We Beheld His Glory

The Gospel of John gives us a unique look of the entrance of Jesus into the realm of humanity when it begins, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Then starting in verse 9, "⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

In the next section of this scripture is the text upon which we will focus today.  "¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

John says, "We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son," and my question is,  "What did John and the others see in Jesus, that brought John to write, 'we have seen his glory?'" 

Closer examination of John's writings help us discover in John 20:31, "these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

John also tells us of a wedding feast in John 2, a celebration of marriage and Jesus and his disciples were invited guests.  Jesus' mother came to him and told him all the wine was gone. Thus, the first miracle of our Lord was performed right then and there, when Jesus turned water into wine. The six vessels, each held 20-30 gallons, were filled with water.  All of this was according to the instructions of Jesus.  When it was drawn from the huge stone jars, it was no longer water, but wine. 

There is not much said about these miraculous happenings, other than the banquet master complimented the quality of the wine.  The party continued, but John had some deeper words to say about the matter.  Chapter 2, verse 11, "What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him."

Ah, that was the first, so there must be others.  The blind were given their sight, the lame walked, demons were defeated, the dead were raised, sins were forgiven.  On and on the stories go as the news of the miracles of Jesus continued to spread. But John gives us insight into their deeper meaning when we understand his miracles were also a revelation of his glory, which caused people to believe in him. 

When people saw Jesus, they saw love and concern, tears and compassion, grace and mercy, forgiveness and truth.  They saw in him the things which revealed his glory, and they believed.  Sometime later, Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, and to us, “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

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