Holy Week: Glory

John 17

Reading John 17, I was left thinking about the words glory and glorify. These words are used quite a few times at the beginning of this chapter – 5 times in 6 verses. They are “churchy” words that we’ve all heard before. We kinda know what they mean and we kinda don’t. John’s Gospel is filled with these kinds of abstract words and concepts. Eternal life is another one , which pops up in these verses as well.

I did a little digging and found a pair of words that are closely related to glory and glorify: magnificence and magnify. Magnify is a word that is a little more concrete for us to get our heads around. When we magnify something what we are doing is enlarging it so that we can get a better picture of what that something is up close – its particular characteristics, its dinstinctive qualities, its unique essence. In short, magnifying  helps us to see something more clearly.

A similar dynamic is at work when we glorify something. To glorify is to enlarge something so as to see its splendor and beauty all the more clearly. Take as an example an athlete. Let’s say, Roger Federer. For the Fed to be glorified is for everyone to see and recognize the greatness of his talent and elegance as a tennis player. His talent and elegance are already and always there; they just need to be drawn out or shown-off so that they can be recognized and known by others. That’s what it means to glorify.

So, this is what Jesus says he came to do – to glorify the Father. In Jesus the beauty and character of God is enlarged. It is magnified. And it is important to point out that Jesus says these words as part of his farewell prayer. After praying this prayer, Jesus begins his harrowing journey to the cross. Before he sets off on that road, Jesus asks of the Father, “Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). With the shadow of the cross hanging over these words, Jesus is saying, “Father, as I am lifted up on that cross, beaten and broken, would your beauty and power be enlarged for all the world to see.”

We as believers are the answer to that prayer, for on the the cross we say that we see the character of God displayed in all its brilliance and glory and magnificence. 
And this ends up being what eternal life is all about. As Jesus says in verse 3, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

As we head towards Good Friday, may we get our microscopes out and focus in on the cross. May the glory of God be magnified for us as we gaze on the man who hangs on it. And in so doing may we find ourselves entering ever more deeply into the life that is eternal.

Amen.