Ver. 28y: Καὶ ἐδόξασα, καὶ πάλιν δοξάσω· I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.] This petition of our Saviour’s, “Father, glorify thy name,” was of no light consequence, when it had such an answer from heaven by an audible voice: and what it did indeed mean we must guess by the context. Christ, upon the Greeks’ desire to see him, takes that occasion to discourse about his death, and to exhort his followers, that from his example they would not love their life, but by losing it preserve it to life eternal. Now by how much the deeper he proceeds in the discourse and thoughts of his approaching death, by so much the more is his mind disturbed, as himself acknowledgeth, ver. 27.
But whence comes this disturbance? It was from the apprehended rage and assault of the devil. Whether our Lord Christ, in his agony and passion, had to grapple with an angry God, I question: but I am certain he had to do with an angry devil. When he stood, and stood firmly, in the highest and most eminent point and degree of obedience, as he did in his sufferings, it doth not seem agreeable [congruum] that he should then be groaning under the pressures of divine wrath; but it is most agreeable he should under the rage and fury of the devil. For,
I. The fight was now to begin between the serpent and the seed of the woman, mentioned Gen. 3:15, about the glory of God and the salvation of man. In which strife and contest we need not doubt but the devil would exert all his malice and force to the very uttermost.
II. God loosed all the reins, and suffered the devil without any kind of restraint upon him to exercise his power and strength to the utmost of what he either could or would, because he knew his champion Christ was strong enough, not only to bear his assaults, but to overcome them.
III. He was to overcome, not by his divine power, for how easy a matter were it for an omnipotent God to conquer the most potent created being; but his victory must be obtained by his obedience, his righteousness, his holiness.
IV. Here then was the rise of that trouble and agony of Christ’s soul, that he was presently to grapple with the utmost rage of the devil; the divine power in the meantime suspending its activity, and leaving him to manage the conflict with those weapons of obedience and righteousness only.
It was about this, therefore, that that petition of our Saviour and the answer from heaven was concerned: which may be gathered from what follows, ver. 31, “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
“Now is my soul troubled (saith he), and what shall I say? It is not convenient for me to desire to be saved from this hour; for this very purpose did I come: that therefore which I would beg of thee, O Father, is, that thou wouldst glorify thy name, thy promise, thy decree, against the devil, lest he should boast and insult.”
The answer from heaven to this prayer is, “I have already glorified my name in that victory thou formerly obtainedst over his temptations in the wilderness; and I will glorify my name again in the victory thou shalt have in this combat also.”
Luke 4:13; “When the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.” He went away baffled then: butz now he returns more insolent, and much more to be conquered.
And thus now, the third time, by a witness and voice from heaven, was the Messiah honored according to his kingly office; as he had been according to his priestly office when he entered upon his ministry at his baptism, Matt. 3:17; and according to his prophetic office when he was declared to be he that was to be heard, Matt. 17:5, compared with Deut. 18:15.
y English folio edition, vol. ii. p. 591.
z Leusden’s edition, vol. ii. p. 656.
Lightfoot, J. (2010). A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, Matthew-1 Corinthians: , Luke-John (Vol. 3, pp. 382–383). Logos Bible Software. (Public Domain)
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