glorify thy name

John 12:28 - “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.”  What can we learn from this prayer of Jesus’?  Spurgeon said it so well: “Here we see that natural fear of death which came across the Saviour’s mind because he was so really and truly man. If his pains had not been real pains, but had been pleasant and congenial to him, there would have been no self-sacrifice in his suffering; but the fact that they cast upon his spirit the dark shadow of death only proves to us what sharp pains they were; but instead of asking for a way of escape from them, he surrendered himself to them, gave himself up as a willing victim with this prayer upon his lips, ‘Father, glorify thy name.’”  Never forget that Jesus’ death on the cross was truly suffering.  He being fully God and fully man prayed for his death to be taken away from him.  Even more directly, he prayed that he would not have to bear the sins of the world - requiring that God forsake him due to all the sins, our sins, that were upon Him.  God could not bear to look upon Jesus with the sins of the world upon Him - and that, that forsaking, was even worse than the physical pain of death.  And yet, praise be to God, Jesus did not fall into the human desire to reject the suffering - He realized that His death (and then resurrection) would glorify God’s name through bringing restitution to mankind's’ relationship to God.  Christians are called to follow Jesus, but how often do we flee suffering because we do not care to glorify God’s name?  Jesus bore the sins of the world upon Him - he suffered God’s rejection for us.  Let us not turn away from what God has for us to do even if it means worldly suffering - let us glorify God by following His directions.