The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Jesus was not only glorified after the dark hour of his Passion during the day of resurrection but rather in the cross itself he revealed God's glory to the world. He was to be lifted up in the resurrection and the ascension, lifted high in the praises of his people. But all of this was inextricably linked to his being lifted up on the cross. In the world a normal king would first have to assume great power in order to reign. But with Jesus his reign began when he divested himself of all power. A normal king would begin their reign with great show of honor, pomp, and circumstance. But Jesus began his reign by allowing himself to be emptied even of the common standards of human dignity. But God's power was such that in being broken open in love and emptied out on the cross that what seemed to be less than nothing in the eyes of the world became the most powerful and transformative event in human history.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
If one takes a seed and places it in an airtight jar on the shelf that misses the point of the existence of the seed. The seed does not exist to preserve its shape indefinitely. To the degree that one insists on preserving the seed as seed it becomes less and less interesting, increasingly stale, stagnant, and forgettable. This is more obvious in the case of seeds, that they are meant to surrender their current form in order to be transformed, so that their life can be shared by the fruit they bear. But in our own lives we often try to put our identities in a jar on a shelf and refuse to let anyone touch them. Yet we too are meant to be buried, broken open, transformed, and shared with the world. When Jesus says that whoever loves his life loses it he means that those who love it in the sense that they won't surrender it to the transformative power of God will never become what they are meant to be. And yet to surrender it in this way is always experienced by the ego as a kind of death. Thus it is only those who lose their life in this world preserve it for eternal life.
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Jesus had already said a few things about his purpose in coming to our world. He came to preach and to heal (see Luke 4:43). He came to seek and save the lost (see Luke 19:10). He came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (see Mark 10:45). John would later say that Christ was revealed to destroy the works of the evil one (see First John 3:8). We see the culmination of all of these purposes, all of these threads coming together in the hour of his Passion. His preaching found fulfillment in the cross. The cross was the source of the healing power, because it was "by his wounds" that "we are healed" (see Isaiah 53:5). It was the way by which the lost would be sought, found, and saved, and the ransom paid for sinners. It was the most perfect revelation of the heart of God that had ever or could ever happen.
Father, glorify your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven,
“I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”
The Father's name would be glorified even while Jesus yet hung on the cross. The judgment of this world and the defeat of the ruler of this world, the devil, were perfectly accomplished as Jesus began to reign from the throne of the cross. Even before his death to draw all people to himself. We see it happen in the guard that recognized that Jesus was truly the son of God. We see it in the good thief asking him to remember him when he came into his Kingdom. We see it in our own lives when his cross moves our own hearts to deeper repentance and commitment to the Gospel message.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
On Sinai the law was written on tablets of stone. But by the obedience of Jesus on the cross the law was written upon the human heart. By the cross all barriers to relationship was God were irreparably broken, making it possible for all, "from least go greatest" to know the Lord.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
The invitation for us today is to allow ourselves to be so moved and captivated by the cross of Christ, so drawn to the one lifted high upon it, that we will follow him willingly, delighting as servants to be where the master is. Then we too will play some small part in drawing the world to Jesus. As the psalmist wrote:
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
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