Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

It was not only time for Jesus to die for the sins of the world. It was also time for the eternal Son of God, now also with His human nature, body and soul, to ascend in glory, exalted to the side of the heavenly Father as He had been since the foundation of the world.

 

Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). He said it at the wedding in Cana where He did the first sign of changing water into wine. It was not yet time for the heavenly Bridegroom to take His seat at the head table. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “the hour is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (4:23). It was not yet the hour but it was coming, well on its way. At the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, “they were seeking to arrest Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come” (7:30; 8:20).

 

It was after He had come to Jerusalem for that last Passover, after His triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, that some Greeks who had come to the Feast asked to see Jesus, and He replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). And so when the disciples were gathered to eat 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” (13:1).

 

And on that night “He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; 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” (17:1-2). And then He went to the cross, to death, to the tomb, to resurrection, and after 40 days of showing Himself alive, He bodily ascended with His entire human nature to the right hand of the heavenly Father.

 

He had been sent into the world with the authority to give eternal life to mankind. It was the plan for our salvation before the foundation of the world, and yet the plan was slowly unveiled over thousands of years with promises to the patriarchs and proclamations by prophets. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

 

As we sang in last week’s Hymn of the Day,

God said to His beloved Son: “It’s time to have compassion.

Then go, bright jewel of My crown, And bring to all salvation.

From sin and sorrow set them free; Slay bitter death for them that they

May live with You forever.

 

The Son obeyed His Father’s will, Was born of Virgin mother;

And God’s good pleasure to fulfill, He came to be my brother.

His royal pow’r disguised He bore; A servant’s form like mine, He wore

To lead the devil captive.

(“Dear Christians One and All Rejoice” by Martin Luther, Lutheran Service Book, 556. 5,6)

 

In the fullness of time God sent His Son to save us from sin, death, and the devil. That is the glory of God, to provide salvation for His people. We can praise Him for the wonders of Creation. We can praise Him for the blessings that come to us in life. But of the 10,000 reasons that we might have to praise Him, the one which He reveals to be His true glory, is the raising of fallen mankind from sin and everlasting death to holiness and eternal life with Him.

 

So the hour of Jesus’ true glory was not in turning water into wine or walking on water or feeding five thousand. Those signs all pointed ahead to the true glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, when He accomplished our salvation through His suffering, death, and resurrection. The hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified and so He went to the cross. Jesus, then could know that He was about to be betrayed, condemned, crucified and die, and still pray “Father, 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.”

 

The glory of Jesus is in His accomplishing the work that the Father had given Him authority to do. The glory of Jesus is that He gave Himself upon the cross for sinners, that we might be redeemed and not be consigned to the punishment that we deserve. And so in the greatest glory of God, Jesus did not turn water into wine but let water and blood flow from His dead pierced heart. The greatest glory of Jesus was not in walking on water but in being buried in the tomb having given His life for us. The greatest glory of Jesus was not in feeding thousands with five loaves and two fish, but in feeding us with the body and blood that He gave for the forgiveness of our sins.

 

We receive this salvation that He has accomplished for us by faith, that is, simply by believing that God the Father sent His Son into the world to save us. “This is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). This is the saving faith: to believe that God has saved us by sending His Son to take on our human nature and to suffer and die for our sins. And this is exactly what Jesus did. He finished the work that the Father sent Him to do. He was glorified by displaying the true nature of the only true God who gives Himself in order to save His people.

 

The miraculous signs which Jesus did and the words which He preached were to lead His disciples to believe in the glory of God in the crucified Jesus. It was promised to the patriarchs and proclaimed by the prophets so that they too might be saved by this same faith. It all pointed to Jesus and Him crucified, and in His life and teaching leading up to that moment of glory, Jesus was imparting the same saving faith to His disciples and to us. Jesus was glorified in His work of salvation for us and God the Father was glorified in the sending of His Son for this His great act of love toward sinful man.

 

Jesus’ prayer on the night when He was betrayed, as this hour of God’s glory was commencing, was that the Father would preserve this work of glory. “Holy Father, keep them in Your name” (John 17:11). God’s glory continues to shine forth as we remain in the saving grace of the one true faith. The Son of God has completed the work He came to do and has ascended into heaven at the Father’s right hand. However, the glory of God continues to shine among us.

 

We are still in the world. Jesus has ascended into heaven. As the glory of Jesus was not revealed chiefly in changing water into wine or walking on water or feeding thousands, but in His saving work on the cross; so also His glory continues to shine primarily when we remain in the saving faith during times of trial, temptation, suffering, and death. It is not primarily to God’s glory when athletes hit home runs or actors win academy awards, or even when people are still miraculously healed of bodily diseases; but rather, when they are preserved in the true faith despite the temptations that they face in their lives of prosperity and popularity.

 

And so it is with you. God’s glory shines forth in your life when you remain in His gift of eternal life despite anything that happens to you. “This is eternal life that they may know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” This world surrounds us with threats against that saving knowledge of God: threats that question God’s love for you by attacking any of the testimonies to His divine love in sending His Son to be your Saviour.

 

It is the glory of God when fathers lead their families in reading Scripture and prayer. It is the glory of God when you come into this place to hear His Word and receive the body and blood of Christ given for you. It is the glory of God when you resist that daily temptation to sin. It is the glory of God when you trust in Jesus for the eternal life that He has secured for you, above the pursuit of luxuries and glamour that lose their lustre.

 

What a great comfort it is to know that although the eternal Son has finished the work for which the heavenly Father sent Him into the world, He is not sitting idle at His right hand. Jesus continues to pray for us that we be kept in the Father’s name as His dear children by faith. Now ascended in His human nature, we have a brotherly High Priest interceding for us continually while we are faced with the threats of this world. Not only is our salvation wholly accomplished by Him, but He continues to work to bring it to completion now from His exalted position at God’s right hand.

 

As Jesus speaks such prayers from His heavenly lips, the Holy Spirit is sent forth to us to keep testifying of the saving act of God for each and every one of His children. When we hear the promises made to the patriarchs, the proclamations of the prophets and the announcements of the apostles concerning Jesus, the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies us to keep us in the one truth faith (Small Catechism. Third Article of the Creed).

 

The Holy Spirit draws us to believe that God has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world, and that the Son has fully accomplished what He was given authority to do. It was time for the Father to be glorified in the Son. It was the hour for the Son to be glorified by the Father. And now we give God the glory as we look to Him and His forgiving grace in every temptation, every evil attack, every moment of suffering and every draw to despair. “This is eternal life that they know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”