Here we are in the fifth Sunday in Lent, nearing the end of Jesus’ ministry time on earth, and this week once again, John introduces us to yet another enigmatic scripture, an encounter involving Jesus and a group of Greeks who were coming to the Passover Festival in Jerusalem and who requested a “colloquium” with Jesus.

Through Philip, they request an assembly with the Messiah. Philip tells Andrew, and together they inform Jesus of the Greeks’ request.

We know that we have some “blind spots” when we read the scriptures. They were written in a time period and within a context in which the writers assume that listeners, and later readers, will naturally understand some inferences, cultural norms, understandings of philosophy of the day, and Jewish theology. Those assumptions mean that the writ…