Jesus had one primary, overriding concern: Glorifying God. He stood there with his disciples, looking into the face of death, knowing that he would very soon be going to the cross. Within a few hours, Jesus would be crucified, and rightly so, Jesus’s soul was disturbed.

However, he would not be deterred. Jesus would not be turned to the right or left away from his mission. He would not be dissuaded from the plan that had been planned over an eternity, he would not take a detour. No, there was only one way to complete the work that he came to do, and that way was to the cross.

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

John 12:27-28

Jesus was primarily interested in glorifying the name of God, so much so that he would be willing to endure beatings, suffering, and even death. He would endure separation from the Father. He would endure the punishment of a criminal.

And he would endure all of the pain and suffering because it would bring glory to God and his name.

But why? Why would God receive glory from Jesus going to the cross? Isn’t that just senseless killing? Useless death, like many of the other killings of the prophets by the Jews, or like many of the other killings of other dissidents by the Romans?

No, this death was much different. Jesus would take the punishment for many others so that they would be ransomed – purchased with his blood – away from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God. The sins of people would be paid for by one who did not deserve to be punished. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, the perfect “lamb” that would take away the sins of the world.

And because many would enter the kingdom of God, and because Jesus would open the kingdom to people all throughout the world, it would fulfill God’s mission and plan to have a people for himself, those who would be part of the kingdom of God, those who would live to glorify him, all across the world, amongst every group of people. God’s image would finally be spread all across the face of the earth, and God’s glory would shine everywhere. Everywhere that there was a group of people, everywhere that there was a language, a nation, or a tribe, there would be those who truly represented God’s image as disciples of Christ.

This would truly bring glory to God. This would open the door such that God’s glory would fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea, just as Habakkuk had said.

As as the Father replied, he has glorified his name, and he will do it again. And again. And again. God is jealous for his glory. He will not share his glory with anyone. For any other being to receive God’s glory, or for God to share his glory with another would be idolatry. Instead, God’s name was glorified through Christ and through each believer that would come to know the Father through Christ.

Now we must do the same. As the people that have been saved we must follow Jesus’s example. We must live to glorify God and not for ourselves so that his name will be glorified once again, even through each of us.