⁵ “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

Togetherness is unity, an important theme of this Upper Room. Unity begins, though, with the Father and the Son. The “work” of glorifying God is a team effort between the two of them. The Holy Spirit, as it were, was revealed to us by Jesus as the silent Partner, whose work it is to “testify about me”—which is another way of saying, “to glorify Christ.”

Quite significant in Trinitarian theology, which saturates not only this prayer of Jesus, but also the entire Upper Room discourse, is that Jesus was not about to come into a new or added glory. He is not being elevated to divine status, as some errant religions claim. In the context of the ancient Roman times, this was an important distinction. The path to glory for a man followed a prescribed pattern of official offices in the government. The most successful achieved the highest position as senator, and ultimately one of two consuls who ruled the republic. With Augustus Caesar, the position and honor of emperor superseded all else. But that was the end game, from a human perspective. Upon death, many emperors were elevated by decree to divine status, complete with temples dedicated to their names. Some even assumed this before their death. The ultimate honor and glory a man could achieve was elevation to deity, or so their darkened minds thought.

Jesus was not seeking glory the way human emperors sought it. He was not asking to be deified. Rather, He was requesting the glory He had before His incarnation. The apostle Paul later commented on the incarnation: “Although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:6-7). As God, the Son had possessed the glory of God from eternity past. He was asking for what was already His.

Before creation, when all that existed was the triune God, the Son was fully known among the other members of the Trinity. In creation, though, His image bearers rejected the knowledge of God in favor of a godless knowledge and their hearts were darkened. When the Son came into the world, as John wrote earlier, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5). God’s glory in Christ became veiled. Now, Jesus, completing God’s work to shine the light of His knowledge, is ready to return to His previous state of glory, but with the difference that now the world can better comprehend the knowledge of God through His death and resurrection.

Lord help me see You through the spiritual magnifying glass of Jesus.