John 13:21-38
“God Shares Glory”

      The word "glory" is not used very much, at least not in current talk.  The modern person is concerned more with success and meeting goals than with glory.  The word glory or a form of it is used several times in this one passage and the word glorify as it is translated in some translations is even more rare.  For Jesus it appears that glory was a giant concern of his.  It is worth exploring the meaning of glory or glorified.

      It must have been an electric moment in that upper room on that final night.  Supper was over.  Judas had left.  Night was completely fallen.  The air must have been heavy with suspense.  A sense of tragedy was impending, but the disciples just could not describe it.  In the closeness of the circle around the table, Jesus unburdened his heart to those whom he loved.

      Jesus starts out by telling them: "God has been glorified" in "the Son of Man."  The word glory or glorified is a favorite word of John's gospel.  It suggests majesty, splendor, and radiance.  But Jesus used glorified to describe his coming crucifixion and that seems very strange in a way.  What to us seems gory - glory without the "l" - became for him glory.  Jesus was about to sacrifice his life for the reconciliation of the world to God, and for such sacrificial love God would glorify him.  In the original Greek of the New Testament this verb is in the past tense; Jesus was already into it.  Judas had gone out to betray Jesus.  The drama of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection had already begun.  But the glory would not be delayed.  "Now" Jesus declared it is beginning.  "At Once" it will happen, right after Calvary.

      In the quiet of that upper room the Lord was preparing his disciples for the rudest shock of their lives the next morning.  Jesus had already told them that these events would happen several times and on several occasions.  Now Jesus tells them for the last time.  Jesus did everything that divine love could do to cushion the shock for them.  And one would think that Jesus' thoughts would be on himself in this last hour before his betrayal.  After all, the fate of humanity hung upon Jesus' sacrifice.  But Jesus' thoughts were on his disciples and their impending sorrow.

      The term glory could be used of Calvary because the cross was not the last chapter which God wrote.  The resurrection follows after three days and three nights in the grave, just as Jesus had told his disciples it would, and that was glory indeed.  Now for us an empty radiant cross may top our church.  It is the centerpiece of our church and it may be on some communion tables.  At times the cross hangs on ropes or chains about our necks, and, I believe, God is revealing his glory with others and we are sharing that glory as well, as Jesus is glorified.  As we look at crosses may we always remember that love has conquered hate!  Life has triumphed over death!  Hope is the victor over fear!  All of this is because God in Christ has laid down his life on Calvary for his creation to be restored.  God raised Jesus on that Resurrection day in victory so that God's thrilling good news could be proclaimed everywhere in the world for all time, until Jesus comes again.  This is glory with a capital "G"!  I believe that all who are in Christ participate in Glory.  At once this glory comes to those of faith who claim Jesus as Lord!  Do you claim Jesus as Lord?

      Then Jesus expressed the pain of separation from his disciples.  Jesus loved them so much that he could not bear parting from them.  "My children" or "Little Children" Jesus addresses them.  This term for the disciples is only in the fourth gospel and only at this point.  The event which they were about to witness was so colossal and they seemed so frail up against it that Jesus tenderly calls them "My children."  The time is here, Jesus told them.  Our being together is about to end.  We must now take leave of each other.

      "You will look for me"... and perhaps try to follow me, he told them.  It is true; they had developed an enormous dependency on Jesus.  It was as if they could not live without him.  Wherever Jesus would go, they would want to follow, but this time it was impossible.  "Where I am going you cannot come."  I think that is a bit like a young man leaving his beloved wife and children behind as he goes overseas to go to war, while tears come from each eye.  It may be like an aged wife with terminal illness bidding goodbye to her beloved family and husband on her deathbed.  As it turned out, the disciples could not go with him, so Jesus instead came to them afterward with risen majesty in glory.

      Finally, Jesus taught the disciples how to live with each other when he was gone.  "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."  What is new about that?  In Leviticus 19:18 NRSV, we read: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord!"  What is new is: "As I have loved you."  Into an old commandment Jesus poured a totally new meaning.  Jesus' life was the model.  Jesus' love was the pattern.  The love that they would bear to each other would be in the spirit of Jesus' love for them.  That love would have to have a cross at its heart.  The word "agape" is used here in the Greek wherever Jesus used the word "love."  That Greek word means: "self-sacrifice for others." Love is illustrated by what Jesus did on the cross for you and me.

      Such self-effacing love would be the distinctive way the Christian dealt with each other.  That is what would distinguish the Christian community from the rest of the world.  It was exclaimed in the earliest centuries: "See!  How these Christians love one another."  "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13 NRSV)  In this world of hatred, vengeance, violence and war, God intended that there be one community set in its midst as a shining model. ("Jesus bids us shine") where each loves the other as Christ loves us all.

      All of you know what a baseball bat is.  What I want to know is, if any of you have been involved in picking teams to play a baseball game.  Have any of you been picked captain? To pick first one team captain tosses the bat to the other team captain who catches it with one hand and then the two climb the bat hand over hand and who ever can gets the last hold at the end of the handle gets to pick first. If you are captain, you want to pick the best team.  Whom did you pick first?  I bet you try to pick the best players first.  How many of you like to be picked first when teams are chosen?

      I imagine that those who are picked last sometimes feel bad, because they get the feeling that they are not as good as those who are picked first.  I wonder if that is true.  Do you feel bad when you are not one of the first players picked?

      In the scripture that I just read, Jesus tells the disciples that they are to love one another as he has loved them.  He loved the people of the world so much that he was willing to die and He did die for the whole world, including us, and at Resurrection he rose again to reign as King and to keep on loving us.

      In this way we know we are loved and are picked first for God's team, the church.  How many of you would like to be picked first all of the time?

      In Jesus we are picked first each and every time and we work and play together as Jesus' friends in the church.  We also learn to love each other the same way Jesus loves us.  We may each count each other as "number one" members on God's team.

      "See, I am making all things new." Jesus said in Revelation 21:5.  Let it happen here in the Raritan Valley Seventh Day Baptist Church.  Let us share in Glory!  Amen!