An Interview With Jesus

AN INTERVIEW WITH JESUS

JOHN 12:20-33

INTRODUCTION... Adapted from "Interviewing" by Dan Gillmor (http://bayosphere.com/node/866)

I would like you to imagine that you are a journalist about to interview someone of great importance. Perhaps it is the President of the United States or another diplomat. Perhaps your interview is more local and it is a State Representative or the mayor. Your interview might be of a local teacher or coach. Whoever this person is, they are important and you want to meet them and have an interview because you want to know more about who they are and what they find important. More importantly, you have readers that are dying to read about them. How should you approach the interview? What types of questions should you ask?

I did some checking and a little research and there are several steps or tips that you can go through to have a good interview:* First, you should prepare for your interview. You should keep in mind that the person or people you are interviewing don’t have unlimited time. If you have not done some basic homework, you will be wasting their time, and they won’t appreciate it.

* Second, you should look around. You can learn a lot about someone based on the surroundings, especially if you’re in a home or office.

* Third, one of the suggestions was to not go into the interview with an attitude. Most interviews are not the kind of confrontations that we’ve come to associate with journalism due to the ambush-camera techniques of some TV broadcasts. The vast, vast majority are all about something simple: You want to learn more about a subject or person, or both, and the person you’re interviewing wants to help.

* Fourth, and perhaps the most obvious suggestion was to listen to the answers. Sometimes an interview can become derailed if one of the people involved is not listening and following up.

* Finally, one author stated that he liked to ask two questions at the end of the formal interview: "Who else should I speak to about this topic?" and "What have I not asked you that I should have asked you?" The first question helps you find other people who may be helpful but who may not have been on your list. The second often, but not always, brings out a point or two that will improve your article.

Why in the world do I talk to you about interviews and such today? I would like to share a passage today in which it seems like to me that Jesus was in an interview situation. Some people came to see Him and the interview is recorded for us in John 12:20-33. These people came because they wanted to meet Jesus and find out if all the rumors were true. These people came because they wanted to know more about Jesus. These people came to seek Jesus out, ask Him questions, and take back answers to the people that had sent them... sounds like an interview to me!

READ JOHN 12:20-33

I. PREPARING FOR THE INTERVIEW (John 12:20-22)

One of the first things we see is that these Greeks had prepared themselves to meet Jesus. How do we know this? Well, verse 20 tells us that these Greeks arrived in Jerusalem at the time of the Feast. If you wanted to find a Jewish religious teacher and did not know Him personally, I would think that traveling to Jerusalem at the time of a feast was probably a great idea on catching a meeting with Him. They knew Jesus would be there because that’s the way Jewish culture worked.

Another part of the preparation that the Greeks made was doing some homework on Jesus. Verse 21 tells us that the Greeks approached one of the 12 disciples to arrange a meeting. These inquisitive Greeks knew that Jesus had a small group of followers and that by contacting one of the disciples that a meeting should be arranged. I think when they approached Philip, they were also showing that they were coming in humbleness. They did not approach Jesus themselves, but waited to see if this Jewish teacher would see a bunch of Gentiles. The Greeks knew that Jews did not normally associate with Gentiles, but they had heard that Jesus was different and so He might meet with them... or He might not. They inquired through what they thought might be proper channels. Philip receives their request and takes it to Andrew. Philip and Andrew then tell Jesus (verse 22).

II. LISTENING FOR THE ANSWERS (John 12:23-31)

I want you to notice that beginning in verse 23, Jesus is answering their questions. You might say to yourself, what questions are those? That would be a valid question in that we do not have the questions the Greeks were asking Jesus. We don’t read them, but we do read in verse 23 that "Jesus replied." Jesus is speaking to His disciples and the group of Greeks that Philip and Andrew brought to see Him. They must listen to the answers and so must we.