Praying about Glorification (John 17:1-5)

Some have held that this prayer is the most profound that was ever heard in this world. Maybe it was, but then Jesus may have prayed similar prayers on other occasions. What gives pathos to this prayer is the fact that he is praying just before his arrest. It is inevitable that some will compare this structured praying with the distraught praying that marked Jesus a short time later in Gethsemane. Of course, all who venture to compare them have no idea about what it was like to pray either of them. Sometimes comparisons are impossible for us to make, and I suspect that example is one of them.

It is well-known that this prayer of Jesus divides into three sections: first, he prays for himself in verses 1-5; second, he prays for his immediate group of disciples in verses 6-19; and third, he prays for all his disciples, present and future, in the rest of the prayer. At the very least, his prayer reveals the importance of structure on prayer even when situations are difficult as they were about to come for Jesus.

It is interesting to note the posture of Jesus as he prayed – he lifted up his eyes to heaven. This is very different from our usual practice, which is to bend our heads and close our eyes. Obviously there is nothing wrong with our usual method. Of course, Jesus here could have been modelling a new understanding of prayer. If we take Daniel as an example, when he prayed in Babylon he lifted up his eyes to look at the earthly Jerusalem, which he had to see by faith. Maybe Jesus is showing his disciples that they should by faith turn the eyes of their souls to the heavenly Jerusalem.

This prayer is unique because it is spoken by one who is equal with the one to whom he is speaking. Although he is praying as the Mediator who humbled himself to become the Servant of the Father, he always was equal with the Father. Another aspect that makes it unique is that the petitioner never made a wrong petition. When we pray, we often make petitions that are marked by ignorance, but that was never the case with Jesus. And we see his absence of ignorance when he says to the Father that the hour has come.

John in his Gospel often refers to an hour to which Jesus was heading. It is obviously not a literal hour. I don’t think the hour describes a period. It is more likely a stating that a significant moment has come. Jesus had gone through many important stages before this moment, but they were not the moment. We could think of his baptism or his transfiguration, both times of great significance. But they were not the moment.

The moment involved his glorification. The glorification is mutual in a sense as we can see from the words, ‘glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.’ There is also the fact that the glorification of Jesus by the Father is merited, as we can see from the words, ‘I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.’ Moreover, Jesus reveals here that his bringing glory to the Father is in at least two stages. There is the glory that he has brought to the Father on earth and there will be the glory that he will bring to the Father after the Father has glorified him.

The request for glorification

Verse 5 tells us what Jesus had in mind when he requested glorification: ‘And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.’ This is a very difficult statement to explain. Is it a request for restoration of something that was lost or is it a request for something that has not yet been experienced? What does that question mean, you might ask?

One aspect is clear. Before the creation of the world the Father and the Son were together and in that togetherness they shared divine glory. Such an experience would far exceed anything that we have seen or anything that we can imagine concerning glory. But they had it together. I am not going to try and say what it was because I do not know. All we can use is illustrations and sometimes it is better just to leave it.

We know that the moment came for something to take place regarding the Son and that was when he also became a man, what we call the Incarnation. The Incarnation did not involve the Son ceasing to be omnipresent as far as his deity was concerned. So while his humanity was on earth, he was still in heaven. We find that hard to grasp. Yet we can see that part of him, his full humanity, had never been in heaven, had never been in the presence of the Father in heaven.

I think that Jesus here is praying that his full person – his humanity as well as his deity – would experience glorification. He is asking that the Father would cause that humanity to be where it had never been before, and also to be in a condition in which it had not been before permanently (I don’t know if the Transfiguration was a foretaste of it for Jesus himself, but it could have been). So I don’t think it is a prayer to regain something that was lost, but I think it is a prayer to gain something that he always had as far as his deity is concerned but which his humanity had not yet experienced.

If we remind ourselves what was about to happen to his humanity, then we can see that this request is amazing. His body was going to be maltreated in an incredible way and his soul was to bear divine punishment for our sins. From every other base of knowledge we would deduce there was no future for his humanity. Yet Jesus knew that he would be glorified soon because the hour for it had come.

The reason for his glorification

The basis for his request is given in verse 4: ‘I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.’ In this statement Jesus states two things. First he gives what we can call a summary of his earthly life and, second, he opens a window so that we can see what the Father and the Son were speaking about during the period of glory before the Son became a human.

Of course, Jesus here is also anticipating that his imminent troubles will not prevent him achieving the completed task of glorifying the Father. This is a reminder that Jesus, although he would go through a frightening experience on the cross, had no doubts about his ultimate triumph. It is also a reminder that Jesus fully understood the significance of his sinless life – all that he had thought, said and done in every stage of his human development and in every place where he had lived had glorified the Father.

The window that he opens for us into heaven is a reminder that the Father had a plan that involved his Son. While each person of the Trinity is equal in power and glory, they each perform different roles in what they do together. We can see that diversity and unity in the work of creation and we see it also in the procuring and providing of salvation. From our perspective, and indeed from the perspective of the Son here, it was the role of the Father to give a work to his Son and it was the role of the Son to accept that work and accomplish it. The work involved him living a perfect life and dying an atoning death. So here we have the Servant Son speaking to the Sovereign Father about the mission that they shared.

The result of his glorification

The consequence of the glorification of Jesus is detailed in verses 2 and 3: ‘since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.’

Jesus refers to the reception of universal authority. When did he receive it? We can say that he received in the divine decree that included all the details of the divine plan and we can say that he received it in all the promises about him contained in the Old Testament, such as Psalm 2. We can imagine a person saying he is an heir of an estate before he actually receives it. In a far higher way, Jesus knew that he was guaranteed universal authority. This is probably why he could say in the Great Commission, before his ascension, that he already had all authority in heaven and in earth, and could therefore send out his ambassadors on his behalf. And there is a sense in which he is yet to receive another stage in universal authority at the second coming when he will be the Judge of all men.  

When the Father glorifies him in heaven, Jesus says that he will then begin to bring glory to the Father in another way from what he had been doing before he returned to heaven. The particular activity that will bring glory to the Father is that Jesus will become the source of eternal life to all those for whom the Father had sent him to die. I think we tend to read this verse as if Jesus only meant that he would give us the entitlement of eternal life, but I think that he is also saying that he will be the endless of source of eternal life. This would mean that this glorifying of the Father by Jesus will be endless as he forever gives to his people the fullness of eternal life in the new heavens and new earth.

What is eternal life? It is the experiential knowledge of the Father and the Son. This will be a progressive experience as far as his people are concerned. What it involves we can only guess. Part of our difficulty is that at the moment we can only know them as pardoned sinners who are still sinners. In the world to come, we will know them as pardoned sinners who are no longer sinners. Of course, that change in us will be brought about by God.

What can we say or do in response? God, in his wisdom and in his mercy, lets us hear the prayer offered by his perfect Servant. Surely it means that we should depend upon Jesus, delight in Jesus, dedicate ourselves to Jesus and anticipate being with Jesus forever.