Thoughts for the Day

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

There are some bits of our bible, that are just not easy to understand, and this reading from St John's Gospel is one of them! It's known as the 'High Priestly Prayer' when Jesus intercedes with God the Father for his disciples, and it's full of difficult theological concepts. For instance, what does "Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you" actually mean?

Well I'm taking a deep breath at this point. I have looked at it before, but here is my current interpretation. First let's look at the word 'Glory'. In the New Testament this means "praise, honour, worship". In the world today we praise and honour people who have done great things, though we don't worship them. But we do give God praise and worship because He deserves to honoured and worshipped - it is His due - there is no-one else who deserves this.

Christians speak of the Cross as the 'glory of Jesus' which sounds horrendous, but the truth is his death on the cross, as dreadful as it was, completed his work. Jesus had come into this world to tell us about the love of God and to show us that love in action. Jesus could have refused to go to Jerusalem, and have avoided the crucifixion, but by allowing men to crucify him Jesus showed the ends that God was prepared to go for us - he allowed His Son to die in order to save us and offer us eternal life!

One way to glorify God today is to obey Him, and thus bring honour to Him. God honoured Jesus through the Resurrection, by showing the the world that death had ultimately no power.

Heavenly Father,
You love us so much that You sent Your son
Jesus to earth to proclaim your message of love.
Through his death he glorified You,
and you received Him in triumph.
May we never forget the penalty
that he paid for our sin,
and may we continue to offer You the honour
and praise due to Your name.
Amen.