About five years ago the cover of Popular Mechanics magazine featured an artist’s depiction of Jesus and the headline: "Is this the new face of Jesus?" When this article came out it caused quite a stir. Forensic scientists studied the skulls of many Jews who lived around Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. From these skulls they were able to figure out the facial features that would have been prominent during Jesus’ time. Then an artist took that information and sketched them together to form a depiction of what an average person in Israel during Jesus’ time might have looked like.

I must admit that when I saw the picture on the cover of the magazine at my parent’s house, I was a little taken aback. I was used to the depictions of Jesus that adorned my Sunday school classrooms while I was growing up. Even though I had studied scripture and the historical information about Jesus, I realized that the picture I still held in my head was that of the fair skinned, brownish-blond haired, clean cut Jesus. I thought I had filled up my head with different images of Jesus. I had examined African depictions of Jesus and even seen some drawings of Jesus from an Asian perspective. But from my reaction to this new picture, I realized that I still hadn’t accepted these different views.

The picture on the cover of the magazine was of a round-faced man with curly brown hair and a scruffy beard. His eyes kind of looked like he had been surprised by the picture. He had a prominent nose and tanned skin. I wouldn’t necessarily describe the man as attractive by Western standards. His face wasn’t perfectly symmetrical, which studies have proved we find most attractive. In a crowd of people you probably wouldn’t notice him at all. But yet there he was on the cover of the magazine with the question: Is this what it would be like to see Jesus?

We are getting closer and closer to what we call Holy Week – Jesus’ final week before the crucifixion. As we continue our journey to the cross, we hear a scripture in which Jesus speaks once again of what awaits him in Jerusalem.

In the passage from John’s gospel that we heard this morning, Jesus has entered Jerusalem for the last time. He was greeted with shouts of joy and loud hosannas. The people waved palm branches as Jesus came riding into the city. It is a festival time. It is the time of Passover. Jews from all over the known world are converging on the city for the celebration. Along with these many Jews are some Greeks or Gentiles that have come to the city for the festival. They have no doubt heard about Jesus and all he had done. So when they encounter one of his disciples they make known their desire to see Jesus.

But what were they expecting to find when they go to see Jesus. Were they expecting to see the miracle worker who turned water into wine, healed the sick, and raised people from the dead? Or were they expecting to find the learned teacher who would unlock the mysteries of the world? I wonder what they were expecting.

When these Greeks approach Jesus they do not see amazing miracles done in front of their face. They do not see people getting healed from infirmity. Instead they see Jesus talking about wheat dying in order to bear fruit. Then he predicts that anyone who wants to follow him must also be willing to die in order to bear fruit. He talks about being willing to give up your life as you know it in order to gain eternal life. I wonder…were those Greeks willing to follow the Jesus that they did see? Are we?

Are we at all like the Greeks in this passage? Are we hoping to see Jesus? Are we searching for him? One way of looking at this season of preparation for Easter is to dedicate ourselves to becoming more faithful followers of Jesus. We search for Jesus in order to follow him. In other words, this season we are like the Greeks who are asking to see Jesus.

What do we hope to see when we find him? Do we hope to find Jesus the miracle worker; the one who can feed 5,000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread? Do we hope to find Jesus the healer; the one who raised Lazarus from the dead? Do we hope to find Jesus the teacher; the one who spouts out profound statements and bucks authority at every turn? What if the Jesus we find is the one who talks about dying in order to live? Are we willing to see that Jesus?

The word that our Bibles have translated as "see" when the Greeks say that they wish to see Jesus means more than simply to look at him. It doesn’t mean that they just want to look at him with their own eyes so that they can describe his physical appearance to others. Instead this word means that they want to see, accept, affirm, and understand Jesus. They aren’t looking to interview him – they are looking to possibly follow him. I wonder if when they hear what Jesus says about giving up life, they are willing to follow the Jesus they see?

Last year, I decided that I would try my hand at growing tomatoes. I picked out a plant from the store, brought it home, and was getting ready to plant it when I saw the plastic tab in it. I pulled it out and read, "Bury Deep." The instructions told me to bury this plant 6-8 inches deep in the soil. Well the plant couldn’t have been more than 9 inches tall to begin with. So if I followed these instructions, there would only be about 1 inch of plant sticking out of the ground. Surely I thought there must be a mistake. If I were to bury the plant that deep it would kill it.

Some of you experienced gardeners are probably chuckling about now because you know what I didn’t. I was so worried about killing this beautiful tomato plant by burying it deep in the soil that I hedged my bets and only buried it about 2 inches deep. Well my little tomato plant didn’t do too well last year. I was too concerned about killing it that I didn’t bury it deep enough. Needless to say, I didn’t get good tomatoes last year.

Jesus talks about wheat needing to die in order to produce fruit. If you take a grain of wheat, you have to bury it in the ground in order for it to grow. It has to "die" in the ground in order to grow into new life. If you were to keep that grain of wheat out of the ground it wouldn’t do anything. It would just wither away and eventually disintegrate. If we try to hold on to the wheat, it will not be able to produce anything. However, if we let the wheat go; if we let it die; only then can it produce fruit.

I wanted so much to hold on to my tomato plant that I didn’t bury it deep enough for it to produce life. I wasn’t willing to give it up. I won’t tell you that I didn’t get any tomatoes last year because that isn’t true. I got only about 4 small tomatoes from this plant that had the potential to produce so much more.

Jesus is telling his followers that if someone really wants to see him, follow him, accept him, then we have to be willing to be buried deep. We can’t just go part way with Christ. If we want to truly become his disciples we have to be willing to go deep with him. We have to trust that if we are willing to be buried deep with Christ that only then will we be able to produce fruit.

If we are scared to go all in with Christ then I’m not going to say that we won’t be able to produce anything good. After all my tomato plant did give a few tomatoes. But it is only by being willing to follow Christ wherever he leads us that we are able to produce the abundance of fruit that God calls us to.

The Greeks that came looking for Jesus may not have seen the Jesus they expected to see. Perhaps if we are willing to be buried deep with Christ we will also struggle with seeing Jesus in unexpected ways. If we truly want to see Jesus, that is to know and accept him, we have to be willing to see his face in everyone who surrounds us. We have to be willing to serve those around us as though they themselves are Christ. This is a tall order to fill but Christ is asking nothing less than everything from those who wish to call themselves his disciples.

It is easy to ask to see Jesus. That is a relatively safe request. If we can just look upon his face, if we can just see him…then perhaps that will be enough. But the harder question is are we willing to follow the Jesus we see. Are we willing to follow the Jesus who may not look like what we expect? Are we willing to serve the Christ we see not only in our friends or in those who are easy to love? Are we willing to serve the Christ we see in the face of the stranger or our enemy?

Through Jeremiah, God promises the people a new covenant. This promise will not be written down in books but will be written on their hearts. This new covenant will be buried deep within them. Perhaps with this promise from God buried deep within us we can have the strength and courage to bury ourselves deep within Christ. Perhaps we can know that through Christ working in us we have the strength to follow the Jesus we see.