[Click the reference above to read online, if your Bible is out of reach. We are almost within reach of the finish line, three more days after today.]
...but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister,
Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother
and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother,
"Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!"
And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
John 19:25-27
God was crucified. But even in crucifixion, pain, agony, His true character was revealed... He is always other-centered.
God the Trinity: Father, Son, Spirit.
The Three-In-One does everything for His own glory. But it is not anything like when we seek our own glory. As we have seen, the Father glorifies the Son, the Son the Father, the Spirit glorifies both.
Many may think God self-aggrandizing when His Word says all things were made for His glory. But it's just not true. He is not like us. His glorification is due Him. He alone worthy of glorification as Creator but it is not a self-seeking glory.
Here on the cross we see His primary concern is not for Himself, it is for His mother, for others.
God is rejected by those who are self-righteous, seeking their own glory, creating their own truth, following human tradition rather than the heart of God's law.
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!" When the chief priests and the officers saw him,
they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!"
John 19:5-6
God has no self-righteousness in Him.
He is Righteousness Himself.
He endured crucifixion, rejection, humiliation, because of His other-centered nature. He endured to save those He created.
So Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know
that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?"
Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all
unless it had been given you from above. ..."
John 19:10-11
God is the Highest Authority and He used His authority to allow Himself to be abused and murdered for others... for you...
His greatest glory is His love for others.
God of love You are to be glorified above all,
yet when You came into the world we crucified You.
Lord, grow me to love like You. Enlarge my heart to be other-centered,
loving others not for my glory but for Yours.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful,
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV
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