Andrew Lincoln and the Quote of the Day

Recently, I had an opportunity to read Andrew Lincoln's excellent essay "A Life of Jesus as Testimony: The Divine Courtroom and The Gospel of John," in the Divine Courtroom in Comparative Perspective, 145-166. Leiden: Brill, 2015. In the essay, Lincoln builds on the work of his monograph, Truth on Trial: The Lawsuit Motif of The Fourth Gospel, where he argues among other things, that (Second) Isaiah 40-55 stands behind much of the evangelist's thought with regards to the lawsuit motif.

One particular quote stands out to me while reflecting on the significance of the crucifixion/resurrection of Jesus during this Easter season. Lincoln states the second half the Gospel (chs. 13-20) otherwise commonly deemed, "The Book of Glory"

...depicts Jesus in the hour of his glory and invites its readers to see his departure from the world in death by crucifixion, which in normal evaluation would be seen as the greatest humiliation and shame, as in fact the supreme moment of that glory (cf. 13:31, 32; 17:1). The glory accompanying the vindication of Deutero-Isaiah’s servant was not “from humans” and failure to see Jesus’ glory is attributed to the opposition’s judgment which has become so influenced by human conceptions of honor and glory that it does not employ the right criteria in evaluation and therefore cannot see divine glory when it is before their eyes (cf. 5:44; 7:18, 24; 12:43)In GJ’s perspective the Logos does not lay aside divine glory in taking on flesh and in suffering; rather in Jesus his incarnation and death become vehicles for its expression (155; emphasis mine).