“The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this to indicate how he was going to die. (12.31-33)
This phrase, “lifted up” comes out of the Hebrew Scriptures. It was a description of God in his glory. When Isaiah has a vision of God, he says, “I saw the Lord, high and lifted up.” Man was never to be “lifted up” it was a position reserved for God alone. In fact, three times Isaiah speaks of God as being “lifted up;” three times in the gospel of John, Jesus says that he will be “lifted up”.
But Jesus takes this description, “lifted up” and uses it an incredible way. For Jesus, the phrase “lifted up” has a double meaning. It refers figuratively to his glorification – when He will be lifted up – when He reveals who God is. But in a grand twist, it also refers literally to the crucifixion, to the lifting up of Jesus on the cross, as he was suspended above the earth.
The moment of his greatest revelation will be the moment of apparent defeat.
The great wonder that staggered the Jews in the Old Testament was, How could the Lord of glory, who is high and lifted up, condescend so low to be near to the crushed?
But far greater than that is the wonder that the Lord of glory comes so low that he is not only near the downtrodden – He becomes the downtrodden. It is not enough for the Word to become flesh and to befriend the lowest of the low. It is not enough for him to be near to the broken and the Lover of the outcasts. No, He becomes the broken. He becomes the outcast. And the way that he is lifted up is not at first in glory. He is lifted up on a cross in incredibly painful suffering and death.
In a way that no one ever could and no words could ever describe, Jesus – through his life of servanthood and sacrifice utterly reveals the loving, self-giving heart of God. When He picks prostitutes up out of the dust, when he washes his disciples filthy feet, when he prays for them in the garden and when He stretches out His arms on the cross, He is saying,
“This is who God is.”
The God who loves so much that He invades the world to ransom a people for Himself. The God that loves so much that it hurts. God crucified – the God who suffers, the God who serves, the God who saves.
Lord Jesus, thank you for the way that you define yourself for the world. May I never move beyond fascination with the Cross. Amen.
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