John 13:31

When therefore he was gone out, Jesus saith, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him; and God shall glorify him in himself, and straightway shall he glorify him.

Four times the verb "to glorify" appears in these lines; but why this shout of victory at the very moment the traitor was dispatched for the act of betrayal? John wished to stress that the sufferings and death of Christ were not forced upon Jesus by circumstances out of his control, but were in fact accepted and directed by himself throughout. It was the Saviour's obedience to God's will that glorified both himself and the Father with whom he was one. Far from cowering before the blackness of the gathering storm, Jesus sent the traitor to perform the act that would trigger its release. The storm would not come, as the Pharisees planned (Matthew 26:1-5), after the passover was ended, but in the midst of it; because Jesus, not the Pharisees, was the architect of those awful events. Jesus would be glorified in the fulfillment of his sacred mission of salvation; mankind would be redeemed; the prophecies reaching back to Eden would be vindicated and fulfilled; the head of Satan would be crushed; and the purpose of God from before times eternal would be realized in the events which Jesus had that very moment set in motion.

And straightway shall he glorify him ... The emphasis here is upon "straightway." It is as though Jesus had said, "Now the purpose of all ages shall be realized; let it begin now; action!"

Illustration: Winston Churchill thus described the moment of decision which launched the invasion of Europe:

The hours dragged slowly by ... conditions were bad ... the weather experts gave some promise of temporary improvement on June 6th, but predicted the indefinite return of rough weather after that. Faced with the desperate alternatives of accepting the risk or postponing the attack, General Eisenhower, with the advice of his commanders, boldly, and as it proved, wisely chose to go ahead with the operation ... At 4:00 A.M., June 5th, the die was irrevocably cast: the invasion would be launched on June 6,1944.[7]

It was a long, long night for Eisenhower; but at the hour appointed he boldly commanded, "Let 'er rip!"

This illustration is given for contrast. The Lord did not consult with advisors; there was no uncertainty as to the time; the issues were not in doubt; human experts were of no avail; only God could do what Jesus did; and there was never the slightest doubt that the operation would succeed. Jesus' triumphant words were, "God is glorified!"

Hendriksen observed that:

Whenever we think of Christ's sufferings, we never know what to admire most: whether it be the voluntary self-surrender of the Son to such a death for such a people, or the willingness of the Father to give up such a Son to such a death for such a people.[8]

[7] Winston Churchill, Closing the Ring (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1951), p. 630.

[8] William Hendriksen, op. cit., II, p. 251.