Spirituality Column #805

April 19, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Voice of God

By Bob Walters

“Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”– John 8:28 

Jesus was and is the glory of God, and in this passage from the Gospel of John Jesus was calmly telling his listeners that, though his soul was deeply troubled, that the time had come for him to be glorified.  He beseeched God, “Father, glorify your name!”

And John writes: “Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  The verse goes on to say that some in the crowd thought the voice was thunder; others said an angel had spoken to Jesus.  But Jesus was quick to point out to them that God was speaking for their benefit, not His. 

It was time for the judgment of the world, and time for Jesus to go to work.  The Glory of God – Jesus – would go to the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our sin, and then the Glory of God would leave the grave empty on the day of resurrection. 

But at that moment of thunder or an angel’s voice, no one but Jesus had an inkling what would happen in the ensuing four or five days.  But they would have been dumbfounded by what was happening at that moment: Was that God speaking to them?

This passage is nestled in John’s brief account of Holy Week.  The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke go into several chapters of Jesus’ teaching and activities between “Palm Sunday’s” triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and the “Maundy Thursday” Last Supper in the Upper Room.  John dedicates less than a chapter to it.

But it includes this event, which would have rocked any Jews who happened to hear it, whether they believed Jesus, hated Jesus, or thought Jesus was a fraud.  This “voice from heaven” … could it possibly be … God?  Speaking directly to them?

It would have been a much bigger deal than scripture lets on.  Scottish Bible commentator William Barclay notes that when Jesus arrived on the scene, any notion of hearing directly from God had all but disappeared from Israel.  There were only notions of bath qol, or “daughter’s voice,” scriptures softly breathed by feminine angels.

God who spoke directly so often in the Old Testament – to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the prophets, and others like Samuel, Elijah and Eliphaz – had been silent for many centuries.  But in the Old Testament when God spoke, He spoke only to individuals, never to a crowd.  Now, God talks to Jesus and everyone around Him.

Think that didn’t make the Pharisees’ rage, fear, and jealousy burn a bit hotter?

This is the third time in the Gospels we hear the direct voice of God: First at Jesus’s Baptism, and then at the Transfiguration God says basically the same thing, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.  Listen to Him!”  And here, when “the time has come” for God to be glorified in Jesus’s sacrifice, God speaks again. 

It’s another clue the Jewish leaders missed: the voice of God speaks through Jesus, not through them.   It infuriated them, and assures us that when we listen to Jesus, we are listening to not only the Word of God but also to the very voice of God. 

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows that if you won’t listen, your ears can’t hear.