Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
When Jesus showed up in a human body, there was much confusion. No one recognized their creator. Darkness didn’t understand the light. The nation he was born into didn’t think he was legit.
What did John, the gospel writer, think of this?
He didn’t see confusion. He saw glory. He says, “The Word [that’s Jesus] became flesh, and lived among humans, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14).
Glory? In a human Jesus trudging around backwater Palestine?
Glory? As Jesus argued with Pharisees and told stories to confused disciples?
Glory? On a cross between criminals?In two nights in a borrowed grave?
Do you understand what glory is? I find it a difficult concept.
In Homer’s writings, the Odyssey and the Iliad, when soldiers fought bravely and honorably, they covered themselves with glory, even if they died. Or maybe especially if they died.
When I worked in computing and someone made a programming error that crashed the system, my boss would say, “He didn’t cover himself with glory.”
It’s difficult to define. Think about basketball. It’s a game where people throw a ball around, try to keep it from the other team and throw it through a high-hung steel hoop. But that doesn’t give you the real sense of the game? You only understand the essence of the game by watching it, by feeling the drama as two teams play for a championship. dr
Similarly with glory. You can say it’s a heroic death for a soldier, a successful software install for a computer programmer, or the light of God showing up when Solomon dedicated the temple. But those meager descriptions miss the tension, the excitement, the drama that gives the story glory.
The word gospel is old English for “God’s spell”, or “God’s story.” Jesus is the action hero in the biblical drama. His glory was to play the game of life, to reveal God to the world, to subvert the forces of evil, to build his kingdom on earth.
Let’s pray.
O father, we prepare ourselves to see Jesus’ glory in John’s gospel. To cheer his battle against darkness and disease. To see his truth exposing lies. To watch his power defeat the devil. To experience the failure of his cross turned into the victory of eternal life.
We have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten son of God, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). As we study John’s telling of Jesus, open our hearts to his grace, our minds to his truth, our lives to his presence.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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