Greek searchers look for the right approach

Greek searchers look for the right approach

PHILIPPA SMALE takes a look at major and minor characters in the Bible's accounts of the days before and after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection
This week: Greeks who wanted to see Jesus

GREEK married couple Neofytos and Anastasia are Christians.

It was on Easter Day in 1991 that Neofytos decided to follow Jesus. Later he became an associate pastor of a church in Thessaloniki. In 2007 he met some Salvationists who were visiting Greece. He remembers: ‘After we finished our conversation we prayed together and embraced.

‘I felt God saying to me: "Welcome to your family." God called me to The Salvation Army, and I responded.'

Anastasia was 19 when she asked Jesus to forgive her sins and help her start a new life.

Three years ago she felt that she should serve God in a different way - but she was not sure how. When her husband described his meeting with the Salvationists she knew the answer.


Neofytos and Anastasia becoming Salvation Army members
The couple are now training to be Salvation Army ministers in the hope that they will help other people to see Jesus as their saviour.

They are following in the footsteps of one of Jesus' disciples who, almost 2,000 years ago, helped some of the couple's cultural ancestors.

John's Gospel records that when Jesus was in Jerusalem in the days before his crucifixion some Greeks in the city became intrigued by him.

They wanted to find out more, but did not want to approach him directly. So they went to the disciple Philip, and said: ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus' (John 12:21 The Message).

Perhaps they went to Philip because he had a Greek name. Perhaps they, like him, were from Bethsaida. Perhaps he just looked like an approachable guy. Whatever the reason, they talked to Philip; Philip found his fellow disciple Andrew and the two of them talked to Jesus.

It was almost too late for the Greeks to see Jesus in the flesh - his time on earth was nearly up, and he knew it. His response to the request was: ‘If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me' (12:26).

Today we are in a different situation from those Greeks because we cannot see Jesus in the flesh. But that does not mean we cannot meet him. We can know him as a living reality and follow him.

If we want to find out more about him, we could start by talking with Christian friends or acquaintances - just ordinary Christians, such as Neofytos and Anastasia, who are engaged in the task of helping others who have said: ‘We want to see Jesus.'

- TSA UK War Cry