Before we turn from the Person of the cross, to the people of the cross, we need to make a Biblical transition.  We need to gradually shift our attention from Him to them.  But before we go with Christ and His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane where His passion begins in earnest, we must go back a few hours to the Upper Room and the events leading up to Christ’s last Passover celebration.

Often in a movie or theater production, there will be a brief flash-back to an earlier event. This little theatrical vignette is designed to help the audience more fully understand the dynamics of the moment at hand. This brief replay of an earlier scene helps the viewer fill in the blanks. They provide missing pieces of the puzzle that help the viewer see the bigger picture. So before we meet Christ in the Garden, we must briefly look at a pivotal event that took place before the Upper Room and His last Passover meal with His disciples.

Even though the primary actors in this divine-human drama are the Jews and Romans, we have a brief cameo appearance by some Greeks. Their brief debut is only recorded in John’s Gospel – so you just have one chance to catch it. You will miss the significance of their brief encounter with Jesus unless you hit the pause button in your mind. To understand the full significance, you will need to rewind the film to an earlier scene. It is a very crucial event that takes place earlier in the Passover Week. We almost need to slow down the film and view it frame by frame to catch the importance of this brief encounter between Jesus and some Greeks. It is often overlooked by most readers. So carefully note this brief cameo of the Greeks on the stage of the Passion of the Christ.

“Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip…with a request. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus.’  Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.”

Now follow carefully Christ’s response to this request by the Greeks – because it clearly reveals the principle of the cross. At first glance, it seems to be insensitive to their desire “…to see Jesus.”  And it almost seems to be out of context with what Jesus says in response to their request.

“Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the grown and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me…’”

Do you understand what Jesus is saying? Do you see something of the spiritual significance of this response as Jesus stands in the growing shadow of the cross? You see, here was a very plausible way for Jesus to postpone the cross – or by-pass it altogether. This was an enticing invitation for Jesus to escape Jerusalem and go minister to the Greeks. If there was ever a time for Him to leave Palestine, it was now! The tide of popular opinion had increasingly turned against Him. The hostility of the Jewish leaders had intensified. Some of His own disciples were confused and bewildered. And the Romans were getting more and more concerned with this growing conflict that He was the center of.

Earlier Jesus had prophesied that He would soon leave this life and go back to His Heavenly Father. This only added to the confusion. “I am with you for only a short time,” Jesus said, “and then I go to the One who sent Me. You will look for me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

The Jews standing around listening to this statement did not understand what Jesus meant. “Where does this man intend to go,” they said, “that we cannot find Him? Will He go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? (John 7:33-35).

You see, the Passion of the Christ would not have taken place if Jesus would have responded to the request of the Greeks at this time. If He would have responded and gone to minister to them – Christianity would have become just another part of Greek Philosophy. As a result, Jesus would have been numbered along with the many other famous Greek Philosophers. History would record Socrates, Plato, Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristotle, Zeno – and Jesus!  One thing for sure, while the world would have revered and respected “Jesus the Philosopher” – they would not have had “Jesus the Christ,” the Messiah and Savior of the world!

So humanly speaking, this must have been an appealing invitation for Jesus. He was a consummate teacher – and the Greeks loved to listen to good teachers. After all, they too had come to Jerusalem “…to worship at the Feast.”  So these Greeks were seeking for truth. They were hungry for authentic worship. They had apparently sensed something in the Jewish Feast of Passover that they had not found in any of their Greek Philosophers. Perhaps this Jesus they had heard about was that missing key to knowing God. Perhaps He was indeed the incarnation of the pinnacle of divine wisdom that Greek philosophy longed for – but never could find. Perhaps it was this Jesus who would lift them above the limitations of human reasoning to the very mind of God!

Therefore, if Jesus would have followed the Greeks, no doubt He would have quickly gathered a great following in Greece. He would have quickly become one of their greatest teachers and philosophers of all time!  Since He was so young, He would have had decades to teach them and build a reputation as a consummate philosopher.  Perhaps He would have even restored or surpassed the glory of the Classical Years of Greek Philosophy. So to go with the Greeks would mean that He would not have to go to the cross.  He could take the path of reason rather than the path of passion. There would be no more conflict with the Jews. No arrest. No trial. No suffering. No cross. No death. But there would also be no redemption!  There would be no fulfillment of prophecy. There would be no hope. There would be no salvation for a lost and dying world.

