Surely some of the most beautiful words in all of the Scriptures.

Some words are precious because they are wise, some words are precious because they reveal to us the thoughts, deeds and even misdeeds of those who by their example we can learn from and be inspired by, or not as the case may be. Other words are richer than honey because they affirm for us the truth of the Gospel over our own sin stained wretchedness that we can and shall be and in truth are made white as snow, as pure as wool.

The psalms are praised for capturing the full range of human emotion, those which we love and even those that we wrestle with or even outright dislike. More than this they are words which sustained the Lord himself in prayer, both in the high places and wildernesses, and in the desert as He was tempted. Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.

Yet here in John 12.21 we hear not words of the Lord, nor words of the Jews, nor even words of the Disciples.

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee…

Greeks. Outsiders to the narrative, neither the Jewish people from amongst whom were some being called and chosen to be more than the people of God but the children of God; nor were they the Romans, those who were in charge, ruling the day and exercising the weight of responsibility for law and order – what some might term oppression was certainly at least dreadfully effective administration, quelling rebellion, collecting taxes, and giving glory to Cesar.

These, who were outside of the story of God’s people and those who were in tension with God’s people, were here among those who were coming to the feast to worship. They approached the one whom they judged was perhaps most likely to be amenable to healing their plea and they ask the most beautiful question:

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

These words are precious because they, perhaps more than many in scripture, have been given specifically to be our words, our question, the ache of our hearts expressed with a clarity that human beings resist being drawn to. For in clarity there is simplicity, and in simplicity there is judgement, and in judgement there is submission to the one who judges:

“Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

Make no mistake, this is no Dickensian beg. This is the human heart on the precipice of revelation stepping out in faith to find the fulfillment not just of the promises of God, but of the very image of God within us which we both knowingly and unconsciously bear and yet are determined by all at once. For the Lord when he made us, fearfully and wonderfully in our mother’s wombs, knowing all the days which he has in store for us, makes us like himself; in his image.

For so long that image has been glimpsed like a mirror dimly in the lives and wisdom and gracefilled righteousness of those good people we have been blessed to encounter, rare enough as it in truth can be even in our own age. To see dimly is to inspire curiosity, and where there is curiosity of God there is an ache and a natural hunger within our souls which no sensuality nor past-time can ever slate or satiate. We catch a glimpse of the light and we are drawn like moths to the flame to find the next glimpse, the coming moment of meaning and realisation where we discover more truly who we are.

These Greeks who were among the people coming up to the feast to worship were those who had already stepped out their door onto a road with a destination unknown, trusting in each step that rather than getting further away, they were heading home. Hearing of this Jesus , they cannot help but wonder, they cannot help but yearn for the fulfillment of what could be. They insist, politely yet firmly with all due seriousness and a barely contained bubbling up of joy mingled with the forlorn fear of false hope: Sir, we want to see Jesus.

We want to see Jesus.

These words are ours.
These hearts are ours.

For whatever we are going through in the midst of this life we are those who have been made in the image of God and the image of God cannot be fully realised and expressed without its completion in encountering the God who steps into the world in His own image in such a way as to take on our image, which is and has always been His own and so transforms us into the likeness of Himself by embracing, by becoming that which has been rudely misaligned; such that like a broken bone healed poorly we might be broken and reset, remade by the potter to be fired in the kiln of His holy and life giving sanctification as we drink from the well of eternal life and breathe through the waters of baptism the taste of life unending. We who were formed from the clay and breathed into once are reformed from mortality into eternity as children of God; born not of blood, or the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but born of God himself.

For the saying is true and worthy of all to be believed, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of which I am the foremost.

I am the foremost because I cannot in my own sinfulness escape my recollection of those things which grieve me, and although I can objectively weigh myself against the sins of others that are known to me the experience of my own sins is the experience of a heart which has tasted the deservedness of separation from God. The light shines in the darkness, and my sinfulness finds the shadows to be sour and yet nevertheless sucks on the bitter tang as though recoiling from the loving judgement of the Lord. Yet the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it, and in the light of the resurrection of Christ we discover a fuller scene than we could have imagined. The God who takes on His own image in our flesh, who has exchanged the canopy of stars for the clothes of Adam and Eve, is content, nay determined to weep in a garden that echoes faintly of an almost forgotten reality so that the first betrayal may be remembered in another, as with a kiss He is committed to suffer the injustice of injustices that we might through His judgement and under his verdict be granted clemency.

