Who Knows God?
What do people really know about God and how do they know it? Even earnest seekers after God are frequently more interested it what they can receive from God, than in God himself.
The sovereign power that caused the universe to exist and by whose laws it is sustained. Who knows that power? Unless God had shown himself to us we would not have known him. We would be struggling still with the hopes and creations of our own minds. God showed who he was by his actions when he rescued a small nation from the cruel exploitation of Pharaoh; He showed that he is stronger than the strongest king known to the people of that time, and that he desires justice and not oppression. God further showed his nature when he showed Moses how to fashion a law which would, even by itself, be glorious, because it emphasized fairness, which was called justice. Then he gave Moses precise instructions on how to make a tent where he would meet with the people as they worshipped. Every part of the tent would contain a symbol of God’s true nature and show how God chose to interact with the people who had entered into a treaty of peace with him. The rescue, the law, the tent of meeting: each one of these was considered glorious by the people because they reflected the nature of the divine.
Now Jesus who has reached the height of his popularity announces that it is time for him to be glorified. Since glory can mean that the true nature of something is made clear, how would this happen? Would it be a new law, or a new rescue? Or the rebuilding of the nation? Most people thought that to rebuild the humiliated nation of Jews would be glorious. Jesus planned a greater nation than the Jewish one; he planned a community of people drawn from all nations, who would be united to God through him. More than that, he planned that every law breaker would be made to appear as a lawful person in the sight of the judge of all the earth.
He did not hide the agony that his plans involved. “Now is my Soul troubled.” He says to the listening crowd. “What shall I say? Shall I ask my heavenly Father to save me from this time? No, I came for this very reason.” In the sight of the crowd he prays, “Father, glorify your name.” A voice answers him, a voice from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The people listening hear the voice, “An angel spoke to him.” They say. “No, it was thunder, says some of them. Jesus tells them that this voice has come for their sake, not his.
He begins to explain what the “now’ is and what the ‘glorify’ will reveal. It is not what anyone expected. Jesus is not going to demonstrate his power by defeating a Pharaoh; he declines to show his power against the Caesar who rules the larger part of the world. He has chosen to withstand the ruler behind the rulers. The power of evil itself. By his death this power will be subdued. He explains it this way; “Now, is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be driven out.” This is the glory he is planning. The judgment of the world, and victory over the power behind all evil..
“When I am lifted up from the earth,” says Jesus, and the crowd is speechless, because that phrase ‘lifted up from the earth’ refers to lifting a wooden cross up from the earth and planting it in the ground, upright, with a man hanging by hands and feet from the cross, a slow cruel death, so cruel that it was reserved only for criminals. Jesus is standing there talking about the turmoil in his soul because he expects to be crucified. “When I am lifted up,” says Jesus, “I will draw all people to myself.” This is the path to glory that Jesus has chosen, and this path will make plain the true nature of this ordinary looking man who has gone around doing good.
The Gospel of John: chapter 12, verses 27 - 33
The sovereign power that caused the universe to exist and by whose laws it is sustained. Who knows that power? Unless God had shown himself to us we would not have known him. We would be struggling still with the hopes and creations of our own minds. God showed who he was by his actions when he rescued a small nation from the cruel exploitation of Pharaoh; He showed that he is stronger than the strongest king known to the people of that time, and that he desires justice and not oppression. God further showed his nature when he showed Moses how to fashion a law which would, even by itself, be glorious, because it emphasized fairness, which was called justice. Then he gave Moses precise instructions on how to make a tent where he would meet with the people as they worshipped. Every part of the tent would contain a symbol of God’s true nature and show how God chose to interact with the people who had entered into a treaty of peace with him. The rescue, the law, the tent of meeting: each one of these was considered glorious by the people because they reflected the nature of the divine.
Now Jesus who has reached the height of his popularity announces that it is time for him to be glorified. Since glory can mean that the true nature of something is made clear, how would this happen? Would it be a new law, or a new rescue? Or the rebuilding of the nation? Most people thought that to rebuild the humiliated nation of Jews would be glorious. Jesus planned a greater nation than the Jewish one; he planned a community of people drawn from all nations, who would be united to God through him. More than that, he planned that every law breaker would be made to appear as a lawful person in the sight of the judge of all the earth.
He did not hide the agony that his plans involved. “Now is my Soul troubled.” He says to the listening crowd. “What shall I say? Shall I ask my heavenly Father to save me from this time? No, I came for this very reason.” In the sight of the crowd he prays, “Father, glorify your name.” A voice answers him, a voice from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The people listening hear the voice, “An angel spoke to him.” They say. “No, it was thunder, says some of them. Jesus tells them that this voice has come for their sake, not his.
He begins to explain what the “now’ is and what the ‘glorify’ will reveal. It is not what anyone expected. Jesus is not going to demonstrate his power by defeating a Pharaoh; he declines to show his power against the Caesar who rules the larger part of the world. He has chosen to withstand the ruler behind the rulers. The power of evil itself. By his death this power will be subdued. He explains it this way; “Now, is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be driven out.” This is the glory he is planning. The judgment of the world, and victory over the power behind all evil..
“When I am lifted up from the earth,” says Jesus, and the crowd is speechless, because that phrase ‘lifted up from the earth’ refers to lifting a wooden cross up from the earth and planting it in the ground, upright, with a man hanging by hands and feet from the cross, a slow cruel death, so cruel that it was reserved only for criminals. Jesus is standing there talking about the turmoil in his soul because he expects to be crucified. “When I am lifted up,” says Jesus, “I will draw all people to myself.” This is the path to glory that Jesus has chosen, and this path will make plain the true nature of this ordinary looking man who has gone around doing good.
The Gospel of John: chapter 12, verses 27 - 33
posted by Jessie Coates at 1:44 PM
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