³¹ Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him …

With Judas now gone, the about-to-be-crucified-Savior-of-the-world begins to take His faithful disciples deeper in their preparation for His departure. As yet, they had absolutely no idea what the next 24 hours would hold for them. Yes, Jesus talked about a betrayal, and in their minds Judas had gone out on a grocery run. And to be sure Jesus was acting a bit strange with washing their feet. Little did they suspect that in less than one full day, their world would be shattered. Little did they comprehend the glory of God … glory that had been veiled since the dawn of creation but that was about to break out in magnificent light. The love of God for His fallen image-bearers would be demonstrated in all its brilliance. For God would soon be reconciling the world to Himself through Christ’s death on the cross. This was not just a return to a pre-fallen Edenic state, but to a new glorious existence where the grandeur and splendor of God would be manifested far greater than ever before.

No, the disciples had no idea, but Jesus was preparing them for it. What began the Upper Room experience in John 13:1 (“Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father”) now begins to unfold. Jesus wants to tell them about it before it comes, so that when it does come they will understand and be able to act upon their preparation.

The hour of Jesus’ glory had come. Thirteen times in the Upper Room Jesus spoke of glory. The term “hour” obviously doesn’t mean the literal 60 minutes during which Jesus was then speaking. It is a prophetic figure of speech, often used to refer to the appointment of God’s cataclysmic working in the world. We tend to think of the glory coming as having to do with the resurrection, and that is certainly a part of it. However, the resurrection might be better understood as the evidence of glory, the ratification of it. But the essence of glory is something else, something greater, something far more, well, glorious.

Jesus did not come into the world to be resurrected, although that certainly proved Him to be the Son of God with power (Rom 1:4). He came into the world to save sinners. And in this we find the pinnacle of the glory of God, a glory the contemplation of which can never be exhausted. Like a magnifying glass, the death of Christ brings an eternal, every amplifying, ever enlarging understanding of the character, qualities and attributes of God. The cross is the ultimate, climactic and complete theology of God.

Lord, help me see Jesus in all His glory, the perfect expression of God.