“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father…”
John 17:1a NIV
We cannot leave this prayer without taking a step back…looking at the whole prayer… and asking a question…
Was Jesus’ prayer an expansion of His teaching about prayer, an example of real prayer, a model to follow, or simply eavesdropping into His own one-on-one communion with the Father? It may have been a bit of everything but I suspect that Jesus, at the moment when what lay ahead of Him pressed in on Him, did what He always did…He turned to the Father.
Father…”patyr” in Greek…not the intimate “Abba” word. Was He addressing His Father as the parent figure…the one who had authority over Him? Jesus’ humble submission to His Father shines through every word He spoke. Yes, He was the beloved Son. Yes, He was also God…equal with the Father and the Spirit but…at that moment, He was the submissive and obedient “Servant of Yahweh”…there to carry out a commission given to Him before time. He was under orders from headquarters.
He was reporting for duty…as well as communing with the Father in detail, in intimate language, expressing His oneness with the Father as well as His confidence that He and the Father were on the same page…step by step…moment by moment…through every stage of the ordeal until its conclusion.
Jesus not only committed the process to the Father. He also expressed both His desire and His confidence in the outcome…glory restored…disciples protected…His church across time unified, and encased in His glory and the Father’s love.
Jesus, fully cooperating with the Father, assured the Father of His participation in the unfolding plan. He had revealed the Father to His disciples…given them His name… taught and protected them during His time with them…and handed them back to the Father prior to His departure.
It seems that Jesus’ primary concern was for His disciples and those who would believe in Him through their witness…that the plan would be carried out to perfection to the end.
Jesus’ only prayer for Himself was that He return to the position He held the Father before His incarnation…a position He held as a right and a reward.
“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”
John 17:1-5 NIV
What can we learn from this prayer? Jesus was neither proud nor embarrassed by what He had done during His time on earth. He simply stated what He had accomplished in obedience to His Father’s will.
What was His chief objective?
There it is…the guiding star of Jesus’ entire life!
Predicted by David…
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire— but my ears you have opened— burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.”
Psalms 40:6-8 NIV
Confirmed repeatedly by Jesus Himself…
“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
John 6:38 NIV
“The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.””
John 8:29 NIV
This entire communication with the Father breathes the atmosphere of honour, respect, and submission…a Son reporting back to the Father after a lifetime of obedience…anticipating the reward…yes, glory to the Father through His own glory restored but…even much more…
“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Isaiah 53:10-12 NIV
The greatest reward of all…every redeemed and blood-washed soul a trophy of Jesus’ obedience to the will of God. It cost Him everything but…every moment He suffered, every drop of blood He shed, every agonising cry He raised,was worth it for the reward.
“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews 5:7-10 NIV
…eternal salvation for millions upon millions throughout the ages…to rejoice in His goodness to sing His praises…and to live and love Him in the glorious freedom of the redeemed.