'Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man
glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God
shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify
Him.'—JOHN xiii. 31, 32.
There is something very weird and awful in the brief note of time with
which the Evangelist sends Judas on his dark errand. 'He … went
immediately out, and it was night.' Into the darkness that dark soul
went. That hour was 'the power of darkness,' the very keystone of the
black arch of man's sin, and some shadow of it fell upon the soul of
Christ Himself.
In immediate connection with the departure of the traitor comes this
singular burst of triumph in our text. The Evangelist emphasises the
connection by that: '_Therefore_, when he was gone out, Jesus said.'
There is a wonderful touch of truth and naturalness in that connection.
The traitor was gone. His presence had been a restraint; and now that
that 'spot in their feast of charity' had disappeared, the Master felt
at ease; and like some stream, out of the bed of which a black rock has
been taken, His words flow more freely. How intensely real and human
the narrative becomes when we see that Christ, too, felt the oppression
of an uncongenial presence, and was relieved and glad at its removal!
The departure of the traitor evoked these words of triumph in another
way, too. At his going away, we may say, the match was lit that was to
be applied to the train. He had gone out on his dark errand, and that
brought the Cross within measurable distance of our Lord. Out of a new
sense of its nearness He speaks here. So the note of time not only
explains to us why our Lord spoke, but puts us on the right track for
understanding His words, and makes any other interpretation of them
than one impossible. What Judas went to do was the beginning of
Christ's glorifying. We have here, then, a triple glorification—the Son
of Man glorified in His Cross; God glorified in the Son of Man; and the
Son of Man glorified in God. Let us look at these three thoughts for a
few moments now.