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| Christ in Glory, a tapestry by Graham Sutherland in Coventry Cathedral |
A reflection given at Compline in Killodiernan Church on the Tuesday of Holy Week, 15th April 2025
The reading
we’ve just heard from John’s Gospel (12:20-36) is about the glorification of
the Son of Man. The dictionary definition of the word ‘glorification’ in the
Cambridge Dictionary is ‘the act of praising and honouring God or a person’.
Jesus in the
Gospels often uses the terms ‘Son of Man’ and ‘Son of God’ almost
interchangeably, in ways that can be seen as referring to himself, without
explicitly claiming to be divine. This is probably because observant Jews would
see it as blasphemy, a capital offence for which he is not yet ready. He leaves
it to others to make the connection.
Notice that
in this reading he does not explicitly claim to be the Son of Man, only that ‘when (he) is lifted up from the earth, (he) will draw
all people to himself’. Voices from the crowd listening to him
clearly think that he is claiming to be the Son of Man. They ask, ‘How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?
Who is this Son of Man?’.
In reply,
Jesus does not answer their question directly. He says to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while
you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in
the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light,
believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’
Who or what
is the light that Jesus is talking about? We know with hindsight that Jesus will
soon be lifted up to die upon a cross. Is that when the light is no longer with
his disciples? No, we believe that Jesus rose again from the dead on the first
Easter day, and later the risen Christ promises he will never leave his
disciples – that’s you and me. ‘Remember’,
he tells us, ‘I am with you always, to the
end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20). We are mortal, and our lives are short, but the light
of Jesus, the glorified Son of Man, will remain with us to our dying moment.
And he has left us his teaching to light the way for us, which he summarises as
follows, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’
(Mark 1:14).
We believe
as Christians that Jesus, the Son of God, is also the glorified Son of Man, and
as the risen Christ, we believe he is also the light that shows us the way.
‘While (we) have the light, (let us) believe in the light, so
that (we) may become children of light’.
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