Glory Received and Given at the Right Time (John 17:1)

 This sermon was preached on 12/7/2012

In the first section of this prayer (vv. 1-5) the Saviour prays specifically for himself. After addressing his Father, he mentions a particular time has arrived by saying ‘The hour has come’. Several times throughout his Gospel it is stated by John that this hour was coming, and these references create a sense of anticipation in the reader of the Gospel. We are so familiar with the story that perhaps we lose the sense of expectancy that the references to the ‘hour’ create within a person who does not yet know the outcome. What aspects of the ‘hour’ are alluded to or suggested by these references?

1. When his mother informed him about the lack of wine at the wedding in Cana, Jesus responded by saying, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come’ (John 2:24). Yet he proceeded to perform a miracle, which suggests that his hour would see him do a miracle that would solve a far greater problem than the one faced by the wedding party. 

2. Twice the authorities were unable to arrest him, with the reason for their failure being that his hour had not yet come (John 7:30; 8:29). These two occasions indicate that when his hour would come it would involve his arrest by the authorities. 

3. In John 12, after some Gentiles came to see him, Jesus said in verse 23 that his hour had come; this connection suggests that his hour would involve Gentiles becoming his followers (up until then his disciples had been Jews in the main). 

4. Yet that same incident points to the hour being a time of which Jesus was apprehensive because he says in verse 27: ‘Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.’

5. John 13:1 makes it clear that this hour would involve him leaving the world and returning to the Father: ‘Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.’

6. John 16:32 says that the hour would be a time when his disciples would abandon him: ‘Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.’ 

7. Finally, John 17:1 indicates that the hour would be the time when Jesus would be glorified by the Father, and also be the time when the Father would be glorified by Jesus.

8. Putting all these details together, we could say that John is describing a time in which Jesus would be arrested, when he would experience a time of great fear, and when his disciples would abandon him. This is obviously an hour to be dreaded. Yet the same hour would bring his joy into hopeless situations, would result in Gentile followers, and would enable him to return to the Father after having been glorified.

The hour is come

We all have appointments to keep in life. Sometimes these dates are made for us, such as if we are selected for jury service; sometimes they are made by us, such as when we go to the dentist. The first type of appointment reveals that we are under the authority of an official power, and the second type shows that we have the freedom to make the appointment. When Jesus refers to the coming of the hour, he is referring to an appointment he had to keep.

This appointment was made by the Father as part of his eternal purpose. I have made tentative plans for next year and have noted their dates in my diary; at this moment I have no idea whether or not any of them will be realised. This was not the way that the Father made his plans. When he decided the date of the appointment, there was not even a hint of uncertainty about it being fulfilled. It could not be brought forward and it could not be delayed.

Of course, the appointment was gladly accepted by the Son. Sometimes in a business meeting when dates are being discussed, there can be disagreement about who should be involved as well as when the occasion should take place. There was nothing like that in the eternal counsels of the Father and the Son. The Son was delighted to keep this appointment and he regarded the timing of it as perfect.  ‘It was the hour on which his own and his Father’s heart had been set, and with the issues of which his own and his Father’s thoughts had been engaged from all eternity’ (Marcus Rainsford).

Even more amazingly, the Son was pleased with the choice of location. When an important businessman wants to make an appointment, he will choose a place that will be suitable for the deal that he is hoping to make. If he wants to impress the client, he will not arrange to meet him at the local rubbish dump. We would expect the Father and the Son to arrange to meet in a superb location. Instead they were to meet at Calvary, the place where criminals were put to death.

The Father and the Son had met many times. Indeed, in a sense they were always together. Yet in order for us to appreciate what took place, we need to separate areas of their existence. It is a poor illustration, but a husband and a wife can be together in general ways in their home (being glad that they are with one another) and then be together in more specific ways (when they discuss the latest bills or what they should do with their children). With God, we can see the Trinity together in general ways enjoying one another’s perfections, and we can see them more focussed, as it were, on matters that were of concern to them. This appointment involved a matter of concern, because it was connected to what would take place at Calvary. The date for this appointment had been recorded in the diary of heaven, and its location (Calvary) had been identified.  

The appointment involved the Father and the Son meeting to deal with sin. The Father would be there as the Judge inflicting the punishment on his Son in the place of sinners, and the Son would be there in order to receive the penalty.   

It is worth noting that the response of Jesus to the arrival of the hour is not one of mere resignation to his fate. Instead he sees it as a moment for prayer to his Father that he would experience glorification from the Father. 

