Chapter 5—In the Outer Court
“And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to wor-
ship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of
Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell
Jesus.”
These Gentiles were excluded from the temple court where Jesus
was sitting over against the treasury. They had heard much in favor
of and against Jesus, and were desirous to see and hear him for them-
selves. They could not come to him, but were obliged to wait in the
court of the Gentiles. As the disciples bore the message of the Greeks
to Jesus and awaited his answer, he seemed to be in a deep study, and
answered them: “The hour is come that the Son of man should be
glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit.” The request of the Greeks to see Jesus brought the future
before him. The Jews had rejected the only one who could save them.
They were soon to imbrue their hands in his blood, and place him
with thieves and robbers. The Saviour, rejected by the house of Israel,
was to be received by the Gentiles. He looked forward with joy to
the period when the partition wall between Jew and Gentile would be
thrown down, and the broad harvest field would be the world.
Jesus regarded these Greeks as representatives of the Gentiles at
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large. In them he discerned the first-fruits of an abundant harvest,
when all nations, tongues, and people upon the face of the earth should
hear the glad tidings of salvation through Christ. He saw that the
gathering of the Gentiles was to follow his approaching death. He
therefore presented to his disciples and to the listening crowd the figure
of the wheat, to represent how his death would be productive of a great
harvest. If he should draw back from the sacrifice of his life, he would
abide alone, like the kernel of wheat that did not die; but if he should
give up his life, he would, like the kernel of wheat that fell into the
ground, rise again as the first-fruits of the great harvest; and he, the
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