GLORIFYING GOD THROUGH THE GRIT
Scripture: John 16:32-17:5
Text – John 17: 1, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”
There are many people considered to be great people – people in their lifetimes who were called upon to live for other people and they rose to the challenge. Among them – Gandhi was an activist to rid India of British power through peaceful protest. Schindler was a German businessman who bought privileges from the German Reich to employ 1,000 mostly Polish-Jewish children to save them from the holocaust camps. Winton was a British humanitarian counterpart to Schindler who, realising the plight to come if he did nothing, saved 669 children from the German holocaust by transporting them from Czechoslovakia to Britain prior to the start of the war. Mother Theresa’s work among the poor in the slumps of Calcutta is unequaled by any charity worldwide. Martin Luther King, American Baptist minister and human rights activist, had a dream of equality of all races and ethnicities, expressed mainly in the abolition of black slavery in the United States. King was inspired by Ghandi in his non-violent demonstrations and civil disobedience. Their great names came at tremendous personal cost to all of them – from living in poverty to assassination. Their convictions were so deep and strong in the DNA of who they were that they became totally obsessed with achieving the aims that consumed them. The good of humanity was at stake and no price was too high.
These people reflect for me something of the heart of Jesus and his complete obsession with glorifying God. I am profoundly captured by the notion that if one will represent God in this life, there can be no room for self-preservation. This is counter-cultural to our post-modern society’s thinking about personal comfort and promotion. When God captures our hearts, we tend not to think as the world thinks! And so, we will consider the theme this morning of Glorifying God through the Grit. It is the way Jesus did life and it is His living legacy of how we are to do life. No matter how tough things got or how complicated his life became, his complete focus was bringing people to know God through his life and that was the driving force behind everything he did and every priority of his life.
Today is Palm Sunday. It is the day we associate with palm branches waving and songs of celebration – and rightly so. But there’s more to the Passion Week drama and events. We will skim the surface of some of these events and activities and discover how they led Jesus to the coming cross, crucifixion and completion of the Father’s work; how, through the grit of his circumstances, Jesus glorified God.
There are good reasons to decide the journey begins at any number of entry points but the one that captures our attention as the likely starting-point is when Jesus was ANOINTED at Bethany (12:1-11). It was six days before Passover. Jesus went to Bethany and as was his frequent practice, he stayed with Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus. Lazarus, whom Jesus resurrected from the dead, is sitting with Jesus at a meal that the siblings were hosting in Jesus’s honour! While Martha was in the kitchen as was her custom, expressing her worship of God and honouring Jesus, Mary focused on Jesus another way. On one of his earlier visits Mary sat at his feet to listen to his teaching. On this visit she anointed his feet with very expensive perfume. The aroma filled the house John says. Judas pretended to care about the poor and the waste of the perfume that could have helped so many. He was really disgusted at a lost opportunity to line his pockets. Jesus, straight up told him, “7Leave her alone. It was intended she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.”
It is convincing to consider that this account of Jesus’s anointing marks the beginning of the road to the cross. Immediately following this experience Jesus was riding into Jerusalem as we celebrate on this day. He then predicted his death and forces everyone to face the ugly realities to come. It is not unlike dreading the follow-up visit to the doctor after having a series of tests or the anxious parent looking at the police cruiser pulling into the driveway or the young expectant mother who loses her child. It is hard to face dreadful things, unbelievable things. Jesus’s closest people were no different. They didn’t want to sit with this awful possibility, they had such hopes for the future. But here they are, listening to him as he presses in on them to hear what he has to say. The anointing of Mary was an introduction to these coming days.
After the anointing with the burial oil, Jesus is ACCLAIMED as king of the Jews. (12:12-19) Regular church-goers know well the very familiar verse 13, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles where three great Jewish celebrations that every Jew hoped, at least once in their lifetime, to experience in Jerusalem, the Holy City of the Jewish people. Estimates suggest there would be as many as 2.7 million people at any given time. Throngs of Jesus followers were going from Bethany to Jerusalem accompanying Jesus and were joined by masses of other people who were intrigued by the sensational Jew who was rumoured to have raised a man, Lazarus, from the dead. In unison voice they proclaimed him as Israel’s king. Some people proclaimed because they were convinced of his authority. Others simply joined the chant because peer pressure and the euphoria and energy of the celebrations made even docile people react differently. They heralded the king they wanted rather than the king God sent. The war cry of a warrior was realised when he would ride through the parade on his horse while the king intent on peace rode a donkey. Yet the people paid no heed to Jesus’s deliberate choice of steed. While they proclaimed Jesus as king with great fanfare and excitement, Jesus must have grieved to know they would not receive him the way he intended.
The journey of the coming days led to ANNOUNCEMENTS and ACTIONS. People sometimes share information and without divulging their sources, will say, “I have it on good authority” or “a trusted source” that sometimes proves to be true or not. But on this account we can “take it to the bank” as credible and guaranteed. The words of Jesus were more than predictions but the disclosure of reputable information since it came from Jesus himself. Jesus alerted his followers of his coming death (12:20-36); there were divisions about Jesus’s claims being Messiah (12:37-50); from there he performed an act of servitude (washed disciples’ feet--13:1-17) where he tried to teach the lesson that greatness comes through humility and the valuable lesson of preferring other people above ourselves. Jesus informs his followers of the coming betrayal (13:18-30) of one disciple and the pending denial by another. (13:31-38)
By this time the region is full of expectancy. The energy that something different is on the horizon is unavoidable as this Nazarene, whom people are out to execute, is in full view of everyone since the day he rode through the streets declaring himself the Messiah. I want to be excited but it is mixed with trepidation.
