Prayer Before Execution
Thursday March 2. John 17:1-8
‘Make me glorious!’ That’s a reasonable prayer coming from a man who is about to die bravely.
The word glory as it is used in the Bible means to make the true nature of a person or thing evident. The way warmth is the glory of the sun, and beauty is the glory of nature.
Let humanity see my true nature and your true nature prays the man who has received power to give eternal life to others, even while he is preparing to die. Make me glorious by making evident to humanity what is really going to happen as a result of my death. That’s interesting; do we fully understand all that happened when the Life-giver died? We know some of the things that happened; Jesus closed the gap between God and people. We know that God demonstrated that death is not the end by bringing Jesus back from death. However do we fully understand all that is the result of that sacrificial death? I ask myself that question and my answer is, No. Because, for one thing it is still happening, I am still seeing new consequences of that effective death. For another thing, I am still understanding it better every Easter. It takes all of life to comprehend what has happened. Moving from partial understanding to a fuller understanding is a pilgrimage – the kind of pilgrimage we make during Lent.
‘Make me glorious!’ That’s a reasonable prayer coming from a man who is about to die bravely.
The word glory as it is used in the Bible means to make the true nature of a person or thing evident. The way warmth is the glory of the sun, and beauty is the glory of nature.
Let humanity see my true nature and your true nature prays the man who has received power to give eternal life to others, even while he is preparing to die. Make me glorious by making evident to humanity what is really going to happen as a result of my death. That’s interesting; do we fully understand all that happened when the Life-giver died? We know some of the things that happened; Jesus closed the gap between God and people. We know that God demonstrated that death is not the end by bringing Jesus back from death. However do we fully understand all that is the result of that sacrificial death? I ask myself that question and my answer is, No. Because, for one thing it is still happening, I am still seeing new consequences of that effective death. For another thing, I am still understanding it better every Easter. It takes all of life to comprehend what has happened. Moving from partial understanding to a fuller understanding is a pilgrimage – the kind of pilgrimage we make during Lent.
posted by Jessie Coates at 10:06 PM
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