So in the face of this choice, Jesus clearly affirmed that “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  And that glorification would come only through His passion – not through His preaching.  He would not just give the world a higher wisdom – He would give His very life. 
The way of glorification would not be through propositions but through passion. He would be glorified through the cross – not through teaching and philosophy. So in the face of this invitation by the Greeks, Jesus compared His physical life to that of a “kernel of wheat” that had to “…fall into the ground and die.”

Earlier in His earthly ministry Jesus had clearly articulated this crucifixion principle to His disciples when He said: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).  Later the Apostle Paul would summarize this same principle of the cross in his immortal words of personal testimony: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  Truly he lived the crucified life to the degree that he could say: “I die daily” (I Corinthians 15:31).  Like his Master, the Apostle Paul lived a sacrificial life based on a constant dying to self.

In the face of the coming of the Greeks then, Jesus made another firm resolve not to side-step His passion.  Though it was possibly appealing to His flesh, He would not postpone His passion by spending time with these Greeks who were seeking after Him.  For Jesus it was now or never!  In His spirit Jesus knew that this was God’s perfect time. “The hour has come” He said, “for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  He was resolute about going all the way to the cross!  No turning away.  No turning around.  No turning back.  So at this point the Passion of the Christ really begins. This can be clearly heard in these words of Jesus:

“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.’”

Even though His heart was troubled unto death, Jesus would glorify the Father through His passion.  With the shadow of the cross looming over Him, Jesus was “troubled” in His soul.  How could He not be at the growing anticipation of becoming the consummate sin-sacrifice for the whole world?! 

The word Jesus used here for “troubled” is tetaraktai It is a very weighty word that is filled with spiritual and emotional implication.  It means to be deeply “stirred and agitated.”  It is the same word that John used to describe Jesus’ inward groaning at Lazarus tomb (John 11:33). It was also the same word that Jesus would use in the Upper Room as He discussed His imminent betrayal and death (John 13:21).  A few hours later He would again use it again in the Garden when He said: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38).

So having expressed His deep sense of “trouble” in heart, Jesus turned away from the well-intentioned invitation by the Greeks. Earlier He had already “…resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Matthew gives us even more of Jesus’ dialogue with His disciples as He resolutely walked with them toward Jerusalem and His passion. It is one of the most specific prophecies spoken by Christ about the exact details of His betrayal, trial, crucifixion and resurrection:

“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life” (Matthew 20:18-19).

So Jesus would not be deterred by the hostility of the Jews…deterred by the hesitancy of the disciples…or detoured by the hunger of the Greeks. He had resolutely set His face toward the cross. “Now is the time,” Jesus said, “for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”  John then gives this one sentence of commentary: “Jesus said this to show the kind of death He was going to die” (John 12:23-33).

All of this took place in the days and hours leading up to the Passover. So let’s now go with Jesus to the Upper Room. According to the Gospel of John, this was the final of three Passover Feasts that Jesus celebrated during His three years of public ministry. This Feast was the defining event for every Jew spiritually, racially and nationally. And this last Passover held special significance for Christ and His disciples.

Therefore, just before the events of the passion begin, the disciples had been privileged to celebrate their last Passover with Jesus in the Upper Room. From the Christian perspective, this was the very last Passover God accepted.  The long spiritual prelude was over.  The foreshadow was replaced by reality.  That’s because the “fullness of time had come” (Gal. 4:4) for the long-awaited “…Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Now that Jesus was about to shed His blood and die for the sins of the whole world – no more animal sacrifices would be necessary.  His shed blood and broken body would now supercede and replace the blood of animals.  The perfect sacrifice “once and for all” was about to take place (Hebrews 7:27).  It was on that Thursday night in the Upper Room that Jesus inaugurated the “new covenant.”  He had begun it by saying: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).  Having said that, Jesus then broke the bread and passed the cup to His disciples for the last time on this earth.  In doing so He said to them:

“Take and eat; this is My body…This is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in My Father’s Kingdom” (Matthew 26:26-27; Mk. 14:22-25; Luke 22:13-23; I Corinthians 11:23-26).

This then was the last Passover Feast as well as the first Lord’s Supper. It was that same night that the Passion of the Christ began to intensify. This was the night that the original Passover that liberated the Jews from Egypt had always pointed to. This was the last act in the eternal drama of salvation that God had been preparing since before the world began.  After this final act, the curtain would literally come down. Or to quote the historical account of Doctor Luke: “…the curtain of the temple was torn in two (Luke 23:45; Hebrews 10:20).  And when that happened, the principle of the cross was fully revealed and perfectly fulfilled!

With this clearer understanding of the significance of the Greeks who came seeking Jesus, our next Lenten study we will look at some of the other key “People of the Cross.”

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