#DailyDevotion Jesus Prays For His Glory & For Ours

John 17 After saying this, Jesus looked up to heaven and said: “Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son so that Your Son will glorify You, ²since You have given Him authority over all men, to give everlasting life to all whom You gave Him. ³This is everlasting life — to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You sent. ⁴I have glorified You on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do. ⁵And now, Father, glorify Me at Your side with the glory I had with You before the world began.

This is part of Jesus’ high priestly prayer. He was praying this in the garden while his disciples kept falling asleep on him. I like to take times like these in the Gospels to point out Jesus prayed. If Jesus, the Son of God, who is God prayed, how much more should we poor sinful humans come before God the Father in Jesus’ name and plead for his grace and mercy. If Jesus’ needed to pray we need to pray all the more.

So for what sort of things is Jesus praying for in this prayer? First, there is acknowledgement of what he is about to suffer—Glorify your Son so your Son will glorify you. What does it mean to glorify the son and the son to glorify the Father? Very simply Jesus being crucified and dying is Jesus’ glory. It is this meaning many times in the Gospels especially John. When the disciples ask to sit at his right and left when he comes into his glory, Jesus tells him those spots are already filled: the two thieves or murderers.  To die this death, the most shameful of all, is Jesus’ glory because in this glory he takes away the sin of the world. In this glory he becomes the atoning sacrifice for the sins of all men. His blood becomes the ransom price and the redemption of the world. Jesus shows forth the love of God for man by his sacrificing his only begotten Son.

Having saved all men and receiving authority over all men, Jesus is able to give everlasting life to all whom the Father has given him. Having procured salvation for all men, Jesus has his elect whom the Father has given him. To these he gives everlasting life. Everlasting life is to know God the Father and Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent. Everyone whom the Father has chosen since before the foundation of the world comes to know the Father through Jesus, in particularly through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Well that makes evangelism a whole lot easier, doesn’t it. We share the good news with everyone and those to whom the Father has given to Jesus come to faith in Jesus and give him thanks. Those who will reject him because of the hardness of their hearts will reject him. To know Jesus and the Father is to trust what Jesus Christ has done for them on the cross. Jesus has glorified the Father by completing the work he had set Jesus to do on the cross and the grave.

Now Jesus petitions the Father to give him the glory he had before he became man, before the world began. He asked to be seated with him, at his right hand. So the Father answers Jesus’ prayer forty days after the resurrection. Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father where he shows forth his glory that is his and which he promises to give to us, those whom the Father has given him.

Heavenly Father, give us faith that we may know you and your son Jesus Christ and thereby gain everlasting life and participate in the glory you have given your Son at your right hand when he returns in glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.