Scripture: John 12:23-33
Journal: How are you trying to glorify your name these days? What would it look like to shift toward “Father,
glorify your name” instead?
Reflection:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless and kernel of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. . .
.Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to
this hour. Father, glorify your name.”
(John 12:23-24, 27-28, NIV)
The time had come for the
Son of Man to be glorified. Interestingly
enough, in these last days, whenever Jesus referred to this glorification, he
was also referring to his death. Somehow
the two were intimately and mysteriously linked. Somehow it was in doing what he had come to
do—to bring glory to the name of the Father—that he himself would receive glory. Somehow through the death of the kernel of wheat,
that would then produce many seeds, God’s name was going to be glorified the
most. And that was the glory Jesus was
really seeking; that was the very reason he had come. His own glory was to do the will of his
Father and bring glory to His name.
Why would we think it would
be any different for us? Our very life
is not about us at all. Our constant
striving to make a name for ourselves and to receive honor and glory will
always come up short. That is until we
finally begin to understand what Jesus was teaching us in this text. It is the glory of the Father, and bringing
glory to his name, that really matters.
And that happens only when we are willing to allow our own little kernel
of wheat to fall to the ground and die, so that it might produce many seeds
of life and love and peace.
O God, give us the same
courage and strength and fortitude that you gave Jesus. Help us to see that our glory will only come
when we are willing to die in order to bring glory to your name.
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Father, glorify your
name! Amen
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