Sermon Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think the cross is such a shocking picture of “glory”? What does Jesus redefine about greatness, power, and honor through His suffering?
2. The sermon says, “His death is His glorification, because it is His death that displays who He is most clearly.” What does the cross specifically reveal about the character and heart of Jesus?
3. The sermon says salvation is ultimately about being brought into the delight and love shared within the Trinity. What stands out to you about that picture of eternal life and relationship with God?
4. The sermon argues that we do not drift into living for God’s glory because the world constantly distorts our vision of what is truly glorious. What are some ways the world reshapes our definition of glory, success, or the “good life”?
5. Why is a life centered on comfort and convenience ultimately incompatible with glorifying God? Can you think of examples where obedience to Christ may require hardship, endurance, or even shame?

What makes religion interesting is the same thing that can make it off-putting: it tells you things you don’t already know. When I wasn’t a Christian and began visiting churches, I found a strange mixture of interest and confusion when I would listen to sermons or hear other people talk about the Bible. The first time I heard the story of Abraham offering up Isaac, I was horrified. But when someone began to explain to me the way this story revealed a picture of the gospel, I was intrigued…even if still shocked.

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

• John 17:1-5

The hour of judgment has come. The wall of time has grown increasingly thin; we are one chapter away from the scene where Judas will lead a mob of armed men to arrest Jesus. He knows. So, Jesus has spent these final hours with His disciples.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. - John 13:1

Jesus loves His disciples. So, He serves them (washes feet), He teaches them (about true love, about where He is going, about the Holy Spirit, about what is to come), and He prays for them. In all four accounts of the gospel, Jesus is in the thick of prayer when the arrest happens. Which is instructive in of itself to us: how does one prepare for the most trying of all trials? Prayer.

But Jesus decides to pray out loud and in the presence of all of His disciples. He could have prayed all of this silently. But He wants them to know not only that He is praying for them but what He is praying for them. I wonder if you have ever thought why we pray out loud with one another—isn’t prayer addressed to God? Maybe there is a lurking suspicion you have of some performance going on, some kind of religious showing off, after all didn’t Jesus tell us we ought not pray in public like hypocrites for the approval of men? (See Matt 6:5-8). Yes, but just because some people pray in public for vanity and ego does not mean that all public prayer is done with the same motive. Some people may pursue physical health out of vanity and pride and a desire to seduce. That doesn’t mean that caring about your health is vain, nor that being unhealthy is righteous. When we pray out loud for one another, we are praying to God, but we are praying together. We are led along by each other’s voice, receiving instruction, encouragement, and opportunities for us to latch onto the prayers of another like a rope and offer our own Amen’s.

This is what Jesus is doing for us here. This week we will look at the very beginning of Jesus’ prayer. And as we do, we find many strange, unexpected ideas floating around. What the Father thinks is glorious, what the Son thinks is glorious.

What the Father Thinks is Glorious

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. - John 17:1

Jesus’ prayer surprises us. We think Jesus would be saying something like: Father, the hour has come; help me, strengthen me, give me endurance to bear the cross. Instead, Jesus’ request is that the Father “glorify” the Son. When you hear a song you love, you say to someone else, “You have to listen to this song, it is great.” When you get an opportunity to talk about your pet interest or hobby or new development at work you have been working on, there is an excitement in your voice that pulls other people in with the message: This thing is wonderful and I want you to see that. To glorify something means that the thing you pointing at is always, in some sense, eluding our attention. We sense that it is too big for the frame, that our awareness isn’t adequate to fit the entirety of what it is—so we are constantly re-summoning our attention and the attention of others in that direction to say, See, look, don’t miss this! It’s great!

What does that mean? To “glorify” something means to make something look great, to magnify it, to ascribe value and worth to it. When we “magnify” something we are making what is hard to see obvious. Your naked eye cannot really see the milky way galaxy very well, but point a telescope at the sky and the swirls and stars and twinkling planets become obvious, become non-ignorable, become weighty and real. When we tend to think of a person who is “glorious” they usually look like the traditional hallmarks of status: they have skill, beauty, power, fame, intellect, and they usually have some symbols that telegraph it. They wear fancy clothes, have degrees that hang on a wall, drive expensive cars. But all of those symbols are there to try to tell everyone else: this is what I am like, you might not know it, but I am a big deal and my this baseball sized diamond on my ring proves it.

Now, as audacious as this sounds, Jesus’ prayer to the Father is like that. Father, glorify your Son—magnify my name! Show the world my status, my power, my beauty, my goodness; show them what I am like!

