crucified. But neither of their plans worked, because their plans were against God's plan. Oh the crucifixion took place, we know that. But it didn't turn out according to plan. Not to their plan.
Their plan was to make life easier for themselves. God's plan was to bring new life to everyone. Their plan was to get rid of a trouble maker. God's plan was to give the world a savior. So God took the plans of politicians and used them for the plan of salvation. It's amazing.
"Don't think that anything is done with, until God is done with it." This principle was formulated a long time before Jesus, a thousand years before Jesus. It is throughout the Bible, and is manifested in a glorious way on the cross. But it was manifested as early as a thousand years before Jesus in the story of Joseph.
Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. They hate him, so they get rid of him. He applies himself in Egypt, rises to be prime minister. With a diligent administration he manages to store enough food for seven years, so when the famine comes to the world, only Egypt has the food. Now Joseph's brothers come to him asking for refuge from the famine. They don't recognize their brother. Joseph recognizes them. He says to them, "I am Joseph, your brother." They fall on their knees, ask for forgiveness for what they have done. He says to them, "Get up, it's all right. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."
"Don't think that anything is done with, until God is done with it."
It's the message of the cross. What's so amazing about this passage is that when Jesus says, "When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself," the implication is that it is not necessary to do anything except lift up the cross. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to explain anything. You don't have to have all those theories about what the cross means. Those are called the theories of the "atonement." There are several of them. I am reluctant to say what I am about to say because of the mail I think I am going to get on this, particularly the e-mail.
You know the sermons are now on the web site of the church, and they are listed there by title. David Clements has done this. It is a wonderful gift to the church. Some time ago I preached a sermon on the Trinity. I thought I was clever in entitling that sermon, "I Don't Understand The Trinity." That title was put on the web site, and I have received mail from all over the world now with people telling me what the Trinity means. If they had read the sermon, and not just the title, they would have learned that I really do understand what the Trinity means. I know the doctrine of the Trinity. But I was suggesting that the doctrine conceals much more than it reveals, because God cannot be captured in a doctrine. There is a depth to God that will never be comprehended by us. We call that "mystery." It is why we can better approach God through the non-rational, rather than through the rational, through worship, rather than doctrine. God is not something you understand. We will never understand God. God is not something you grasp. God is someone who grasps you.
It is the same with the cross. There are these doctrines, these theories, about what happened on the cross. To put all the "surfers" on the Internet at ease, I know all of those doctrines, and I understand them all. But none of them satisfy. None of them come close. They all raise more questions than they can answer, because once again it is God who is at work here on the cross. That means, we will never fully understand it, but we will come close, if we see it. If we could just see it. "When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself." If we could just see that there is a man on that cross, the Son of God, who is there so you would have life.
In the presence of that cross, we don't say, "According to the theologians..." In the presence of the cross, the real cross, with a man on it, you can't say anything, anything that comes close to what people have felt for 2,000 years in looking at the man on the cross.
The artists are the best expositors of the cross for that reason. I especially like the medieval artists. They all show Jesus on the cross in the center of the painting.
Mary Magdalene is there. Why is Mary Magdalene there? Well, he literally saved her, forgave her, saved her from those who would stone her.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is there. She is there because she is the model of faith. From the very beginning she said she would believe, even though she could not see or understand, she would believe. "Let it be to me according to your word." She also has suffered with him. She has followed him with her cross. Simeon told her, "A sword will pierce your soul also." Mary is there at the cross.
John, the beloved disciple, is there. Jesus tells John to take care of his mother. In the Gospel of John, John represents the Church. In the other gospels it is Peter. In John, it is John who heads the Church. So Mary belongs to the Church as the model of faith.
There is one more person there, John the Baptist. His old crooked finger pointing at Jesus. Often all he does is point, doesn't say a word. In some paintings they have painted in the words, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."
That is all that is said. That is all that can be said. That is all that needs to be said.
