Pastor Carlyle Naylor
Communion, August 3, 2008
Last Sunday after my wife and I left church, we rendezvoused at home to combine our efforts into one vehicle. We left for Costco to pick up a few things that we forgot the last time we were there—day earlier. As we found the things we forgot, and then some, we divided efforts again and Tina went to the food court line as I sought out a table close to the aisle so our cart was close and secure.
Within a few minutes, Tina came to our table with a polish sausage for me and hotdog for her. We tagged-teamed again so one person could guard our purchases while the other one accessorized our mystery meat with condiments. As we both landed on our seat, I prayed a quick prayer of thanksgiving for the quick meal.
As we began to eat, I remembered what day it was. We had acknowledged the day earlier, but I amusingly realized how romantic it was that we were eating hot dogs at Costco on the day of our wedding anniversary. I pointed out to my beautiful bride how I had gone all out for a romantic dinner right there in the exit aisle of Costco. We both knew that we had a real dinner planned for later in the evening. She joined in the jesting as she reminisced about how we started our marriage similarly 23 years earlier. We would go to a local convenience store where we could get refillable mugs refilled for 25 cents and 2 hotdogs for one dollar. And we loved it.
We loved that we were being frugal—not healthy—but frugal none-the-less. We were making the most of what we had at the time—both from the aspect of our budget and from the aspect of the best place to eat for the least amount. We were travelling together—learning how to live together within the circumstances we found ourselves.
That reminded me of a verse in John 17. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. This phrase from Jesus comes in the prayer discourse Jesus made for His disciples—or for His “learners by any means.” Each sentence of this verse struck me:
- Why did Jesus mention mutual ownership here?
- Why did glory come in here?
- How exactly did his disciples become glory-agents for Him?
The word glory comes from the word Doxo—like Doxology—the song that starts “praise God from whom all blessings flow.” The word Jesus uses for glory has a unique meaning—unique in that it is different in Jesus vocabulary than in ours. The word Jesus uses does not mean to bring glory to BUT to reveal the glory of. This means to bring attention to something that already attention worthy. We are not the ones causing the glory—the glory is already caused. Whether we acknowledge it or not, it is already acknowledged. Glory is not contingent on something we do; it is based on something already done. In light of whom God is whether or not we acknowledge Him or not, he already is—and that is glory-worthy.
Up to this point in Jesus’ ministry, when he mentioned glory, He only wanted glory to come to His Father. This is the second time Jesus speaks of His own glory—The first is in the previous chapter (John 16:14) when He predicts the coming of the Holy Spirit—who will bring glory to Jesus by revealing things to us. The second time he share in the same glory due His Father, He does this right after He speaks to His mutual ownership of all things. Jesus is speaking of his divinity here—even of his pre-existent glory. Jesus may even be speaking of Yahweh as Trinity here. He is foreshadowing the arrival and the work and the Holy Spirit.
- What about the “glory” thing?
- How were the disciples bringing glory to Jesus?
- What were they doing?
- What had they been doing just before this prayer?
I think the hint to this is in Chapter 16, verses 29-31. Jesus was telling His opportunistic learners about his eminent departure and the eminent arrival of the Holy Spirit. In verse 25, he says that He has been speaking figuratively to them, but that a time was coming when he would speak plainly to them. He also told them the Father loved them because they believed in Him.
And then we get to verse 29 through 31: Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God. You believe at last!” Jesus answered. I think Jesus had a sparkle in His eyes when he said this. Any teacher knows what I mean, when you keep teaching something and finally your students get it.
The disciples were seeing more clearly now. They were excited that Jesus was speaking plainly. But if you look at what he said, it is still pretty big and pretty deep—but yet they understood. But bigger and deeper than that, they believed. Jesus did not acknowledge them for their understanding; he acknowledged them for their belief.
So the glory that was coming to Jesus was coming because they now believed that He was who He had been saying He was. They believed that He was from God—that He was the Son of God and that He was God.
So Jesus’ disciples brought glory to Jesus by believing.
When we take communion we are proclaiming our belief that Jesus is qualified to die for us. We are proclaiming that we believe that Jesus was the only one who could do that for us. We are proclaiming that tonight we see clearly enough to express our faith in Him and in that act we bring glory to Him—and like His disciples—we are His glory-agents!
In John 16:31-33, Jesus is letting his disciples know that the nature of their relationship will be changing soon. He will die soon. But just as the Father has been with Jesus all along—but they couldn’t see the Father—so will He (Jesus) be with them—although be it not physical.
Jesus then tells them (and us) that in this world we will become isolated from each other and even from Him. And He let His learners (you and I) know that in the midst of peace, we will have trouble. We will have tribulation—we will experience “pressure” in the world—the world that Jesus has overcome.
The first way we glorify Christ is by believing in Him. The second way we glorify Christ by walking with the Spirit.
That takes me back to Costco. As I sat there enjoying my anniversary hotdog with my bride of 23 years—I was sorting through the files of our life together. I was admiring the woman she has become; I was thinking of that 19 year old girl that walked the aisle—committing herself to a dreamer—not knowing how it would go but committing to me just the same.
Boy-0-boy did we experience pressure. When she married me, I had just closed my own small business days before and after our honeymoon we were moving into the shelter home to be the resident mangers. But she still did it. She still committed to journey through life with me. Committing herself to not knowing but trusting—to not fully understanding, but believing in me.
Let’s remember when we “walked the aisle” to Jesus. Let’s remember how much we have discovered about Him—how much we have discovered about ourselves because of Him. Let’s remember because we believe, we are committed to discovering more about Him—that we desire to grow in our ability to understand Him—just like the disciples did. And we can picture Jesus getting excited that we get it—with a twinkle in His eye.
Let’s remember that each day we can grow in the depth of our relationship with Him—not knowing how it will all turn out—but trusting Him anyway. Not understanding all there is to understand about Him, but believing anyway.
Let’s pause, know and remember our belief in Jesus as our Savior and our commitment to following Him in the Spirit.