Snapshots of Jesus

“Father, glorify Your name”

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.  Father, glorify your name.”

John 12:27-28a

At this point in John’s gospel Jesus was concluding His public ministry and preparing to offer final instructions to His disciples. The shadow of the cross loomed very near.  Measuring the time before His horrible death in hours rather than days, Jesus could not help but think about the torment that awaited. Knowing full well that God’s eternal purpose and His own incarnation pointed directly to this hour, Jesus nonetheless recognized the tremendous agony He was to begin experiencing very soon. He did not just recognize it, He dreaded it. However, rather than beg His Father to spare Him, He asked only that the Father’s name be glorified.

We serve an extraordinary Lord, do we not? Facing physical agonies far beyond those we are likely ever to experience (not to mention the spiritual agonies of the crucifixion), Jesus’ primary concern was that His Father be glorified. As the crucifixion events began in earnest our Lord faced them with a dignity, grace, and trust that boggles the mind. He did not decry the unfairness of it all, He did not lash out at His persecutors, and He did not sink into the despondency of broken trust.  Later, when He requested that terrible cup pass from Him, He was clear that His greatest desire was the fulfillment of His Father’s will (Matthew 26:39-44).  When it was clear that the Father willed He drink from that cup, our Lord emptied it dregs and all. Indeed, extraordinary does not begin to do Him justice.

Yet is it not here, when difficulties appear on the horizon, or when they fling themselves down right in our lap, that we often break with the Lord’s example? Do we not often plead with our Father that trials and difficulties never darken our doorway? When they strike do we not plead that they be removed as quickly as possible? What if it is God’s will that we drink every last drop of that cup, displaying the stalwart Christian character of unshrinking trust and faith throughout? What if our Father wills not that the trial vanish but that we endure it, regardless of how long it lasts, all the while magnifying Jesus Christ to those observing us in the very agony itself? We would do well to remember that tested faith is the only proven faith (James 1:2-4). Joy is found not in the trial itself, but in the opportunity to persevere and grow afforded by the trial. It is always God’s will that grow!

Our Lord shows us that our prayers ought not to be filled with petitions that trouble never come upon us. We may as well pray that our faith never be tried, tested, or proven! Neither should our prayers be offered in a spirit of fatalistic resignation that says, “God’s will is going to be done, I am going to experience difficulties in this life, and there is nothing I can do to prevent it though I certainly wish I could.” Jesus shows us that His spirit is displayed in the heart that delights in the fulfillment of the Father’s will. Though God may not cause a hardship to come our way, we know that when it does He wills we face it with the same trusting faith of our Lord.

When hardship comes we can do no better than join voice with Jesus Himself. “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done…Father, glorify your name.” (Matthew 26:42; John 12:28a)