“The Prayer for
Glory” (John 12:28)
Do you have a hard time concentrating? Does your mind wander? What seems to be the problem? Are you worried or anxious about
something? Are you stressed out? Are you over-booked, so all you can think
about is your upcoming appointments but are no good for your present activities
and responsibilities? Do you find
yourself complaining inside, “I just can’t seem to think straight these days!”
As we enter Holy Week today, I wonder to myself,
“How was Jesus able to think straight in his days?” What you and I go through is certainly nothing
like what Jesus went through. He knew
his death was looming. It was just
around the corner. And his death was
like none other before. With the weight
of the world’s sin upon him, he was going to have to suffer like no human being
has ever suffered before. It’s no wonder
that, not long after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus said, “Now is my
soul troubled.”
Troubled souls are led to pray. When our souls are troubled, we pray to be
delivered from whatever is troubling us.
When the soul of Jesus was troubled, his prayer was quite
different. He said, “what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’?” No. He
knew that there was a greater purpose for what was to come. And so he said, “But for this purpose I have
come to this hour. Father, glorify your
name.” As Jesus faced the cross, Jesus prayed
for glory … not his own, but the glory of his Heavenly Father.
You and I often seek glory for ourselves. We do something nice for someone. We may even do it with the thought of love
and service. But sometimes we do things with
mixed motives. That nice thing we did
out of love and service? We get mad if
the person for whom we did it doesn’t say “Thank you.” In all of the things we do for others, there’s
a part of us that thinks, “Hey, I’m a pretty good guy for doing this.” We like to get the glory. We want credit to be given to us for what we
do. And if no one notices it, we get
hurt or angry.
But this is exactly the opposite of what
Jesus tells us. Jesus said, “Whoever
loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it
for eternal life.” (John 12:25) Whoever
loves his life – or for our purposes this morning, we might say, whoever
thrives on getting credit, whoever likes to get the glory for what they do – will
lose their life for eternity. Sound
harsh? Yes, but Jesus is teaching us
here that those who are always seeking glory and credit don’t really understand
or believe in his own selfless sacrifice at the cross. In the very next verse, Jesus says, “If anyone
serves me, he must follow me” (John 12:26).
Follow him where? To the cross. To the place of suffering. Believing in Jesus, we follow him to the
cross, where he earned forgiveness for all our sins. But following Jesus also means following in
his footsteps, and that may mean that we also have to suffer and sacrifice as
we serve … and not be concerned about success and honor and glory.
“Now is my soul troubled,” Jesus
said. “And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this
hour. Father, glorify your name.” In this prayer for glory, Jesus sought the
Father’s glory. In seeking his Father’s glory,
he did his Father’s will … which was to go to the cross. The cross of Christ doesn’t seem very
glorious. There was blood there. There was pain there. There was a lot of ugliness there, with mocking
and shouting from the crowd. But the
cross does indeed display God’s glory, because it’s there where we truly see
God’s love, his mercy, his justice, his power, his righteousness, and his
holiness in action.
He did this out of mercy and love
for his creation. He did this so that
you would have your sins forgiven. He did
this to display his justice … so that the sin of the world would be judged and
condemned in the innocent death of Jesus.
And although Jesus appeared weak upon the cross, yet his power was in action
there, too. Through his death and
resurrection, Satan’s power over us is defeated. Everything that the devil throws at us to
incite us against God and turn us against him is brought to nothing.
A little over a year ago, 18 year-old T.J.
Lane was in an Ohio courtroom to face sentencing for a shooting that left three
high school classmates dead and three others wounded. Life in prison without parole was the court’s
decree. Lane sat there listening to the
court proceedings with a smirk on his face, flipping off the victims’ families,
and wearing a white t-shirt with the word “killer” written on it in bold,
black, hand-written letters. Although he
had inflicted untold emotional pain upon the families, the truth was … Lane
could do no more. Although he still
proudly puffed himself up in the courtroom, he was a defeated enemy. His mocking threats and violent gestures were
empty.[1]
The same goes for Satan’s attempts on our
life with God. Because of Jesus’ death
and resurrection, we can view Satan the same way. He is still a “roaring lion, seeking someone
to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). But that lion
is a “toothless” enemy. His threats and
violent gestures are empty. He has been dethroned
and defeated by the Lion of Judah. All
that he does now are the last gasps of one trying to maintain some semblance of
power and control over us. But he has
none. By virtue of our baptism, we
belong to God. We are in his loving care,
even when things appear otherwise.
As Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your
name,” he didn’t seek to get the glory for what he was about to do. Instead, he humbled himself. We heard this morning St. Paul’s words from
Philippians 2 that the Son of God “made himself nothing, taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
That’s what our Lord’s whole life was about. From his conception in the womb of the
Virgin, to his crucifixion on the cross of Calvary, Jesus laid aside his rights
as God and suffered and died for you and for me.
Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your
name” … and God the Father answered his prayer.
A thundering voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will
glorify it again.” In the entire mission
of Jesus up to that point, God had glorified his own name. In Jesus, the grace, the power, and the
blessed purposes of the Father shined brightly.
And in the passion and resurrection of Jesus, his purposes would shine
brightly again.[2]
Jesus never sought his own
glory. Yet, in his High Priestly prayer
the night of his betrayal and arrest, Jesus did pray that the Father would
glorify him. But this glory would only
come through the cross. He prayed, “Father,
the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you
have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you
have given him. And this is eternal
life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent. I glorified you on earth, having
accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had with
you before the world existed” (John 17:1-5).
God the Father answered that prayer,
too. Because Jesus humbled himself and was
obedient to his Father’s will, even to the point of dying on the cross, God the
Father has made the name of Jesus higher and more glorious than any other
name. As St. Paul wrote, “Therefore God
has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.”
As we glorify and exalt and worship the
name of Jesus, we are glorifying our Heavenly Father who sent his Son to be our
Savior. And we can stop worrying about
getting the glory, about taking credit for what we do. Instead, we can give all the glory to
God. He works all things in us in the
first place … faith, repentance, trust, and even the good works that we do.
It’s through Jesus that you and I receive
glory – the glory of forgiveness, the glory of eternal life, and the glory of
heaven – as Jesus said, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I
am, there will my servant be also. If
anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”
We don’t pray to receive glory. But the Father gives it to us as a gift of
grace for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.
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