Thoughts for the Day

Jesus 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.

(New Revised Standard Bible)

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! What does "Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you" actually mean?

Well I'm taking a deep breath at this point - here's my interpretation: "Glory" in the New Testament means "praise, honour, worship". We give God praise and worship because He deserves to honoured and worshipped - it is His due - there is no-one else who deserves this.

The Cross was the glory of Jesus because as dreadful as it was is completed his work. Jesus had come into this world to tell us about the love of God and to show that love in action. (So don't get side-tracked into thinking that God was at fault for allowing His son to die!). 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 for us! The only way to glorify God is to obey Him, and thus bring honour to Him. God honoured Jesus through the Resurrection, by showing the the world that death had no power.

Exploring different crosses

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.