Reading over John’s first words again, he concludes with, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son…”
Q: How does John attesting to what he has seen personally affect your understanding of his words?
4 Replies to “Glory”
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It always strikes me that he explains that has to explain that he is not the light but he came to attest to what he had seen. I can almost feel him yelling “it’s not me, it’s Jesus!”
Yes, John the Baptist has a hard time getting through to them, didn’t he?! The other John, who wrote the gospel, faced a similar challenge: How do you get people to understand who Jesus really is?
Thanks for sharing Robster!!
As I read the verses and the question, my mind took me back to when I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and a movie came out about the life of Jesus. It was advertised on TV, so I assume it was intended to be a mainstream-type movie, and I never saw the movie, but I did see the commercials for it. One of the commercials showed when Jesus healed the blind man. In that movie scene, Jesus placed his hands over the eyes of the man, and this glowing energy pulsated between Jesus’s hands and the man’s face. When I look at the accounts of this in Mark and John, it seems very much less “action-packed” by Hollywood standards. But when you read about the life of Jesus on earth, that is the way it was. It was not a spectacular show of lightening bolts and great power, but rather Jesus spoke, calmly, and miracles happened. One minute the man was blind, the next he wasn’t. John witnessed the greatest power in the universe contained in and brought forth in a man that just spoke things into being. He did a good job relaying that to us. It both demonstrates Jesus’s true power, but also his Righteousness. A Creator/creation that chose to live by a set order that He created, holding Himself accountable to His own rules, and choosing to satisfy a debt that was not His.
Chris,
I like your “action packed” portrayal of glory! It reminds me of the early paintings of Christ and the Saints that shows a holy aura emanating from the head and face. “Glory” is something we can only see on the inside. It is not one of those things we see with our eyes.
As you point out, when Jesus actually displayed his power, it was usually a very simple (humble) act: He spoke. I really appreciate that point, because as you note, that is how he created everything we think of as “reality.”
The glory of God is a spiritual quality. One has to have eyes to see and not all those who think they can see actually do.