And now we come to the stage from where we started. Jesus prays in chapter 17 and his prayer is about ACHIEVING the mission. He prays in verse 1, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may glorify you.”
While this points to the crucifixion and resurrection, to eternal life itself for the people, glorifying God was a lifetime of sacrifice and surrender for Jesus. The very fact that Jesus willingly gave himself to the will of the Father to be born in human flesh and subjected to human restrictions, binding him in humanity, is in itself a glorifying act of Jesus for the Father. We do not – cannot – appreciate or comprehend what Jesus sacrificed: “who, in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Phil 2:6-7) Further to his humanity, Jesus faithfully glorified the Father by carrying out his daily witness as he healed people who never said ‘thank you’. People hated him for healing the blind and crippled, criticizing His lack of respect for tradition. They despised him so much they wanted him dead. His disciples tried to bargain with him for favours by asking for seating privileges in his coming kingdom. When he was facing the darkest night of his life his friends wouldn’t even stay awake with him and help him through the night. Not only that, they skedaddled when things got heated. He glorified God by staying true to the mission, even when his closest people denied him, deserted him and betrayed him out of frustration that he wasn’t doing what they thought he should be doing. Yes, he glorified God through all of this, moving through abuses, rejection and aloneness, all to glorify the Father. Finally, Jesus glorified God by giving eternal life to those for whom he would die. The very image of God would be engraved on their hearts and these people would transmit the glorious person of God from person to person. Jesus said of himself in John 17:4, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” Who could hope for more than that or want more than that?
Completing the mission was about bringing eternal life to those for whom Jesus would die. We understand eternal life to mean a continuation of living, a moving from this life experience to another life experience, transitioned through death. But we learn here that eternal life is so much more than that. Jesus said in verse 3, “this is eternal life: that they may know you.” Professor of Divinity, Dr. William Barclay, captures the deeper essence of eternal life when he teaches us that to possess eternal life is to “experience here and now something of the spendour, majesty, joy, peace and the holiness which are characteristic of the life of God.”
Jesus completed the mission when He was crucified and resurrected (Chap 20)! There were multiple appearances (Chap 20-21) and finally Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit came to the people as Jesus promised! But this did not come easily. Jesus was grinding it out every day, faithfully growing, learning, working, and seeking the Father on the journey. He suffered and experienced pain. He had moments of desperation and anxiety. He often didn’t get what he wanted. Most days he worked longer than he rested. Yet, in all of this, he focused on bringing recognition to God; that was always his purpose and it helped him stay the course and stay objective when times were tough.
I’ve learned some things the past few days as I prepared for today. The first is, it is so easy to decide that life is about my dreams and aspirations, hopes and creature comforts. But that perspective falls desperately short of a fulfilling life. Life was never about us in the first place. Our purpose is found only in Jesus!
I was reminded that Jesus gave so much evidence of who He is and proof that everything He spoke was truth and everything he said became reality. So I can trust Him! We will face formidable foes but Jesus’s conquest and victory reminds us that we too “win in the end” because he said that He will come to take us to be where He is!
Another important reminder is understanding that the promise of eternal life is not something to look forward to in some distant future but an experience with God that we are invited to now! Jesus wants to give us eternal life now, which becomes our gift when we choose to know God!
How easily we try to bend God’s will to ours; how we push him to give and do what we most desperately want from him. So often our focus on knowing Jesus is the benefit package that we hope will come out of it. But it is not that. Following Jesus is a way of life that becomes totally consumed with bringing recognition to the Father, whatever that means and however it comes.
We are like the disciples in that we don’t always “get it right” but our broken, feeble love for Him is enough; it is enough for Him to receive us every day and make something beautiful of our lives.
So often our lives seem a puddle of problems; a broken mess with so many fragmented pieces that we hardly know some days what the point is in all of it. But Jesus knows the point of it all! One song says to the Lord, “You turned my mourning into dancing / you turned my sorrow into praise / you give me beauty for ashes.” (Benton Brown/Chris McClarney) Maybe the experience of this song comes when we learn that consuming our lives on ourselves is not supposed to be the focus; but instead, focusing more on Jesus and deciding that whether comfort or distress, in want or having plenty, I will aim to glorify (represent, lift up, reveal) God whatever my lot. It is as the songwriter penned in song 741 (Salvation Army Songbook), “It is well with my soul.” When is it well with my soul? He says when there is peace and sorrows; then there are trials and I am helpless; if I am overwhelmed with problems or even if I am dying. How could he say that? He could said it because of verse 4:
“Lord ‘tis for thee, for thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave is our goal.”
He could say it because his focus was not the temporal realities of here and now – his focus, like Jesus, was the Father.
Our lives are not always easy. But they can always be full of purpose and hope if we will seek to bring attention to God with every breath; if we seek to honour God with every purpose, desire and motivation.
Herald Him as Lord of your life, as King of your existence! Let there be a resurrection of new life as you make new surrender to Jesus!
