1491. The Perspective–facing the Cross

The Perspective–facing the Cross

"Father, the hour is come: glorify Thy Son" (Joh_17:1).

1. The Lord Jesus spoke very positively of the fact that "His hour had come." He knew what this "hour" meant. Let us follow some striking uses of this expression:

Mat_25:45 : "The hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners."

Mar_14:35 : "And prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him."

Mar_14:41 : "It is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners."

Luk_22:14 : "When the hour was come, He sat down and the twelve Apostles with Him."

Luk_22:53 : "This is your hour, and the power of darkness."

Joh_7:30 : "No man laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come."

Joh_8:20 : (Same words as in Joh_7:30).

Joh_12:23 : "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified."

Joh_12:27 : "What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour."

Joh_13:1 : "When Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world."

With the above passages in mind, we can readily understand just what Christ meant by the words of our key verse: "Father, the hour is come."

2. The Lord Jesus in the very shadow of Calvary, with the anguish of the Cross hanging heavy upon His heart, prayed unto the Father without even so much as mentioning the sufferings that lay before Him. He knew the hour of His travail had come, but His whole prayer was other than His anguish.

The above is proof positive of the Deity of our Lord. Where is he who could stand face to face with the most ignominious and the most painful of deaths and pray without pleading so much as one word about his coming bitterness?

Yet this is the case before us. In the whole Lord's prayer which covers twenty-six verses there is not a direct reference to the "cup" which the Lord was about to drink.

3. The Lord Jesus, as He neared the Cross, and prayed, contemplated only the glory which He was about to obtain.

This gives us Christ's estimate of His sufferings. He saw in the Cross the accomplishment of a glory that thrilled His soul. He saw and was satisfied. Let us seek to grasp His statements concerning that "glory."

(1) "Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee."

This glory was to be achieved through His Cross. We have thought of the Cross as the hour of the Lord's shame. The shame, however, Christ despised. Calvary's Cross stood before Christ crowned with glory.

The Living Ones and the four and twenty elders, described in Revelation 5, caught this same vision of Christ's death. They said:

"Thou art worthy * * for Thou wast slain" (Rev_5:9).

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive * * glory" (Rev_5:12).

There was a new "glory" given to Christ, because of His tasting of death. In Joh_7:39 Christ said: "The Son of Man is not yet glorified;" but, when Christ had given the sop to Judas, and His betrayal and death was at hand, He said: "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him" (Joh_13:31-32).

Christ felt that night that the time wherein He should receive glory and wherein He should glorify the Father had come.

The theme is too great for this brief message, but let us remember that the Cross was, at once, both the darkest and the lightest spot of all ages; it was covered with the greatest shame and filled with the greatest glory.

(2) We will be compelled to bunch together the other statements of "glory" found in this wonderful prayer:

"I have glorified Thee on the earth" (Joh_17:4).

"The glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (Joh_17:5).

"I am glorified in them" (Joh_17:10).

"The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them (Joh_17:22).

"That they may behold My glory" (Joh_17:24).

Each passage has its own deep meaning. Taken as a whole they assure our hearts that whatever glory Christ had in ages past, with all that added glory achieved on Calvary, and the glory still accruing in all the redeemed of all ages–all of this accumulation of glory Christ spills out upon His own. He gives it all to us, desiring first that we should behold His glory, and then that we should share it with Him.

Surely we may well shout and sing for ours is a wonderful destiny. The present sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Christ will come in the "glory of His Father."

We will be presented "faultless before the throne of His glory."

We will reign with Him in His glory.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR