“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”
“I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin.”
“You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.”
“The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.”
“In this world you will have trouble.”
A lot of his more difficult sayings tend to be pretty dark. At worst depressing; at best mysterious. But then there’s this, at the beginning of the longest prayer of his that we have recorded, a prayer for his disciples: “And glory has come to me through them.”
What a remarkable thing to say. What a remarkable position for his disciples to be in—for you or me to be in!—as a cause of glory. A conduit of praise. A catalyst for awe and love and worship.
This sounds like the age-old parenting trick of praising your kid to someone else while you know your kid can overhear you. In other words, “I’m proud of you.” Sometimes we really need to hear that from Jesus. I know I do. Yeah, Jesus loves me, but is he pleased with me? Maybe that’s all any of us ever really need to hear, even through all our bumbling attempts to be good or live like our best selves or follow him faithfully:
“I’m proud of you.”
