Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

GLORY

April 12, 2010

 I'm not sure I get the concept of glory, do you? We often associate it with the cheers of the fans, or being lifted onto the shoulders of teammates, but not biblical glory. This sort of glory is something people are doing to you--that is, to give glory. But biblical glory is something the object or person possesses, it radiates from.

 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs though which he revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
-John 2:11 TNIV

 When John tells the story of Jesus' great signs and miracles, though he tells fewer than the other evangelists, he spends a bit more time expanding them. The water into wine story of John 2 at the wedding in Cana is not only the first of the signs John speaks of, we see John telling us its significance. "Through which he revealed his glory." The movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" risked confusing us with the imagery of the light devouring people coming from Ark of the Covenant, as if it were punishment by an angry God. No, not so. It was the glory of God, the purity, holiness. At the wedding at Cana, we are first told that the Jesus-followers first caught a glimpse of the glory. It wasn't something they did; it was a reality flowing from Jesus' person, analogous to the Ark.

Such glory summons us to faith, to give glory. "Demands my soul, my life, my all." (Last words of hymn, "When I survey the Wondrous Cross")
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson