In the twelfth chapter of his gospel, the apostle John records an incident when pious Greeks came to Philip. It was the time of the Passover and they asked to see Jesus. The verb ‘to see’, as given in the text, can mean to see with the eyes, but I do not think that these Greeks were merely tourists. The verb can also mean to ‘know, perceive, understand’. This makes better sense, considering Jesus’ own response to the request. He spoke so that those Greeks, and others at the feast, would understand him and his mission.
First, our Lord responded by speaking of the necessity that a grain of wheat should die before it may germinate to produce more grain. We will ‘see’ that this is a reference to his own impending death for the life of his people. From verse 27, Jesus spoke of the death that he would die in glorifying the Father and himself. When he was lifted up (a euphemism for crucifixion), he would draw all to himself (v.32). Yet this is not all that Jesus told the Greeks.
In vs.25 & 26, the Lord Jesus said that the one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for ever. This is not an encouragement to suicide. The point is about one’s attitude to life in this world. The word ‘world’ has two basic uses in the New Testament. It can simply mean the place where humans live, or the humans who live on the Earth. John 3:16 uses ‘world’ in this sense. But the word ‘world’ is sometimes used to mean that place of enmity against God. 1 John 5:19 say, in part, that ‘the whole world resides in [or with] the evil one.’ It seems to me that our Lord Jesus is urging people to abandon their place of acceptance with that rebellious world and to follow him instead. To hate the life that they have lived as God’s enemies and to embrace the life of an outcast. Later Jesus will say, ‘If the world hates you, know that it hated me first’ (John 15:8). The one who follows Christ, we are promised, will be where he is, and the Father will honour such as follow the Son. This implies the need for the new birth (John 3:7) as it is a radical change of mind and character that is described here.
So, the Greeks wanted to understand Jesus. His reply was that in order to understand him, they must come to terms with the necessity of his death in their place. We are no different. Our guilty enmity against God requires our death forever. If we are ever to hate our lives in the world, we need Christ to die as our sin bearer. On the basis of Jesus’ atoning death, sinners are born again into newness of life by the Holy Spirit. There is no longer any condemnation for those who trust Jesus. In the place of eternal death, Christ provides eternal life. Hebrews 2:9* says, ‘But we see Jesus, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that he might by God’s grace taste death for all.’
Do you see Jesus?
Note*: In Hebrews 2:9, the verb is ‘blepo’ not ‘eido’, but it has similar uses: to see, perceive, understand.
Don't take it from me 