Would that to all time its lesson had been cherished, not theoretically, but practically, by the Church! How much richer would have been her treasury:' twice blessed in gift and givers. But so is not legend written. If it had been a story invented for a purpose or adorned with the tinsel of embellishment, the Saviour and the widow would not have so parted - to meet and to speak not on earth, but in heaven. She would have worshipped, and He spoken or done some great thing. Their silence was a tryst for heaven.
4. One other event of solemn joyous import remains to be recorded on that day. [5141] But so closely is it connected with what the Lord afterwards spoke, that the two cannot be separated. It is narrated only by St. John, who, as before explained, [5142] tells it as one of a series of progressive manifestations of the Christ: first in His Entry into the City, and then in the Temple - successively, to the Greeks, by the Voice from Heaven, and before the people.
Precious as each part and verse here is, when taken by itself, there is some difficulty in combining them , and in showing their connection, and its meaning. But here we ought not to forget, that we have, in the Gospel-narrative, only the briefest account - as it were, headings, summaries, outlines, rather than a report. Nor do we know the surrounding circumstances. The words which Christ spoke after the request of the Greeks to be admitted to His Presence may bear some special reference also to the state of the disciples, and their unreadiness to enter into and share His predicted sufferings. And this may again be connected with Christ's prediction and Discourse about the last things.' [5143] For the position of the narrative in St. John's Gospel seems to imply that it was the last event of the day - nay, the conclusion of Christ's public Ministry. If this be so, words and admonitions, otherwise somewhat mysterious in their connection, would acquire a new meaning.
It was then, as we suppose, the evening of a long weary day of teaching. As the sun had been hastening towards its setting in red, He had spoken of that other sun-setting, with the sky all aglow in judgement, and of the darkness that was to follow - but also of the better Light would arise in it. And in those Temple-porches they had been hearing Him - seeing Him in His wonder-working yesterday, hearing Him in His wonder-speaking that day - those men of other tongues.' They were Proselytes,' Greeks by birth, who had groped their way to the proch of Judaism, just as the first streaks of light were falling within upon his altar. They must have been stirred in their inmost being; felt, that it was just for such as they, and to them that He spoke; that this was what in the Old Testament they had guessed, anticipated, dimly hoped for, if they had not seen it - its grand faith, its grander hope, its grandest reality. Not one by one, and almost by stealth, were they thenceforth to come to the gate; but the portals were to be flung wide open, and as the golden light streamed out upon the way, He stood there, that bright Divine Personality, Who was not only the Son of David, but the Son of Man, to bid them the Father's welcome of good pleasure to the Kingdom.
And so, as the lengthening shadows gathered around the Temple-court and porches, they would fain have seen' Him, not afar off, but near: spoken to Him. They had became Proselytes of Righteousness;' they would become disciples of the Lord our Righteousness;' as Proselytes they had come to Jerusalem to worship,' and they would learn to praise. Yet, in the simple self-unconscious modesty of their religious childhood, they dared not go to Jesus directly, but came with their request to Philip of Bethsaida. [5144] We know not why to him: whether from family connections, or that his education, or previous circumstances, connected Philip with these Greeks,' or whether anything in his position in the Apostolic circle, or something that had just occurred, influenced their choice. And he also - such was the ignorance of the Apostles of the inmost meaning of their Master - dared not go directly to Jesus, but went ot his own townsman, who had been his early friend and fellow-disciple, and now stood so close to the Person of the Master - Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Together the two came to Jesus, Andrew apparently foremost. The answer of Jesus implies what, at any rate, we would have expected, that the request of these Gentile converts was granted, though this is not expressly stated, and it is extremely difficult to determine whether, and what portion of what He spake was addressed to the Greeks, and what to the disciples. Perhaps we should regard the opening words as bearing reference to the request of the Greeks, and hence as primarily addressed to the disciples, [5145] but also as serving as introduction of the words that follow, which were spoken primarily the Greeks, [5146] but secondarily also to the disciples, and which bear on that terrible, very near, mystery of His Death, and their Baptism into it.