True Glory

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate as Palm Sunday, was the epitome of Action/Consequence.  The same crowd who had wanted to make Jesus their ruler when he fed them with only five loaves and two fish; the same crowd who had witnessed the lame walking, the eyes of the blind opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, had now seen Lazarus raised from the dead, and they could be contained no longer!  Word got out that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for Passover, and there was a sudden groundswell of people who wanted to seize the moment and crown Jesus as their king. 

They did not understand who Jesus was, or what he had come to do. They had simply seen what he was capable of doing for them in a temporal sense, and were excited at the prospect of having a king with that kind of power.  He could free them from the Romans; he could make Israel the most powerful nation on earth.  They could feel it, and taste it, and they were ready.

Jesus, too, was ready. He was about to become a king—the King of Kings, the King of Glory! His was the Death/Resurrection path, which was upside down and backwards from what they had in mind. However, since their plan was what God was going to use to set His plan in motion, Jesus cooperated. He told them where to find the donkey’s colt on which he would ride into Jerusalem, in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9.  And, when the people gathered palm branches and came out to meet him shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!” fulfilling Psalm 118:25-26, he did not silence them.

Everything the people said and did was actually an appropriate way to honor Jesus as their Lord and Savior, who was about to die for the sins of the world, but they did not understand that or view him in that way. John 12:37 says, “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.”  John 12:16 tells us that Jesus’ own disciples did not realize until after Jesus was “glorified” that they had participated in fulfilling scriptures which had been written about him.

John 12:40 says they were blinded. They were unable to see anything beyond their Action/Consequence driven desires – to be free of Roman rule; to have a miracle-working king who would establish them as a powerful nation and would be able to provide them with a comfortable, and possibly even luxurious, earthly existence. They wanted Jesus to be what we all would like him to be—their earthly benefactor; someone who could give them a life of power and riches along with freedom from fear, pain, sickness and even death.  They perceived that Jesus had the ability to provide all of this for them, and they hoped he would look with special favor on those who helped to make him king.

But immediately after the grand procession, Jesus gave them a startling lesson on the difference between the earthly idea of glory and God’s idea.

In verse 20 of John chapter 12, Jesus’ disciples informed him that some Greeks had asked to see him.  Jesus could have replied in any number of ways; he could have said, “What do I have to do with Greeks? I have come to save the lost House of Israel.” Or, he could have simply told the disciples, “Bring them and I will meet with them.”  Instead, his reply was, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

From an Action/Consequence standpoint, it seems like Jesus had just been glorified by his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.  We could even interpret his response to the request of the Greeks to meet with him as an acknowledgment that his fame had now spread beyond the borders of Israel and this was the beginning of his term as Israel’s Head of State.

But, Jesus had God’s perspective on glory. The word for “glory” in the Greek is “doxa” and implies a favorable opinion of something or someone.  He understood that true glory comes from having God’s favorable opinion; and so he began to talk about his death: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)  If Jesus had been interested in man’s idea of glory he could have become the earthly king and basked in earthly adulation; but he would have remained a single seed, an unproductive kernel, and he would have forfeited any hope of God’s favorable opinion, for himself and for us.

He knew that death lay ahead and he said, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’?  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27-28)

God responded audibly to Jesus’ request by saying that he had already glorified his name—by sending Jesus to earth, and he would indeed glorify his name again—through Jesus’ death and resurrection.  God knew that humankind had no possibility of earning His favorable opinion. We had no hope of glory, unless Jesus fulfilled the purpose for which he came—to die, and save us.  His death alone could show us how serious our condition is, and to what lengths God was willing to go to rescue us. It is only when we grasp how far he was willing to go and how much he loved us, that we will give glory to God in return.

And, how serious is our condition? Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 2:1 tell us, we were dead in our sins, but God made us alive with Christ. What this world considers “life” is actually a state of deadness.

Jesus says, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (John 12:25-26)

If we are happy in our Action/Consequence state of deadness, which is all about what we can possess and enjoy in this world, we will lose eternal life; but, if we acknowledge that we are dead, and serve Jesus by following him into his death and resurrection, then we will spend eternity with him.

Jesus says God will honor us; but not on the basis of our goodness.  He will honor us because we acknowledged his goodness on our behalf, and therefore we glorified his name.

Palm Sunday appeared to be about glory, but was not; the cross appeared to be about defeat, but was about the only true glory.

Christ is risen, and God has made us alive with him!

Happy Easter!