Our text for today is from John 13.31-35. In the ESV it reads,
Joh 13:31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
Joh 13:32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
Joh 13:33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, 'Where I am going you cannot come.'
Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Joh 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Rejoice in the Lord! God is glorified in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is with his people. We have seen this theme of our Lord reigning in glory throughout today's readings. Yet we see another theme here in John 13. If we look at the broader context around this passage we see that the disciples have been talking with Jesus. They don't quite understand what is happening. They have questions for their Lord and master. We have the same questions.
Jesus is talking about going away. We can imagine the confusion the disciples would have. Where is the Lord going? He seems a little secretive about it. For the past three years he has made his comings and goings very public. But now he is saying he will leave and we won't be able to find him. Are we like those disciples? Do we wonder what our Lord is doing? Do we question his willingness, maybe even his ability to work in our world? Do we try to set up our own ideas of how to bring his kingdom, to make sure his will is done on earth as in heaven? Jesus' disciples in the first century had to wait for their Lord's response, as do we. We don't know his timing or his plan, at least not exhaustively. We must wait on him, trust in him, and watch him unfold his will in his own way.
The disciples also wonder when Jesus is planning to go. Maybe he plans to slip away somewhere at night without them noticing? Maybe he is not as trustworthy as they thought he would be? Maybe, after all, he is just a gifted preacher and has managed to pull off a few miracles? The disciples don't know his timing. He doesn't seem like someone who is preparing for a long trip. He seems to be planning to stay with them. Again, like those first century disciples we wonder about our Lord's timing. Things hapen in our lives, things don't happen, and we have the audacity to correct God! We think we wouldn't have planned the situation out that way. We would have arranged for this provision or that provision. We would have changed people's timetables. How could our Lord have allowed it to rain on that day? Why did the Lord allow me to plan my journey in such a way that I was present to be in that auto accident? How come the Lord gave us this current tax code? We're full of questions, often accusatory questions, just like Jesus' first century disciples.
In the end we want our Lord to do things on our timetable. After all, we are intelligent. We are wise. We have studied our lives and we think we know what would be best. All this about God not revealing himself to us? Nonsense. We'll be able to figure out our way to heaven. We'll be able to come up with a way to make the Gospel relevant to our modern society. We'll be able to arrange ways to do great things for our Lord. We can plan it all out. After all, Jesus has called us to be his witnesses in this world. So we try and try. We are his witnesses, but maybe we want to be his witnesses a little differently. We want to change with the times. We want to schedule a revival. We want to do something that people really need, like provide day care or other social services. We, after all, in the twenty-first century, are modern eople. We can be progressive.
What does our Lord and Savior say about this attitude? In this very text he addresses it. Jesus says we don't, in fact, know where he is going. We may look for him, but we won't find him. We will not be looking in the right place. He is going to be about his business and we are unlikely to understand it. In fact, we aren't going to understand what he is doing.
As well as not knowing where Jesus is going, he tells us we can't go with him now. He has a plan for himself and he has a plan for us. For now, we are to do his plan for us. He isn't telling us his plan for himself in detail. Our responsibility is to do what he has set us to do. He will take care of everything and we don't have to worry about the rest. We just carry on.
What about the timing of it all? Jesus, are we going to see you again? When you go will it be forever? Take courage. Our Lord is not departing from us forever. Where he is going we can't go right now. But he knows the timing. He knows that he will later come to bring us along with him. He knows that when he leaves he will not leave us alone. He knows that we can have confidence in him, even if we don't know we can trust him. Our Lord does know about the timing. He is working it out in his perfect will.
So what is Jesus doing? He has a job we don't understand. If he told us in full we still wouldn't understand it. After all, to our minds, how would someone be able to die as a substitute for our sin? How would the death of one man, no matter how good, atone for the sins of all humanity? How could it be that Jesus would love us so much that he would give his life to become sin for us? No, we don't understand this. It is Jesus' job, not ours. It is something that only he can do, only he can understand. If we were to follow him where he is going we would simply die needlessly. Our death atones for nothing. His death atones for everything.
Even with all this that Jesus is saying, does he not think we will be faithful? After all, we love our Lord. He can surely count on our following him to the very end. Yet only a few verses later Jesus points out that we will betray him, deny him, flee from him. We are not trustworthy servants. No, on the contrary, counter to all our desire, when the rubber meets the road, we make every attempt to distance ourselves from our Lord. When social pressure turns up, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And we get going straight for the exit door. We deny our Lord rather than stand by him in love and trust. That's the way we are.
So where's the Gospel? It certainly isn't in what we do. It certainly isn't in all our good intentions. It certainly isn't in our superior understanding. No, it is in what our Lord is doing. He is the one who knows the way. In fact, he is the way, the life, and the truth. We don't go with him but he himself goes to death on our behalf. We don't know when the right time is, but when the fullness of time had come, he came on our behalf. We don't understand even the beginning of what our Lord is doing. He understands and accomplishes it all. We will deny our Lord, but he will never deny his people.
In this, then, Jesus is glorified. He lays down his life for us. This is the glory which the Father has accomplished in the Son. This is where he goes ahead of us. And he has accomplished that death, that victory over death, hell and the grave, on our behalf. He has done it at a particular, definitive time. He is risen from the dead as the firstfruits of the resurrection, which will also be completed at a particular, definitive time. Our Lord is going to bring us to be with him, at some particular time in our future. Therefore we do not need to fear. Our Lord has glorified himself. He has done it all. Let all heaven and earth sing praises to our Lord and King, seeing his mighty works. Let us rejoice as we look to his coming. Let us exult in our Savior who has worked all these wonders. Our Lord, the very one who died on our behalf, is gathering people from every nation, tribe and tongue to sing his praises. Our Lord, the creator and sustainer of the earth, will sustain us by his body broken for us and his blood shed for us until his coming.
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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com
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