Glorify Your name

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” – John 12.27-28

Here is John’s account of Jesus’ passion in the garden. We know that Jesus had submitted Himself to the Father when He came to Earth as an example to us. He became obedient, as we read, even to the point of death.

We get to see here though the inner workings of His human heart and soul as He faces the cross. ‘What shall I say Father? Should I ask You to deliver me from this hour?’ The whole ordeal was going to be agony for Jesus. He seems to have wanted to be released from this hour.

But what He ‘wanted’ didn’t matter. What mattered was that He had chosen to take on the role of a servant and obey all the way.

The important thing here is that God be glorified. That may sound a little selfish to our ears, but God is most glorified when men to turn Him from their sin. It is not God’s desire that men spend eternity separated from Him. He is glorified when He draws men to Himself and His kingdom grows. He does not desire that any should perish but that all would come to repentance.

For that to happen Jesus had to die to prepare a way for us. Jesus had to die and be raised again so that we could have eternal life and glorify God. Jesus was willing to go through it all to glorify the Father.

What are we willing to do?