Sight, Sound and Fruit
This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 3/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is John 12:20-33 . The twelfth chapter of John is the conclusion of what is called the gospel ’ s “ book of signs. ” Signs are prevalent throughout the first section of John ’ s gospel. Now we come to the bridge, as we transition to the second part, called the “ book of glory. ” This portion of John ’ s gospel provides us with a sensual feast. The senses of sight and hearing are employed by John as we are encouraged to follow Jesus. First of all, the Greeks want to see Jesus. Seeing means more than getting a simple glimpse of him from afar. They want to meet Jesus and to speak with him. This begs the question, just who are these Greeks? They may either be people who had converted to Judaism from another religion and so came to Jerusalem to worship or they may have been Jews that lived in gentile areas like the Apostle Paul did. We don ’ t know for sure. At any r...