κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

2. I have our word of the day taped to my lampstand. It serves a constant reminder. It reads: Κύριε, θέλομεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἰδεῖν . ... Sir, we wish to see Jesus . This word comes to us from a conversation that immediately followed our first Gospel reading in John 12. It was spoken by Gentiles who had gone to Jerusalem in order to worship during the feast. They realized Jesus was here. He had entered Jerusalem to the songs, praises, and cheers of tens of thousands of people. So these Gentiles wanted to know more. Sir, we wish to see Jesus . The Pharisees didn’t get it. They didn’t understand why people were so excited to see Jesus. The Pharisees thought it was foolish to pay attention to Jesus ... to what he was teaching and preaching and doing. That is most certainly one reason they said to one another, You see: You are gaining nothing in your effort to see Jesus.   But the Gentiles persisted. There were some Gentiles , John wrote, who went to Philip and said to him: Sir, we wish to ...