Glory and...

                 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (John 17:4-5)

 

                 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:7-9)

 

                We’re back to glory, which suggests that eternal life is also all about glorifying God (and His Son.) Today’s passage, however, gives a specific about how we can glorify God. Jesus claimed to have brought the Father glory by finishing the work the Father gave Him to do. Part of me responds to this idea with a rather caustic, “Yeah, but the Father gave Jesus a very specific, clear, and dramatic task.” Of course, I leave out that it was probably the hardest task anyone has ever been given. It was far harder than any of the tasks about which I’ve whined, “It’s too hard!”

                But consider the work God gave Jesus to do. He spent roughly three decades as a nobody. At best, He was Yeshua Barjoseph. He might have also been Yeshua, the Bastard. When the local leaders were looking for apprentices, He wasn’t chosen. At about twelve-years-old, He impressed national leaders, but basically disappeared again for eighteen years. When He finally did start “doing something” He spent three years trying to teach a small group of men and women how to carry on His work. What we tend to think of as His “work” involves no more than one week- about 0.05% of His life.

                But, that 0.05% of His life could not have happened if He hadn’t spent a little under ten percent of His life in public ministry, which He couldn’t have done without the other 90% of His life.  Hebrews 5 teaches us that it was all part of a whole. He was made perfect (for the job) by submitting. When He was twelve, He could have told the priests, “OK, let’s get this over with. You’re going to kill me at some point, it may as well be now, so I can get on to more important stuff.” He was just as sinless then as He would be 21 years later. He could have risen from the dead and built an empire, but He went home with His parents. And in going through all of the 90% of His life, He became more perfect – perfect not only morally, but perfectly suited to the job that took place in half of one percent of his life. We cannot be perfect in the way that He was perfect, but we can become more perfect and glorify God if we will only seek to do the work He gives us to do.