Glory to God in all Jesus did and does, not only in his birth
By Dean Collins
I can almost hear a wonderful chorus from Handel’s Messiah: “Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God in the highest. And peace on earth.”
The angels in Luke’s Gospel may or may not have been in sync with Handel. We don’t know if they said “Glory” once, three times, or even more. But Luke does tell us they sang this phrase: “and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”
Glory to God, and on earth peace.
In the first 5 verses of John’s Gospel account, Jesus turned from teaching his closest followers to praying for them. It struck me this morning that John did not record what we sometimes call the Lord’s Prayer or the model prayer that Jesus taught the 12 when they asked that he teach them how to pray. In John’s Gospel, chapter 17 is the Lord’s Prayer, and there is much we can learn from it.
John also did not give us the birth narrative. Matthew and Luke did that, but John and Mark did not. But one of the often quoted verses during Advent and especially at Christmas comes from John’s account: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14).
We should pay attention to John’s reference to glory when God took on flesh at the birth of Jesus. We also should note that Jesus opens his prayer in John 17 with, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” God’s glory is central to the gift of the Christ child and at the end of his life as well. Everything is about God’s glory and his love. Christmas is nothing more than a shallow event without the culmination of the crucifixion and resurrection.
God’s glory is central to the gift of the Christ child.
Jesus taught the things God wanted him to teach while he was living in the flesh on earth. He did this to magnify or glorify God’s truth. Jesus did the miracles he did while on earth also to give God glory. From his first miracle at his mother’s request, turning water into wine, and throughout his life, his miracles displayed glory to his Father in Heaven. When his friend Lazarus became sick, Jesus said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (11:4).
His miracles displayed glory to his Father in Heaven.
Now as Jesus prays, he asks his Father, “Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you”. Only complete obedience to the Father’s will could bring this ultimate glory.
Paul’s familiar words in Philippians 2 may help us here: “Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Here we have both Christmas and crucifixion. A gift of love to us that would be demonstrated fully through the obedience of Jesus to take your sins and mine to the cross on our behalf. Only obedience and love bring this kind of glory to God. And through them, Jesus teaches us that we receive eternal life. He didn’t say one day we would receive it; he said it begins now. It will be interrupted for a moment when we breathe our last breath on this side, but all we do once we are surrendered to Jesus is an expression of the eternal life of God. That should be a humbling and unbelievable thought we must consider.
Here we have both Christmas and crucifixion.
Maybe in our celebration of Christmas this year we will have a deeper and more profound understanding of the gift of a Savior born in a manger who calls us to follow him in every way starting now.
Your time with God’s Word
John 17:1-5; Philippians 2:5-11 ESV
Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash
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