Christ's Glory Sought Through Willing Sacrifice

In His intercessory prayer, Jesus petitions the Father with a remarkable duality: 'Glorify Thy Son' (verses 1 and 5). Maclaren observes that the repetition is not accidental. In the first petition (verses 1-3), Christ speaks impersonally of 'Thy Son'—resting upon the eternal relations between Father and Son realized in Jesus. But in verses 4-5, the personal element breaks forth: 'I' and 'Me' appear with emphatic force. The two petitions are identical in scope yet distinct in ground: the first appeals to His eternal nature; the second, to His earthly obedience.

Yet here lies the supreme paradox: Christ seeks the glory He possessed before creation—that 'light inaccessible' which shone around the Eternal Word in the bosom of the Father. His manhood, though manifesting 'glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,' was itself a pale and humbling veil compared to His pre-incarnate splendor. He who prayed possessed the consciousness of divinity while clothed in human flesh, asking for what 'no mere manhood could bear.'

But the petition contains something more electrifying: it openly embraces the Cross. The phrase 'the hour is come' points to impending sufferings as the first step in answering His prayer. Christ does not flee the sacrifice; He reaches out His hand to draw His sufferings nearer. In this Gospel, the Crucifixion is simultaneously the lowest humiliation and the 'lifting up' of the Son. Like Isaac willingly ascending the mount, Jesus endures the Cross 'for the joy that was set before Him'—not for personal exaltation, but that through His glorifying, the Father Himself might be glorified.