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

This is our question, but we do not know what we ask. To see God is a glorious thing, yet in His glory the people of Israel quaked upon the mountain for fear that they would die. Moses spoke with the Lord in the tent of meeting as one speaks with a friend, and yet the Pharisee who emulate him speak to Him as a blasphemer, striking Him in the face and judging Him even though their own standards were unable to convict him. The Jews hand Him to the Romans and before the powers of the world the Word of God who spoke existence into being holds His tongue with a silence that inspires more questions than answers for Pilate. What is truth?

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

They mock Him. They beat Him. They dress Him as the king they do not believe him to be in order that hidden in His true form He might receive the full lack of honour that they should have given Him. He is crowned with thorns, lashed with a scourge so that He might even before He makes it to the cross be made scarlet and crimson in the grime and callousness of our brokenness.

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

The hammer rings out with a clanging thud and a grunted gasp.
Ropes heaved, the cross is lifted and behold, the King of the Jews – glorified, gorified.

On the cross the imago dei becomes the imago peccati whilst never ceasing to be the imago dei; in truth, the fullness of the imago homo lapsus crucified.

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

Ecce homo.
Behold the man.

Some words are precious. Some words are dangerous, for we may know how to utter them but not how to live them or to inhabit them. Sometimes we think we know for what we are asking, sometimes we are wrong.

Some words are ours because they fulfill a desire, yet these words are ours because they fulfill a need. Even when Jesus is at His bloodiest, when all have scattered and the women are weeping; even when friends don’t answer their phones, when spouses don’t understand, or when the meds just don’t seem to do what they’re supposed to. When the debts are high and the desire for one last quick fix before you quit itches behind the logic of your mind. When grief stings, the world overwhelms, and you feel oh so alone such that no one really understands and you face or avoid that sinking feeling that actually this time things are not going to work themselves out… in these moments we remember that it is a true saying and worthy of all to be believed – that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of which I am the foremost.

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

Look, and do not flinch; for if you will not watch and wait you’ll miss the glimpse of love such as the world has not never known but should have always known, indeed has always known but somehow tricked itself into believing was impossible nonetheless for although the world is the object of the eternal God’s love it is only here in this moment that creation herself dares to hope.

The spear has brought forth blood and water. The body is washed and oiled before being wrapped tenderly in a white cloth. Sunset approaching, with haste the body is placed into a virgin tomb.

And there in the darkness, unseen and unheard by any, was sparked the flame of divine love of God the Father for His only begotten Son by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who had hovered on the waters of the first darkness. “Let there be light”, and there was light – and the darkness shall never overcome it.

They came in the morning to finish tending to the body.
He was not there.

Disciples run, the grave is empty. The clothes folded. They leave, perplexed.
A woman stays. Weeping, she speaks to the gardener.

“Tell me where you have laid him”

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

“Mary”, He says.

And in saying, she is known and in knowing she is loved and in being loved she finds her heart filled with a life she did not know she could experience.

On the Damascus road two disciples encounter a familiar stranger.
In a locked room, the Apostles see the Lord.
A week later, Thomas sees Him as well.
Within weeks, more than 500 lay eyes upon Him.

Within months, thousands will believe the testimony about Him.
Within years Churches are spreading throughout the known world.
Within a couple of centuries, the Gospel will change the world.

Today one third of the world believes in the name of Jesus.
Some 2.4 Billion souls.

And these are their words,
these are our words:

Sir, We want to See Jesus.

When Jesus hears this from the Greeks through Phillip and Andrew He says:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

These were Greeks, neither Jews nor Romans; in one sense, not really a part of the story at all.

But Jesus responds, to them yes but also to us:

Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in the world will keep it for eternal life.
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

These narrative outsiders are invited into the story and anyone, whoever he may be, who follows and serves Jesus; the Father will honour him.

Anyone becomes someone.
He without honour, receives it;
to receive honour you must be known,
and in the hour of the glorification of Jesus
even the moment of His death and resurrection
He says: Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Who is alone? The one who falls into the earth and dies.
Yet through that death comes the resurrection,
so that God might not be alone;
that He might spend eternity
with us.

Oh these are precious words indeed. Let us take them to be our words.

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

---

With every blessing,
Samuel S. Thorp

p.s.

It is a true saying and worthy of all to be believed
– that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of which I am the foremost.
– 1 Timothy 1.15

---

This post was first published on Substack in August 2025