Glory

John 1:14- The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We have seen his glory. We were given a glimpse during his time on earth. But what did his glory look like? It looked a lot like an unimpressive example of a small-town Jewish man. He was born in a barn. He healed some folks, fed thousands of people with a few fishwiches and told stories, most of which were not understood by those who heard them. He spent time with a dozen guys who liked hanging with him but weren't really sure if they could believe everything he said. As a result, he reached his peak of popularity about a week before the crowd turned on him and he was put to death. That's what we got to see. We got to see him post-resurrection, but he didn't make any victory parades for the world to see. He quietly talked to his friends and gave instructions on what to do with his message.

Many ministers today have organizations that are much larger and more impressive than the group Jesus put together. So if glory is defined by glitz, money and numbers, many today show more glory than Jesus did. But I think we have made our own definition of glory; one that we think is more befitting a child of God. But what sort of glory did we see from Jesus during his time here on earth?

Jesus' glory was defined by what he layed aside rather than by what he gathered to himself. He dropped all of the trappings of royalty so that he could relate to us. In the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 53 we learn that He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected my men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. He gave himself up completely to bring us salvation. He allowed himself to be abused for our good. That is the glory we saw from Jesus.

Let's make sure we know what we are asking for when we say we want to live glorious lives. It is available to us but it may look different than we imagine.