Which makes Jesus’ prayer, again, so strange. The hour has come. The hour that Jesus is speaking of is the hour of the cross. The crucifixion was not only an agonizingly painful method of death, but it was specifically shameful. You were stripped naked, whipped and beaten, and then stretched over a cross bar and nailed in place. Sometimes men would die from the blood loss that would come from the scourging beforehand, but most men died from asphyxiation. You were pulled so tight across the beam, and nailed there, that you could not expand your chest enough to breathe. So you slowly suffocate to death, arms pinned backwards, unable to fend off the carrion birds who pecking away at your exposed flesh. The Romans considered it the “supreme penalty” and was a method of death that was reserved for either the worst of all criminals, or for people Rome considered non-persons (such as, slaves). Roman aristocrats never publicly spoke about crucifixion because it was so vile, so gruesome. In the Jewish worldview, to be crucified wasn’t only socially shameful but religiously condemnatory. “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree,” Moses taught, and all of the Jews interpreted being hung on the wood of a crossbar as that curse. If we had a method of execution today reserved exclusively for pedophiles, it might hit the same cultural resonance that crucifixion hit in the 1st century in Jerusalem.

This is the hour that Jesus is asking for God to magnify, to glorify His Son.

Here is the question: did the Father answer that prayer?

Remember, Jesus qualifies the specific nature of glory He is asking for in verse 5: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed,” (John 17:5).

What was the nature of the “glory” that the Son of God possessed before He took on flesh and became a man? Before the earth was made? When the Father, Son, and Spirit perfectly delighted in one another in unity and love? What kind of glory was that? That is the glory Jesus is asking for. Which we would expect would look like being spared the shame of the cross! Wouldn’t it look more like the brightness of the Mount of Transfiguration for Jesus to be glorified than the darkness of the crucifixion? We are even more tempted to think so by Jesus’ passing statement: “since you have given him authority over all flesh,” (John 17:2). Jesus has been given authority over all flesh? Well, surely that would not look like being kicked in the teeth by the authorities of this world, right? The only reason anyone is ever crucified is because someone has authority and power over them to brutally murder them.

Pilate recognized this: “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” (John 19:10). Jesus’ hands are bound. He is a convicted criminal sitting before the bar of human authority, a victim to whatever Pilate decides.

And yet.

“You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” - John 19:11

Jesus does not think the Father has failed to answer His prayer. He knows that though it appears that Pilate has authority over Him, the opposite is the case.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. - John 12:23-24

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” - John 13:31

The hour of gruesome death is the hour in which the Son is glorified because it is in the death of Christ that we see who He is most clearly! When the Son prays for the Father to magnify the Son, to show Him off, to make it non-ignorable to the world His status, power, goodness, and beauty, there is nothing that the Father could do to more accurately display the glory of the Son than send Him into a sin-broken world and suffer and die for our sins! What is Jesus like? How can you know who He is most clearly? Look at the shame and horror of the cross.

For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. - Luke 16:15

If the crucifixion is the moment of Jesus’ glory, then perhaps that verse works the other way around. What is exalted in the sight of God is an abomination among men. The shame of the cross only compromises the glory of Jesus if we understand “glory” in the way the world does. Important people by worldly standards respecting you, earthly comfort, luxury, status, etc. The cross is the opposite of all of that, of course. A man’s true character is revealed not in a palace, but in a battle; and the soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades, though he dies, His glory is revealed. So it is with Christ. In John’s gospel, the narrative is structured in such a way that the moment of exaltation where Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of the Jews is most clearly and unavoidably revealed…is when He is crucified. His death is His glorification, because it is His death that displays who He is most clearly.

And you will glorify Jesus, Christian, when you remember that His death is not an abstraction or dusty piece of Bible history or a general example. His death was for you. His glory is revealed not in dying, but in dying for your sins. The Father’s heart is to send His Son into the world to live a perfect life and die a sinner’s death so that sinners who put their faith in the Son can be saved. This salvation-mission reveals most clearly to us what the Son is like.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Cor 5:21

What Jesus Thinks is Glorious

Jesus’ prayer about glory does not end in His desire to be glorified through His death. “…glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,” (John 17:1). The Son longs to be glorified so that He can glorify the Father. In other words, the Father’s desire in sending Jesus into the world is to magnify Jesus (Look! See what He is like!). But the Son, turns around and says the same thing about the Father: Look at the Father, look at what He is like!

Jesus prays to the Father, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do,” (John 17:4)

Everything that Jesus has done thus far has not been to lift his own flag high, but the Father’s. His life has been a mirror tilted on a 45 degree angle so that all of His acts and words have been a reflection of the Father’s. He has lived His life so seamlessly in step with the Father that earlier, when asked by the disciples to show them the Father, Jesus could say I already have, if you see me, you’ve seen the Father (see John 14:8-11). And now, right up to the grisly end, Jesus’ desire is that He would endure the cross with manly courage, so that the watching world may see what the Father’s heart is like.

Three men drown to their deaths as a boat sinks. One, because he was so enamored with his money, that he could not let go of his treasure, and so he drowned. One, because his mortal enemy was in the lifeboat, extending a hand to pull him out, which he refused. So, he likewise drowned. And another because there was not enough room in the lifeboat for him and for his wife and children, so he gives up his spot so they can live, so he drowns. What you die for reveals what you think is worth dying for—what you think is glorious. It could be your riches, it could be your vindictive desire to be right, or it could be those you love.

