We see this in Jesus’ response to certain God-fearing Greeks who appeared in the crowd around Him during Passion Week, asking for an audience. The glorification idea intensifies in John’s gospel as Jesus gets closer and closer to the cross. Jesus echoes this notion in John 17:4.Īddressing His Father, He said: “I’ve brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” We glorify (or bring glory to) God when we do God’s work, when we obey God’s word, when we act in such a way as to enhance the divine values or mission in the world. “Bringing glory” is what children do to their parents when they perform well in school, excel in sports, or stand out in some other praiseworthy endeavor. By changing water into wine at a wedding celebration in Galilee, John says, Jesus “revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (2:11) Lazarus’ resurrection, Jesus Himself observed, was “for God’s glory, so that the son of God may be glorified through it” (11:4, NRSV) in vision, John said, Isaiah “saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (12:41). It was a glory “shining through the veil of his flesh.” 2
#SONG SOMEWHERE BETWEEN JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE FULL#
We have seen his glory (την δοχαν αυτου), the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Even without fully understanding what all John had in mind here, the mere reading of those words transports the mind to a sublime place, filled with excitement and wonder.
His opening pronouncement is on this theme–chapter 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John places considerable emphasis on the notion of glorification in his gospel. What all did Jesus have in mind here? What’s behind this idea of glorification? What form was it to take? Glorify your Son (δοχασον σου τον νιον/ doxason sou ton vion), that your Son may glorify you” (verse 1). Jesus began His supplication in a way that is alien to us–with a focus on the idea of glorification. And now, more than half a century later, and facing the crosswinds of events in the church and in the world around him, John returns to the famous prayer, the Holy Spirit guiding his mind toward its most salient features. Jesus would have wanted them to witness this unvarnished unburdening of His soul to His Heavenly Father. And of the burdens that came to the fore, I’ve identified six: glorification, revelation, protection, sanctification, unity, and reunion.Įvidently, then, Jesus’ prayer was offered while He was still at the location of the Passover meal, where John, together with the other disciples, would have heard it. 1 In this prayer Jesus unburdens Himself before God in a manner unprecedented in the other gospels. In John, the event in chapter 17 is Jesus’ final prayer before the cross. John does not record Jesus’ Gethsemane supplication mentioned in the Synoptics. Instead, I came to see that the subject of unity, while very present, does not dominate the passage, but that the prayer covers a variety of themes. This as-if-for-the-first-time reading of the text quickly disabused me of a long standing preconception I had of the chapter–namely, that the subject of unity was its dominant theme. Reading the chapter in the original language (an exercise which forces a slower pace) also contributed to this listening process. So setting aside, as best I could, my own presuppositions about the chapter, and without relying on the views of theological or biblical experts, or the positions of dictionaries and commentaries, I tried over several days to listen–just listen–to what the text itself is saying–to read the chapter as if for the first time, asking how the ordinary person would understand Jesus’ words, if they happened upon them in some deserted place, away from commentaries, sermons, or notes of any kind. I interpreted my assignment (of John 17) as an invitation to break through the static and the noise, and get at the heart of Jesus’ burden in this strategic prayer.