On the Son’s Glory-Lent 34, 2015

John 17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

The disciples have been With Christ in the Upper Room, hearing His words at the Last Supper, continuing in a second section of the post-dinner walk, and now they get a rare glimpse into the prayer life of their Lord.

We are not privileged to enter Jesus’ prayer life very often, but after offering all this reassurance to the disciples regarding their grief and confusion, and that someday soon their sadness will be behind them, Jesus prays aloud.  And what a prayer!

Knowing what we know that the disciples did not, we must try to hear it as the disciples might have in that moment.

• Jesus looked toward heaven.  We can too.  That’s where the Father is.  Upward is close enough to realizing He’s not of this earth.
• The time has come.  What time?  The time Jesus has been talking about.  He’s about to go away for a little while.
• Father, glorify your Son.  Jesus isn’t just a teacher.  He isn’t just a Rabbi.  He’s the Son of God as well as His self-designation, the Son of Man.
• The Father granted Him authority over all people…for a purpose: so that He could give them eternal life. Eternal life, something He gives to those people He has been given. What’s eternal life?
• Eternal life defined, that we may know God the Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ, the sent One.
• Jesus brought glory to God by completing the work the Father gave Him.  To the disciples, this meant that Jesus was going away.  But for us, we wonder because the Cross is yet to come!  How could Jesus have completed it if it wasn’t actually done yet?
• Look at how Father and Son dominate these verses.  It’s all about relationship!
• Glorify me in your presence…with the glory I had with you before the world began.  How would Jesus have been with the Father unless it’s true that He’d been sent?  How would Jesus know what anything was before the world began unless He’s God?

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Give it Up for Lent: An ineffective prayer life focused on you or other people

Put it On for Lent: Prayer that is focused on relationship with God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and on bringing glory to Him.

For further thought:

• First ponder what the Son’s glory before the world began must have been like.  That’s what’s been restored to Him.
• What does it mean that Jesus brought glory to God by completing the work the Father gave Him?  Even with the Cross yet to come!  How could Jesus have completed it if it wasn’t actually done yet?
• Consider a seed that is planted by a farmer.  The farmer’s work is to plant the seed.  God’s work is to make it grow.  Jesus has done everything He needed to do in order to prepare the disciples, teach them, and help them up until now.  Planting is done.
• Read John 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
• Now it’s just time until God does His work of unfolding His plan with sinful man condemning Jesus to death.  This plan in which God punishes sin upon Jesus on the Cross. The only thing Jesus could yet do is to interfere with the Father’s work.  Read John 12:27 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” What does this say about Jesus?  How does this bring glory to the Father and glory to the Son?

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Holy Week is the final week for 2015 Lenten devotionals which you can receive in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  There’s still time to meet With Christ in the Upper Room.  After Lent, sermons and additional devotionals will be posted and arrive in your email.  I hope you will continue to be blessed beyond Lent as other devotional series unfold.