Jesus' enemies were frustrated at his increasing popularity:

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           Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.  So the Pharisees said to one another, "See, this is getting us nowhere.  Look how the whole world has gone after him!" (Jn 12:18-19)

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Then some visiting Greeks tried to speak to Jesus.  The disciples relayed the request, but John only records a teaching that Jesus gave on that occasion, not whether he actually met with the Greeks.  Jesus was already anticipating his death:

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          "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.  But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself"  (Jn 12:31-32).

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His being lifted up on a cross led to his being exalted as the New Adam, the first born from the dead, and the progenitor of a new race that will inherit the earth.  But at the same time, the old racial distinctions and divisions were put to death with Jesus on that cross -- they no longer had any objective reality or spiritual validity.  A new era in human relations would begin, though no one then knew it.