've been thinking about how, in John 12 - when the Greeks come and say: 'Sir, we would see Jesus' - that that starts the time-clock of our Saviour moving deliberately towards the Cross. 'Now is my hour come!' He says, when so many times earlier the text says - 'because His hour was not yet come.' And then he talks about 'except a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone, . .. ' etc. Hmm. I wonder why their search and query signaled that kairos beginning and the chronos-clock influence, too?
I think it means that when the (further) opening comes, through this query of the Gentiles, (these Greeks, the 'nations'), it moves the issue beyond the salvation of the Jews only - to the reality that He came for the whole world (which lets you and me, perhaps nonJews as we are, get in on this wonderful Reality of God's Grace, Forgiveness, Welcome and inclusion, and also our inclusion into the call to Mission with faithful Abraham (and with Jesus, the 'Seed' of Abraham) - in blessing all the ethne of the word). God is rescuing People, Places, and Things - from sheer grace, mercy and love. God knows, none of us deserve it.
Not only Jewish boys on Judean hills come to worship (albeit a short distance geographically and culturally and religiously), but 'magi from the East' come too (these other signs in human form, of 'the nations' gathered), coming from afar (geographically, religiously, culturally . . .) all of us coming, all of us drawn by God's Word (the Gospel in Scripture), perhaps by the stars themselves (the Gospel revealed even in all nature and science itself, though more obscure and needing direction) - to the Saviour.
For God so loved the world (the 'cosmos') . . . He gave - that whosoever (not just Jews - but those Greek inquirers, too) might have Life (starting now and never ending). . . . Wonderful !!
Whew, a wee Easter (and Christmas) sermon, eh?
