Day 37—Holy Wednesday, April 16, 2025

John 13:21-32

After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples — the one whom Jesus loved — was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." So, when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the festival"; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once." 

This passage from the Gospel of John has Jesus and The Twelve in that upper room, celebrating the Last Supper. Interestingly in the other three gospels, this was the Passover Seder meal, but in this Gospel of John, it was not. Jesus decides that this is the time to begin the process of his betrayal, arrest, torture, crucifixion, and burial. Judas Iscariot is identified as the one to betray him, after which he leaves to summon the arresting authorities. “And it was night.”

I don’t know about you, but the second paragraph of our passage here is difficult for me to understand. There are a lot of masculine pronouns thrown around. Which “him” and “himself” is which? Who is glorifying whom? Is this a reciprocal glorifying event? It appears that the writer of John’s Gospel refers to God in the masculine, which has been done through the ages and which we are used to, never-the-less, it contributes to my confusion here.

In Eugene Peterson’s interpretation in The Message we read, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!” I read the last sentence in paraphrase to be: In glorifying God by manifesting him, Jesus himself is glorified. In the next chapter of this gospel, we read Jesus saying, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

If the Father is in Jesus, is the Father also in us? In the above passage Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man” which he does repeatedly in the gospels to indicate his human nature. He is also called the “Son of God”, referring to his divinity. Traditional Christian theology acknowledges the two natures of Christ. Can you and I also glorify God by manifesting the divine within ourselves? We are not Jesus, but can we be like Jesus, manifesting God’s love and compassion in our world? Jesus repeatedly said, “follow me”, implying “do what I do.” Are we honored by God when we manifest God’s will? Is there a reciprocity in our admittedly unequal relationship with the Lord?

In conclusion, I will leave you with Jesus’ words from later in John’s Gospel referring to the Holy Spirit, “You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

May we rejoice because God abides with us and in us. Praise be that glory

-David Dixon