C E Stuart · The Father's Voice

The Father's Voice. — But His death, fruitful in blessing to saints, was no light thing to Him. All should learn that. He would therefore at this point declare it. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (27, 28). The hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified. For that to be effected death first lay in His path, and that the death of the cross. Would He shrink back? No. He had come to die, ere He should return to the glory. His prayer, then, would not be that He might escape death. It was, on the contrary, that the Father's name should be glorified. He, the perfect Son, cared for His Father's glory. We have seen this in the sickness and death of Lazarus. We shall meet with this desire again. Here, with the cross before Him, and fully conscious of all that it involved, He could say, "Father, glorify Thy name." At once came the answer, audible, though not intelligible, to all: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (28). He had glorified it in the resurrection of Lazarus. He would glorify it in the resurrection of His Son (Rom. 6:4).