The Desire of the Son – glory from the Father

As Jesus anticipates arriving at the divinely-chosen location, and as he focuses on what is going to happen to him there, he prays to the Father that he would glorify his Son. It is possible to read this petition as describing what would take place as a result of what would happen at the cross. In this sense, Jesus is praying for his exaltation that began at his resurrection. He does pray for this in verse 5: ‘And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.’ There is no doubt that the resurrection and ascension of Jesus were moments of great glory for Christ, moments that led to his permanent state of glorification. Yet we have to ask, when did his glorification begin? It was a common belief in the early church that it began on the cross, that the cross of shame was a throne of glory. 

We are prone to imagine glory in terms of brightness. But there are other ways of seeing it. For example, a soldier who dies defending his comrades is glorious. Or a parent who is scarred because he or she rescued their child from a fire is glorious. Sometimes, in order to help us understand its meaning we can approach the concept of glory by thinking about its opposite, which is shame, disgrace, and failure.

Calvary was usually the place of disgrace and shame. Parents were not proud of their children if they ended up there because it was the place of public execution. Yet Jesus wanted his experience at the place of shame to be one where he would also experience the glory of God, so he prayed for it. What did Jesus need as he approached the cross? He needed divine strength in order to endure the awful distress that he would go through when the Father kept the appointment and punished his Son as the sinbearer. Jesus also needed the strength to carry the sins of his people away to a place where they could never be found. ‘This was Christ’s last combat, and he was to discover the strength and power of the Godhead’ (Thomas Manton).

We know that this request by Jesus was heard. He received help from above. Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God. On the cross he accomplished the most momentous achievement that will ever be performed throughout eternity. He dealt with the problem and the presence of sin. We have already experienced the initial benefit of his achievement in that we have been forgiven our sins; we are waiting for the final application of his victory when he will create the sinless new heavens and new earth, and then there he will provide for his people out of his inexhaustible fullness.

In passing, we can note that there is a parallel experience in the Christian life. Believers are to experience glory on the resurrection day. Yet there is a sense in which they experience glory now, in their sufferings. ‘But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you’ (1 Pet. 4:13-14).  Or as Paul puts it: ‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18).

The Dedication of the Son – glorify the Father

The reason why Jesus wanted to experience this display of divine glory was so that he would be enabled to bring honour to the Father. Again these words could refer to the activities of Jesus after he was risen from the dead. From heaven, he works to bring humans to worship the Father. Indeed, when all created intelligences on the Day of Judgement confess that Jesus is Lord, they will do so to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Nevertheless it is also the case that on the cross he brought glory to the Father. 

Jesus brought honour to the Father when he prayed for the soldiers as they crucified him. His petition focused on the forgiving nature of God – ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34). These men were engaged in the horrible act of crucifying the Son of God. It would have been to God’s glory if he had punished them for this sin. Yet the Saviour highlighted a way whereby God would receive greater glory; it would happen when these men were forgiven. By the end of the day they were confessing that Jesus was the Son of God (Matt. 27:54).

Jesus brought honour to the Father when he declared, in the great darkness when his soul was abandoned, that God was still his God – ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt. 27:46). If his previous petition had focused of the forgiving nature of God, this one highlighted the faithfulness of God. The Saviour entered into a situation where everything pointed to total chaos, where his sense of God’s presence was drawn. In the darkness came the cry of the Son of God declaring that he believed in the faithfulness of God to his covenant promises.

Jesus brought honour to the Father by obeying his commandments during the agony of the cross. He kept the first, when he prayed to the Father (Luke 23:34); he kept the fifth when he arranged for John to take care of Mary (John 19:26-27); and he loved his neighbour when he gave great assurance to the penitent criminal (Luke 23:43). Just as he drew attention to the forgiving heart of God and to the faithfulness of God, he showed the sovereignty of God by his determination to fulfil his law even in this desperate situation.

Jesus brought honour to the Father by committing himself at his death into the Father’s hands (Luke 23:46). In his teaching, he had assured his disciples that nothing could pluck them from his Father’s hands. As he now faced the last enemy, death, he entered it confident of his safety in the Father’s  grasp.

The honour that Jesus, on the cross, brought to the Father was the beginning of an ongoing reality in the kingdom of grace. Since he ascended, he has been bringing glory to the Father by bringing sinners into his kingdom in order to praise him as the forgiving, faithful, sovereign and protecting God.