12. But perhaps some may suppose that He was
destitute of that glory for which He prayed, and that His looking to be
glorified by a Greater is evidence of want of power. Who, indeed,
would deny that the Father is the greater; the Unbegotten greater than
the Begotten, the Father than the Son, the Sender than the Sent, He
that wills than He that obeys? He Himself shall be His own
witness:—The Father is greater than I. It is a fact
which we must recognise, but we must take heed lest with unskilled
thinkers the majesty of the Father should obscure the glory of the
Son. Such obscuration is forbidden by this same glory for which
the Son prays; for the prayer, Father glorify Thy Son, is
completed by, That the Son may glorify Thee. Thus there is
no lack of power in the Son, Who, when He has received this glory, will
make His return for it in glory. But why, if He were not in want,
did He make the prayer? No one makes request except for something
which he needs. Or can it be that the Father too is in
want? Or has He given His glory away so recklessly that He needs
to have it returned Him by the Son? No; the One has never been in
want, nor the Other needed to ask, and yet Each shall give to the
Other. Thus the prayer for glory to be given and to be paid back
is neither a robbery of the Father nor a depreciation of the Son, but a
demonstration of the power of one Godhead resident in Both. The
Son prays that He may be glorified by the Father; the Father deems it
no humiliation to be glorified by the Son. The exchange of glory
given and received proclaims the unity of power in Father and in
Son.