What does Jesus think is worth dying for? His disciples—the Church, you! Right? Well, yes, but what Jesus is saying here shows us that His final goal wasn’t only the salvation of us (see Isaiah 48:9-11). There is another purpose that stands behind that—why does Jesus suffer and die on our behalf? To glorify the Father. Meaning: the clearest way that Jesus can show you what God is like—His heart, His character, His nature—is by enduring the cross, bearing the sins of His people. What is God’s heart? Look to Jesus. He will show you.

In fact, not only is the work that Jesus does on the cross intended to ultimately magnify the Father—but this, to our surprise, is the essence of eternal life!

glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. - John 17:2-3

The point of our salvation is not only a relief of the fear of death, or the much more sinister fear of hell. It is that. The point of our salvation is not just to give us forgiveness, to deliver us from our shame and guilt. It is that. The point of our salvation is not just the an eternity in heaven, in a world free from pain, sin, and sorrow. Though it is that. The point behind all of those (and more) is that we would know God! That we would be like Jesus and be thunderstruck by the enormity, the beauty, the grandeur of God! This is eternal life! To be invited into the delight of the Trinity, to participate in the mutual delight, love, and adoration of Father, Son, and Spirit.

By our faith, we have be united to Christ, so we are given an opportunity to join in this dance. To say to the Father: You are glorious! and for Him to look at us in union with His Son, and say to us, Well done, my beloved! With you I am well pleased!

To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is. - Lewis The Weight of Glory.

Live For the Glory of God

Jesus is the perfect model for us. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We are made for glory (Isa 43:7). So, what does Jesus teach us about that kind of life in this verse?

We must live on purpose

• You do not drift into a life whose aim and purpose is to make much of God. The world muffles and distorts the nature and character of God.
• This is embarrassing to admit, but when I first became a Christian, I was convinced that Christianity was true, that I ought to believe. But I had a kind of smugness about myself as I came into the church, like I had done something terribly noble or heroic. Why? Because at the time, all of my non-Christian friends lived a life that honestly felt more fun. I thought I was doing the “right” thing, but admitted to myself that I was sacrificing a life of pleasure and excitement for a life of goodness, the way a man must give up red meat when his doctor tells him his cholesterol is too high. What was wrong with me? I had been discipled by the world that had shrunk God into a raison, and inflated the lusts of the flesh to gargantuan sizes.

We must be willing to endure

• A life whose main aim is convenience and leisure will never be a life that fits with the glory of God. If you could live in unqualified comfort and ease and show the world what the Father is like, then Jesus would not have chosen a cross as the symbol of obedience to Him.
• This doesn’t mean that everything that glorifies God is necessarily shameful, or hard. When Peter preached at Pentecost and thousands were converted, I’m sure the disciples felt like, “Hey! Cool!”
• But in a broken, sinful world, if we are to magnify the Father, then we are going to be put into situations where obedience will require us to do hard things.
  • If you want to parent your children in a way that shows them (and others) what the Father’s heart is like: His discipline, instruction, love, presence, grace, joy—then it will be hard.
• We may even be required to do things that will earn us the condemnation and shame of others.
  • Jesus was killed as criminal.
  • Maybe you will tell the truth, and people will think badly of you for it.

We must live by faith

• We trust the path, even when it leads to a cross, that a resurrection is on the other side.
• We can trust, because it is a path that Jesus has walked. He isn’t calling us to something He isn’t willing to do, and none of us will walk as severe as a path as He did. Our path is patterned after his, but it is not his. But when we see how He walks, it gives us courage to walk ourselves.

Look, he's covered in dirt The blood of his mother has mixed with the Earth And she's just a child who's throbbing in pain From the terror of birth by the light of a cave Now they've laid that small baby Where creatures come eat Like a meal for the swine who have no clue that he Is still holding together the world that they see They don't know just how low he has to go Lower still Look now he's kneeling he's washin' their feet Though they're all filthy fishermen, traitors and theives Now he's pouring his heart out and they're fallin' asleep But he has to go lower still There is greater love to show Hands to the plow Further down now Blood must flow All these steps are personal All his shame is ransom Oh do you see, do you see just how low, he has come Do you see it now? No one takes from himWhat he freely gives away Beat in his face Tear the skin off his back Lower still, lower still Strip off his clothes Make him crawl through the streets Lower still, lower still Hang him like meat On a criminal's tree Lower still, lower still Bury his corpse in the Earth Like a seed, like a seed, like a seed Lower still, lower still Lower still, lower still... The Earth explodes She cannot hold him! And all therein is placed beneath Him And death itself no longer reigns It cannot keep the ones he gave himself to save And as the universe shatters the darkness disolves He alone will be honored We will bathe in his splendor As all heads bow lower still All heads bow lower still