John 13: 31-35

Our scripture this morning, John 13:31-35, encloses one of the most well-know quotes from what is called “the upper room discourse”; that iconic phrase “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have lNormally, after addressing Jesus dialogue with his disciples and in particular Judas, who was prompted by Jesus to go out into the night and “do quickly” what he was “about to do”, most homilies begin at verse thirty-three with Jesus’ endearing words “My children … ”.

There are sermons worth of theology packed into the verses of the upper room discourse, from Jesus washing the disciples feet to this acknowledgement of his betrayal and then on to the new commandment and all Jesus instruction and encouragement of his disciples as he prepared them for what was to come in just a few hours.

But here, in the middle of all the drama and compassion is this overlooked little bridge, a benediction, a prayer, between these two dialogues; punctuating what Jesus said and did while Judas was present and all that followed after he left. It is often overlooked because it is a fully self contained capsule of revelation by Jesus on a subject we don’t usually entertain much today, glory.

The Old Testament Hebrew word for glory, kabod (kahvode), means something heavy, or of weight, hence distinction. Later this was translated in the Greek Septuagint as dōxa, which technically means ‘opinion’ as in ortho-dox, meaning ‘right opinion’. And later again in latin texts of the early church this word was translated into numerous words, depending on the context; gloria, claritas, maiestas and honor. But all of these words had very secular, profane meanings like a Roman military conquest or being renown in business or politics. So by the time of the latin Vulgate scriptures of St. Jerome the word glory had been appropriated by the church to refer in a consistent way to all these references to the kabod, doxa or gloria of God and Jesus.

This is a long introduction to tell you we’re going to focus on verses thirty-one and two and that glory, as it is used in scripture, is rich with meaning but principally speaks of the infinite authority, majesty and beauty of God Almighty.

Many translations, and in particular the more literal ones, add the word “therefore” or “so” at the beginning of verse thirty-one; rendering it “‘Therefore, when he was gone out, (referring to Judas) Jesus said…”; which in no way changes the meaning of the text but it adds some very important colour to our appreciation of the narrative. It points us to the understanding that Jesus was waiting for this moment when Judas would leave to make his arrangement, with the Jewish Council, to betray Him for 30 pieces of silver. In fact, a reading of the text prior shows that Jesus was precipitating Judas decision. Judas may have been ready to wait for an opportune moment, maybe after the passover and the Sabbath, but Jesus knew the timing of events that His Father had ordered and so, in a sense, goaded Judas to go and do immediately what he had already settled in his heart to do.

Most assuredly we see that Jesus was in control. As he said earlier in John 10 verse 18 concerning his life and death “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord”. So in a very human moment that is almost a sigh of relief, an exhale expressing the culmination of what everything else, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the cleansing of the temple, has been building up to accomplish, Jesus says “Now.”Jesus has lit the match, so to speak. The stage is set, Judas has gone out, the betrayal is in motion. Jesus could have prevented all of the ensuing grief on the cross by simply revealing the truth of Judas plans to the eleven disciples and they would have ensured there would be no betrayal, no arrest and no shameful, ignominious crucifixion, as avowed in Matthew 16:22 “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’”. But as Jesus knew in the Garden of Gethsemane, this was not what His Father had planned if prophecy was to be fulfilled and we were to be saved. One might interpret Jesus’ next words as saying “it is begun” just as, on the cross, before giving up His spirit to death, he announced, “it is finished”.

Listen to these words “Now the Son of Man is glorified … .” This is a such paradox. Jesus has just initiated the first irrevocable step on his way to the Passion, to a shameful and disgracing death but he is not using words of defeat or an appeal to his followers to see the extent of his sacrifice for them. If Jesus were just a great prophet, a man of God surely but no more than a man, the cross would mean nothing more than the end of his teaching and ministry, and he would simply be saying farewell to his followers. He could not say that somehow now, more than any other time in His life, His ministry; teaching thousands, feeding thousands, healing countless sick, lame, possessed and blind, that this death on the cross was the beginning of His glorification, different and somehow more than anything that had as yet been accomplished. In fact, “Now” means that everything else was waiting and working towards this moment, this road to the cross that Jesus had just put in motion is also the road to glorification. So how is it that a most disgraceful death could possibly be the source of glory?

It is because nothing else, nothing less than Jesus death, could express the unbounded love that God, in His Son, has for the world. Nothing else in His life, the words, the deeds, the compassion, could reveal the unfathomable depths of God’s love for us. Like the irrevocable breaking of the alabaster flask of ointment that filled the house with its perfume (Mk 14:3), the cross was an excess of love that could only be enjoined once. As Jesus himself said shortly after this, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:13); a love which shrinks from no sacrifice.

But more than just testifying to God’s love for us, the cross glorifies Jesus by fulfilling His work of redemption. Jesus could testify that he would be glorified on the cross because he knew that this would be the greatest outpouring of divine power of his life. As he said, “I, if I be lifted up (meaning on the cross), will draw all men unto Me” (Jn 12:32) and also “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (Jn 3:14).

This wasn’t simply the termination of his work in the world. For Jesus words to be true, that He was glorified and God was glorified in him at his death on the cross, something of substantial value, something more than anything else Christ had done; commanding the wind and the waves, raising Lazarus from the dead, something had to have been be accomplished; He became the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.

But not only is Christ glorified, God is also glorified in Him. Which is not difficult for us to contemplate; we speak of God glorifying himself in a person like King David or Moses, but if God is glorified in Christ, it establishes that close, unique union and indwelling of God in Christ. Jesus isn’t simply a man of noble and innocent character whose suffering, shame, and crucifixion revealed the depravity and sin of the world; if, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:19 “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ”, then God is exalted and glorified absolutely in Jesus death. It teaches us the infinite nature of God’s divine love for us in Christ Jesus. In glory it eclipses even creation and the universe.

We envision God in heaven witnessing his Son bearing our sins on the cross, but the true glory comes when we understand that God was in Jesus, was Jesus, bearing our sins through the unfathomable depths of love for us. The immeasurable dark power and majesty of the God of the Old Testament; fire, thunder and lightening, is focused and distilled into the compassion, pity and pardon poured out at the cross in Christ Jesus.

But here is the twist, “If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” The key phrase here is “in himself”. Not just that God is in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself, but that The Son, Jesus, is in God. That just as God is glorified in Jesus, because he dwells in Him, also Jesus is glorified by God because Jesus dwells in God. In Jesus own words in John 17:5 he says “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Jesus is returning to dwelling in the divinity as he had from the beginning. He came to us as a baby, the son of Mary, our brother, our teacher, our healer and in it all, our God. All that Jesus life could do to glorify God was accomplished on the cross when he uttered “it is finished” and He was glorified by the Father and the Father was glorified in Him. In these verses Jesus was expressing three visions of the events that Judas departure had put in motion.

The vision of Himself glorified by the outpouring of saving grace and power on the cross, more than had ever been manifest; not the flood of Noah, the parting of the Red Sea, nothing compared to the cross.

The vision of God glorified in Him revealing to the world the very heart of God’s love for us.

And the vision of Himself glorified in the Father, raised up and sitting at the right hand of the throne of heaven. This sets in unfathomable relief the wonderful words that follow.

Jesus, who is lifted up to heights inaccessible and inconceivable looks upon us and says, “My children … ” and “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you”. Who, knowing all this, seeing the glory, could not say “yes Lord, I will”.

May God grant us ears to hear and hearts to do His will, to love one another as He has lavishly poured out God’s love for us on the cross.

Amen