John 13:31-32

THE SON OF MAN GLORIFIED (John 13:31-38)

We have entered upon the Holy of Holies of the Gospel history. The farewell discourses of our Lord, extending from chapter 13:31 to 17:26, are unique even in this unique Gospel of John who was nearest the heart of Jesus and best qualified to drink in those words of comfort and instruction before the great sacrifice of the cross. Lange calls them "the most mysterious and most holy of the sayings of Christ, and. spiritual ante-celebration of his own glorification and that of his people in the new celestial life opened up by his death and resurrection." The parting song and blessing of Moses (Deut., Chapter s 32 and 33), the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, the evangelist of the prophets, and the farewell address of Paul to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:17-36), bear. remote resemblance. We may also compare these last discourses with the Lord's final discourses in Matthew, Chapter s 24 and 25, Mark, chapter 13, and Luke, chapter 21. In John the Lord revealed the inner consummation of his work and the spiritual revolution to be accomplished; in the other Gospels he prophesied the overthrow of the Jewish theocracy and the establishment of his kingdom. Such an evening as the 14th of Nisan in the year of the crucifixion occurred only once in the world's history; the full meaning of eternity was condensed into. few hours. The last words of our Lord to his eleven disciples combine the deepest emotion with serene repose; they are unutterably solemn, weighty and comforting; they seem to sound directly from heaven, and they lift the reader high above time and space. We have more here than words; we have things, verities, acts of infinite love going out from God and going into the hearts of men. The main ideas are: "I in the Father; the Father in me;. in the believer; the believer in me;. came from my Father in heaven;. fulfilled his will on earth;. now return to my Father, and prepare. place for my disciples in the many mansions of my Father's house that they may be where. am and share my glory."-- Schaff.

31. When therefore he was gone out.

When Judas had gone out the last disturbing element seems to have been removed from the mind of the Lord. The clouds of the world are lifted and there begins the most remarkable discourse recorded in history. The hour has come; the Master is about to part from his disciples; he will go through his bloody pathway to the presence of the Father; they will be left without him to meet the storms, trials and persecutions of earth. It is the time, therefore, for the Lord to pour forth the deepest feelings of his soul in their behalf. The discourse that follows, comforts, consoles, instructs and points them to the glory, power, and grace of their Lord. In it he apparently strives, as never before, to reveal himself to them so fully that every doubt of his divine majesty shall pass away. And when the gloom that gathered around his tomb was broken every doubt was forever dispelled in the deep knowledge of his glory.

Now is the Son of man glorified.

To him, now that Judas has gone, and he is at the foot of the cross, the struggle is passed, his weary ministry ended, and the glorification begun. There is an emphasis and exultation in "now." His disciples were not yet fully freed from their carnal ideas of his earthly glorification. They had expected its accomplishment in his coronation as King of the Jews in Jerusalem. He had, however, already pointed to the cross as the means of his glorification and as its shadow already falls upon him he anticipates the "lifting up" as. sacrifice, as. risen Savior, and as an ascending Lord to take seat upon. universal throne. It is his work now to more especially prepare his disciples for the disappointment of the false hopes that they had cherished, born of their Jewish education, by pointing them to his greater majesty, filling them with larger hopes and investing them with higher prerogatives and honors than they could ever have had in an earthly kingdom. The Lord's Supper, instituted this night, pointed unmistakably to the cross; now he points to it as the beginning of his glorification. His glory, while engaged in his lowly ministry, had not been seen. Nor would it be seen on the cross. The world's idea of his glory was different, but proceeding right from the cross would begin an honor and exaltation that even the world would recognize and from it he would ascend, after. few days' instruction to his disciples, to enjoy the glory he had with the Father before the world was.