John 17.1-12

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The hour has come and Jesus prays to his Father now that the moment has come for him to complete the task that he and the Father set out to accomplish. We are allowed to listen in to this prayer. What a great privilege to hear the prayer that the Son prays to the Father the night before he dies.

The beginning of the prayer is dominated by glory - the glory of the Son and the glory of the Father. Jesus makes two different requests that he may be glorified. In the first place his prayer for glory concerns his death. When the Greeks wanted to see Jesus (12.23) he indicated that now was the time when he would be glorified and that this glory would be seen in his death on the cross.

So as he asks the Father to glorify him, he is submitting his will to the Father so as to complete the mission. He asks the Father to glorify him through his death. In turn this means that the Father also will be glorified by the death of the Son because they are united in the same action and the same plan. It is as though Jesus is saying, "May this turn out the way we planned it so I and the Father are honoured in the completion of this task of dying."

The way in which the glory is accomplished is through Jesus who has been given authority over all people, so that he can give eternal life to those whom the Father gives him. This authority is more than a power to rule. It begins with the authority to create. But the Son comes as the creative Word made flesh, comes as the representative human, and like Adam who was given the rule over all the creation, this Son is given authority to lead his people into eternal life and out of the death of Adam.

As the true and representative human, he dies to bring eternal life, which consists in knowing the true God and Jesus Christ. This life which is knowledge of God comes as Jesus makes the Father known.

The second prayer by Jesus is for the restoration of his glory. It is as though Jesus has jumped ahead in his thought to the time when he had accomplished what he came to do. He asks his Father to bring him back to the glory he had with the Father before the creation. But there is something profoundly new in this. The Son who prays is the Word become flesh. It is Jesus of Nazareth

who prays. The one who is asking to be glorified is the eternal Son of the Father who has become a human, truly and fully God, but truly and fully human as well. So that the one who will be restored to his former glory will take humanity with him to that inner relationship of glory in the holy Trinity. And as he asks for this prayer to be answered we listen and see that we too have a destiny in which we too will be brought to share in some way in the glory of God.

The eternal life that Jesus came to bring is made possible through his death, but is brought to the disciples as Jesus makes the Father known to them, v6, as he speaks God's words to them. And they receive and believe what he tells them (1.12). In particular they believe that he has come from the Father and has been sent by the Father. Indeed Jesus has been glorified in them just because they have received and believed his word, and so have come to know the Father.

Jesus prays for them also. That the Father will protect them in his name. That is that he will keep them loyally following him as they remain in the world. He wants them to be kept from being lost, from going away from faithfully following the Father and doing his work. He prays that the Father will protect them so that they be one, not just in a human unified sense, but as the Father and Son are one. This suggests a unity of being, will, and purpose. It is possible as they are kept in the name of the Father, ie as they love and obey Jesus and the Father. Jesus has already told them (14.23) that those who love and obey Jesus, are loved by the Father, and Jesus and the Father will come and make their home with those people. it is by means of, and in the experience of, the Father and he Son dwelling in us by the Spirit that we find ourselves kept in unity with each other. Our unity together is first of all a unity through Christ in the Father by means of the Spirit.

The Father's protection will be seen in the way they keep each other's feet clean, as it was on the occasion when Paul confronted Peter at Antioch about how Christians should live (Gal 2).

As we listen to this prayer, how shall we react? As we listen we want to give thanks, that God's glory was seen in Jesus; that the disciples were given eternal life and not only knew the Father and the Son but were able to report to us what they had been taught. We want to give thanks that they were protected and that they understood what the nature of the unity they had together.

This prayer is not directly about us. But what we hear affects us. What the Father and the Son did and how those first disciples understood it, has been handed on to us and we too are able to share in the eternal life that Jesus gave to those who were his Father's. And to know the ongoing protection of the Father.

Dale Appleby

The Glory of the Father: John 17.1-12

Psalm 133-134, 1 Peter 1.3-9, John 17.1-12 February 26, 2006