When I was young, I couldn’t “wait” for Christmas each year. The anticipation of receiving presents made December seem longer than every other month. As I have gotten older, Christmas has taken on more of a “weight.” Like many church musicians, much of my annual labor is occupied with Christmas. Preparations for Lessons and Carols begin as early as June followed by a steady stream of work culminating in December’s services. Every year this process reminds me of the awe-inspiring significance of our Savior’s birth.
The Old Testament word for “glory” is closely related to the concept of “weight” or “heaviness.” To the Hebrew mind, weight carried with it the notion of importance. We use the concept of weight in a similar way when we say things like, “he is worth his weight in gold,” or “this is heavy news.” When the Bible uses the word “glory” to describe God, its intention is “to say that he is preeminent in existence and that the whole universe is filled with the evidence of his importance and sublimity.” [1] The word “glory” is often used to describe a visible manifestation of God’s power and majesty. For example, Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” The immensity, power, and beauty of the night sky points to the even greater power and majesty of the Creator. Imagine a seesaw for a moment. If the whole universe was put on one side of the seesaw and God on the other, which side would be sticking up in the air? The concept of “glory” teaches us God is “heavier,” so the universe would be!
The theme for this year’s Lessons & Carols services is “The King of Glory.” The phrase comes from Benjamin Hanby’s carol “Who Is He in Yonder Stall?”
Who is He in yonder stall, at whose feet the shepherds fall?
‘Tis the Lord, O wondrous story, ‘tis the Lord, the King of glory;
At His feet we humbly fall: crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.
The New Testament uses “glory” in several different ways in relation to Christ. First, the Eternal Son shares in the glory of the Godhead. Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Similarly, Jesus’ prayer in the Upper Room reveals His eternal glory: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5).
Second, in His Incarnation the Son of God displays the glory of God in salvation. At His birth the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” (Luke 2:14). John writes in his gospel, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14-15). Jesus specifically associated glory with giving himself up to death on the cross: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit…Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:23-24, 27-28).
Third, Christ’s exaltation to God’s right hand following His resurrection and ascension glorifies God. Philippians 2:9-11 says: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Finally, Christ’s great desire for the redeemed is that they would share and behold His glory: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:22–24).
What are you waiting for this Christmas? Will that something bring the lasting fulfillment or peace that you so deeply desire? Will it carry any “weight?” The message of Christmas is that God through Jesus Christ has given to His people more than can possibly be imagined, a gift which far outweighs any other gift we could receive, because in Christ He gives us Himself. And this gift is received by grace through faith.
Paul writes to the Ephesians 3:14-21: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
[1] Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory (Kregel Publications, 2006), 44.