John 13 is the prelude to the majestic yet intimate farewell of Jesus to his disciples. This final discourse, comprising Jn 14-17, spells out the terms of both Jesus’ union with the Father and the disciples’ union with him. If we want to know the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus and of the Christian life, it is necessary to be familiar with the whole picture presented in these chapters.

In today’s passage, the two key words — glory and love — are difficult to understand properly. Both words are commonly used for something other than what they really are, and so the meaning of Jesus’ words can be easily distorted.

Glory is a recognition of true worth — the clarity in which all reality is seen as it really is. Therefore, God’s true glory is the acknowledgment of his lordship over all. This acknowledgment is not merely intellectual assent or lip service, but wholehearted submission involving every aspect of one’s being. Jesus, as a man, perfectly fulfilled this submission in his life, even though this cost him rejection and the cross. Here we encounter the heart of the paradox of the cross: the sufferings of Jesus were not something merely to be endured on the road to glory, but precisely in the sufferings was the glory of God revealed.

Christ’s followers have recognized this pattern in themselves as well. When Christians suffer persecution or martyrdom, the glory of God is revealed in full strength. This glory reveals perfect love at its heart. A love willing to give up all — even the satisfaction of possessing the beloved, even life itself, even all personal hopes and dreams — on behalf of the beloved cannot fail to have the power of God behind it. This is the love Jesus had (and has), and he commands (not merely suggests) that this same love be ours.

If God’s glory is obscured in the world today, it is because Christians do not in fact love in this way.

The Acts of the Apostles tells of the spread of the Christian faith from its tiny beginnings with the band of disciples in Jerusalem to its planting in Rome, then the capital of the world. On the one hand, the power behind this rapid growth is seen to be the Holy Spirit. But the paradox of the cross is never absent — persecution and rejection cause the Church to grow in two ways. First, the witness of the courage and steadfastness of the missionaries demonstrates the power of their conviction; and secondly, they are always being driven forcibly from place to place, and cannot settle comfortably into an easy "established" Christianity. The key statement in this reading, echoing the Gospel, is v 22.

This psalm is a good example of glorification in the sense of the Gospel. God’s position in relation to ourselves and all creation is explicitly acknowledged. Response: "I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God."

The final two chapters of Revelation depict the fulfillment of God’s glory in the eternal new creation. This glory is not merely outward splendor, but the rightness of the new order — this is the way things ought to be, the way God intended them, and the way things will be when sin and death are fully overcome.

1. How does the Christian — as an individual and as community (Church) — show forth God’s glory today? What are the obstacles to this glory?

2. How is loving as Jesus commanded a cross in the lives of those you know? In your own life?