Rev. Charles Lehmann + John 17:1-11 + Easter 7
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Alleluia!
“Father, the hour has come.” We've heard this said more than once. “My
hour has not yet come.” He said it to his mother in Cana when she asked him to
solve a little problem at the wedding reception. When people tried to arrest
Jesus in Galilee because of his teaching John the Evangelist wrote, “They were
seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not
yet come.” And again John tells us that when Jesus taught in the temple
treasury, “no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.”
But on this night, after this prayer, Jesus will be arrested. His teaching
is complete. The way to the cross is prepared. No more delays. No more side
trips. No more narrow getaways. The temple guard is coming with armor and
sword. Jesus is to be bound and carried away for illegal trial and bloody death.
Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come.” But what He says next doesn't
seem to fit. It doesn't seem to make sense. In fact, it goes against everything
that we tend to think about glory. Jesus says, “Now, Father, glorify me in your
own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
When we hear of God's glory, lots of images probably come to mind. There's
the ethereal old man who has a gentle yellow halo surrounding him. There's
Jesus coming in judgment on a black and boiling thunderhead. There's the Lord
of glory with eyes like fire, a voice like many waters, and a double-edged
sword coming out of His mouth. But none of those are the picture here. None of
these are the way that the Lord speaks of His glory in John's Gospel.
The Lord's ways are not our ways. The Lord's thoughts are not our
thoughts. When Jesus considers the glory He had before the world was made, He
is not thinking of the sort of thing that His fallen creatures consider glory
to be. His glory is true. It is real. It is complete. When we seek our own
glory we seek power. We seek fame, prestige, and money. We seek the ability to
control our own destiny from beginning to end.
Our view of glory is every bit a self-seeking and self-serving glory. If
we are honest, we will see how this is reflected also in the way we view love.
Our liturgy says that marriage is for the mutual love and support of those who
enter into it, but too often we approach marriage on the basis of what's in it
for us.
Some people get married because they expect they'll be less lonely,
because it's nice to have someone around who loves them even with all your
faults. It makes them feel good. It makes them... happy. But where does love
really come into all this? Well, sometimes someone wants a spouse so that they
can serve them, take care of them, and give of themselves to the other. But not
always. Sometimes it's you, you, you. Sometimes it's all about what they're
going to do for you. That's not love. It can actually come very close to hate.
It's saying that your spouse is important only when they serve your wants and
desires. They're just a tool for your own happiness.
Whether we call it glory or love, our glory is often vainglory. Our love
is often simple narcissism. Both are perversions of the real thing. But with
Jesus it is different. With Jesus, glory is not about the self. It's about the
other. To be glorified is to give yourself, and so Jesus says, “The hour has
come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his
life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
The hour has come for the grain of wheat to fall into the earth and die.
The glory of Jesus is His death. The glory of Jesus is for Him to receive all
of your sin and to give to you all of his righteousness. This is the glory that
He had with the Father before the world was made.
Jesus as the Father's eternal and only begotten Son received from Him all
things. If you listen to what Jesus says in the Gospel of John about His
Father, you will be told of many wonderful things. Jesus' Father testifies
concerning Him throughout the Old Testament. Jesus' Father has sent him so that
all who believe in Him might have eternal life. Jesus' Father has sent Him so
that by seeing the Son all might know the Father's love. Jesus does not speak
His own word. He speaks what His Father has given Him to say.
We hear this and we are tempted to think it makes Jesus less than He would
be otherwise. He is less powerful if He listens to the voice of His Father. If
He is really true God He should act on His own authority. But this thinking
again is the thinking of men. We think service diminishes us. We think
obedience makes us subordinate, oppressed, and less than free.
But not Jesus. From eternity He has received all good things from His
Father. What goes for the Father goes also for the Son. The Son has received
all that is His Father's. And so with the joy of perfect freedom Jesus hears
His Father's voice, does His Father's will, and receives from His Father
perfect glory and perfect love. The Son of Man is not diminished by His
obedience to His Father's will. It is an easy yoke. It is a light burden. It is
the joy of the true Son to obey the true Father.
It is in this eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son
that we can see what true Fatherhood and true Sonship really are. Never in all
eternity has the Father been anything but God the Father. Never in all eternity
has the Son been anything but God the Son.
The unity of will within the Trinity is not really that surprising. The
Trinity is united in love. Eternal love, dear Christian, is what created you.
Eternal love, dear Christian, is what motivated the Father to send the Son.
There was nothing desirable in you. There was nothing worthy of the Lord's
love. But God does not love as we love. His love seeks only to give Himself.
His love seeks only for you to live with Him forever in perfect peace and joy.
Who would not rejoice to receive from, to listen to, and to obey such a
Father as this? It is from this eternal relationship that Jesus makes his
request. “Now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I
had with you before the world existed.”
And so it is in this love that the Son asks the Father to glorify Him.
Jesus tells his Father, “I am ready. I will now go to the cross. My glory will
be the salvation of the world. I will give myself for them and to them. They
will be mine, and none whom you have given me will ever slip out of my hand.”
The glory of Jesus hasn't changed. He still comes for you. He still wants
to give all that He has to His beloved church. He lives in perfect joy and
peace with His father. He has united Himself with you by His baptism. He has
died and so your sinful flesh too shall die. He lives and so your resurrected
body also will live. His glory is your forgiveness. His forgiveness is your
salvation.
There is nothing to fear. Not for Jesus. Not for you. The cross is His
glory because it is by the blood of the cross that you have life and salvation.
As Jesus prays for you He says, “I have given them the words that you gave
me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from
you; and they have believed that you sent me.”
You have the Lord's Words. You have the Lord's promises. You have the life
that can never end. You have the peace that comes from His resurrected body.
You have the forgiveness that comes from eating His body and drinking His blood.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Alleluia.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Assistant Pastor, Peace With Christ Lutheran Church, Fort Collins, CO
Pastor-Elect, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
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