Glory in the Lowest (John 11)

My first thought was that my comment on John 11 would most likely involve John 11:35 ("Jesus wept). After all, that is every kid's favorite Bible verse- the shortest verse of the Bible. That was the verse you always hoped they would have you memorize in Sunday School. But somehow they never did. Sunday School required a lot more work than that.

The verse "Jesus wept" teaches us a great deal about Jesus' humanity and His empathy with our struggles and sorrows. But as I came to John 11 I was once again struck by John's use of the word "glory." As in John 9, glory is a persistent theme in this chapter. Over and over again, Jesus says that He will be glorified in the death of Lazarus. Glory is a theme of John's Gospel. The word makes an immediate appearance in chapter 1. In 1:14, John writes: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

When I read that verse in John 1, I pictured a heavenly glory. I pictured bright light and trumpets blaring. I pictured radiance and beauty and hope. But as one reads through John, one sees that the glory of God shows up in unexpected places. It is not seen in palaces or temples. It is seen in blindness and death. It is seen in brokenness and pain. The glory of God is not made manifest in our strength. It is revealed in our weakness. The glory of God is not seen in cathedrals. It is seen in hovels. It is not seen in sublime works of art. It is seen in the refuse pile. Weakness and pain are things that we run from, yet it is often there that the glory of God is revealed.

As a pastor, I have seen my share of lilies. Every Easter I take a Claritin in anticipation of the lilies that will be present in church. A church is a glorious frame for a lily. Yet, the most beautiful lily I ever saw was not in a church. The most beautiful lily I ever saw was in Ireland. This lily was in a cemetery, growing right out of a tombstone. A tombstone seems a strange soil and odd backdrop for a lily. Yet, against that backdrop, the lily could be seen in all its glory. In a place of death, the lily was at its most beautiful.

The glory of God often reveals itself in the places of weakness and death. None of us long for those places. But it comforting to know that it is in those places that the power and strength of God is revealed.