The Borrowed Glory of the Cross

He Loved Them to the End – Six Sermons

Part 6: “A Costly and Glorious Love”

(John 13:31-38, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 4, 2009)

³¹ When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³ Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, 'Where I am going you cannot come.' ³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." ³⁶ Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward." ³⁷ Peter said to him, "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." ³⁸ Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.

What did Jesus say regarding the glory of His suffering?

A: “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” (John 13:31)

The road to glory (31-33)

Jesus is on a road to glory. He came from glory, but then He settled here below for awhile to work out our redemption with His blood. At the end of John 13 His cross is very near, and so His return home to the land of glory is very near. Glory is God, God in His heavens, where the will of God is perfectly observed with the eye by the redeemed of men and the holy angels. Glory is the brightness of God’s holiness and the blessing of His kind care for us together in a place of perfect love. Jesus came from that place and He is returning to it.

But before He goes, He has something to accomplish. He testified to this remaining supreme act of love when He lowered Himself on the floor to wash the feet of His disciples. He would soon be led as a lamb to the slaughter, cleansing us of all sin as no one else could ever do. He will not leave us. He will not abandon His beloved children for whom He shed His blood. He is headed back to the highest mountaintop, but there is a road to travel, and that road goes through some rough terrain. It is a low road, and that is why it is symbolically represented before the disciples as a road fit only for the lowest slave. That road is the lowest and darkest valley ever known to man. What would ever make you willing to travel a road like that for someone else? Only love. Jesus must love you.

At the end of John 13 Jesus is already on that road, but He has to go lower before this will be over. His betrayer, Judas, has already left the scene in order to do his part. He has turned against his friend and master. Jesus’ road will continue through some final instruction, some prayer, some intense suffering, and a cursed death. The destination at the end of the road is finally glorious. The destination is heaven. That end is so glorious, that the road to it has become glorious for Jesus, even the very lowest point on that road, the point of His death and burial.

It takes faith for Jesus, the Son of Man, to see glory in a cross. He says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” He has been preparing us to see the glory of the cross by faith throughout this gospel. He has called the cross a “lifting up.” There is a double meaning here. Yes He will be lifted up above the ground. That is the most obvious meaning, but there is a more profound lifting up that He is preparing us to see. He is being lifted up to the Father as the offering that takes away our sin, and He is lifted up as our Redeemer, the focus of our worship, and the only way for us to enjoy the glory of heaven. The glory of the cross is a borrowed glory, borrowed from the destination of heavenly peace and reconciliation.

John 3:14-15 ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

John 8:28 When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am…

John 12:27-33 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." ³³ He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Why is the cross glorious? We have already said that the destination is glorious, but also the meaning of what is happening is glorious, because of the great glory of the Son’s obedience to the Father in atoning for our sins. There is something that is so beautiful about obedience to God. Jesus has provided that for us. In living and dying for us He glorified the Father. He was saying for everyone to hear, “My Father is so great that it is My pleasure to do His will.” And Jesus knows that His Father will glorify Him through this act of love and beyond, as if the Father is saying, “Look at My Son. There is no one like Him. Look how He has obeyed Me. Look at His love for sinners. My Son is the greatest. You should have no problem loving Him, when He loves you this much.” But all this love came at a dreadful cost. The glory of the dying love of our Savior was extremely costly.

Jesus goes toward the cross, knowing the cost, but anticipating the glory ahead of Him. He is thinking about how the Father will glorify Him, and at once. Jesus will not have to wait to the very end of the age for His resurrection glory. He lived His thirty-three years or so, He died, His body rested in the grave over the course of three days, and He rose forth in resurrection glory and walked the earth for a few weeks before His ascension into heaven. At the end of John 13, the shining wonder of the mountain of heaven is not far away. Soon He will be a glorified man, a mountaintop man, a heavenly man walking on earth, and then He’ll go to the place of supreme glory. His disciples will not be able to follow immediately. Some will come sooner than others. A deacon named Stephen joined Jesus in glory fairly soon. We read that He saw that glory even as He faced His own valley. One of the twelve, James, followed not too long behind. His brother John had to wait many years. These kinds of details are in God’s hands.

Acts 12:1-2 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. ² He killed James the brother of John with the sword,…

Acts 7:54-60 ⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." ⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. ⁵⁸ Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." ⁶⁰ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

A new commandment (34-35)

For now, it is enough for us to see that there is a glory in the cross of Christ, and that glory shines somehow in our suffering if we will suffer as those who believe that the Son of Man died for us and that in His death He has won glory for us. If you see the glory of Jesus’ cross then you are prepared not merely to die as a Christian but to live as a Christian. To live as a Christian is to love in a way that is empowered no longer merely by self or by instinct, but by Christ Himself. The cross gives new meaning to a very old commandment.

Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

This very old commandment has become a new commandment in two ways. First, there is a new community of love being formed around Jesus Christ. All people have a natural instinct of love within their families however marred that good instinct may be by our rebellion and frustration. There may even be something of a willingness to lay down our lives for our communities or for our nation, again with the complication of sin making that something less than what it could be. But in the church we have a new family and a new nation centered around this one figure, Jesus Christ. In this new community of love, we are to love one another, and this is part of what makes the commandment to love our neighbor new. But a second new thing is that the love of our God has been displayed before us in Christ Himself, so that we are not only to love according to the words of a commandment, but according to the example of the perfect Son of the Father, Jesus, who calls us His brothers, His friends, and His beloved.

How has Jesus loved us? He has loved us actively, not passively. He has loved us purposefully, not accidentally, or casually. He has loved us sacrificially, not selfishly. He has loved us with the spirit of heaven, not with the bare instinct of the earth, even at its best. This gift of God is ours to receive and to give. This new love of the Christian within the family of God is the very defining mark of true Christian fellowship. There are many gifts of the Spirit of God, but this most excellent gift of love is to be sought after more than any other. To know how to pursue true Christian love is the secret to distinctive Christian living.

You will follow afterward. (36)

Jesus is going away, and Peter is very uncomfortable. He says, “Lord, where are you going?” We know the answer that Peter could not seem to accept. Jesus is going to the cross, then to the grave, then out from the tomb, then bodily into heaven to the right hand of the Father. Peter cannot entirely follow. He will have his own cross, but not the cross of an atoning Messiah. He will have suffering, prison, useful and difficult service, martyrdom, and heaven. He will follow afterward. He will follow in the suffering love to the glory destination of Jesus. He is there now.

Will you lay down your life for Me? (37-38)

Do you want to be with Jesus now? Peter thought he did, but when it came to it, He denied Him. These things are hard for us to understand, and they are in the Lord’s hands. Are you ready to die for Jesus now? Then live for Him now in sacrificial love with the strength that He provides. Believe in the truth of Jesus’ suffering love. Hope in the glory of that great destination. Love with the new love of Jesus. He is not far from you. He is with you.

John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

We are back where we started in John 13:1. Jesus loved you to the end. Love Jesus to the end, may His love for you and His call to follow be a growing presence within your soul, a new life that is expressed in increasing love.

1. What is the glorification referred to in this passage?

2. In what sense was Jesus giving a new commandment?

3. How would the apostles and the church follow Jesus afterward?

4. Will we lay down our lives for Jesus?