Charles Spurgeon Commentary John 12:22-23

"Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: Andrew cometh, and Philip, and they tell Jesus. And Jesus answereth them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." — John 12:22-23 (ASV)

Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.

Christ's passion and death were getting very near when these Gentiles came to him, and he saw, in that company of Greeks, the vanguard of that great army that will yet come to him out of every nation under heaven. In the prospect of that great ingathering, he looked beyond the impending shame and suffering, and spoke even of the hour of his death as the time when he should be glorified.

Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

They did not expect him to say that. Surely, the coming of a few Greeks to see him was not very much in the way of glorification.

But, to him, the coming of these Greeks was a sort of prophecy of the myriads of other Gentiles who would eventually come to his feet; and, therefore, he looked forward to that death which should be the means of their salvation. Christ came into the world to preach the gospel, but he came on a greater errand than that, namely, to provide a gospel that could be preached; and he knew that the time was approaching when he must provide that gospel by dying upon the cross. See how he proceeds: