In Easter, we remember back before the resurrection, when glory was the same as power and we thought violence could bring peace, rather than love.
the confusing truth about the glory of God
Easter 5C | John 13:31-35
We return to the room like a flashback. The room we were in just a few weeks ago; you know, where Jesus literally walked through the door. That was this room.
But this morning is the flashback—it happened days early. So this experience was in their minds when Jesus came to them. This moment of eating together, Jesus washing their feet, teaching, promising, revealing God to them.
This room, this moment would be on their minds.
And we come to it now to remember then. What was there? What else was there during that time?
Jesus was feeding them bread and said he would share it with all of them. Even the one who would betray them. Then he gave the bread to Judas.
Judas. The evil enters him. And then he leaves. So Jesus tells them to love each other.
He’s warned them and will teach them about God and the Holy Spirit, love and the kin-dom. But he starts here.
After Judas left.
And he says
“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.”
Now. Right now. In this moment. The glorifying has already begun. This is glorifying God. The betrayer leaves to tell the Temple guards where to find Jesus. And yet, God is busy glorifying the Son of Man.
Now. Glorified. Already.
What then is it to be glorified?
Perhaps we shouldn’t take the word for granted. What does it mean to be glorified?
Wiktionary defines glorified as
“Transformed into something glorious (often used sarcastically)”
So of course, we could follow the rabbit hole from glorified to glorious to glory…and end up no closer to a word we know but don’t really know. As the definition hints at, we’re prone to use it sarcastically:
This pen ran out of ink. Now it’s a glorified stick.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? That we would take glory in that direction. Because where do we seek glory or to see others glorified today?
The football field?
Our halls of power?
Instagram?
And what begets this transformation into something glorious? Usually, we call it success. But really its power, authority, influence.
No wonder we turn to sarcasm. Our glory-hounds pursue power through achievements and looks. But behind that are elite schools, wealth, and luck. The fleeting vapid vanities form the building blocks of never-ending power—true immortality. Never forgotten. The GOAT—Greatest Of All Time. Our worth counted by the number in our bank account and the number attending our funerals.
In other words, the total opposite of God’s glory.
That’s why this moment is absurd.
It really is absurd to see this moment as playing an active part in the glorification of Jesus. How does this glorify anything? This betrayal and the ensuing Passion with its abuse, sham trial, and crucifixion. And then, how can any of this glorify God?
Of course, we should notice that the glorification is occurring already. That it isn’t only the cross as if the crucifixion makes that Friday good, but also the betrayal, the supper, and the teaching. Perhaps too, the watching and the fleeing and the women staying with him.
The picture of glorifying which Jesus paints isn’t only his own death. It isn’t only the bad stuff. But neither does he refrain from painting it all.
This image brings to mind the strange fruit of anticipating injustice. Of the innocent man who knows the arrest is coming. The trial and conviction, when the execution becomes inevitable. And yet there he sits, out to eat with his family one last time. Reminding them to love in the heat of what will come.
Love.
And to be a mother, brother, sister, father, cousin, friend, lover and look back at that night, that dinner, those words, that calm reminder: Love! To look back and see that moment and hear those words again:
“Now the Son of Man has been glorified”
Has been glorified. He’s about to go on death row and he’s talking about having already been glorified? What craziness is this?
It can only be made true then. Because he wasn’t glorified later, by the cross. He wasn’t glorified by the sham trial or by his execution. Nor was he glorified by the betrayal or by the denials and running away. Not even by the resurrection.
The glorifying precedes all that.
And we are looking back now and seeing what was already there.
God glorified the Son of Humanity.
God didn’t glorify the Son of God, a king, or even the offspring of royalty. The one promised authority and glory to come. There are no tests of merit or feats of skill; no family names or legacy connections; no perfect teeth or symmetrical features. God didn’t give Jesus a smartphone and encourage him to become famous.
Jesus was glorified before all that. Without any of that. In opposition to all of that.
The Son of Humanity is the humble heir of the everyperson. His traits are weakness and vulnerability, sympathy and a changeable mind. He hears and sees injustice and stands against it. Finds the widows and children falling through the cracks and restores them to the community. Encounters the imprisoned and frees them.
The Son of Humanity made glory in serving others.
And then said. You are to do this too.
God’s glory is humble.
We want glory to be up and big and overpowering, but that isn’t the glory Jesus reveals in God. That glory is humble and subtle. It’s personal, communal, and equal. God establishes justice from within injustice and frees who we would imprison.
We’re looking for glory in all the wrong places! Which means we also attribute the wrong kind of glory to Jesus. And to God.
God’s glory isn’t revealed through might and power but love and vulnerability.
This is why we flashback now. After the resurrection and the overcoming of death. When we shout Hallelujah and declare the power of God.
Now, when we’d turn our hearts to convictions of might and superiority. When we make our god stronger than other gods: ours destroys death! we say.
When our hearts return to power and might and convincing the world that our way is right. And our glorious and powerful God reigns supreme above all the pitiful, pathetic, weak-willed rulers of the world. Yes, we, er…I mean God is the powerfullest and bestest god in the cosmos!
We are drawn back to a picture of true glory, so unlike our culture’s priorities. A humble glory of service and love. Patience and consideration. A glory which began in lunches and healings and teachings and public acts for which the Son of Humanity wouldn’t even take credit.
Like attending a wedding and when the wine runs out, he just makes more. And lets the credit fall upon the host—at least among the guests. Of course, the servants know the truth. They recognize their own. And they recognize what true glory looks like.
Like Jesus. And humble like God.